Whats my weak link?


Classe ssp-25 pre amp, classr ca-150, musical fidelity a3.2cd, parasound z dac, mostly stock power cords.

I picked up some new speakers today (kef qx5's) and they sounded a good 15% better at his house than mine. He was running a modded rotel pre amp, bryston 3b-st, arcam transport, older parasound dac, upgraded power cords.

I have a feeling that it was his pre-amp mostly. His set-up had that certain sound that I'm looking for, hard to explain but it sounded sooo good. Any suggestions?
128x128b_limo
In addition to what Almarg said, see if your buddy will let you try his power conditioner. Plug source gear and pre-amp into it, not power amp. I suspect some power conditioning might make an improvement. Need not be expensive (unless for a power amp). I use a very modest Monster power strip with my source gear and it was a nice step in the direction you seek when applied.
Lol Jmcgrogan, I know I move too fast alot of the time, but I don't know that I'll ever enjoy that song.

Thanks Mapman! I think I'm going to try some powercords first and I will try a power conditioner for everything except my amp also.
Ps, again, Jmcgrogan, what pre amp would you recommend? I can probably try my buddies to see if that's partly responsible. I've read reviews stating that the classe ssp 25 isn't that great for a 2 ch. pre.
Power cords? Power conditioner?
A quick look at your system page leads me to suggest some room treatments. If the rest of your walls are as bare as the wall behind the speakers, an absolute for decent sound.
B, I'll add a fourth item to my previous comments:

4)If the connection between CDP and DAC is via coax, try experimenting with different cable lengths. In particular, if the length of the cable is in the vicinity of 1 meter or 3 feet, change it to either be very short, say 8 inches or less, or make it approximately 5 or 6 feet. See this paper.

Regards,
-- Al