Haha! I bought an LK140/Kolektor pre/power combo and it was bloody awful - don’t know what I was thinking!! Went backwards and changed to a Kairn Pro/Klout and it was so much better. I still think that the Klout was a superb amp and an equal to its Naim counterparts
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My biggest were adding a XPSDR to my old 272 and swapping my old speaker cables for SL.
Luckily I haven’t had any upgrade I’ve regretted.
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Same with the 272/XPSDR. I’ve climbed a lot of steps up the Naim ladder this last few years but that one stands out as a huge gain. It’s up there with 252/SC > 552DR upgrade.
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When I added XPS to my CDX2 it really was a big upgrade, no question the biggest upgrade I’ve had with Naim. The Terrier turned into a Rottweiler, bass & dynamics especially.
However when I moved from CD replay to streaming with NDX, the XPS had nowhere near the same effect. Yes the NDX was better with it, more subtle & refined.
The biggest upgrade with NDX was with the room decor, out went the CD racks & we gained a few more metres of floor & wall space.
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There’s cable touching the floor! You should be deeply ashamed. Terrible. 
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Wrong thread Mike, sorry. I’ve moved it.
G
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Dedicated mains was a clear upgrade for me - quieter and more “clean” allowing music to shine through and open up a bit more.
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VERY BIG
NDX streamer replaced by ND555 with 555 DR
PSU.
REGA RP 10 upgraded to Linn Klimax LP12 with Exstatik cartridge.
PSU for Superline Phono upgraded from HiCap DR to Supercap DR.
252 upgraded to NAC 552 DR.
Ovator 400 speakers upgraded to Wilson Audio Sabrina X
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That’d want to be big uplift, it’s an expensive shift upstream. Must sound fantastic. I’ve always wanted to hear a pair of Wilson’s speakers but unfortunately never got the opportunity.
It certainly is.Really sounds fantastic. The Wilson’s are fabulous.
Partner With Naim really well
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Regrets, I’ve had a few. But then again, too few to mention (wait a minute, I feel a song coming on… 
)
I’ve made quite a few changes since I bought my first ‘proper’ system in the late '70s but couldn’t possibly rank them now. As I’ve made a few changes in the last 4 or so years I’ll just concentrate on those.
Best Upgrades (IMHO):
- Ortofon Rondo Red > Hana SL - had stuck with Ortofon cartridges for a number of years/changes and been relatively happy with them. Then I auditioned a Hana EL which (for me) trounced a much favoured (in the press) Quintet Black, so decided to go one higher to the SL. Giant-killer indeed.
- Linn steel sub-chassis (Cirkus?) > Linn Keel: unravelled layer upon layer of music I had never heard before.
- Linn Cirkus > Karousel: built upon the revelations provided by the Keel, taking the deck’s performance further along the same road to ‘reality’.
- Naim NAC72+HiCap > Naim NAC52+SuperCap: I had lived with the 72 for so long the 52 initially took some getting-used-to. A very different sound signature but so much more detailed and natural, which of course has made other upgrades much easier to appreciate.
Worst Upgrades
These are in no way ‘bad’ upgrades, and I still regard them as worthwhile changes. It’s just a matter of scale really. They just don’t offer quite as much “bang for the buck” as the others above in my opinion.
- Linn Lingo 1 (with input upgrade) > Linn Radikal (Akurate): Oooooooo, controversial!
- Hana SL > Hana ML: to me, the ML is undoubtedly in all relevant ways superior to the SL. However IMHO the SL is just such extraordinary value for money that the law of diminishing returns becomes more evident at the ML level. I’ve said it before ad nauseum, but the Hana SL could be all the cartridge most people would ever need.
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Room treatment makes the biggest improvements. I built a separate room 20ft16ft10ft+ ceilings and no windows. Designed like a recording studio with a live end and dead end. Acoustic insulation between the studs, regular wallboard and then quite rock sound insulated wall board (like they use in movie theaters) and a full wall of 5 layers of 8ft*4ft floating fiber boards behind the listening hung from the celling with fishing wire half-inch apart. The bar behind the speakers provides reflection and distribution, while the floating wall provides absorption and prevents the boomy bass from reflections from a hard wall. All the wires are sunk in the concrete floor in PVC tubes. The power for the audio units is provided from a sperate panel and 4 20A circuits (one just for the power amp alone) and grounded to the rebar in the concrete and a separate copper stake in the back yard. Quite a sonic improvement.
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Wow!
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Big time:
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From Linn K20 4m to WH Phantom 5m - Wow! Was not expecting it.
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From stock pre-Cirkus LP12 to Karousel and StackAudio sub-chassis. Did both at once, no way of knowing what make the biggest difference, I suspect the Karousel.
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From Blue Tack to Herbie’s Giant Fat Dots in between speakers and stands.
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Cartridge upgrade from Audio-Technica VM740ML to AT-OC9XML. Does it mean MC rules? Maybe, in my system no doubt.
Marginal (but noticeable):
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From custom made VanDamme RCA-DIN to Linn Silver Interconnects.
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FlatCap 2x to 152XS on the signal side.
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Linear power supply for roon NUC.
Meh (Hard to discern at best, likely the same):
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From Supra to USB to Supra Excalibur USB cable.
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Linear power supply for Qutest DAC.
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Cable management.
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Pluging the power amplifer straight to the wall jack.
For the worst:
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From Phonomena II+ phono stage to Graham Slee Accession. Ended up buying the Phonomena II+ back.
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Purchase of Cyrus ONE amplifier. At least it led me to Naim, traded-in for 200DR, very happy ever since.
Edit:
Forgot to mention my worst Hi-Fi purchase ever, Nagaoka MP-500, purchased to improve on an Audio-Techica VM540ML, so excessively warm, couldn’t stand it.
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Best = Cyrus Phono Signature → Rega Aura 
Worst = normal fuses → Russ Andrews “super fuses” 
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Best - Going from CDS3/555PS to CD555 then adding the second 555PS.
Pretty good - NAP 250 to NAP300, then DRing it.
- NAC82/Supercap to NAC252
- Radikal/Keel/Karousel on LP12, Radikal replacing Lingo.
- Dynaudio 1.8 Mk2 to Contour 60, further improvement with Gaias.
Not So Good - Can’t think of any. I’ve been lucky. 
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Not good combination: Naim with Vienna Acoustic. I have a nova with Beethoven baby, both have a very low dumping factor, which makes them add up, sometimes making excessive and poorly defined basses and fundamentally tinting the mids with opacity, taking away clarity and definition. So I’m trying to swap them out for high dumping speakers and more midrange clarity.
Unlike my neighbour’s new puppy.
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The biggest upgrade for me was dedicated mains/spur. Would say it was at least equal to servicing the 552/500.
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Best: going from 252/300dr to 552/500dr
Worst: any cables. Can’t ever tell a thing.
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