Best Bang For The Buck I've Ever Spent

When Underwoodhifi was selling out the BSG QOL units I picked one up. Without a doubt the biggest improvement in sound for the least amount of money.

Replaced a Rega tonearm with a Basis Vector tonearm. I bought the Basis Vector used so the difference was under $1,000.

All I can say is WOW!

@koestner , nice to hear that. I've been considering getting one.
@jperry , excellent!

Personally also really like the products and service from GIK, but I will ALWAYS recommend enthusiasts think about room acoustics early.

A good sounding room is speaker friendly, and worth all the fancy cables in the world. 

@erik_squires , excellent point!

Another vote for room acoustics. IMO when done thoroughly and correctly in a dedicated room nothing is as beneficial outside of a complete entire new upgraded system.

I don't think you need a dedicated room to hear the improvements room acoustics (well done) can offer.

Sometimes the best tweaks are from Bed, Bath and Beyond! Pillows, rugs, wall coverings can do wonders, but having the luxury to do the room acoustics first is a wonderful thing.

Best,

E

Eric,

You are for sure right that room acoustics are a huge improvement when implemented. But from my experiences to be in the level of large system upgrade, it takes the entire room treated with bass traps, panels, along with ample diffusion.

   LP

+1 Eric,  a good room and good cables make a huge difference...

and neither has to be expensive, though unfortunately can get that way...

Show us a picture after the installation! Unfurtonely, 800 is pretty much to spend on "things" my wife won't let me place in the living room.

@goheelz, @cbalmeida,

Thank you for the interest. Pictures to follow...

Tom

My Linear Tube Audio MZ2. I have never owned such a high performing component for so little $. It is the Swiss Army knife of audio. A world class preamp, head phone amp and a 1 watt power amp. From David Berning and Mark Schneider.

Cbalmeida,

There are all kinds of decorative panels available nowadays from many quality companies.

Be creative. Where there is a will, there is a way!

    LP

No contest on this. Resonance damping adhesive pads, used on drum kits, for my tonearm. Cost $10 for a significant difference.

For a component, the Trans-Fi air bearing tonearm at $1000.

For accessory, ultrasound.

$800 is not a lot to spend on art for the living room - tell the wife the artist is young and his work will go up in value

you'll need to get the splatter painted acoustic panels tho

@bdp24

No, I’m afraid that I haven’t compared to the ET directly. That is a fine tonearm and one of my friends owns one.

But - it’s high pressure, which means an oil compressor (maintenance), or a very very noisy oil-free unit.

But - it’s hard to see that the azimuth adjustment can be anything like as fine as the Trans-Fi, which has a 2 inch adjustment base, which yields adjustment increments of 5 minutes of arc.

But - it has no flat spaces for affixing extra weights to adjust mass, or apply Moongel.

But - the wand sits on the end of a tube, which would appear to be less stable.

But - it’s 5 times more money !!!

Another reason to buy the Trans-Fi - the owner, Vic, went on a mission to make the tonearm work for me. Change the fasteners? No problem. Need a custom mounting tower? Done, no charge. You think that might sound better? You’re right, it’s incorporated in the new edition.

I put one on a Nottingham Analogue Mentor, which was upgraded to beyond Dais specs. Big improvement. It runs a Mayajima Zero.

I bought another one for my DIY air bearing turntable with 45 Kg platter. Very fine. It runs a higher end Koetsu.

If I try another tonearm, it will be a Durand.

But - of course, YMMV.

Another thing about the Trans-Fi - it's just made to be modified and tweaked.

When I got into experimenting with mounting torques, I calculated that I needed more strength in the mounting nuts. So, I bought a disc of copper-nickel alloy, and had two mounting holes drilled and tapped into the disc. Presto - superb distribution of force, good looks, mass where it's needed for the low compliance cartridge, and strength to spare.

Thanks for all the info, Terry. You are really stoking my interest in the Terminator!

The Best Bang For The Buck I Ever Spent?

( The azimuth adjustment on an ET arm is easy!) I don't know what the above poster is referring to?) He states it's high pressure... that's what the end user has paid for. It doesn't have to be.)

Well, let's see...

If you're referring to before I knew JACK....or after?

If After.. here goes..

(1) Learning that there are inexpensive ways to isolate components if you have the where-with-all and the equipment.
(2) Learning about a single unit that replaced others when I had an ET arm in my system to damp pulses from my compressor and, in addition that would dry out any moisture,
(3) The Mark Baker belt for my Rock 7.
(4) My mat material I currently use on mt TT's.

bdp24,

If you're looking for Trans-Fi info, I'd seek out dgarretson.

The Tweek Geeks Sonic Tonic bottles.
ozzy

@slaw 

( The azimuth adjustment on an ET arm is easy!) I don't know what the above poster is referring to?)
I guess that you are referring to me. I said, "it’s hard to see that the azimuth adjustment can be anything like as fine as the Trans-Fi, which has a 2 inch adjustment base, which yields adjustment increments of 5 minutes of arc."
You will note that (1) I did not say that azimuth adjustment on the ET was hard, as you imputed to me, and (2) I did not categorically state that the adjustment was not as fine. But I suspect that it is not - or can you get stable, repeatable 5 minutes of arc adjustment? If so, that's useful information, and I would prefer to be corrected.

"He states it's high pressure... that's what the end user has paid for. It doesn't have to be.)" I stand corrected. Thank you.
 

The Best Bang For The Buck I Ever Spent?

Epoxied a brass plate to my Denon DL 103 cartridge - $12 in total

Turned a good cartridge into an excellent cartridge.:-)

See:
http://image99.net/blog/files/23c020f75290d3392577113371f4dc94-38.html

Regards...

@bdp24 

One more thing about the Trans-Fi is that it allows the anal-retentive to really get really into nervosa. The flat, parallel sides of the wand allow one to align the cartridge very close to perfect tangentiality; I recently achieved 3 minutes of arc, based on setting parallelism to better than 0.001 inches.

My cartridges really seem to blossom with this level of precision. Yours may too.

Original Japanese promo records from seventies and early eighties. It's as if you'd just upgraded your entire system. Played with the same arm and cartridge, of course. Forget the fancy arms and cartridges to begin with - get the recordings in the best quality available. Yup, master tape dubs would be better, this is second best.

Chrod Mojo

It was either the Shure V15 RS I bought new from Radio Shack in 1985, I think for less than a replacement stylus for the V15 III I was using; or an Oppo DV-980h I bought in 2015 for $85 shipping included just to see if I'd like SACDs. Turns out I do! DVD-A, too; and a few of the CDs I already owned had HDCD layers and I never noticed.
I still have 2 V15 RSs and use them a lot. The DV-980h has been moved to my den system and replaced by a BDP-95 in the main system. 

Don't forget real live plants (not silk ones)

Speaking of plants and flowers and, yes, I realize I’m directly contradicting the previous poster, but plants and flowers actually hurt the sound. They hurt the sound simply because they are in the room. Not because of any of the usual acoustic theories. All flowers and plants should be removed post haste. I know what you’re thinking, "but plants are natural and act like diffusers." Well, they don’t really act much like diffusers, and it’s because they’re natural that they hurt the sound. If you think they improved the sound it’s most like a simple case of expectation bias. I suggest maybe an A/B test is in order. Are plants and flowers controversial? I guess we’ll find out soon enough. 😀

@williewonka how are you adjusting the VTA of the rega arm? That mod looks interesting..

geoffait , is at least halfway-right . many well done studies have shown plants do poorly when exposed to rock and thrive on a diet of Mozart .
Nature knows best .

Half right? I'll take it! Hey, How do plants do with Rachmaninov?

@toddverrone - my arm is not a Rega arm - it is an Audiomods arm - Jeff at Audiomods just uses the Rega Arm tube, but everything else is his design and build.

You have the option of "micrometer controlled VTA" - very precise at adjusting and resetting back to the original setting.

The Audiomods arm is superb in every respect - I highly recommend it.

Checkout my review
http://image99.net/blog/files/f233eea773cbc47d311b80d32702da48-40.html

I’ve since upgraded the phono stage to a Simaudio Moon LP5.3 RS and the details this arm conveys and the precision of its engineering are truly amazing

Hope that helps

Regards - Steve