Hi Folks...
I have recently performed a few upgrades and repairs on my kit and thought you may be interested to know my findings.
I first of all decided to change my speaker cable, I have been using Monitor audio pureflow 14AWG cable, which was originally purchased for my KEF Q1's and always felt that my 104/2's could be a little harsh at the top end, and bottom end was never really what i expected. Changing over to Audioquest FLX SLIP 14/4 has made a drastic improvement to the sound. Top end is much smoother, not so harsh, easier to listen to and bottom end is far tighter.
After reading a few articles on line regarding the merits of good quality copper cable over silver plated copped cable. (be darned if i can find the article again though) this pretty much made my mind up about the Audioquest for a few good reasons.
1. The article detailed that silver plated copper cable can exhibit a harsh/sharp top end in some systems
2. I have always felt that the wooley/loose bottom end could be tightened up with some larger gauge cable, which as a friend described after listenining to the change says it has really grabbed a hold of the bass drivers.. and the AudioQuest is 2 x14AWG vs 1x14AWG
Both the above issues were resolved with the Audioquest, a realy nice cable, and worth every penny!
The other upgrade that i performed was a new shielded mains cable on the Amp. Got a DIY Belden mains cable kit from Ebay, and to be honest i think it has cleared up the sound a bit.but am not 100% sure if this has made a difference or not. I have yet to perform an A-B test with it and the original mains lead supplied by AudioLab..If I can stop listening long enough to perform this test, i will post my findings (cant have done any harm though for £15)
I also refurbed the 104/2's gifting them a new set of gold plated binding posts, new Bass driver donuts. tightened up all connections and fixings..and this made a further huge difference.
After all that I have definately got the bug again..and am considering my next upgrade, thinking of a new CD player as the philips CD723 could be improved on.
My question is..
What difference may I expect between for example the Marantz CD6005 and AudioLab CD 8200. and does the audiolab justify over double the price tag.
Finally, If I did go for the AudioLab (which looks like the strong favorite just now), would the DAC in the Audiolab render my DacMagic1 pointless? (it has been upgraded with audio grade capacitors and sounds sweet but im not sure it could match the 32bit dacs in the Audiloab)
Many thanks
----------------------------------
Philips cd723/Audio PC with MAudio Delta 410 over SPDIF > Modded DacMagic 1 > Custom Interconnects > Audiolab 8000s > Audioquest FLX SLIP 14/4 Speaker Cable > Refurbed Kef 104/2 Single Wire variants with KEF tweeter replacements + Gold Binding Posts.
I have recently performed a few upgrades and repairs on my kit and thought you may be interested to know my findings.
I first of all decided to change my speaker cable, I have been using Monitor audio pureflow 14AWG cable, which was originally purchased for my KEF Q1's and always felt that my 104/2's could be a little harsh at the top end, and bottom end was never really what i expected. Changing over to Audioquest FLX SLIP 14/4 has made a drastic improvement to the sound. Top end is much smoother, not so harsh, easier to listen to and bottom end is far tighter.
After reading a few articles on line regarding the merits of good quality copper cable over silver plated copped cable. (be darned if i can find the article again though) this pretty much made my mind up about the Audioquest for a few good reasons.
1. The article detailed that silver plated copper cable can exhibit a harsh/sharp top end in some systems
2. I have always felt that the wooley/loose bottom end could be tightened up with some larger gauge cable, which as a friend described after listenining to the change says it has really grabbed a hold of the bass drivers.. and the AudioQuest is 2 x14AWG vs 1x14AWG
Both the above issues were resolved with the Audioquest, a realy nice cable, and worth every penny!
The other upgrade that i performed was a new shielded mains cable on the Amp. Got a DIY Belden mains cable kit from Ebay, and to be honest i think it has cleared up the sound a bit.but am not 100% sure if this has made a difference or not. I have yet to perform an A-B test with it and the original mains lead supplied by AudioLab..If I can stop listening long enough to perform this test, i will post my findings (cant have done any harm though for £15)
I also refurbed the 104/2's gifting them a new set of gold plated binding posts, new Bass driver donuts. tightened up all connections and fixings..and this made a further huge difference.
After all that I have definately got the bug again..and am considering my next upgrade, thinking of a new CD player as the philips CD723 could be improved on.
My question is..
What difference may I expect between for example the Marantz CD6005 and AudioLab CD 8200. and does the audiolab justify over double the price tag.
Finally, If I did go for the AudioLab (which looks like the strong favorite just now), would the DAC in the Audiolab render my DacMagic1 pointless? (it has been upgraded with audio grade capacitors and sounds sweet but im not sure it could match the 32bit dacs in the Audiloab)
Many thanks
----------------------------------
Philips cd723/Audio PC with MAudio Delta 410 over SPDIF > Modded DacMagic 1 > Custom Interconnects > Audiolab 8000s > Audioquest FLX SLIP 14/4 Speaker Cable > Refurbed Kef 104/2 Single Wire variants with KEF tweeter replacements + Gold Binding Posts.
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