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Your Best Audio System Upgrade of 2023?

Only major and definitely the best upgrade I made in 2023 was to the digital front end.

After home dems over several months of Bartok Apex, Rossini and Rossini Apex, I traded in my Bartok for a Rossini Apex. Someone traded a Rossini and Clock in at the dealer same day I picked the new Rossini up so I bought his Clock.
 
Amber Audio said:
Only major and definitely the best upgrade I made in 2023 was to the digital front end.

After home dems over several months of Bartok Apex, Rossini and Rossini Apex, I traded in my Bartok for a Rossini Apex. Someone traded a Rossini and Clock in at the dealer same day I picked the new Rossini up so I bought his Clock.
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very good timing there 😁
 
jamesd said:
Rega Exact to Dynavector 10x5

Grabbed a very cheap Arcam Alpha 9 preamp for my second system and it was a big improvement over the preamp section of the Nakamichi integrated I was using
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I was actually contemplating the Rega Exact when my 10x5 hits close to a 1000 hours. I guess in your opinion I can forget those thoughts?
 
InSides said:
It seems I only changed two things during 2023, which is very interesting in and of itself - I am striving to do less in 2024.

But those two were quite significant:
  1. Added Gaia II isolaters to my Olympica IIs. I had little doubt that this would be an impactful addition, but I have been delaying it due to the fact that the speakers being slanted means I would have to add spacers to the front feet (the Olympica II's have longer spikes in the front). I was worried that it would disturb the design language of the speaker immensely, but I bit the bullet and haven't looked back. Luckily I got a hold of the M8 spacers that IsoAcoustics designed specifically for slanted Sonus Faber speakers.

    The improvement to sound quality, especially in the bass region, is very far from slight.

  2. Added an EMT mono cartridge to the system (EMT TMD 015) and that upped the mono game by quite a lot. The AT33Mono that was there was by no means a slouch, but the EMT is a bit better in conveying the mono magic.
P.S. I did some additions to the cartridge stable near the end of the year, but as those have not yet found their way to the system - would not yet consider them upgrades.
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Hi, would you mind describing how the bass was impacted/improved on your SFs after adding the Gaia isolators? Thanks.
 
LASER is an acronym, it stands for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation", so it is an S, cannot be a Z. Happy new year!

I have one too, very useful!
 
I've found with Gaias they basically remove smearing you don't realise you have until it's gone, and generally tightens everything up. The bass and s tighter, more tuneful and better defined, and woth this better foundation the mids and hf is also cleaner with better defined/delineated instruments. It happened when I fitted Gaia ii to my ML Summits and subsequently Gaia iii to my current SF Toy Towers.
NOTE: This was with both speaker types sitting on 30mm Marble (as I have suspended wooden floors & carpet) if you have carpet you will need the carpet spike cups or a granite/stone chopping board as they sucker to the substrate as an anchor. Not a problem with tiled/laminate/wood floors.
 
Tom60300 said:
Hi, would you mind describing how the bass was impacted/improved on your SFs after adding the Gaia isolators? Thanks.
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Sure, I can elaborate further, although @Lurch summs it up nicely.

The Olympica II are equipped with a variant of bass reflex that they call "stealth reflex", which they claim is an improvement on traditional porting to eliminate possible boomines. Now, the speakers were never, in my room, boomy. But they could not really convey a tightness in bass in the manner of sealed loudspeakers.

I have the privilege of regularly enjoying a fellow fishie's phenomenal system consisting of closed box monitors and closed box subwoofers. While quite different in presentation than my Olympica's - that bass performance is something I have always aspired to.

The addition of Gaia II's has tightend the bass, and in a way, allowed some more energy to reach the listener directly, resulting in a firmer low end with less waste. Additionally, as it typically happens, this has further cleared up the midrange and resulted in a more wholesome presentation.

Now, they did not transform the speakers into closed box variants, of course, but I am now way less tempted to trade them in for a Neumann setup, even when playing "Dŵr Budr".

I am not sure how they do what they do, but to me, worth every penny.

P.S. If you have speakers with a plinth, you may get away with the pro-oriented "Iso-Puck" which are a less fancy version of the Gaia (well, the Orea), but way cheaper. But you need a flat surface as those have no threaded mounts. I have the "Iso-Puck Mini" under the Devialet, and under every component in my headphone system.
 
When I used my Gaias with my Martin Logan Ascents I noticed the I no longer felt bass being transmitted through the floor boards. Hence bass reproduction was improve. The Gaias were isolating the speakers from the floors the exact opposite to what the spikes the came with the speakers were doing.
My current speakers, Verity‘s have isolation built in.
 
InSides said:
Sure, I can elaborate further, although @Lurch summs it up nicely.

The Olympica II are equipped with a variant of bass reflex that they call "stealth reflex", which they claim is an improvement on traditional porting to eliminate possible boomines. Now, the speakers were never, in my room, boomy. But they could not really convey a tightness in bass in the manner of sealed loudspeakers.

I have the privilege of regularly enjoying a fellow fishie's phenomenal system consisting of closed box monitors and closed box subwoofers. While quite different in presentation than my Olympica's - that bass performance is something I have always aspired to.

The addition of Gaia II's has tightend the bass, and in a way, allowed some more energy to reach the listener directly, resulting in a firmer low end with less waste. Additionally, as it typically happens, this has further cleared up the midrange and resulted in a more wholesome presentation.

Now, they did not transform the speakers into closed box variants, of course, but I am now way less tempted to trade them in for a Neumann setup, even when playing "Dŵr Budr".

I am not sure how they do what they do, but to me, worth every penny.

P.S. If you have speakers with a plinth, you may get away with the pro-oriented "Iso-Puck" which are a less fancy version of the Gaia (well, the Orea), but way cheaper. But you need a flat surface as those have no threaded mounts. I have the "Iso-Puck Mini" under the Devialet, and under every component in my headphone system.
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Excellent, thank you.
 
Has anyone with Gaias actually deigned to go slumming and tried the Addis pads ? Or shall never the twain meet ? I know which I preferred when I borrowed some but have no idea of the weight of my boxes nor whether they were the right Gaias.
 
I replaced Stirling LS3/6s with Kef Refence 3s.
Nothing else had changed in the last 3 years.
 
In-Soles are the #1 upgrade for me this year hands down, but I also got a Schiit Gungnir multibit dac for my Apollo cdp, which really elevated the second system.
 
Nigel said:
I was actually contemplating the Rega Exact when my 10x5 hits close to a 1000 hours. I guess in your opinion I can forget those thoughts?
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I don’t feel qualified to say as I’ve only had 6-7 cartridges in my life, but I like the Exact plenty and was pretty happy with it until the 10x5 fell in my lap. In my room, with my gear I think the 10x5 is a definite upgrade.
 
Mine was two fold. One was by choice, the other enforced, namely

New speakers - Monitor Audio Silver 500 7G. Far more neutral and revealing (no not in a bright way) than the old Monitor Audio Gold GR20's I had. So yes speakers do get better with each evolution to the point that the line below can outperform the model you have eventually.

Hegel H300 - replaces the Krell Vanguard that gave up on me. The Hegel definitely has a different presentation. The Krell is slightly more foreward in the midrange - not brighter or anything, just like you're closer to the band. It's also manifestly obvious that the Hegel is a proper dual mono design as the sound stage width and depth and instrument separation is significantly better than the Krells. (and the Krell is meant to have a wide soundstage - though not particularly deep - for an integrated amp of it's price range). The only thing the Krell does better (though I can't A/B the two amps so I could just be misremembering) is the Bass seemed to have more "grunt", as in impact rather than extension. The Hegel seems to sometimes make bass feel more difficult to hear and less impactful, it's there but it's tonaly more pure so gives the impression there's less of it. If that makes any sense.
 
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