Somewhat simple question, for your current (or recent) setup, what would you change about it? I guess also what traits do you value the most about it, but more intended as a question of “if you had to nitpick” in the end about what you currently use (and presumably mostly like). Preferably sound quality reasons but other non sound aspects would also be interested to see as well.
Not trying to make an overly negative or critical topic, but just sorta interested what responses might be for various setups. If you can’t think of anything that’s totally fine, you’re in a very good place lol.
Sound wise I am pretty happy but I would love to have tidal connect on antipodes and also small display to show song would be dope.
I still give credit to Spotify for how easy it is to use and control it from other devices. I know it is not what makes antipodes a solid streamer but streaming services are somewhat terribly integrated.
I probably should upgrade my IEMs to something a bit more engaging. I have less time for music so I thought I need something that just grab my full attention
I’d like to finally get some proper room treatment, which should happen in a couple months once I get my own place. I don’t wanna touch my 2ch setup until that’s taken care of. As far as cans go, maybe a newer Violectric and a Yggy or something.
Some of my cables could use an upgrade , I’d like to move up to a Signature Rendu SE on my main setup, I’m sure there is still up somewhere in the DAC/Amp space, but I’m not really looking for a shift in presentation.
I replaced the LaVoce with the TotalDAC on the WA33, because I wanted something a touch more mid forwards, and the TotalDAC does that.
I’d like to get down to one system, but I don’t see it happening unless I get rid of the Susvara.
Hmmm… Well one thing I’m gonna be looking at soon is getting my roonserver/core off of my synology NAS and onto a dedicated device like a nuc.
I would also like to look at powercable upgrades in the near future since that is one aspect of my system that I haven’t explored as much. I currently have better than bargain bin, but there basically hand-me-downs from the community and I would like to look more Into them as a potential synergy uprgrade.
If i wanted to get real ambitious I would like to try some upgrades/mods to my eddie current studio b, such as a better pot… I don’t have any knowledge or know how for something like that though so that would be a tough one.
And then finally tubes, always looking at tweaking both my amp and dac with some new flavors of tube. Ive been running my current ones for a while so it feels about time to experiment a bit.
Im sure there is other things I would want to change, but they are escaping me at the moment.
Interesting question for sure… All in all I am pretty happy with what I have for now. The headphones I use work pretty damn well with my amps. My Dac feeds my amps a good clean signal due to the DDC more or less at the head of the chain. Actually The Roon Nucleus would be head of the chain I guess. Probably I would have to maybe say cables " might" be the weakness but they are not exactly " Best buy" stuff . I am not at the level of some here but also above some here I feel. Still tweaking and still searching but NOT rushing .
It’s odd trying to answer this as I’m so close to my end state (at least for a good long while) on my 2 CH set up. Really just finalizing subwoofers and cables which I can do for around a $3K budget, relatively small cost after I consider who much I’ve got in the rest of the system. But I’m close and the good thing is that those small final touches will bring the performance of the chain higher still. Really everything else is done. Isolation, room treatment, power, most of the cables. It’s a weird feeling to be this close actually.
Headphone wise I’m happy with the chain hanging off the PC, DDC, BF2, RNHP, LCD-X, great little excellent bang for the buck.
Honestly the only new thing I’d play with is a nicer DAC attached to a new TV when I wind up getting one, thinking of going OLED and maybe wind up picking something up with black Friday pricing… cause thanksgiving will be here soon. lol
I’m pretty happy with the sound of my setup and its why I’ve not been picking up much of anything new or doing major component replacements. That’s not to say that I don’t have some FOMO here and there along with some curiosity around a piece or two, but there is nothing that I am unhappy with or feel compelled to change with urgency.
At this point, being for the most part satisfied with the baseline sound, what I am doing is working through refinements/enhancements - like trying out more and different cables for power and ICs etc., maybe a fuse or two…
I’m enjoying my music and I’m still amazed by something from each listening session so it’s hard for me to say OK, let’s break this and start again to see if we can get it even better. It’s been proven that yes, I can make it even better most assuredly, but do I want to spend my time doing that or listening? For the moment it’s I’d rather sit back and enjoy what I have and hear and watch what everyone else is doing.
For the allnic amp setup, i wouldn’t really change anything. It worked very well with the linnenberg. If there was an even higher end version of the 3000gt I’d be all over it…
For the modwright ha300, wish it worked a bit better on the utopia though it’s not at all “bad.” Just want more treble energy which may be solved with a tube swap maybe, idk…
For the crayon, just plugged it in the system today. I’m ready to be surprised… or not lol.
Lastly, I’d like a “better” cable for the d8kp. Don’t love it with the danacable.
subs for my 2 channel maggie setup and a nice pair of harbeth 30.2’s for my smaller listening room. I’m getting pretty close to being “done” with my headphones and likely will look to parse some of my gear in '23 to fund my 2 channel additions.
For my main system, the first thing - I was missing a bit meat, warmth and sweetness in my chain. Not a lot but just a little bit. It was felt mostly when listening to softer acoustic music, classic rock, folk etc (my lower priority) since most of my decisions before were optimized for electronic music (my primary listening).
I was also optimistic I’d be able to solve all my desires with one system with one component for each part. Gave up on that.
It took some back and forth the last few months but I think I might’ve found the last piece of the puzzle with the WA23 today. Especially once the HM1 arrives and I’ll have all my bases covered. Cost an arm and a leg to get here but there’s a good chance I’m done. Mostly time and energy wise as I was lucky to find good deals used while switching A LOT of gear.
I’ll play around with tubes probably just to try and squeeze every last ounce of sound quality/technicalities but tonally I’m where I want to be. I wouldn’t want a tube that changes how it sounds but just improves how it performs. At least that’s my initial impression after tonight’s listening. It will improve in the next couple of weeks with more listening so we’ll see.
Maybe try different power cables. Maybe another interconnect (I need one for sure but can always be more of the same).
It feels like I found my sound. I fell in love with the Susvara again tonight. It scaled again. Now it’s more about getting it better where possible. Only real dramatic upgrade I can think of is the Wavedream Signature instead of the regular Edition. I’m also ok if that takes a long time to find and tbh not sure it’s worth the money over spending on more headphones to just have different stuff to try out or see below.
The second thing that bothers me in my system and isn’t really sound related is portability. It’s a huge five shelf rack. Next to a desk (and soon a nice sofa or lounge chair). That’s probably where my hobby addiction will take me next. DAP and a good set of IEMs. I have some ideas and things I want to try. I have this hope that the DAP can be a good enough source directly to one of the amps and maybe I move that to a second system in the bedroom or living room. DAP + WA23 can be a sweet small setup.
Oh and a new rack - I hate that ugly uninspiring piece of metal.
Ill be very currious to see your impressions of different tubes once you start roilling. I expect they will make an even bigger difference than they do in wa33.
If you are legitimately considering this, you should probabaly keep that single to dual XLR prion and have pete reterminate it in 4.4. Honestly, I do think P6P is good enough for a second setup dac wise, but it does mean you only have a shuffle box.
Id put it back on my desk instead of @DanMellinger’s
but really, for sound the first thing that stands out to me is that I would like a bit more clairty in the image separation and placement. I think the term “smoothed stage” is a farily good descriptor for what I am hearing and while its not an issue for my most listened to genre, it is annoying for basicaly everything else tbh. I think id honestly like a step past “natural” and go slightly holographic if I could, but thats not a real requirement. Honestly, I dont need a ton more calrity in the stage, but I do want a bit (and I dont realy want any more treble energy to get there tbh). After that, I want some more incision. My chain slams hard, but its missing that step to have true grip and tactility. I know AIC is capable of this given what its done on bricasti, so hopefully I can get there with just tube and dac.
In terms of actual gear, I’d like to change up dacs, but thats a bit up in the ether while I try and decide what I actualy want/try some more stuff/figure out what deals I can get. More concrete than that is that id like to step up my power from the furman to a power plant (probabaly a P12 for a balance between being able to carry it into the office and having enough on tap), and then probably upgrade my interconnects (cause peer pressure is a bitch). Im also curious to try a holo RED with USB in since I did realy like the usb on the may, but that wont happen until I settle on a dac direction. Lastly, honestly, I kinda dont trust that the totaldac AES cable is actualy good, so id like to try some more cables there, but thats basicaly bottom of the list unless a shit list AES cable comes up for like $500 somewhere.
I didn’t really have much to say since I don’t think I’ve fully felt out my current setups
On my main 2ch side of things, I genuinely can’t nitpick anything in sound, I guess I’d say more resolution would be nice, and that’s sort of why I’ve been eying the d1 sublime or better streamer/server like pink faun as an upgrade, but really I don’t think there’s anything I’d change about it. That being said I’m going to have to change it, so replacing the verity with the voxativ might change that, we’ll see (I know I’ll probably want to add subs back into my chain). But biggest thing I’d change in that setup is having to deal with separate left and right volume controls, only real complaint I have with that setup and it doesn’t affect the sonics.
For the headphone setup that’s something I probably have actual qualms with, the wavac isn’t working in my setup (sounds very strained and somewhat unremarkable) so that’s just left, and working out a replacement for it. I want something that’s an upgrade to the studio t, or something that’s an upgrade to the egoista 845 or genus 845, hence why trying to see if I can swing a concero 25 for something to give me that massive stage and dynamics those amps provide. Otherwise basically not much else I’d want to change at the moment
Im a bit loss at the current state of your multiple systems. Im assuming the AFM25s arent for headphones then? If you want big bombastic sound for cans, have you thought about airtight? Reading up on the 300b one with elrog mos in it, it got described as massive and fast as hell. The VIva dealer at canjam nyc was also quite convinced that the solista mkIII will run cans right off the taps no issues if that was a consideration (no idea how tiers above aic work, so taking swings in the dark tbh ).
out of curiosity, why pink faun specificaly? There are a lot of options up here it seems like, but I cant really figure out what the benefits of any given one is over another unless they have gimicks like Grimm’s upsampling
Yes, but their 211 is too pricey, and I don’t think their 300b is going to be on the level I’d want it to be. Also generally I don’t think of airtight as big and bombastic but thats only based on limited demos
It can, and that’s what I was looking at as well, although the aries cerat would be a step above that, but that was a fallback for sure, and I know that’s a confirmed option since I’ve seen someone else do it in their own setup
Seems to be similar level to taiko extreme with less mfg meddling in setups, but still too much for my liking. Still looking at the new antipodes though
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