Best way to *significantly* alter sound to taste: change/add amp, preamp or DAC?

[CGabriel]

In my system, would changing any one (and only one) of these parts give me what I want? My budget is under $10k.

Keep what you have. Get a turntable and some records. You will need a preamp.

 

[Alrainbow]

Buy or try out a lampi B7. It rolls tubes so mood is easy to please. I Own a few others it's a very satisfying dac. You can go from laid back to intense detailed and all is between. Tubes are the best way to alter sound or should I say alter our reality of it.

 

[cat6man]

i borrowed a bricasti and planned to run it without pre-amp to my mono-blocks but found something that killed the idea for me.
unless you can get away with less than 6-10dB (estimate) or so of digital attenuation, you may be losing a lot of sound quality.
when i tried the bricasti (and others, i'm not pointing at the bricasti here) i needed >20dB digital attenuation which was noticeably degrading the sound.
(test: bricasti into BHSE to stax 009--compared 20dB digital attenuation in bricasti with 2dB in bricasti and 18dB via Alps attenuator in headphone amp==>no brainer in favor of less digital attenuation)

so, i'd suggest you experiment with a pre-amp (hey, i was strongly in the no pre-amp needed camp also) and the bricasti..........or a DAC with analog volume control.
i had no intention of going the pre-amp route until i made that comparison.

 

[Whatmore]

Are you telling us that a set sound is not affected by a power cord change ?????

I have no idea if it is or not, I suspect not.

In any event the OP doesn't have a SET so I'm not sure how the effect of power cords on a SET are relevant to this discussion.
The effect of power cords in the OPs system is relevant however, and I was asking which power cords have a SET sound.

 

[Alrainbow]

Some make claims , I do not hear any change from cheap to expensive. But of course I have expensive ones being used just in case.
Now I anot claiming anyone who does hewr it is wrong. They are not I just do not. But I to get offended of things I do hewr and others claim I am crazy . So to each there own. I do believe we all,should use good ones especially for our power amps something of 14 gauge or larger and dedecated power circuits . This is very audible and well worth the cost.
Al

 

[MrAcoustat]

I have no idea if it is or not, I suspect not.

In any event the OP doesn't have a SET so I'm not sure how the effect of power cords on a SET are relevant to this discussion.
The effect of power cords in the OPs system is relevant however, and I was asking which power cords have a SET sound.

Ok just to make myself clear, a set amp is a single ended triode tube amplifier and like any other amplifier different power cords WILL alter their sound.

 

[Whatmore]

Ok just to make myself clear, a set amp is a single ended triode tube amplifier and like any other amplifier different power cords WILL alter their sound.

In your humble opinion

But I still don't see the relevance to this thread.
a) the OP doesn't have a SET
b) the OP specifically stated he doesn't want to look at cables (and I assume that includes power cords)

 

[DSkip]

My humble opinion is to focus on the preamp. If you go with a tubed pre, the world is your oyster for rolling the sound and making it what you want. I don't believe an amp is the answer to change your sound if your amp is already properly paired with your speakers. Note that I'm not saying they don't make a difference, I just think it is less as apparent as a pre or DAC change.

As far as my experience with power cords and my SET amps, they are the one component I haven't heard any difference with when changing power cables. My system is likely not revealing enough at this point, but after trying a half dozen different cables, I've settled on the generic PC's supplied with the amps. I plan to revisit that area once I make a significant jump in my system again.