Your opinion on my weakest link.

The Bodiezaffa

The Bodiezaffa

New member
Joined
Apr 4, 2023
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35
Location
Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada
Hello AS community. Appreciate being included into this forum. I know many of you from another forum so "hello there" to those I have yet to befriend.

Im from Toronto, Canada but promise not to end any sentence with "eh"?, eh.;)

I have a bit of money burning in my pocket I would like to spend on an upgrade or new product consideration. For context, lets cap it at $15k usd.
From the list below, where do you see my biggest bang for the buck.
In truth, I am very happy with the sound but as an active audiophile who just returned from Axpona, I have the upgrade bug.
Last month I added the Shunyata Ground Chassis system. I was blown away by the results. Quite the roi. Can lightening strike twice? Maybe, with your help. Here's the list and a few pics of my room which measure 13x21x7 1/2.
DAC - MSB Analog with separate power base and MQA decoding
Amp - Krell 302e
Preamp - Krell 202
Streamer - Auralic G1
Power Conditioner Bryston BIT20
Speakers - Sonus Faber Amati Futura.

Thank you to those who reply.
 

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Beautiful room and system.

Call Mark Jones and get yourself a sweet vinyl rig.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
The Bodiezaffa said:
Hello AS community. Appreciate being included into this forum. I know many of you from another forum so "hello there" to those I have yet to befriend.

Im from Toronto, Canada but promise not to end any sentence with "eh"?, eh.;)

I have a bit of money burning in my pocket I would like to spend on an upgrade or new product consideration. For context, lets cap it at $15k usd.
From the list below, where do you see my biggest bang for the buck.
In truth, I am very happy with the sound but as an active audiophile who just returned from Axpona, I have the upgrade bug.
Last month I added the Shunyata Ground Chassis system. I was blown away by the results. Quite the roi. Can lightening strike twice? Maybe, with your help. Here's the list and a few pics of my room which measure 13x21x7 1/2.
DAC - MSB Analog with separate power base and MQA decoding
Amp - Krell 302e
Preamp - Krell 202
Streamer - Auralic G1
Power Conditioner Bryston BIT20
Speakers - Sonus Faber Amati Futura.

Thank you to those who reply.
Click to expand...

What a beautiful room, Mark! I'm envious. Beautifully designed and implemented. As a pro real estate photographer, I also love your use and choice of colors (e.g. the contrasting white wainscoting trim and ceiling with the color of the walls).

Some suggestions for your consideration:

1: An Everest power distributor
2: Shunyata Omega QR-s power cable for your MSB Analog DAC
3: Another Altaira! 😉

Tweaks: Shunyata DF-SS or the new Mobius cable elevators for the speaker cables. I used to be really skeptical about these until I put a set under just one channel's speaker cables, and could easily hear the improvement in transparency and clarity vs. the other channel (I can share more about that "experiment" if you like...).

Beautiful system!
 
The Bodiezaffa said:
Hello AS community. Appreciate being included into this forum. I know many of you from another forum so "hello there" to those I have yet to befriend.

Im from Toronto, Canada but promise not to end any sentence with "eh"?, eh.;)

I have a bit of money burning in my pocket I would like to spend on an upgrade or new product consideration. For context, lets cap it at $15k usd.
From the list below, where do you see my biggest bang for the buck.
In truth, I am very happy with the sound but as an active audiophile who just returned from Axpona, I have the upgrade bug.
Last month I added the Shunyata Ground Chassis system. I was blown away by the results. Quite the roi. Can lightening strike twice? Maybe, with your help. Here's the list and a few pics of my room which measure 13x21x7 1/2.
DAC - MSB Analog with separate power base and MQA decoding
Amp - Krell 302e
Preamp - Krell 202
Streamer - Auralic G1
Power Conditioner Bryston BIT20
Speakers - Sonus Faber Amati Futura.

Thank you to those who reply.
Click to expand...


Beautiful room.

Have you considered moving away from Krell?
 
Mark,

IMHO I think a better source would take you up the curve. Aurender for example. Model would depend on your budget. I would speak to Mike or you local dealer on that.

Also, you don’t say what your power foundation or cables are. As mentioned earlier, a Shunyata Everest 8000 with depending on what PCs you have now, at a minimum, Delta NR v2 PCs (Alpha/Sigmas would each be better and offer an ongoing upgrade path/ Omega QRS if you hit the lottery) would also provide a nice bump. That would allow you to ground your Altaira to the Everest. Everests are showing up used in the $6500 range. Since there really isn’t anything active to break, used would likely be fine. Craig
Craig
 
Hi Mike.

I agree the vinyl sound is sweet. That said, I would rarely listen to a complete album.
I've been spoiled by the convenience of streaming.
FYI, Ill be attending the next Florida Expo and would love meet you in person. Ive only heard (and read) amazing things about you.
 
Thanks for noticing the room. Its my daily escape pod and destress room. I used products from Kinetics (in Canada) which allowed me to decouple the room from the house joists and eliminate sound from travelling through the vents. I purposely chose sconces instead of pot lights to avoid cutting holes in the ceiling. Double drywall 1inch thick with space and insolation between to capture soundwaves. I have 8 dedicated 20amp outlets using PS Audio hospital grade receptacles. I could have done more but my wife (who knows me too well) insisted on keeping the books and my budget within tolerable limits.

Pivoting back to cables...
So Shunyata, eh? (Damn)
I've got your cell #. Ill reach out to chat further.
 
As always Craig, thanks for the input.
You and Pumacat are on the same page with Shunyata.
I have the Altaira grounded to the Bryston but i think youre saying the Everest (or Denali) would yield better results?
Im going to call Mike. Most definitely.
 
The Bodiezaffa said:
Hi Mike.

I agree the vinyl sound is sweet. That said, I would rarely listen to a complete album.
I've been spoiled by the convenience of streaming.
FYI, Ill be attending the next Florida Expo and would love meet you in person. Ive only heard (and read) amazing things about you.
Click to expand...

Absolutely! Looking forward to it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Hi Mike.
Yes, I have but with me, Im like a deer in headlights. I've heard incredible tube and SS amps.
Before the Krell, I had a Mcintosh MA9000. The grip the Krell had with my speakers was incredible.
That said, I purchased then return a pair of Focal Sopra 3s. The Krell did not play well with Focal Beryllium tweeter.
Im also considering trading in my Amati's for something musical, but more resolving. I love Kharma and Rockport and many others.
 
Mike said:
Beautiful room and system.

Call Mark Jones and get yourself a sweet vinyl rig.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Click to expand...

Do not fall down that rabbit hole. I am sorry I did. Next week someone is coming to give me an estimate on buying my 450 (approximately) albums. If I decide to go that way my TT, cleaner, phono cable, and phono pre will follow out the door.

You have a beautiful system and it is "relatively" simple. I get the impression you want to improve what you have, not go off in an entirely different direction. Good luck.
 
Speakers and room is where your bucks will have the biggest impact. Your room is already set. So if you are intent on adding $15K to your system, I would be looking at "what speakers can I get if I sold my current speakers and add $15K to the budget for upgrading my speakers". IMO no improvement to your digital set up will be as dramatic as what you can do with the (right) speaker upgrade.
PS. A very cheap upgrade (if you have not done so already) is DSP to correct for frequency/timing issues associated with your room's dimensions such as low ceiling.
 
A couple of thoughts.

Look into the G2 versus the G1. My friend added the Sirius to his G2 and the improvement was not small. Not sure if that piece is compatible with G1 and may be moot as I hear the Sirius is hard to come by.

Also, how does the Analog compare to the Discrete DAC?

If you like Krell stick with it there's no shame there and not many match that grip.

Lastly but not leastly, welcome to AS
 
The Bodiezaffa said:
Thanks Nicoff. I am in the throws of consideration to sell and replace the speakers. Nothing will change the sound signature more thennspeakers.
Click to expand...

My view is that improving speakers will always make a noticeable difference. But as someone else mentioned, your weak link is possibly the streamer. The G1 had a higher spec G2 stablemate, but both have since been upgraded to G1.1 and G2.1. The latter may offer an improvement in sound. If changing speakers anyway, don't consider changing anything else until that's done as amp choice in particular will be influenced by a new speaker. Good luck.

I'm of a slightly different persuasion than others in unreservedly praising your room! I just hate the sight of "room treatment" panels, though I presume your room is dedicated solely to music. That possibly excuses them! I try to look at whatever other means are necessary to achieve best sound without resorting to panels, or more importantly "room correction DSP" - or for that matter, subs!

Choosing the right TYPE of speaker to suit the room in No 1 consideration in my book. As it happens, my room suits horns or (even better in theory) omnis. I have chosen the former as imaging seems far superior to omnis, though the sound from parts of my listening room (not dedicated) is compromised by horns as my dining and kitchen areas are behind my speakers. A compromise I’m happy to accept in view of the stunning performance from my horns when heard from my normal listening position. Peter
 
Some have mentioned getting a better streamer. Would the streamer function of an Aurender be an improvement over what is being used now? If so that would also add a storage/server component to the system. :dunno:
 
Hello all. You cannot just change out parts in the G1 to make it a G2, FYI.

What types of upstream from the streamer devices do you have to help eradicate the noise(s) from being introduced to your Auralic? If you have not optimized these aspects, then I would suggest looking into this.

Tom
 
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