What Types of Digital Components and Gadgets have made the Biggest Positive Impact in Your System?

[Mikem53]

Yggdrasil R2R DAC was the biggest improvement… Made even better by upgrading to the Unison USB interface, removing the Bel Canto reference link and coax interface, reducing cables and connections.

JRiver Media Center allowing Direct access/exclusive control of the DAC.

Optimizing my dedicated server playback hardware and software for audio. Separate I/O ports for data BUS traffic.
loading local library on SSD internally.

Ripping and creating WAV files Over FLAC For local Library‘s.

Streaming better versions of Music, Thanks to all the suggestions and Label information found on WBF Forums from its members !!

Relaxing , Listening and Enjoying the music ! Not so much the hardware..

 

[VerdantAudio]

Great and informative post. As I stated earlier, my Lucas Audio LMDS Music Server has resulted in the biggest change by far in my audio journey. I, too have swapped out a lot of PC's, and cables to the point of hoarding them. Not a big difference. Recently, I purchased the Townshend Podiums for my speakers. I have SR orange fuses and duplexes. None compare to the LMDS. The last tweak I am trying is 4 Quantum Science yellow fuses. I also have the InaKustic 3500 power conditioner. I guess I like it but I have not compared to others.

I hear good things about the Townshend podiums. I had a customer who had them for Harbeth's and didn't hesitate to replace them when he stepped up to Wilson Benesch. Isolation usually helps with the central image.

I just had an experience at a customers house where he is trying to find the right amp to pair with Tekton Ulfbehrts. He was demoing a Canor AI 1.10 which is a 20w KT88 based integrated. We went from having overly extended, bright treble with bloated, flabby bass to perfect treble extension with radically tighter extension. The ICs were causing the bloated treble. The PCs were causing bloated bass. I had a $1200 PC with me. We swapped it in and it sounded like we taped socks over the tweeters it was so flat. These changes were so not subtle I could not believe it. He uses a Furman conditioner so that has an impact but still.

We went from a situation where I was going to politely leave and apologize for wasting his time to an amp that was perfectly matched and sounded jaw-droppingly good just with a swap of cables. I do believe the better the power coming out of the wall and the better the conditioner, the less this stuff matters. But there are times where it can make a big difference.

I am curious about the fuses. I have talked to SR and they have some products I think are great and others I am not completely sold on. What do the fuses do from your perspective?

 

[Willgolf]

I hear good things about the Townshend podiums. I had a customer who had them for Harbeth's and didn't hesitate to replace them when he stepped up to Wilson Benesch. Isolation usually helps with the central image.

I just had an experience at a customers house where he is trying to find the right amp to pair with Tekton Ulfbehrts. He was demoing a Canor AI 1.10 which is a 20w KT88 based integrated. We went from having overly extended, bright treble with bloated, flabby bass to perfect treble extension with radically tighter extension. The ICs were causing the bloated treble. The PCs were causing bloated bass. I had a $1200 PC with me. We swapped it in and it sounded like we taped socks over the tweeters it was so flat. These changes were so not subtle I could not believe it. He uses a Furman conditioner so that has an impact but still.

We went from a situation where I was going to politely leave and apologize for wasting his time to an amp that was perfectly matched and sounded jaw-droppingly good just with a swap of cables. I do believe the better the power coming out of the wall and the better the conditioner, the less this stuff matters. But there are times where it can make a big difference.

I am curious about the fuses. I have talked to SR and they have some products I think are great and others I am not completely sold on. What do the fuses do from your perspective?

For me the fuses just opened up the music even more. Better clarity. A lot of debates for and against fuses. Many think snake oil. I think an important piece in the chain.

 

[VerdantAudio]

I will have to give fuses a try at some point. So much stuff I want to experiment with it is difficult to choose what is next. I am mostly digging into DAC comparisons, renderer and server comparisons at the moment. Maybe fuses later this year.

 

[Willgolf]

I will have to give fuses a try at some point. So much stuff I want to experiment with it is difficult to choose what is next. I am mostly digging into DAC comparisons, renderer and server comparisons at the moment. Maybe fuses later this year.

I had 4 Lumin Dac's. I loved them. I sold an emm Lab DAC and replaced with a Lumin X-1. Like you I had the itch to compare. I ended up buying a Lampizator Pacific. For the money the Lumin X-1 was a very very close second at half of the cost. It served two functions Dac / Streamer.

 

[jeromelang]

the biggest positive impact to digital playback - my trusty left and right hand fingers
the biggest positive impact to media (vinyl, sacd, cd) - tap water and contactless drying
major, major positive impact for system - removing extraneous metallic objects physically away from system

 

[VerdantAudio]

I have not tried Lumin. I do hear good things about the brand and the volume control. The X1 is impressive. I was sour on delta-sigma DACs for a stretch after a bit of an FPGA indoctrination with Chord. I have since spent tons of time with some R2Rs (Rockna), other FPGA (Audiobyte & Playback) and an incredible delta-sigmas (Weiss). I am definitely back to, "it is not the DAC type but the implementation that matters".

 

[vgmbpty]

What brought the biggest improvements to my system:
1. Feeding my network switches with fiber: Must be mono mode, and must select the transceiver carefully
2. Cascading EtherRegen + External Clock & LPSU with SOtM SNH-10 fully upgraded
3. Adding the Network Acoustics ENO streaming kit before the Innuos
4. MIT Matrix USB cable, SOtM Cat 7 cable joining the cascading switches
5. Separating Roon Core (Mini PC) from the streamer/player Innuos Zenith Mk3
6. Changing DAC from T+A DSD DAC 8 to Meitner MA3
7. Speaker cable MIT Evo: Old and heavy, but good sounding
8. Going from stereo amp to tube monoblocks
9. Adding a tube preamp in front of the DAC with volume, that functioned as a digital preamp
10. Separate power conditioning for smaller components, to mid-sized components. Amps are connected to the wall.
11. External power supply and passive ethernet filter for my NAS

Next possible changes under study: USB Reclocker or Digital to Digital converter, upgrade the other ethernet cables, separating a copper network for internet data and management, and a fiber network just for music data, upgrade subwoofer, dedicated electrical lines for my system with higher quality copper wire, test the Innuos streamer vs EMM Labs NS1, test USB reclocked vs AES/EBU.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

1. Dac(s) - Multichannel with volume control
2. Elimination of analog preamp. - Replaced with multichannel balanced switch.
3. Improved Ethernet Cable throughout LAN

4. Power Conditioner (minimum $7,500 to get reference-level sound) - Minimal/null effect
5. Power Cords on DAC and Transport - Minimal/null effect
6. Cable from Transport to DAC - Minimal/null effect
7. Digital Switch - Ethernet switch? Minimal/null effect.

8. Transport - Don't use/need.
9. Second Switch - Don't use/need.

 

[Ultrafast69]

IME the largest gains are:

- Standalone DACs, preferably with an outboard power supply
- Audio grade servers that focuses on the power supply or can accept an outboard power supply
- Electrical dedicated power and all grounds; passive and circuit
- Optical or fiber isolation

lateral gains:

- Power and ethernet cables
- Audiograde switches