Can you esteemed forum gurus shed some light on this that if a person has the money what should he first upgrade which will give him the max. jump for his money?
First place to upgrade
- Thread starter jasbirnandra
- Start date
Transducers -- phono cartridges, speakers, headphones. The only catch is that the speakers and headphones must be driven with sufficient power, so sometimes an upgrade in transducers requires an upgrade in amplifiers. Or a more careful choice of transducers.
Tim
All depends upon your circumstances and rest of your system but I always find that that the biggest bang for the buck comes from improving your front-end. By maximizing your front end, you can make a $500 pair of speakers sound like a $5000 pair of speakers; conversely you can with a crappy front-end make $20,000 pair of speakers sound like a $500 pair of speakers. Garbage in, garbage out.
garylkoh
WBF Technical Expert (Speakers & Audio Equipment)
It would really depend on the existing system, but I agree that the biggest bang comes from improving the source. Next would be the speakers. However, as Tim has noted, some transducer upgrades might require upgrades around them. Some cartridges necessitate a better tonearm, and if you upgrade from a MM to MC, you would also require a phono preamp that can take a lower-level signal.
Let me tell you of my set up at present it consists of playback mps3 which i think is quite good as a front, then the Dart integrated with ascendo system F speakers with audience AU24e cabling all around.
I dont know much about the speakers /amp , but it sounds like a good set up , maybe a tapemachine would be cool/different
We will now proceed to have 20 pages of argument over this issue. Hard to assess without knowing what the weak points are of your existing system and whether any parts of your existing system fit into your long range vision of where you want to be, system-wise, in the long run. What's in your system now, and where, ideally, would you like to be with it? And, are you willing to buy used? Because some very fine equipment can be gotten much cheaper that way.
So, a Dartzeel integrated amp and a high quality dynamic speaker from Germany? What's the mps3?
His setup does sound rather nice, so the question begs to be asked...Why do you want to upgrade?
This is easy: Find the weakest link in your system and improve that first. In this case "weak link" can be defined by knowing the frequency response, noise, and distortion of each component. As Tim explained, transducers are usually the weakest link among audio gear. But in most rooms standing waves and echoes create even worse problems. Peaks and nulls spanning 30 dB caused entirely by the room are not only common, but typical.
--Ethan
This is my first post and fairly new to this forum, here goes. I would say the first thing would be to upgrade your electrical setup. Like in drag racing the type of fuel determines the level of performance. Electrical and audio in a way is like plumbing, the electricity and the audio signal is like the water, so the bigger the diameter of the pipe the greater the flow of water with less resistance and with a lower noise floor.
We will, but like many conversations around here, it won't be reality-based. Assuming the system in question has no obvious mismatches or malfunctions in it, transducers are the weakest link; speakers in digital systems. The difference between one level within most speaker lines will be more dramatic than jumping from a good, pedestrian DAC to the obscenely expensive DAC of your choice. This can very easily be shown, and heard, but that doesn't keep audiophiles from rationalizing their way into purchasing toys that make very little difference and imagining they have transformed their systems. Hope springs eternal. Expectation bias runs deep. And unless your source was really messed up in the first place, "source first" has always been BS, unsurprisingly first coined by a guy with sources to sell.
Sorry to pee in the pool again. Now, enjoy the next 20 pages.
Tim
We will, but like many conversations around here, it won't be reality-based. Assuming the system in question has no obvious mismatches or malfunctions in it, transducers are the weakest link; speakers in digital systems. The difference between one level within most speaker lines will be more dramatic than jumping from a good, pedestrian DAC to the obscenely expensive DAC of your choice. This can very easily be shown, and heard, but that doesn't keep audiophiles from rationalizing their way into purchasing toys that make very little difference and imagining they have transformed their systems. Hope springs eternal. Expectation bias runs deep. And unless your source was really messed up in the first place, "source first" has always been BS, unsurprisingly first coined by a guy with sources to sell.
Sorry to pee in the pool again. Now, enjoy the next 20 pages.
Tim
Well Tim we're always glad to have you around here to cast the dissenting minority viewpoint.
In the meantime, the original poster has sold all of his equipment and taken up something less confrontational- like fencing, or sumo wrestling.
Looks like the dude has a nice system. I still don't understand what his source is, does anyone else?
Looks like the dude has a nice system. I still don't understand what his source is, does anyone else?
And by the way, as a relative newcomer myself, welcome. (and I would tend to agree, power, room and related are often put last, when they should be first).
It has never been BS in my book and many other people as well, but one's veiwpoint does get narrower when you run one source component and the component is digital based on a laptop. The guy that coined the saying also sold speakers in addition to sources, but I'm sure you knew that.
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