Best Stereo Upgrade Value


A question for you audiophiles...

What "upgrade/change" has singularly given you the biggest (not incremental) improvement to your stereo system?  Upgraded amp, pre-amp, tubes, room correction unit, subs, connectors, cables, speakers, streamer, stylus, speaker placement, acoustic panels, etc.?

bheyamoto

Adding an active crossover and by-passing the passive crossover in my Magnepan 1.6's. Did have to buy another two channel amp though.

Jim S.

Thank you all.  Added information…I’ve got a pair of Martin Logan Renaissance’s, Mac C-53, pair of Mac MC-611’s, and 2 JL Audio F113 v2.  My audio guy talked me out of getting a Mac room correction unit, but told me to play around with speaker angles.

I like the “weakest link” and I “think” I agree with speakers first, but believe my system is pretty equal all the way around.  Rather than spending big bucks on what I think the weakest link is (and buying again and again), it’s probably best if I just play with the “environment” (angles, walls, etc.) for a while and maybe I’ll find out that unless I want to spend some really big bucks and upgrade everything, then possibly I’m near the best I’ll get…for my ears (at least). 

Thank you for ALL your comments...I'll keep them in mind as I continue the journey.

 

obviously lots of caveats all noted above. But assuming you dont have some piece of junk along the signal path, and understand that big changes demand (proportionally) big spend, its almost always either:

1. Speakers

or

2. Setup

you can sometiems get a dramatic *change* from, say a powerful but cold solid state amp to a warm and flabby tube amp, but now you are in the realm of "i prefer this distortion to that distortion".

And i dont mean this badly, i KNOW what distortions i prefer.  Consonant ones.

 G

 

IME, which is considerable, it’s the speaker/room synergy and its relationship to your listening goals and expectations. The rest are details. If you want the singer/songwriter and their acoustic guitar or piano to pay you a visit vs. wanting to relive your one concert hearing AC/DC or Led Zep live makes a huge difference.