My new speakers

ricred1, congratulations on the speaker upgrade! I see Jeff Rowland gear, some nice components. 

I beg to differ with your conclusion, "Incremental improvements are very expensive in this hobby." In my book The Audiophile Laws, I discuss how incremental improvements are not hard to achieve. Fundamental improvements are usually more difficult to achieve and may be costly, especially as one climbs the ladder in terms of quality of the system. However, it is rather easy to find fundamental improvements when one changes genre of speakers. Of course, enjoyment of a particular genre of speaker is a matter of taste. 

Given the spectrum of speaker designs available, the Monitor speakers are not that different than the YG Acoustics, which I believe is one reason you have concluded that incremental differences are costly. Given a different genre of speakers, i.e., dipole, or full range/concentric, the differences would be pronounced. 

In reviewing various models of genres of speakers, it is more difficult to obtain a perceived fundamental improvement by changing speakers when the genre and driver configuration is more similar than if changing the genre and driver configuration. Whether that change of genre and driver configuration is appreciated/enjoyed is another question.  :) 

Another reason why the two speakers might not sound fundamentally different is because their bass response is within a couple dB. If a person moved from a speaker with shallower bass, i.e., 35Hz +/-3dB, to one with far lower bass, i.e., 22 Hz +/- 3dB, the differences would be more pronounced. Theoretically, a person could change from an expensive bookshelf speaker with shallow bass to a less expensive floor standing speaker with deeper bass and hear a fundamental difference between them. The question would be whether they have overall improved the sound quality. 

12.0 Linn Klimax DSM/2 Organik DAC - I purchased this sonic bargain based on TAS review here.  This DAC was designed for Linn’s 40k streamer-DAC, but offered DAC upgrade to lower server model

12.0 MBL Cadenza C41 Network Player- this was displayed with MBL’s top speakers, seemingly meaning it’s Sonics punches above it’s price on the revealing MBL speakers

26.0 Playback Design Dream DAC - experts design (see their qualifications). A few comments that although other DACs may perform well, this Dream DAC is more “listenable” which seems to be more engaging 

25.0 Lampizator Poseidon - tube DAC with pleasing tube sound. A sonic comfortable place to stop climbing the product line.

40.0 Wadax Studio Player- Wadax makes a top sounding DAC, this seems like trickle down tech a much lower cost while conserving the excellent DAC Sonics 

douglas_schroeder,

"Given the spectrum of speaker designs available, the Monitor speakers are not that different than the YG Acoustics, which I believe is one reason you have concluded that incremental differences are costly." My comments were made prematurely. There are significant differences between the YG Acoustics Sonja 3.3s and Monitor Audio PL500 IIs:

bass/drums- 3.3s are tighter and nuanced

piano and saxophone - much more dynamic and detailed, I was playing a Sonny Rollins song and I can clearly hear the mouthpiece with the 3.3s, but not with the PL500s, the 3.3s provide a much clearer picture into the venue, my friend was over today and he said he was gobsmacked with the differences. 

Soundstage- along with dynamics, this is the most significant difference between the 3,3s and PL500s. The PL500s provides a wall of sound, the 3.3s has every instrument/singer in it's own space, as a matter of fact I've never heard a soundstage like this before 

Unfortunately, Incremental improvements are very expensive in this hobby.

Yeah, I also have to disagree with this statement.  We manufacturer our won equipment and we also repair and upgrade components.  It is not hard to upgrade basic parts to achieve pretty nice improvements.  Just for starters add a nice set of V-caps and her the differences.

Happy Listening.

Well, pm me about the Dave, no chord dealers locally and I think the dave would be an upgrade for me.