Hi, Jeff:
You aren't terribly specific about why you are dissatisfied with the sound of your system, other than having a need to "scratch the audio itch" (which all of us understand). Your system, overall, is excellent, so it would be useful to try to identify what specific component seems unsatisfactory to you.
If I owned your system, I think I would start with a few small changes that might enhance the overall performance, since all of your major components are very good to excellent. The first area I'd tackle is your interconnects. To be frank -- and this is not a personal attack -- my opinion is that the interconnects you are using are not up to the standards of the components. Also, I am not a big fan of the "mix and match" approach to cables, although I know others will disagree with me. My experience, with my own systems and the systems I've sold in audio stores, tells me that you usually get better results if you stick to a family of cables, such as Kimber, Alpha-Core, MIT, etc., for all of the system. Sticking to one "family" reduces the number of variables that you must consider, and allows for more consistent "voicing" of the system.
If you do not find that cable swaps help, then you may need to make some major changes in the system. You have two transducers in your system -- the phono cartridge and the speakers -- and they have the highest distortion level of any piece of audio equipment. They also have the greatest variability in sound quality of any audio component, and therefore yield the biggest change in sound. I personally like the Martin-Logan speaker line, but maybe the Quests are not the best for your rather large room, so speakers is the next area I'd experiment with.
Last, since you use your turntable a lot, you might think about another cartridge and/or phono stage. The Grado Sonata is a good cartridge, but for a bit more there are better models. I upgraded my cartridge from the Sonata to the Grado Reference (4.5 mV output, $1200 MSRP), and was very pleased with the improvement of the vinyl playback.
I am using the same phono preamp as you are, although I upgraded from the original Lehmann Black Cube to the newer version with the PWX power supply. If you were to look back through A-gon's archives, you will find a thread I posted in which I gave a VERY positive review to the PWX upgrade. If you have not upgraded your Black Cube, then I STRONGLY urge you to do so. The improvement of the Black Cube with the PWX upgrade is NOT subtle, and offers a lot of improvement for very little cost.
Well, that's my 2 cents worth. In closing, let me thank you for the many good posts and contributions to you have made to this forum over the past several years. I hope the advice you receive to this post is helpful, but always remember our audiophile watch-phrase: "trust your own ears".
You aren't terribly specific about why you are dissatisfied with the sound of your system, other than having a need to "scratch the audio itch" (which all of us understand). Your system, overall, is excellent, so it would be useful to try to identify what specific component seems unsatisfactory to you.
If I owned your system, I think I would start with a few small changes that might enhance the overall performance, since all of your major components are very good to excellent. The first area I'd tackle is your interconnects. To be frank -- and this is not a personal attack -- my opinion is that the interconnects you are using are not up to the standards of the components. Also, I am not a big fan of the "mix and match" approach to cables, although I know others will disagree with me. My experience, with my own systems and the systems I've sold in audio stores, tells me that you usually get better results if you stick to a family of cables, such as Kimber, Alpha-Core, MIT, etc., for all of the system. Sticking to one "family" reduces the number of variables that you must consider, and allows for more consistent "voicing" of the system.
If you do not find that cable swaps help, then you may need to make some major changes in the system. You have two transducers in your system -- the phono cartridge and the speakers -- and they have the highest distortion level of any piece of audio equipment. They also have the greatest variability in sound quality of any audio component, and therefore yield the biggest change in sound. I personally like the Martin-Logan speaker line, but maybe the Quests are not the best for your rather large room, so speakers is the next area I'd experiment with.
Last, since you use your turntable a lot, you might think about another cartridge and/or phono stage. The Grado Sonata is a good cartridge, but for a bit more there are better models. I upgraded my cartridge from the Sonata to the Grado Reference (4.5 mV output, $1200 MSRP), and was very pleased with the improvement of the vinyl playback.
I am using the same phono preamp as you are, although I upgraded from the original Lehmann Black Cube to the newer version with the PWX power supply. If you were to look back through A-gon's archives, you will find a thread I posted in which I gave a VERY positive review to the PWX upgrade. If you have not upgraded your Black Cube, then I STRONGLY urge you to do so. The improvement of the Black Cube with the PWX upgrade is NOT subtle, and offers a lot of improvement for very little cost.
Well, that's my 2 cents worth. In closing, let me thank you for the many good posts and contributions to you have made to this forum over the past several years. I hope the advice you receive to this post is helpful, but always remember our audiophile watch-phrase: "trust your own ears".