Change or an Improvement ?

G

Guest

Guest
Well there seems to be a lot of kit swapping in the the high season dans le tentbut the crux of this is how do we evaluate this change or improvementand are we able to do this on our own. They are two different things imho yet they seem to get confused more than most. I often read the reviews of recently purchased kit and i'm then suprised to find the same bit of kit up in the classifieds 2 to 3 months later:Not Sure:. Can a piece of kit be really evaluated in just a week .

I don't think it can.
glum.gif.19305e5ca189352e84c85f8ec971e437.gif


If someone has a definite budget that can't be busted then i understand the change option as not merely better or worse but just a different presentation. Yet in the first flushes of evaluation this is always seen to be an improvement.I sometimes wonder if people really give their kit a chance before throwing the review.

Just my two penneth

Discuss at your leisure

 

The Strat

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Duvet wrote:

Well there seems to be a lot of kit swapping in the the high season dans le tentbut the crux of this is how do we evaluate this change or improvementand are we able to do this on our own. They are two different things imho yet they seem to get confused more than most. I often read the reviews of recently purchased kit and i'm then suprised to find the same bit of kit up in the classifieds 2 to 3 months later:Not Sure:. Can a piece of kit be really evaluated in just a week .I don't think it can.
glum.gif.19305e5ca189352e84c85f8ec971e437.gif


If someone has a definite budget that can't be busted then i understand the change option as not merely better or worse but just a different presentation. Yet in the first flushes of evaluation this is always seen to be an improvement.I sometimes wonder if people really give their kit a chance before throwing the review.

Just my two penneth

Discuss at your leisure
Duvet,

Agree entirely. And for that very reason having established my current set up I agreed with Mrs Strat that I would leave well alone - for a very considerable period.

Mind you - we are very happy with what we have.

 
G

Guest

Guest
Biscuit wrote:

trying to get off the roundabout at the minute. Just 2 more changes and then I'll stop......
tongue.png
(where is the flying pig emoticon?) :lmao:
We definitely need the flying pig:D

 
G

Guest

Guest
improvements can be very hard to achieve.

if you have a sound you like leave it alone for gods sake. throwing pots of money at so called improvements usualy ends in expensive mistakes. just coz product x costs x amountand is highly rated in the mags it means fuck all imo. i sit here and laugh at the way some of you lot are forever changing kit. i've been there and done that many many times, and of all the kit i've had i think only acoustic energy ae109 speakers have ever blown me away.

and i have tried some very exotic kit over the years. courtesy of audio-t in brentwood. 90% of all the kit i've tried has been pants.

a lot of you have a lot to learn and you will one day look back in disbelief at how muppetry has taken over your pursuit for that magical sound

 

Papa Lazarou

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New kit cannot be properly evaluated in just a week. Running-in periods are often longer than that. The kit i have bought this year is here to stay. My amps and speakers are perfect for my needs (and listening room)I'd have to go a long way to better the cdp. May have a look at another TT next year if funds allow.

Some of the kit i've heard thats been hyped on here has left me very underwhelmed and i wonder if this is what the owners have felt too. Hence theswapping of kit.

 
G

Guest

Guest
a lot of it is that you buy something and you sit there and convince yourself it sounds far better when in reality deep down you know you've been a complete muppet, again believing all the hype there is out there.

i would say get to know your local bada dealer well, build up a friendship then they will lend you want, that is the best way rather than throwing money away.

 
G

Guest

Guest
Papa Lazarou wrote:

The kit i have bought this year is here to stay. My amps and speakers are perfect for my needs (and listening room)Some of the kit i've heard thats been hyped on here has left me very underwhelmed and i wonder if this is what the owners have felt too. Hence theswapping of kit.
Good point Papa. I wonder if alot of the kit is chosen without due consideration to the room. Speakers being the point in case. You've chosen yours i suspect as the speakers fire across rather than down the room so floorstanders may have been compromised or never really given a chance to show their true potential.Wheras the Arcs in their current enviroment can really show what they can do

 

Biscuit

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its a sad fact that I've only got a year before I'm off to uni for 5 years, then probably the Navy for a further 5. I'm just not going to be able to swop/upgrade.
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the two changes I want to make in the next year would beto get somemedium-sensitivity speakers (like big Tannoys), and a big jap cdp. After that I'll be finished due to lack of time and funds, but I'll have a bloody nice soundingsystem too:)

 

Ant

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I'm happy with my kit. I'd like to buy some new speakers at some stage that will be in that class that do most things well. There are a couple of things I know could be done better.

Sources are stable now, the TT I know is amazing and the CDP does a good job of sounding like it.

Pre amp is being worked on all the time and improving all the time and I will be building some more stuff myself in the future.

As for spending bundles more on electronics it's unlikely unless I win the lotto in which case I'd spend years looking for that precious music
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I've bought 23 albums this week
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Jezzer

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Very happy with my current set up. While not as transparent as my last system, it's certainly very musical and it has stopped my box-swapping for now.

I think that would explain why I don't post here so often, at the moment.

 

kingsxfan

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I didn't do too bad with my last kit. Had my old speakers for two and a half years, had my amp fortwo years which isn't bad going at all. The Esoteric was the only piece of kit I've owned for less than six months. Not because I didn't like it, the complete opposite in fact. I decided that I just didn't have the CD collection to justify keeping it. I only have a few hundred CD's since my divorce (the ex took a lot of crap I can tell thee!) but I have over a 1000 LP's. After thinking about it all, I decided to jump ship and make the most of my analogue playback since that's where most of my music is.

I doubt I'll invest in another CD player, not for the forseable future. I'm probably going to invest in a 60gig iPod and bung a load of stuff on there for now
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E

Effem

Guest
Muggins here has finally come to the conclusion that THE biggest real world upgrade is going to be demolishing the listening room and building it again with different materials rather than try to get kit to sound decent in there. It has got thermalite and plasterboards walls rather brick/block and a suspended wooden floor over a void below which does horrible things to the bass. Not only that, I have discovered a cavity where the back door of the house used to be which has simply been plasterboarded over both sides with nowt else in betweenas this is now an inside wall between thelounge and listening room
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My cure for that later in the year will be to open it up again and build a glass block wall in the recess which will at least give more natural light in to the living room.

Yes I have got "improvements" from kit swaps but they have been differences in presentation rather thanhuge leaps forward in sound quality and it's the room now that is the reallimiting factor.

 
M

murray johnson

Guest
Biscuit wrote:

its a sad fact that I've only got a year before I'm off to uni for 5 years, then probably the Navy for a further 5. I'm just not going to be able to swop/upgrade.
sad.png
the two changes I want to make in the next year would beto get somemedium-sensitivity speakers (like big Tannoys), and a big jap cdp. After that I'll be finished due to lack of time and funds, but I'll have a bloody nice soundingsystem too:)
Hi Bic,

See if you can get to hear some proper Tannoys like the GRF's. Emporium in Diss often seems to have them. When you come out of the Navy you can always put together a multiway horn system! I've a friend who's about to retire to a life of leisure after a Navy career (mostly in Subs) and he's only late 40's. Actually he'll probably get another job but he wouldn't have to.

rgs,

Murray

 

Dynamic Turtle

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Sep 23, 2005
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HADOOOOKEN!!!!, ,
Glad to see so much common sense on this thread :nerd:

I think you know you're happy with your system when you start spending more time & money on little tweaks like speaker cables, mains filters, isolation etc. It implies that the core of your system is "there" and merely requires fine-tuning.

This is the stage I'm at now. Happy with system 1's performance overall and really don't feel compelled to upgrade/change any part of it.

DT

 

Papa Lazarou

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Dynamic Turtle wrote:

Glad to see so much common sense on this thread :nerd:I think you know you're happy with your system when you start spending more time & money on little tweaks like speaker cables, mains filters, isolation etc. It implies that the core of your system is "there" and merely requires fine-tuning.

This is the stage I'm at now. Happy with system 1's performance overall and really don't feel compelled to upgrade/change any part of it.

DT
I agree DT. Will have a little dabble with mains conditioning when i get back from my hols. That'll be it - only other thing i can see being changed in the future will be the Gyrodec.

 

Borats Baby

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I have to admit to a little bit of box swapping, but there again, I havn't spent over £50 on any piece of equipment over the last 12 months (apart from my Chinese valve amp which still hasn't arrived @ £200)
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System was : Pioneer PD-S703 cdp £35 , Yarland Valve amp £150 (
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) , Castle conway II's £50 , QED speaker cable £20 , My own interconnects.

Sounded nice to my ears anyway ...really nice !!!

Changes are,.... been through a mission dAD 5, philips CD650, finally stopped with a Marantz CD65 MkII (although I do want to upgrade it). Yarland amp got sold to fund the new one (very nearly made my money back on that aswell.......which was nice :lwink:)

Currently using a modified Sonic Impact T - Amp with the Castles and the Marantz. Also got a Project X-pression II but cant use it until the new amp arrives.

Need a good phono stage for under £50 aswell ifanyone can recommend...

Still sounds good but :cafe:cant wait for new amp to arrive.

I will be sticking with that system for a while then, unless something comes along that is a real bargain and worth trying !!!!

 

Hawk

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Duvet wrote:

Well there seems to be a lot of kit swapping in the the high season dans le tentbut the crux of this is how do we evaluate this change or improvementand are we able to do this on our own. They are two different things imho yet they seem to get confused more than most. I often read the reviews of recently purchased kit and i'm then suprised to find the same bit of kit up in the classifieds 2 to 3 months later:Not Sure:. Can a piece of kit be really evaluated in just a week .I don't think it can.
glum.gif.19305e5ca189352e84c85f8ec971e437.gif


If someone has a definite budget that can't be busted then i understand the change option as not merely better or worse but just a different presentation. Yet in the first flushes of evaluation this is always seen to be an improvement.I sometimes wonder if people really give their kit a chance before throwing the review.

Just my two penneth

Discuss at your leisure
I think if you have to ask yourself that question you havent found the right improvement yet
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dudywoxer

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It depends on what you are trying to do, I started with a rega P3, Brio, and Royd Connistons, what I wanted was that sound, and involvement with the music, but with more detail, a bit more air around the music, and a bit more control and impact.

.

With the odd bit of horse trading along with way, (bought some old quad valve gear for £150-sold for £750), I have moved, to my ears, up to a Rega P25, Planet, Cursa, 2 exons, and Rega R3's. That change has seen me out of pocket by around £1200.00 Not a bad level of expenditure for the system I have finished up with. I have nearly got what I want in terms of music presenation, I may or may not change the CD spinner, and now I have the exons, I may at some point change the speakers, but not yet a while, as at the moment I feel that the cost would far outweigh the improvement.

At each step along the route the sound has improved, and been closer to the sound I am aiming for, (with one exception- tried some Mission speakers, but sold them for what I paid, so nothing lost, other than time.)

The exons only arrived this week, so I need a while to let them, and me settle in, but my initial impression is that is one of the biggest steps along the route.

(does having £2k's worth of amp in the middle of budget source and speakers make it a mullet system- if it does they work) The grip, detail, and attack these mono blocks have brought to the party is much, much more than I expected.

 

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