In retrospect, the upgrade to my system that made the most impact was the pair of Omega Mikro speaker cables. I shared thoughts about it here but I have to say that it was the single biggest eye opening upgrade to my system and set me free of any lingering reservations I had in my pursuit of cables as a meaningful upgrade. Add to that the fact that they’re beautiful to behold and certainly not what the audiophile next door will have in their system. Exclusivity card well played.
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Setting my Raidho D1 aside, since that was an obvious transformation of my system.
The next largest upgrade of 2022 for me is the Antipodes CX/EX combo, if I got that in 2022. If so, it must have been January or something. Nope. Just looked it up. It was Sept of 2021. This really opened my eyes and solidified how important a good source was. I used to think it was pointless. Like a place just to hold my files, when my PC does the same. Now, I understand why some may potentially spent more on a server/streamer than a DAC.
After that, must be my Ayre AX-5 Twenty Integrated then. It was my big commitment to SS amplification and it did wonders for the nimbleness and stage presentation of my setup. On top of it, it shrink my number of boxes down and allowed me to consolidate my better cables.
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Oy!.. Where to start, Changes I made in 2022 would be definite upgrades across the board.
From Schiit Asgard 3 to Bryston Bha-1 SS amp
From Schiit BF2 to Denafrips Pontus 2
Added the Denafrips Iris DDC
Swapped tubes in my Feliks audio Echo for more life and enjoyment of the sound.
Added the Quicksilver Tube amp for something in between the Feliks and Bryston
Added some new headphones Focal Clear OG, Focal Radiance, and Sennheiser 650 and Kennerton Gjallarhorn.
Added the Powered monitor selector Switch witch to ease swapping of equipment
Replaced just about all my cables (upgraded to better quality)
Finally adding the Roon Nucleus to the equation and moved all my music to it from the PC
Kept all my existing dacs, amps etc and moved to my Simrig to improve that sound as well.
All told just some minor tweaks LOL
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For me, and I mentioned this before, it is easily the Staccato discrete opamp.
I put this in my Whammy replacing a Burson v5i and it went from being something I was proud to have built to something I love listening to.
It taught me a lot about the effect of a key component within a device as well as a lot about brain burn in. When I first put it in I was taken aback as I didn’t entirely like it. I left it a day and listened again and realised that I had never heard this much right across the frequency spectrum. I had no idea that bass could have so much texture.
I love that thing. It changed music for me and it’s just a little bit of circuitry that does some kind of voodoo shit inside the box that makes me tap my feet and listen for hours.
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Lots of great (and not so great) headphone, IEM, DAC, and Amp moves this year. But by far my favorite upgrade this year was my complete tare-up and re-wire of my home network:
I claim no obvious sonic improvements from this, but it’s definitely a reliability and consistency improvement. Network streaming runs very smooth, fast load times, library browsing is snappy and immediate. Learning about optical networking was a lot of fun, and much more involved than I expected it to be.
Plenty of room for improvement, but the wiring is all in place to support these possible future upgrades.
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Definitely a worthwhile upgrade on the Feliks Euforia amplifier in early 2022 was the Vcaps TFTF capacitors on the 6SN7 socket and a little later the Odam’s on the 6AS7G socket.
The results were amazing even after months.
Even more so if you are not able to listen to amusic due to time constraints and go back to your listening position.
Shortly before the end of the year I found a pair of Tung sols 5998 under another name at a very good price and the tubes are new.
That was the least I expected.
Half a year ago I had no luck with the first pair and had to send them back.
Another highlight was listening to Mon at Kopfhörer who gave me good recommendations and in the end the Zmf Auteur OG made the running which was my birthday present.
I was allowed to test the Aeolus on loan afterwards and I have to say that Mon’s advice was very good and I am still very happy with the Auteur today.
Towards the autumn, I became interested in Iem’s.
The purchase of the Letshure Z12 was okay,got an IMR Acustic R2 Red at a similar time for a great price,which is stunning on the Ifi Hip Dac after I found the right sound filter.
Even my wife is thrilled with it and enjoys music now.
Overall it wasn’t a bad year but not the best either.
A lot of things came together over time or needed more attention to avoid blunders.
So I can be satisfied with the audio journey, but I was able to take a step forward and discover other perspectives.
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I guess the only thing I still have from last year’s edition is my fostex so it was a hell of a year.
My upgrade of the year is without any doubt mysphare 3.2.
It gave me many times wow moment and I have been sucked in by the music especially vocals and live instruments in a way no other headphones gave me thus far.
I did some solid upgrades in.my chain and while i do consider them worthwhile I could be happy camper with aqua and vio combo.
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Kind of weird but ALL of my current gear is from 2022, I think. Safe to say it’s been a good year for my audio hobby lol.
As a theme for the most significant upgrade for me I guess it’s embracing TOTL headphones. Audio listening will never be the same for me after owning and spending a lot of time this year with the Susvara, LCD-5, 1266 TC, Utopia '22, D8000 Pro LE and Mysphere 3.2.
But most significant upgrade really goes to the Hoer Wege power supply upgrade for my Aries G1. Not a cheap upgrade but I think it massively improved the sound quality coming out of the streamer. From being a bit of a let down and potential quick catch and release it became a high performing front end that’ll require serious $$ to upgrade (at least double its value imo).
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The Cowon Plenue S and the NP Audio mods that take it to the next level for an extremely reasonable price. That chain is now complete.
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Too many upgrades in 2022… Admittedly most were of the smaller variety, cables and tubes populated the majority of my audio upgrades last year, but the single most profound upgrade, also the most expensive was moving from a Lampizator Amber 3 to the Baltic 3. It offered a shift in sound signature with higher technicalities overall and a more worthwhile pairing with the rest of my setup.
Other highlights include;
The HD800s and the eventual Brise Mikumari ref.2 cable upgrade for it, cementing the 800s as a permanent set in my setup to compliment my “forever” headphone, the ‘OG’ Utopia.
I also went deep into digital and analog interconnects with the purchase of the FTA Callisto USB and Danacable Diamond Reference RCA. Both respectfully refining my system further towards my ideal. The Callisto being a wild experience, in fact my first experience in high end digital cables. The notion that a USB could offer so much soul and impart such sweetness was a eye opener. The Diamond Reference likewise brought a new level of refinement in pacing and overall incisiveness of the system and really brought the energy to a new high.
Tubes, I experimented with a few rolls in my Baltic 3 to further tweak the sound and eek out that last bit of performance (for now), I still want to continue rolling in the future but for now I have been living with and settled for; EML 274B Mesh / MELZ 6sn7 / RCA Cleartop 12sn7. Compared to stock, the EML brought more air and stage size with a more focused sound, the MELZ gave the sound more oomph in the lower bass and warmth in the mids with a sweeter (maybe smoother?) organic timbre. The RCA bumped the air even more in the treble and leaned the sound ever slightly brighter with better detail retrieval.
I also dabbled in my very first power cables as well, in the Shunyata venom HC and Diamondback, both relatively low cost (especially secondhand) but definitely worthwhile. In fact they are both due to be upgraded now that my other cables have outpaced them in both price and performance by quite a bit. Something that I will look into in 2023 
I also saw change in my portable stable as well in 2022, I went from a L&P P6P to a Lotoo Paw Gold Touch, which while in some ways a slight downgrade in other ways a huge upgrade and there’s nothing that would make me go back to the P6P. I also went CIEM this year with my Rhapsodio Infinity MK2 making it my permanent IEM, going custom was such a pleasure and honestly one of the best comfort upgrades I’ve ever experienced. Universals just don;t feel right anymore lol
All in all a pretty good year with few major upgrades, but lots of smaller ones and tweaks that when combined into the final package made for the best upgrade of all 
Here’s hoping in 2023 I can finally get that music streamer/server I’ve been pining for nearly all of last year, Happy New Year!
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I figured out where the sweet spots for placing my speakers are in my listening rooms and now I can replicate consistency in placement much easier than ever before👌 This makes for happy, happy joy🤗
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For me it would have to be the Schiit Tyrs. It wasn’t better exactly then what I was using at the time, the WA33 Elite, but the value was so much better and the usability improved too. Tubes get hot lol and these Tyrs run surprisingly cool. Plus the fact that they sounded as good as the WA33 to me but were a fraction of the cost made me sell the WA33 and let me spend that money on other things I wanted to try. I think I’m losing out on a bit of resolution and treble energy with the Tyrs compared to the WA33. But both those things reduce fatigue and let me enjoy the music more.
Runner up upgrade would be the network card in my Bricasti MC1, reducing the number of boxes and improving ease of use are really valuable to me.
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This is a tough one. It’s a toss-up for me between Ed Schilling’s The Truth no-gain active preamp for my 2-channel system, or commissioning a full rebuild of my Adcom GDA-600 using this detailed guide.
The Truth is, simply put, fucking mind-blowing. From his admittedly awful website:
- There are no capacitors or resistors (other than the photocell) in the signal path. There is no potentiometer in the signal path.
- It uses photo cells to control the volume. It does not use optocouplers.
- The Truth has a balance control that is not in circuit and the balance does not shift with volume changes.
I went from the Apex Pinnacle which I thought was incredible (and it IS incredible, just not right for my system) to a cheap $150 passive preamp from Pine Tree Audio and the change from those two left my my mouth hanging open. It was so much purer, more detailed, more engaging than the Pinnacle. This is when I discovered my system had WAY too much gain in it. The Pinnacle was never turned higher than about 8 o’clock and 7 o’clock is more or less where it goes mute. With the passive preamp, I finally had headroom and there were much better dynamics all-around. Plus, I think removing some tubes from the chain helped clear things up. Tube DAC to tube preamp to tube power amp was a lot tubes.
I started reading more about passives and realized I should’ve been using them all along with the Cornwalls since they’re so efficient. I did a ton of research and kept coming across The Truth on Audiogon and the archive page of some well-known hi-fi reviewer I can’t remember right now. I was skeptical and put off by Ed’s MAGAness that every single report mentioned, so I focused on the Placette passive line stage as that kept getting mentioned as one of the finest passives at any price point. I found one via USAM (currently re-listed now) and it was a very noticeable step-up from the $150 one. Those Vishay resistors are exceptionally high quality.
I’m almost positive I read about a direct head-to-head with the Placette and the Truth, and the Truth was everything the Placette did, but better from the reports. More clarity, more purity. I was already astounded at the level of microdetail that was now present, and how deep and detailed bass could reach and questioned how it could be possible to be even better than this since there was basically nothing in the signal path besides two additional high-quality resistors.
So I ended up contacting Ed and despite his political and religious views, he’s actually an extremely kind, caring man and has some incredible, revolutionary ideas about audio. I avoided engaging any potential bait comments and it was fine. He’ll talk your ear off if you let him, though; he’s got so many stories…numerous of which revolve around him being blackballed by the Hi-Fi community at large because the big players would crush any magazine or other outlet that touted this $1300 preamp over their gear that costs tens of thousands of dollars, despite it handily trouncing them and the reviewers knowing it.
It took like 6 weeks for him to build and get it to me due to dealing with the fallout of, I believe, his fourth Covid infection at the time AND a brown recluse bite, but the wait was worth it.
There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that, despite it’s janky appearance, there is no better preamp out there, especially not for my system. It’s definitely one of those situations where I didn’t even realize how much was still being missed/held back, even by the very fine Placette. Things in the signal path affect the signal. WHO KNEW?
Anyone who remembers tube TVs and that very-high pitched sound you could hear when the TV was on, even in other rooms and when the volume was super-low…that’s kind of how it felt listening to this for the first time. It sounded like my system was finally on for the first time (not that it had a high-pitched whine/noise as an artifact of the tube being powered on).
Music never sounded more (a)live and had never been so engaging. It was like the audio equivalent of getting your windows cleaned; you really don’t realize how much shit was on them until afterwards and everything is so much cleaner, clearer, crisper and easier to see without the fine layers of dust and dirt acting as filters. This was an upgrade that put all the previous upgrades and changes I’d made throughout the year into perspective. While, at the time, those made noticeable and sometimes large improvements/changes, this was a complete paradigm shift (I’m hoping the Mojo Mystique V2 SE is another one).
As for the GDA-600, it sounded quite good before the work was completed. I preferred it to my Bifrost 2 at the time, but the internals were all original and nearing 30 years old, so there were some weird peaks in frequencies that I had to create PEQ settings for in Roon. I got in touch with this guy who agreed to take on the project, but it ended up being almost 10 weeks before I got it back due to some part delays and him getting wrecked by his day job.
Per the link above, all caps were replaced with new corresponding Nichicon caps; the opamps were upgraded to the OPA627; the regulators were upgraded to Burson; the CS8412 was replaced by a CS8414. My only regret is not having him replace the DF1700 with a DF1704. It’s a drop-in 24-bit receiver, but thankfully it hasn’t been a problem. The vast, VAST majority of my music is 16/44 and this thing is also hooked up to my CD transport for headphone use, so there’s not really much worry. It would just totally “future proof” this DAC as much as it could be. Regardless, the upgrades put this at or even slightly above my Lampizator L4+/G4+ when I’ve got a Monarchy DIP Classic between the sources and DAC. It’s incredible how good those upgrades made this DAC.
The only reason it’s not in my main system is because it can’t handle the MQA releases on Tidal. I don’t pay for MQA or want to use it, but many albums (Taylor Swift in particular) are only available in that. The Lampi handles them just fine, but the GDA-600 can’t. My wife listens to a lot more modern pop than I do and a surprisingly amount of stuff she likes is only on Tidal in MQA. So, it powers my headphone rig instead.
And I guess, for honorable mention: treating my listening room. I covered every wall with these panels and then the ceiling with these tiles (vertically nailing into a popcorn ceiling was a nightmare). It made such a difference. And then doing everything I could to reduce vibrations: washer/dryer feet for the speakers and then 150lbs of weights on top of each. Washer/dryer feet for the power amp. Sorbothane feet under everything else. Tube dampers on all tubes and then some cheaper rubber rings around speaker cables to keep them off the ground. All little-to-moderate changes that had enormous affects on, well, everything. It was fun to learn and to experiment and be able to hear how things changed in almost real time as I was doing all this, too.
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This year, I bought a Mystique V3 and while it was a significant improvement over the DAC I was upgrading from, I didn’t totally love it at first.
So while the Mystique V3 should realistically be my “upgrade of the year,” I tweaked the rest of my chain trying to get to a place where I really loved what I was hearing, and the thing that finally put my chain over the top was a $400 purchase that I wasn’t expecting much from:
My 2022 upgrade of the year I think has to be the Sonore ultraRendu, which I only bought this November, but it was a much bigger upgrade over the microRendu than I expected and it finally brought the Mystique V3 to the place that I’ve spent nearly half the year trying to go.
It’s maybe a bit of a Sonus cliché to talk about how much your source matters, but yeah, it really does! lol
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