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It's 2022. Thinking of making any changes to your system? Like what?

First system changes for years happening this year. I just replaced my 'Tom Evans Microgroove Plus' with the The Groove Plus/ SR bought on the classifieds here - really strikingly good upgrade. Now thinking to replace my 14 yr old Kontrapunkt C with something.. ?, though it still sounds pretty good so not sure. And tidy the listening room by finishing the room treatment because it's been a mess for 2 years. The rest of the system will stay as it is - well, no further plans at the moment.
 
I'm going to be installing a 5.1 surround system in our lounge with some on wall Spendor speakers and an MJ Acoustics subwoofer, which will be the first time I've had surround sound for over 15 years and the first time it will also be used as a 2.1 set up for 2 channel listening. I've had to purchase an antique (in A/V terms) amp to get me started and having now looked at it I am reminded how daunting the rear panels on some of those amps are.
 
I made the decision last year to move back towards a separates based system. As a long time Naim owner I downsized to a Unitilite, then upgraded to a Star. After a while I decided that I wanted to go back to a multi-box system. So last year, bought an ex-demo 250DR, then got a pair of ATC SCM40s at a price I couldn't resist. Now waiting for Naim to release the 272 replacement to end up with the system I want. Fingers crossed it happens this year.
 
Not planning any changes to the main system other than hopefully new flooring and redecorating the room but currently awaiting parts so I can start using my old Lavry DA10 between my PC and Presonus Eris E5 XT monitors on my office system replacing quite a noisy behringer usb powered sound interface.
 
Just made a decent improvement for no money apart from new house. Old house with carpet, sitting close to back wall and sounded good. New house with similar room size, wooden floor/more gap behind listening position and sounded clearer but some resonance at lower frequencies. Installed the speaker spikes onto granite mat and now sounds best ever!
 
Ian G said:
I am very fortunate that my wife has such disdain for anything hifi that she is actually blind to audio equipment and was unaware when my cd player went from black to silver. She didn't notice the Bluesound node atop the cabinet and failed to see the Gaia 3's under my Virgo 25s although they are silver and have raised the speakers around 50mm.
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I wasn't thinking of making any changes until I saw these Kudos X3 speakers at a very attractive price. They are much bigger than I imagined compared to the outgoing X2s but they sound lovely.

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As insane as it may look, I may "downgrade" back to my little Naim NAP 110 in my main listening room.
I will (again!) compare it against a Musical Fidelity P170, Exposure IV and a few modern amps my friends will bring to run some tests but so far, the 110 has this extra kick I can’t find with other amps..........
The final preamp will be either a Classe Audio CP35 or a Treshold Fet TWO.
The Treshold pre gives me everything including the Naim’s PRaT while the Classe Audio is softer on the ears like a tube preamp which could be a better match with the mighty NAP.
I'm glad I didn’t get rid of my 110 !
 
No changes are in my 2022 budget. I will only spend money on records, and if any repair expenses crop up. I may attempt some acoustic treatments.
 
A new stylus for the Nagaoka MP300 is the only thing on the radar here (getting on a bit)

Thought about trying a 500 stylus but really don't want to change how everything sounds. Quite happy with everything really.
 
Replace my P6 with a P8 (feeling quite imminent about that). I'll keep my Ania Pro for a while, because I'm a big fan. Maybe replace 82 with a 52, but that's quite a financial leap.

Then perhaps speakers, but all depends on upcoming house move, new room, etc.
 
Not a planned one, but I couldn’t resist a very late, totally mint and fully serviced Linn Kairn from fellow PFMer and total gentleman @Nye Samuel. It also prompted me to pull the system apart and change the room layout… this has been the best decision I’ve made in years, my system is on top form. I got it all set up properly and dialled in between Friday and Saturday and my poor little Naim setup hasn’t had a look in since (it’s still lovely, but the Linn is better). I’ve had a couple of nights where I’ve still been listening at 4.00AM… that hasn’t happened for a long time.
 
An Onix BWD-1 tuner and T-SOAP PSU ...on eBay and couldn't resist...a few little tweaks to follow including Kudos KS-1 speaker cable and possibly a 'better' digital coax cable between the CD player and DAC ...and maybe better earphones.... thinking about Shure SH1540....But happy with a Nait XS2, Hicap with Witch Hat Newt, Naim DAC V1, Auralic Aries G1 and Meridian 206B CD player but used as a transport.

To misquote the late George Best ..Most of my money has been spent on hifi and bicycles...the rest I wasted.
 
This year is going to be all about getting a dedicated radial (or two) installed and then maybe head into the dark, often confusing and contradiction ridden world of power conditioning. However finding a sparky for stage one is proving a challenge!
I dare say that the odd liner PSU and upgraded interconnect may make an appearance along the way.
 
Well stage one of the living/listening room upgrade went well, one of the issues we've had with this house is when we moved in we misjudged how big my wife's new chair was and since then it's always been in the way in the room and partially blocks one of the speakers. Today we had a move about and with the chair temporally replaced with another smaller one, not only did the hi-fi sound loads better but the room actually started to work how we originally wanted and felt much bigger. So massive chair is going and new chair will be picked up next week, I'm happy, wife is really happy at new layout, win win all around :)
 
Taking a leap into the unknown going from solid state amplification to valve amplification, got a demo next week that I'm looking forward to
 
dave charlton said:
Scratching the speaker itch is turning out to be only an occasional thrill :(

For longer term satisfaction I maybe should have stayed with cans :oops:

I've kind of made up my mind that I'm going back :confused:
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Update :-

Back with cans. Previously I'd had HD800's driven by a Lehmann Linear. Pretty damn good (imho) with a Rega vinyl front end. Sacrificed the 800's and Linear to part fund the scratching of the IO/Kyte itch.

Itch scratched - speakers, amp and speaker cable all gone and now back into head-fi in the shape of HD650's driven by a Rega Ear mk2. I'd been using Rega Reference mains leads on the TTPSU, phono stage and headphone amplifier previously but sold them on as part of the fundraising for the new cans etc, so it was back to ordinary leads on the TT side and wall wart for the Ear. So how does it all sound now?

Disappointing :(. Compared to my previous headphone set up the Ear and 650's sound ok but there is something missing and I think it's mainly down to the loss of the Ref mains leads. The obvious answer is buy some more Ref leads but at £220.00 a pop they are expensive and I couldn't put one on the Ear anyway. I've been tinkering with a hybrid Russ Andrews mains lead that I made up for a SET integrated I once had with promising results so I may be heading RA's way for a solution.

All is not lost :)
 
A Bluesound Node N130 was delivered today bought from Yorkshire AV. It will be replacing a Node 2 which feeds the DAC on my Aavik amp for streaming duties (mainly Amazon HD) so I can use the new USB out feature. I was strongly advised by my Aavik dealer to use USB on the Aavik's DAC rather than coax/optical S/PDIF (and he thought the Node 2 and 2i were capable of USB digital outputs which unfortunately they are not). Let's see how much of a change there is.
 
I was still getting occasional "digital like" noises from the active speakers in my desktop set-up so added a super chunky type-31 clip on ferrite to the power lead that goes to the extension lead that powers everything on that part of the desk, so far so good. I had one of these around the house because I also do amateur radio and they are handy for hunting down sources of radio interference, it weights around 2/3rds of a pound and is a lot more effective than those little clip on things.

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