This is my audio system six years after getting back into this hobby in 2013. I listen to mostly Jazz and acoustic instruments, but enjoy pretty much any music depending on my mood (and whether my wife is out of the house).
First, make sure your source is up to the task. Junk in = junk out. While I too fall into the not sure I need a CD player camp, I do enjoy my DAC (Benchmark DAC1-HDR). That piece brought massive improvement to both my speaker and headphone systems.
Second, when dealing with monitors, having some solid speaker stands really helped. I'm not sure I reaped a tangible benefit from equipment stands, but resolution and separation certainly increased with some high mass speaker stands.
Good luck and enjoy the search... that's part of the fun.
First, make sure your source is up to the task. Junk in = junk out. While I too fall into the not sure I need a CD player camp, I do enjoy my DAC (Benchmark DAC1-HDR). That piece brought massive improvement to both my speaker and headphone systems.
Second, when dealing with monitors, having some solid speaker stands really helped. I'm not sure I reaped a tangible benefit from equipment stands, but resolution and separation certainly increased with some high mass speaker stands.
Good luck and enjoy the search... that's part of the fun.
At the recommendation of a local audiophile, I did call one electrician who gave me a 'sight unseen' quote of around $600 to set up a dedicated line. That was enough to get me to back off for the time being. My wife would have a heart attack (after beating me senseless!) if I told her I had spent $600 for that. I don't know what an A/C power re-generator is, but I will look it up. (I have looked it up.) I'll see what is available in Portland. I'll bet I can finagle a loaner to try.
As I get more involved in this hobby, I too easily persuade myself of the need to purchase more items in my pursuit of perfection. This is precisely what I see most folks on Audiogon and other similar sites talking about. When will I be satisfied???
I agree about Portland. We are considering moving there from Corvallis next year or in 2015. We shall see.
Looking through your photos I realized your system was one of the first I viewed after joining Agon last year. Small world? Very nice system IMHO.
Now that I have ProAc Response D TWOs (and love them!), I can't help but wonder what these other monitors sound like....uh oh....LOL!
I've got a slightly better than middle-of-the-road HT system in my family room. I replaced the L/R speakers with my D2s last night to watch a movie. O!M!G! I had to pinch myself a few times to make sure it wasn't a dream. Now, of course, I feel the need to upgrade my center channel speaker with something like the ProAc D Monitor. It's only $3000 or so....yeah....perfection....no problem.
The Shunyata will help some but it wont fully realize its potential without clean, consistent power. Have you looked into dedicated lines or a separate AC Regenerator?
And as for budgets, even though mine was small compared to my original system its still orders of magnitudes more than what "normal" people would pay for a stereo! LOL! Gotta love this hobby.
BTW, Portland is a great place. I lived up there when I was much smaller but to this day I remember the lush, green scenery.
Thank you! I'm learning. By Googling the Stillpoints Minis, I found the below website. Its author very nicely explains what had been magic and voodoo to me just days ago. I'll be in Portland this weekend, so I will see what my dealer has for sale. [I know I could buy this online, but the bricks and mortar stores need to be supported!]
I have already bought a Shunyata SR-Z1 Hi-End outlet that is collecting dust. I know I need to install it to realize its benefits, but it still is not installed. Sigh. Soon.
A word on budgets: Since I restarted this hobby, my original budget flew out the window. Each successive budget has followed the first as my education advanced. Initially, I was simply in too much of a hurry, so I grabbed this or that bargain (lest it disappear forever), which led to mistakes. I have slowed way down to avoid repeating any mistakes. My 'new' budget encourages me to do better research in order to get the component that really matches my want/need.
"The advent of a more sophisticated understanding of microphony and the part played by mechanical energy in signal degradation has brought us to the somewhat belated realization that isolating equipment from the outside world is all well and good, but the real problem lies inside the equipment itself. Every single electrical component is shaking, rattling and rolling along with the music. The power transformer vibrates at the frequency of the AC supply -- right in the middle of the critical bass range -- the power-supply components vibrate as they charge and discharge, and capacitors, resistors, ICs and output devices in the signal path all vibrate as they pass that signal. Those vibrations might be small (or not so small, in the case of transformers and reservoir caps), but they are right where the signal is, poised to do the greatest possible damage. WhatÂ’s more, we compound the problem by sitting our equipment on soft rubber or plastic feet, an arrangement that traps all that self-generated energy inside the chassis, where it churns around until it slowly dissipates as heat.
If the original Stillpoints were styled as isolation devices, how come they worked so well? Precisely because they acted to bypass those soft feet, providing an extremely attractive exit path for that internal energy, into itself and the structure it was sitting on. That depended partly on the chosen materials and the ceramic interface, partly on the shape of the original design, with its broad, flat base, features that have carried over into the latest range of Stillpoints designs, further augmented by a number of important developments, even if the company's philosophy seems awkwardly balanced between two stools. Functional descriptions still cling to the terminology of isolation, while the products themselves now talk about "vibration control." Control of what and how? It seems strangely equivocal when you consider just how emphatically the products perform."
Nice to get back into the hobby after some time off. I too took time off because of kids and my focus on getting SOTA gear instead of just enjoying the music. I am now back with a strict budget and am very pleased with the results.
I agree with Celtic that tweaks can make a nice difference. I have just started to explore the world of vibration control. I use Stillpoints Minis under my PS Audio AC Regenerator with very good results. That is another area I would suggest you look into, your power. Get some dedicated lines and/or an AC Regenerator. It made a world of difference in my system.
My wife will fly to the East Coast this weekend, so I am going to reposition my speakers/amp in the living room to let them breathe a bit. I'm so looking forward to settling into the sweet spot and listening to a lot of beautiful music.
I love my near field experience, but I marvel at how different is the sound when I'm sitting 10 or 11 feet away.
Until I tried a Venom3 PC back in May, I just did not believe it when someone claimed this or that improvement from such and such tweak or cable, etc. Well, I learned otherwise. Now I am very interested in what I may do to further improve my system's sound.
I don't understand how a stand such as the Quadraspire Sunoko can make a significant improvement in sound. I don't doubt you....I just don't understand how things work. It's in the realm of magic and voodoo to me.
I'm currently using a media table/stand that my father handed down to me. It's from the days when TVs were 27" CRTs. It's a nice looking teak veneer piece. Without your seeing/touching it, are there any ways I can make it more rigid to get some of the improvement in sound that you got?
Have you ever tried Butyl rubber mats (Dynamat) under your components?
Thank you for responding. I see some 90 people have viewed this with just one reply. Perhaps I could remove the Leprosy comment....nah...
Nice. I've only one suggestion. The right equipment stand will bring everything together. Currently now run the Quadraspire Sunoko vent replacing my Target stand and it was miraculous. I would not have believed it until proven otherwise. Vibration is a dark art. And I already had all of the high end vibration pieces under the equipment. Weird.
