Back in the eighties before I sold my bare LP12 with Basik+ arm and K9 cartridge, I came across Peter Belt. He claimed that a spinning turntable sets up a magnetic field that negatively affects the SQ and recommended laying a short piece of Sellotape horizontally across the edge underneath the mat.
Sounded daft to me but I tried it anyway just to see and blow me down with a feather! I kid you not, the immediate improvement was what I would normally expect from jumping to the next price level, an Ittok or better cartridge for instance.
I then tried making sure that any slot-headed screws in the room had the slots horizontal but that didnāt seem to affect anything so I parted company with his ideas.
Never got around to putting a picture of a black Labrador on the coffee table, either.
If we are talking best value piece of hifi ever Iād have to say my Musical Fidelity Digilog. When I plumbed this in between my Marantz CD player and amp (cyrus 2 + PSX) suddenly the lights came on when I slotted The Cureās Disintegration into the player. The jump in sound quality has to be the biggest bang for the buck of any upgrade Iāve made. That was a long while ago now.
If we are talking best hi-fi accessory in the last 12 months Iād have to say my portable cd player Moondrop Discdream2. It was Ā£150 I think but has a really good DAC in it and itās easily the best portable CD player Iāve owned. I havenāt tried it through the hifi yet (no real need beyond curiosity). Also used in PC mode to play music off youtube is a revelation compared with straight off the PC. OK itās obviously subject to the various artefacts that youtube uses but itās not bad. I use it with a pair of Grado 225ās if Iām away or for those long train journeys.
My best bargain, yes an expensive bargain was my SPL Phontitor SE with a built in DAC, that I picked up second hand for ā¬1400. The Crossfeed switch is a game changer for badly recorded albums and the sound is so smooth compared to my old HP amp, that I use in the bedroom.
Paired with my Heddphone GT2, I have arrived where I want to be with headphone listening.
Hedd recommend SPL and the matching gives a sublime result.
But in practice, I have listened to dozens of different Hifi systems on YouTube videos.
In every case, I pick up a completely different sonic signature from the particular room and equipment (and presumedly also the recording equipment used as well).
And of course, these arenāt randomly different, they make sense.
The horn speakers sound like Horn speakers.
Speakers with big woofers sound different to speakers with small woofers.
Ditto in relation to room size, room treatment or lack of it, et cetera
Of course itās nowhere near perfect, but it gives you a good idea in my view of what that particular system sounds like.
I wonder who has compared the Ifi Power X to Ifi Silent Power. The later is more than twice expensive, but remains still an accessory. Maybe good value ?
For best value, there are some cables that canāt be discussed, which werenāt cheap, but were a bargain given what they did and still do.
On the mentionable front, there are two items Iāve bought in the past year or so that stand out as great value.
The first, an accessory, was an EE1+, which added something charming to what was already good. It was like a sigh of relief, removing a harshness that I didnāt know was there until it disappeared.
The second, a new Linn Utopik power supply for my KDSM, adding gravitas and layers of confidence that anyone who has replaced a Hicap with a Supercap would recognise. In the current Linn world of pricing, it was a real bargain.
Iād like to have been able to add the recent addition of an Organik Dac but, although it has been a spectacular upgrade, was far from cheap
Probably my Manley Neo-Classic 300B headphone/pre amp. Had it for 16 years and was the first stepping stone to high-end sound that I built my system around. Itās now used purely as a headphone amp but sound-wise it was always something special, especially with upgraded valves. Built like a tank, too.
Same here. I have the EU version and I have to say that there arenāt many upgrades that give so much improvement for that little money. Itās pretty insane and I think every serious listener should consider installing this. My supplier says itās the first thing he does when installing equipment at customersā houses. Replacing the sockets for the NCF socket.
Iāve discovered my best value upgrade today and it is ātoe-in according to the manufacturerās instructionsā.
Every room is different I know, but in this case everything literally snapped into focus. Just when I thought the ATCs were performing optimally they are now stellar. Actually they have sort of disappeared. The music is just āthereā.
Iād probably say my record cleaner (Pro-Ject VC-S2) - not because it was especially cheap but because it has improved every record I own. More than that - it has changed the way I choose what record to listen because they are all now more or less spotless. And it has just made me far more cheerful about keeping and enjoying my modest record collection.
Today my Naim dealer in my country gave me a Powerline to try instead of my regular Powerline Lite, Iām not very fan of expressions like ānight and dayā etc. but the difference is so significant, I didnāt expect it and am shocked, and since it was used he is selling it for half the price, so today I got probably the best deal in my history in Hi Fiš
They do make a difference, but just watch or listen to the vacuum pump. Mine diapeared up itās own after 3000 cleans. Apparently not uncommon, but was just in warrenty.
I would say a Nac 52 though look at the price tag for an almost-40-years-old gear itās rather expensive.
I mean itās not only a preamp but a machine able to bring listeners literally so close to music like never before. It communicates the music as a whole piece like in a live gag, believably real like all the instruments and artists interplaying in the room. Itās realism is unmatched because when the artist shouts it shouts, when the music is mellowed itās mellowed, when artist sings with sadness you feel the sadness when there is enough musical information to project these recording qualities. Those HiFi description imho isnāt really working for a 52 because one wonāt say someoneās talking is peaky/distorted/soundstage thing in reality wonāt you.
I did have other more expensive gears and speakers claimed to have like 3D soundstage, Class A amps and 3/5A but those claimed to be ārealā never got this level of realism imo.
I love my 32.5, itās full of fun and I was skeptical about a far more expensive pre. But 52 is the pre for anyone who loves music, itās just true music and no more hifi system, end game piece for most who is into vintage system. A rare piece in HiFi history and thatās why itās best value to me.
Next to the cheap patch lead would be dedicated mains and earth. But there is a caveat here. On an existing property it can be expensive. On a new build or during a renovation, it becomes an unnoticeable rounding error.
Surely the best value bit of kit ever is (was) the Chromecast Audio. It does exactly the same job as the dCS Varese for quarter of a million pounds less! Admittedly not as well but, heyā¦ā¦ for Ā£30?!
