Am I done yet? LOL


Things are sounding pretty good at the moment. The Dynaudio Contour 30i speakers are the latest addition and are working better in this room than the Maggie 3.7i speakers were. 

Usually, when I ask the wife to come listen, she'll sit for a song, maybe 2, then make a "that's nice" type a comment and leave. With the Dynaudio speakers, she stayed, and played song after song. She listened for over and hour and said she really really liked these speakers. Great to know the wife was pleased.  laugh

But the audiophile in me feels like there is more to be had. The amp & pre-amp are on my radar as the possible candidates for improvement. Any opinions on where to head next? (There's always a "next" isn't there?)

traudio

Done yet? Not likely. I have a system with the Dynaudio Contour 30i speakers. My objective with this system is maximizing ease and flow but, still having clarity and decent resolution. Here's the gear: a mildly upgraded Linn LP12 with a Jelco SA-250S arm (removeable headshell), Manley Chinook phono stage, Rogue Audio Perseus Magnum preamp, Rogue Audio ST-100 amp. The power tubes are Gold Lion KT-88 curent production and all other tubes are NOS. The Nagaoka MP-200 and MP-500 carts are very musical with lots of ease and flow The Hana SH MK II is a bit more toward the analytical side but, still very easy to listen to. I had a Clearaudio Maestro V2 but it was too analytical and dry. The digital side is a Bluesound Node 2 feeding into a Luxman DA-06 dac. The cableing is a mix of Transparent and Cardas. I think I'm mostly done with tweaking this system (famous last words).

You're never done.  My experience is that you bring in a new component that is of a much higher caliber than the rest of your system and the cycle begins anew.  Look on the bright side, if you sell off or trade in what you have, you have the makings of nice secondary system.

That's a good sign when your wife get engrossed in the music.  My wife does that as well.

I honestly think that I'm at a pretty good stopping point.  I like the way my system sounds and I think any improvements would be very tiny and very expensive. 

The amount of money one can dump into an audio system can become a bottomless pit!!!  The question is, how deep are your pockets Lol!!!  Happy listening.    

It sounds really good, but could use some more bass weight. 
During my speaker auditions, I had a pair of MoFi 888 speakers here and the bass was incredible....but that was all I liked about them. I could use some more of that. 

I do have a SVS SB-5000 R|Evolution sub, which is great for the very lowest bass, but I'm thinking about a second smaller sub or maybe an amp with better bass performance?