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My most significant upgrades to my hifi system

A

audiojoy

pfm Member
In a previous thread i mentioned how much difference treating the room with sound diffusers and absorbers made. This now gives me a platform to hear my equipment as they were intended. Everything sounds different from a pre to a post acoustically treated room as no doubt you would have already guessed. What I thought was bright might now sound perfectly balanced. When I would blame the cd or the cd player itself for an overlie aggressive sound, i now find i was probably mistaken.

So with a room acoustically set up that theoretically allows significant changes to be readily audible what was the most significant change next in my system did I find to seemingly take my system up a whole new level closer to realism?

In my case without a shadow of a doubt it was the power cables much more so than a change of speaker cables or interconnects or supports. Why, no idea ??? act as a filter for all that electrical noisy grunge sent to our homes.
 
Cheapest significant upgrade:
- properly positioning my Proac Future .5 speakers (much nearer the rear wall than had been suggested)

Best non kit-related upgrade:
- Acoustically treating the ceiling to remove the echo

Best change in equipment:
- from the still good but aging Chord DAC 64 mkII to a dCS Bartok
 
audiojoy said:
In a previous thread i mentioned how much difference treating the room with sound diffusers and absorbers made. This now gives me a platform to hear my equipment as they were intended. Everything sounds different from a pre to a post acoustically treated room as no doubt you would have already guessed. What I thought was bright might now sound perfectly balanced. When I would blame the cd or the cd player itself for an overlie aggressive sound, i now find i was probably mistaken.

So with a room acoustically set up that theoretically allows significant changes to be readily audible what was the most significant change next in my system did I find to seemingly take my system up a whole new level closer to realism?

In my case without a shadow of a doubt it was the power cables much more so than a change of speaker cables or interconnects or supports. Why, no idea ??? act as a filter for all that electrical noisy grunge sent to our homes.
Click to expand...

Did you change from standard mains cables to shielded ones ? I use Supra LoRad cables now and it did make a difference.
I am surrounded by Wifi points which made me change to fully shielded cables. The system started to sound a bit harsher than normal, but it is back to its original sound now.
Check how many Wifi points you have around you, and that may be why your system is better now.
 
First: Adding a Naim Armageddon to the LP12. PraT didn't really exist before.
Second: Shifting a record cabinet to about 15 degrees off the wall so that the treble from the first reflection point wasn't going straight down my lughole.
Third: Going from Ittok 1 to Ekos. I could then hear medium deep bass clearly which made following some tracks a lot easier.
 
If you can, try taking your amp out of the rack and placing it somewhere else. You might be pleasantly surprised.
 
Installing a dedicated circuit made a big difference.
But installing a Goal Zero battery generator made a much, much bigger difference. When my dealer first told me about it I had a hard time understanding what it was. Basically, it functions exactly like a gas powered generator. You could run a table saw off it out at your cabin in the woods, or use it to power your freezer during a power outage. But instead of a gas engine it uses a battery, charged from your outlet, to produce power. This saves me a lot of money on power cords.
 
uncl_nigel said:
Cheapest significant upgrade:
- properly positioning my Proac Future .5 speakers (much nearer the rear wall than had been suggested)

Best non kit-related upgrade:
- Acoustically treating the ceiling to remove the echo

Best change in equipment:
- from the still good but aging Chord DAC 64 mkII to a dCS Bartok
Click to expand...

Can you give some details about how you treated your ceiling please?

Thanks
 
audiojoy said:
In my case without a shadow of a doubt it was the power cables much more so than a change of speaker cables or interconnects or supports. Why, no idea ??? act as a filter for all that electrical noisy grunge sent to our homes.
Click to expand...

The real question is not "why" but "how".
 
naimnut said:
Installing a dedicated circuit made a big difference.
But installing a Goal Zero battery generator made a much, much bigger difference. When my dealer first told me about it I had a hard time understanding what it was. Basically, it functions exactly like a gas powered generator. You could run a table saw off it out at your cabin in the woods, or use it to power your freezer during a power outage. But instead of a gas engine it uses a battery, charged from your outlet, to produce power. This saves me a lot of money on power cords.
Click to expand...

That's a very interesting product, what model do you use? What sort of system does it power and for how long?
 
Too many years, too many systems, and to much expectation bias. I don't actually try to judge things now. I'm fortunate to have a wife with golden ears, and no interest in hifi. She has a passionate interest in music, and a complete intolerance of compromise (and sometimes budget) - so I just do stuff and say nothing. If she says nothing, nothing has happened. The main things recently is the introduction of the STA25 (she doesn't like the look, prefers the EAR890 aesthetic, but appreciates the sonics) and really loves the DSP unit I built for bass control in our quirky cottage.
For me, getting rid of preamps and separating digital and analogue systems has made the biggest change for me.
 
indus said:
Can you give some details about how you treated your ceiling please?

Thanks
Click to expand...
Context: reinforced concrete (40 year old flats)

Acoustic grade rock wool glued with high strength glue to the ceiling. The whole lot concealed with a stretched, micro-perforated PVC (or some such) ceiling. Prior to this we had the ceiling light fixture replaced with wall fixtures - the one-piece completely smooth ceiling is just so classy :).

The aim was not to soundproof the room above. The work seriously reduced the ceiling echo making for much better stereo imaging. The room is acoustically much "deader" than any other in the flat with neither rug nor curtain.
 
Darren L said:
That's a very interesting product, what model do you use? What sort of system does it power and for how long?
Click to expand...
The model I use is a Goal Zero Yeti 1250. I would have preferred one of the models which uses a lithium-ion battery, since they are much more portable. The one I have is so heavy that it comes with wheels installed and a removable hand-truck type handle.

It is not specifically marketed for hi-fi applications. It can be used for many different purposes. For instance, it can be connected to a solar power system. It can be charged up and put away for use during an emergency, like a power outage. Goal Zero makes them in different sizes. They have some that are small enough that you can take them camping to power a laptop or recharge a cell phone.

Both the dedicated circuit and the battery power supply remove much of the noise that is on the household circuit. As an example, my wife was watching the TV not long ago and I was using my water flosser. She commented that while I had the water-flosser turned on the picture was very distorted. I only have a superficial understanding of all this but I was unprepared for the effect of the battery generator on the sound system. I didn't think I had a noise floor, but it reduced it significantly. A wonderful upgrade.
 
Allaboutmusic said:
Our bedroom is above our lounge, so constantly asked to turn the stereo down even though it's pretty quiet - very frustrating
Click to expand...
It's amazing what acoustic insulation can do. My music room is right next to the bedroom. There is almost zero transmission of noise at normal listening levels.
 
Mine was making a DIY deffuser. I bought a couple of plastic garden panels from Homebase (180cm x 90cm each). The ones I chose have random irregular holes cut out for the pattern. I made some frames to hold the panels horizontally & then placed unwanted packing foam from work behind the panels to block the holes.
These where mounted on a frame and placed against the rear wall. The difference it made to vocals was more than I could have hoped for. Improved definition and stability of the vocals as well as the sound stage. I used two layers of the foam so depth is approximately 10cm. I then covered the rear to hold the foam in place.

I was hoping this would create some depth to the sound stage, which it has. More surprising was the improved definition of vocals and stability of the sound stage from left to right. The vocals appear more realistically in front of me now.

Cost was 2 x £45 for the panels and less than £20 for the wood. Foam was free.
 
Rick_F said:
Mine was making a DIY deffuser. I bought a couple of plastic garden panels from Homebase (180cm x 90cm each). The ones I chose have random irregular holes cut out for the pattern. I made some frames to hold the panels horizontally & then placed unwanted packing foam from work behind the panels to block the holes.
These where mounted on a frame and placed against the rear wall. The difference it made to vocals was more than I could have hoped for. Improved definition and stability of the vocals as well as the sound stage. I used two layers of the foam so depth is approximately 10cm. I then covered the rear to hold the foam in place.

I was hoping this would create some depth to the sound stage, which it has. More surprising was the improved definition of vocals and stability of the sound stage from left to right. The vocals appear more realistically in front of me now.

Cost was 2 x £45 for the panels and less than £20 for the wood. Foam was free.
Click to expand...
Can you post a link or the specific search terms you used? And what kind of foam did you use? Styrofoam, like insulation? Or something like foam rubber? Or what?
 
https://www.gumtree.com/p/garden-fences/2-x-matrix-decor-screen-riverbank-1800x900mm/1299340626

These are the panels / screens, I can't find them on the Homebase site so maybe they've stopped selling them. Bound to be other places that do.

The foam is slightly more coarse and less flexible than the foam you may get in the usual parcels as it's meant to protect amplifiers & power supplies that we make at work. I'd say any material that absorbs would work. The screens just help reflect some of the sound to it's not a flat sound. I'll try and take a photo tomorrow and post it.

Here's a photo from when I first got the screens and was experimenting.

https://scontent-lhr8-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=b59e80578ee67f6af1b7609fb42bad9c&oe=5EE19E73
 
Is that where you ended up locating them? Between the speakers? I thought you had placed them at the opposite end of the music room...
 
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