The room is 28 x 24 and includes substantial acoustic treatments from ASC. It's used 95% for 2-channel music and 5% for movies. I've configured the room so as to eliminate the negative aspects of having an intergrated music/movies room. The sound is very balanced. I'd like to add a little additional depth to the soundstage and introduce some "tube-like" sense without tubes. I am considering adding an Ayre or BAT preamp.
System edited: I've changed the power distribution to my front end with very very good results. Silent Source Signature PCs used with a Walker Velocitor have taken my system to a new level. I never would have guessed it, since I swore off all conditioners in the past when they all had some type of negative effect.
System edited: OK - after 9 months of doing nothing I've upgraded my digital cables, and it is a defilite improvement. What do you think I should do next: (a) upgrade to high power monoblocks (EC Nemo's, Krell 740 mcx, ML 33's Classe Omega), (b) upgrade my Transparent Ultra MM Bicables to Reference MM, or (c) add a high-quality preamp (Ayre kx-1, BAT-51SE).
Nice system! Like you, I was fighting some digital nasties but I came across a device that improved everything. It's called the XO3 and it's a self-powered S/PDIF reclocker. It replaces the clock on you CD player, then reclocks the S/PDIF that is generated by the CD player. The edges are then nearly jitter free. Not only did it reduce glare, but it improved focus and depth and pretty much eliminated sibilants. I came to the conclusion that if the digital signal is jitter free, it stops sounding digital. I also have a hot-rodded MSB Link DAC III with upsampling. While that's not an extremely expensive DAC, it does a really good job if the digital input is high quality.
The XO3 requires some ingenuity to install and if you are not a DIY type, you should probably hire someone to do it but I think you'd be amazed at the difference it could make.
Does your EAD allow you to by-pass it's digial processing to pass a pure analogue signal? If so you could add an upsampling DAC which should give you substantially better cd sound quality.
Very nice system. Try Transparent for your cables (the ultra series or above for your system) this should reduce your problem with the glare, and wait untill you see what it does for your soundstage! Though I recommend Transparent for the cables I am not a big fan of thier power cords, try the cardas golden ref, A.C. master coupler, or one of the other well known brands. as always, good luck...........Vader!
Very nice system. Try Transparent for your cables (the ultra series or above for your system) this should reduce your problem with the glare, and wait untill you see what it does for your soundstage! Though I recommend Transparent for the cables I am not a big fan of thier power cords, try the cardas golden ref, A.C. master coupler, or one of the other well known brands. as always, good luck...........Vader!
