improving my system, please help

dedicated line is a good idea. for amp conditioning, i'd suggest the vans evers unlimited - it won't degrade the amps' sonics; may even improve them a hair. re: getting odyssey monos, i'd suggest getting another stereo amp & running in a wertical bi-amp mode. doubles your power, ya still have a different amp for each speaker, & ya got a separate channel for each driver. kinda like 4 monos on the cheap... ;~)

doug s.

Cinepro Line Balancers work very well in two systems of mine, but I'd still follow Blueswan's advice to put in a dedicated AC line and work on the room. If you know nothing you should read F. Alton Everest's "Master Handbook of Acoustics" (4th edition only) or his "Sound Studio Construction on a Budget", especially if you have any DIY capability, a home workshop in particular. The room is a huge factor in the final sonic product, and, especially if you can substitut DIY for commercial products, a lot less expensive to raise to world class status than the other components of your system. Why not see how good your present electronics and speakers can sound?

More info: I actually had a system for over a year, but it wasn't even mid-fi. I recently upgraded to the SL-3's, Stratus, and the PV-7 as well as the better cables. I do think that I'll be staying with tube preamps. Each change I made, resulted in a significant improvement. Although the overall sound seems quite good, I am sure that there is much more detail to be found. I would also like to incorporate my (currently not being used) non-powered subwoofer. I had it used previously with an active crossover, but it really did not integrate well. Is there a way to add a low pass filter to my second set of preamp outputs to extend the bass extension with the use of a addition bridged amp? I am not even familiar with what Cinepro 20 or 30 is. Is this a power conditioner? Also, is there an advantage of running second Stratus in a vertical bi-amp mode instead of mono's? There would be no cost advantage over going the mono route over vertical bi-amp mode. Any suggestions on where I can purchase Room Tunes? Also any suggestions on replacing the GCD-750 with a seperate transport and DAC? "Sound Studio Construction on a Budget" seems like a great way for me to understand the room environment issues I need to deal with.OK, I'll stop now! This discovery of how enjoyable superb sound can be is becoming a quest for me as I presume it has been for many of you. Next upgrade will certainly be the dedicated lines and a power conditioner. I do plan to proceed cautiosly. Thank you again for your advice.

I bought my Room Tunes years ago from www.audioadvisor.com but I think they sell other types now. Definitely proceed cautiously when treating a room or you may deaden it to the point of lifelessness... a dry and technical sound, not musical at all. You can probably find good discussions on bi-amping versus dual-mono by searchning the Forum, but the best systems I have heard were all dual-mono. If your budget is limited, consider a high quality stand alone CD player instead of separates. Good Luck

blueswan & pmwoodward - vertical bi-amping *is* dual mono - one amp for each channel. ewe give up a tad power compared to bridging the amps, but bridging causes the amp to see a speaker af half its ohm-rating, ie: it's like a 4-ohm speaker is really putting a 2-ohm load on the amp. also, wertically bi-amping is better than two mono-amps, because ewe can only bi-wire, not bi-amp w/monoblocs.

regarding upgrading yer cd-player, i'd upgrade the preamp 1st - my experience has been that a killer toobed preamp makes differences between $500 cd players & $3k cd players disappear.

ymmv, doug s.