A dealer recommended a professionally made custom bespoke NAIM FRAIM audio clone rack with itsisolation cones, exotic hardwood, blah blah. I was the extreme skeptic and I pooh-poohed the idea.
So he volunteered to bring it over and conduct a face-to-face shootout with my prior "heavy" rack .... with my own gear and in my own mancave.
Short answer:
It was a clear improvement sonically and the improvements were not subtle. I won't attempt to lamely provide some technical bull$hit for this audition result..... it left me somewhat slack-jawed.
BUT..... it made a worthy, measurable quality improvement ( with my gear and in my listening arena) with its isolation cones etc....full stop. So I kept it .... again full stop.
MY ANECDOTAL TAKE:
The degree of improvement is firstly, system dependent; and secondly, listening environment dependent. One size does NOT fit all.
The degree of improvement was most acute with the source, when compared to the other electronics. The latter benefited for sure, but more so with cdp/DAC.
It looks a helluva better visually to boot as a bonus.
I am no longer the uber-skeptic.
So he volunteered to bring it over and conduct a face-to-face shootout with my prior "heavy" rack .... with my own gear and in my own mancave.
Short answer:
It was a clear improvement sonically and the improvements were not subtle. I won't attempt to lamely provide some technical bull$hit for this audition result..... it left me somewhat slack-jawed.
BUT..... it made a worthy, measurable quality improvement ( with my gear and in my listening arena) with its isolation cones etc....full stop. So I kept it .... again full stop.
MY ANECDOTAL TAKE:
The degree of improvement is firstly, system dependent; and secondly, listening environment dependent. One size does NOT fit all.
The degree of improvement was most acute with the source, when compared to the other electronics. The latter benefited for sure, but more so with cdp/DAC.
It looks a helluva better visually to boot as a bonus.
I am no longer the uber-skeptic.