How would you spend my money?

[dgale]

Esteemed WBT Friends,

Where would you put you/my next $5K? I love my system and really find nothing deficient. However, in my experience the right upgrade or tweak can bring surprising and unexpected improvements. (For example, I recently added the Sean Jacobs DC4/ARC6 to my DAVE and was blown away.)

WISHLIST
1. Upgrade current Transparent Reference PC from integrated or power conditioner.
2. Upgrade current legacy Syn Res Element Copper ICs between DAC and integrated
3. Upgrade Wireworld Gold and Platinum BNCs to WAVE BNCs (or just one pair?) in DAVE/M SCALER chain
4. Add Super tweeters to my Tannoy Kensingtons
5. External LPS for M Scaler (Teddy Pardo LPS but heard no diff from HMS SMPS which I am again using p- unlike adding LPS to DAVE which completely transformed my system.)
6. Second REL S/812 sub
7. Room treatment (currently none)

MY SYSTEM
Tannoy Kensingtons
Single REL S/812
Pathos InPol Heritage MK2 integrated
Innuos Zenith MK3/PhNET/PhUSB
CHORD DAVE/HMS
Sean Jacobs DC4ARC LPSU for DAVE
Transparent Gen 5 PowerIsolator
OPTO Galvanic isolation
Mostly Gen 5 Transparent cables
FTA SINOPE USB

I asked this on AGON FORUM and received the following input. Curious if the WBT community concurs. Thanks!

AGON RESULTS
2nd SUB - 11
RM ACOUSTICS - 14
SUPER TWEETER - 2. (My dealer’s suggestion)
CABLES/D’CATED POWER/MISC - 3

 

[mtemur]

My simple answer is none.
Don’t spend anything for the wishlist. Replace your speakers with better ones. For example Devore O/96.
IMHO in the future consider replacing all Transparent cables, Pathos amp, getting rid of sub and installing a dedicated power line if you haven’t done already.

 

[dgale]

Interesting. I’ve had Focal Kanta 3s and Rockport Atria ii’s. Also A/B’d against competitive Magico and Wilso. Much prefer the Tannoys. To each his own I suppose.

 

[dgale]

I would consider an upgrade to Joseph Audio Pearl Graphene but that’s a bit beyond my budget.

 

[bonzo75]

Interesting. I’ve had Focal Kanta 3s and Rockport Atria ii’s. Also A/B’d against competitive Magico and Wilso. Much prefer the Tannoys. To each his own I suppose.

the older tannoys are better than those speakers. The older tannoys like 15 inch golds or 12 inch HPD 315a are quite superior to the Kensington. And mtemur is right that the Devore is better than the older tannoys for a listener with tannoy preferences. But the Devore need a lot of space around them while the tannoy can go back to the wall or in the corner.

 

[dgale]

@bonzo75
Thx. My K’s are 4 yrs old so at least I know they are among those made in Scotland. Placement is an issue for me as I can go no further than 1.5 ft from wall. They do “disappear” with great sound staging even at this less optimal placement.

 

[bonzo75]

@bonzo75
Thx. My K’s are 4 yrs old so at least I know they are among those made in Scotland. Placement is an issue for me as I can go no further than 1.5 ft from wall. They do “disappear” with great sound staging even at this less optimal placement.

stick to tannoys, but when I say old I mean the drivers were made in 70s etc. it was a different tannoy then. You will get money back selling Ks and getting some of the old ones

 

[Mikeylee]

Personally, I would spend your money having a pro like Sterling Trayle come out and spend a couple of days optimizing the system you have now. it Is the most significant dollar for dollar upgrade you can make.

 

[mtemur]

the older tannoys are better than those speakers. The older tannoys like 15 inch golds or 12 inch HPD 315a are quite superior to the Kensington. And mtemur is right that the Devore is better than the older tannoys for a listener with tannoy preferences. But the Devore need a lot of space around them while the tannoy can go back to the wall or in the corner.

If you can find monitor red or black it’s even better.

 

[dgale]

@bonzo75 cool. I got a great deal ($11k) on my K’s, but I’m fascinated by all the interest I see for older Tannoys online by folks who seem to know their stuff. Unfortunately I don’t have the tech understanding to go that deeply into old drivers, crossovers, and the like.

 

[dgale]

Personally, I would spend your money having a pro like Sterling Trayle come out and spend a couple of days optimizing the system you have now. it Is the most significant dollar for dollar upgrade you can make.

Someone else made a similar recommendation. Thx

 

[dgale]

If you can find monitor red or black it’s even better.

So I’ve read. I just don’t think I have the tech understanding to get into the vintage Tannoy game. But I get it.

 

[bonzo75]

@bonzo75 cool. I got a great deal ($11k) on my K’s, but I’m fascinated by all the interest I see for older Tannoys online by folks who seem to know their stuff. Unfortunately I don’t have the tech understanding to go that deeply into old drivers, crossovers, and the like.

the silvers and blacks are rare and extremely expensive. With Golds, 15 inch, you can get that in Lockwood cabinets plus upgraded crossovers for just over 5k, worst case just below 10.

 

[audioguy3107]

Choosing from your list but adding the excellent suggestion by Mikeylee, I would go with 1. second REL subwoofer and 2. Have Sterling Tryale optimize your system/room.

 

[ecwl]

Having a photo of your room really helps. As your place reminds me of my own listening room and in the end, I had limited options to move my seat or to put up bass traps so I ended up resorting to DSP after strategically placed bass traps to optimize the sound.

My gut feeling is that you don't want to turn the living room into a stereo store demo room. I suspect you actually have limited aesthetically acceptable options for room treatment.

My first question would be whether you can move your listening position forward or backward slightly as I see you already have a coffee table in front of listening seat (sofa?).

Moving the listening position 6" or 12" or 18" forward can sometimes dramatically improve the bass response and make listening much more pleasant. If you can't move your seat, you can't move your seat. But if you can, it's worthwhile playing pink noise in your system, and then using say an iPhone with an RTA app like AudioTools to actually see if just moving your seat forward slightly or backward slightly would improve the bass. If so, you should just do it based on the measurements.

In theory, there is a small chance that your primary bass resonance is coming from your front wall and back wall bouncing back and forth. If that's the case, knowing the dimension and frequency is helpful. But chances are, you'll need fairly thick bass traps behind the stereo components AND speakers to reduce the resonance. Like Monster Bass Trap with FlexRange Technology - 7.3" thick (gikacoustics.com). And it'll probably have to cover a significant portion of the wall which can look aesthetically suboptimal. But more importantly, if that is not your bass problem, you'll just end up putting absorbers there for no good reason and it might end up worsening the sound. So measuring first is the best way to go. Since you have never shown any measurements, I suspect this is difficult for you to do. What I sometimes recommend people to try is to use their iPhone to measure their listening position's frequency response with screen capture and then move the iPhone to that front wall and measure the frequency response there and have another screen capture. If the bass peaks of the listening position coincides with the bass peaks at the front wall, there is a reasonable chance that sufficiently thick bass traps would absorb those peaks. It probably won't smooth out the bass by much at your listening position (that's why moving the seat is important). But it'll at least reduce the resonance of those specific bass notes and allow you to hear more deeply into the music.

Otherwise, as I said in the other thread, just get a second sub if you don't have anything else you could do due to aesthetics.

 

[dgale]

Having a photo of your room really helps. As your place reminds me of my own listening room and in the end, I had limited options to move my seat or to put up bass traps so I ended up resorting to DSP after strategically placed bass traps to optimize the sound.

My gut feeling is that you don't want to turn the living room into a stereo store demo room. I suspect you actually have limited aesthetically acceptable options for room treatment.

My first question would be whether you can move your listening position forward or backward slightly as I see you already have a coffee table in front of listening seat (sofa?).

Moving the listening position 6" or 12" or 18" forward can sometimes dramatically improve the bass response and make listening much more pleasant. If you can't move your seat, you can't move your seat. But if you can, it's worthwhile playing pink noise in your system, and then using say an iPhone with an RTA app like AudioTools to actually see if just moving your seat forward slightly or backward slightly would improve the bass. If so, you should just do it based on the measurements.

In theory, there is a small chance that your primary bass resonance is coming from your front wall and back wall bouncing back and forth. If that's the case, knowing the dimension and frequency is helpful. But chances are, you'll need fairly thick bass traps behind the stereo components AND speakers to reduce the resonance. Like Monster Bass Trap with FlexRange Technology - 7.3" thick (gikacoustics.com). And it'll probably have to cover a significant portion of the wall which can look aesthetically suboptimal. But more importantly, if that is not your bass problem, you'll just end up putting absorbers there for no good reason and it might end up worsening the sound. So measuring first is the best way to go. Since you have never shown any measurements, I suspect this is difficult for you to do. What I sometimes recommend people to try is to use their iPhone to measure their listening position's frequency response with screen capture and then move the iPhone to that front wall and measure the frequency response there and have another screen capture. If the bass peaks of the listening position coincides with the bass peaks at the front wall, there is a reasonable chance that sufficiently thick bass traps would absorb those peaks. It probably won't smooth out the bass by much at your listening position (that's why moving the seat is important). But it'll at least reduce the resonance of those specific bass notes and allow you to hear more deeply into the music.

Otherwise, as I said in the other thread, just get a second sub if you don't have anything else you could do due to aesthetics.

Yes! to everything in your reply. Thanks