I’m gob smacked. What were you’re aha moments?

Three moments stand out for me. In each one my musical life shifted and things were never the same after...

1985, I want to buy a pink triangle turntable and go listen to it at a posh london snobby dealer. Annoyingly the Linn sounded better, but just before I prised my wallet open the dealer said "you might as well hear this new one we have just got in", put it on behind me (I couldn't see) and Whoa! What a difference. Really exciting, fast, bouncy thrilling music. Turned round to see it was a new fangled thing called a Roksan Xerxes. Bought it. I was a joy to see the old buffer of a dealer bopping along to Human League. 

2011, NYC. I buy a second hand Krell KSA 50 off eBay to replace my perfectly fine Peachtree amplifier. Put it on, it sounded nice, sweet, fresh, I was happy, then a track I know well comes up and Whoa! a wall of bass hits. I never knew the track had a base line. Room rattling stuff from my little bookshelf speakers. 

2018. After endless dead ends I end up with a Roon Rock + a Tidal subscription. Suddenly all my music is findable, with the right art work, I click on Shipbuilding by Elvis Costello, its a fave track of mine. I am happy, then I notice that Roon is telling me that lots of others have recorded this. I click on one (by Brian Case), its completely different. And there are many many others. Suddenly a new world opens. I can't go back. 

1-year ago I was having two issues 1) grounding issues with my turntable and 2) lights dimming to the beat of my SVS SB16-Ultra sub when turned up.  Installing (2) dedicated 20-amp circuits not only solved both issues but also improved overall SQ with lower noise floor.  Bonus was the picture quality on my 4k TV also improved.  Not a sexy purchase by any stretch ... but worth it.

millercarbon:
Great post. 

David Pritchard

@Imnop My bass has easily doubled, maybe tripled. I can feel the pressurization in my room and it’s tight not bloated. 

I am not sure what you are saying - is this considered a big improvement?  Help me out here.  What about texture, clarity, dimension, tone of each instrument, black background, separation, size of instruments and vocals, placement, ease of sound?

Did I miss something?  Happy Listening.

- Switching from stranded core to solid core speaker wire, especially for tweeters
- Switching from low-quality plastic dielectrics to cotton or air, especially for tweeters (this really removed the grudge or unpleasant edginess from the highs. The same edginess that makes you want to turn the music down)
- RCA interconnects, both good quality purchased ones and handmade unshielded, cotton covered, solid core, silver wire with silver Eichmann bullets. 
- VPI brick
- Subwooder DSP and proper placement. 
- Power cords