Share your Upgrades/Changes for 2008

[FOUNTAIN]

Ok guys, it's time to reflect on 2008 and tell each other about the changes and upgrades you have made to your Martin Logan system. Feel free to share some New Year's resolutions along the way for upgrades in 2009.
Here is my list:

Upgrades

Speakers - Aeon I's to Vantages. This really helped in overall dynamics since the Vantages are powered and allowed my amp to only power the panels.

Analog - VPI Scout Sig. to Scoutmaster Sig. with peripheral ring, center weight and SDS.

Cartridge - Dynavector 10x to Karat 17d3.

Digital - Rega Apollo to Ayre CX-7e.

Preamp - VTL 2.5 tube to an Ayre K-1xe SS. Just did this upgrade and Wow is all I can say about this preamp.

Interconnects - Audioquest opal RCA's to Audioquest Columbia XLR's.

Speaker Wire - Morrow Audio SP2 bi-wires to PS Audio Statement bi-wires. Not sure if this was an upgrade or just a side ways adventure, but they are fun to look at.

Acoustic Treatment - Went from none to (12) 2' x 4' 2" thick panels and (4) 2' x 4' 4" thick bass panels. Without these treatments it would have been difficult to hear the full potential of the Vantages'. I really recommend this upgrade.

Changes

Room - Moved my two channel down stairs to a 13'2" wide by 23' long room with 8' 6" ceilings. This allowed me to move back from my front speakers and correctly center up my chair in between the speakers.

Speaker Placement - Moved the Vantages out from the back wall to a total of 5 feet as opposed to the 3 feet from before. I also made the panels perpendicular to the floor which made a huge impact on imaging.

Listening Position - Changed from a 9' 5" distance from the left and right speakers to 13' 9". Using a 2 to 1 ratio as a guideline and adjusting from there.

Toe In - Used the flashlight method and adjusted until I was listening to the inner third of the panel.

Listening Chair - Went from a high back leather chair to a low back cloth chair. The low back helped with some of the comb filtering that I was getting.

Audio Rack - BDI rack to a Salamander Chameleon two door. Lowering the profile helped in sound staging and especially vocals.

As for plans in 2009, I think after hearing JonFo's system my setup could use some more bass panels. I may just replace a couple of the 2" versions that I already have and put 4" ones in their place. Who knows I may even give a SS amp a try and see what the difference would make.

Lastly, I want to thank you guys for a wonderful year. Alot of these upgrades/changes came from either reading some of your posts or from replies to some of my questions. It has been fun and I would not have been able to do it without ya'll(forgive the southern in me). I Look forward to 2009 and for the many threads that I can learn from.

Cheers

 

[MiTT]

Nice idea Fountain...

This year brought me a few new goodies. In February I added a mint vintage Marantz Model 125 tuner. I followed that up in March with the addition of the VPI SDS to drive the turntable motor. The biggest change of the year came in April when I aquired a very sweet set of CLS IIz's; that was pretty huge! In May I added a set of Synergistic Research Designers Reference X2 speaker cables.

It's not really an upgrade to the system, but last week I realized that I had a spare set of balanced cables laying around, an open balanced input on my pre-amp, and that my Esoteric DV-50S has a set of balanced outputs (in fact they say that the balanced outputs (2 channel only) are the "high performance" connections. Boy am I glad I experimented with this option - big gain in quality, specifically with the texture of instruments. A VERY nice FREE upgrade. If any of you have the Esoteric players but are not using the balanced outputs, go give them a try!

It's been pretty quiet since the first half of the year. I've got something being delivered on Tuesday, but it isn't really an addition to the system per se - more on that later...

I guess it's time to buy something new!?! I have been looking at some tubed monoblocks lately, and depending on the economy this year should result in my finally building the dedicated room - that would be the biggest change I could expect.

Of course I haven't heard the CLX yet, and Jeff's review has me salivating. Who know's what kind of crazy stuff might happen.

 

[JonFo]

...

Lastly, I want to thank you guys for a wonderful year. Alot of these upgrades/changes came from either reading some of your posts or from replies to some of my questions. It has been fun and I would not have been able to do it without ya'll(forgive the southern in me). I Look forward to 2009 and for the many threads that I can learn from.

Cheers

Glen, great idea!

And it's awesome to see how much your system has evolved and how much you are enjoying it.

Here is to a great '09.

 

[ALTMAN]

My big move this year was to unpack my virtually new pr of CLS --- I'm still working on what amp sounds the best with them so that will become my 2009plan.

I'm the original owner of the CLS but I never really had a chance to hear them when they were new.

I also bought a Depthi to go with them.

 

[twich54]

Tim, interesting to see that your platter is stablized slightly below 60hz while mine is slightly above, regardless as we both know the SDS is sweet !


2008.........Vantage's to Spire's....to coin the imortal words of our own Jeff "D"..."stick a fork in me, I'm done" !!

 

[C.A.P]

Nice idea Fountain...

The biggest change of the year came in April when I aquired a very sweet set of CLS IIz's; that was pretty huge!

Still NO stands Tim???????????


OK, This was a great year for me in audio.

1. I bought a set of CLS 1a from a man in Kansas. I flew out there to pick them up and while there I toured the Martin Logan plant. What great people. While there I had a few X-over tweaks done. I then did Cannonball run home 14 hrs. With the last 2 through a terrible MI snow storm.

2.Made STANDS for the CLS ! This was the second best mod I have ever done. This raised them and held them as sturdy as posible. What a difference stands and CLS . ITS A MUST FOR THOSE WHO DON'T HAVE THEM !

3. Sold my Quest and my Theta Miles player. This freed up some cash for a deal of unforeseen proportions.

4. Bought the Krell Kps25s from a local guy here in MI, Even a blind squirrel finds a nut. The unit was sent to Krell for a new set of CAST boards and any new updates. This brought the unit up to SC standards.
Of all the Audio purchases this was the best one I have ever had in my audio career. The CAST and the KPS 25sc are as close to perfection as it gets.

5. Switched to Silver CAST cables and was amazed at their detail and openness. It was a nice improvement over copper


6. Built a 15 inch Servo sub that was used for a while with my CLS but now resides in the HT room where it can really shine. Its a great sub with fast bass. I can deal with it in my system but prefer the newfound sound of the CLS

7. Added room treatments I made to the center stage area and corners. This along with realy tweaking the placement of the CLS (Im neurotic) has allowed me to forgo a sub and get 45 hz bass with authority.

8. Got to demo The CLX in Seattle at first release. What a treat ! Amazing to say the least. Fallowed that up with a demo of them at DaVinci in Wi with the new Spire which was outstanding.


9. Steped into the Blue Ray ring with my Sony S-350 player and have been amazed at the quality. BD is WAY better .

10. Moved my entire HT system upstairs to make room for a dedicated 2 Chanel room. It worked out for the best of both worlds.


These are the best 10 ! Hopefully 2009 will be as good.

 

[FOUNTAIN]

Nice idea Fountain...

This year brought me a few new goodies. In February I added a mint vintage Marantz Model 125 tuner. I followed that up in March with the addition of the VPI SDS to drive the turntable motor. The biggest change of the year came in April when I aquired a very sweet set of CLS IIz's; that was pretty huge! In May I added a set of Synergistic Research Designers Reference X2 speaker cables.

It's not really an upgrade to the system, but last week I realized that I had a spare set of balanced cables laying around, an open balanced input on my pre-amp, and that my Esoteric DV-50S has a set of balanced outputs (in fact they say that the balanced outputs (2 channel only) are the "high performance" connections. Boy am I glad I experimented with this option - big gain in quality, specifically with the texture of instruments. A VERY nice FREE upgrade. If any of you have the Esoteric players but are not using the balanced outputs, go give them a try!

It's been pretty quiet since then. I've got something being delivered on Tuesday, but it isn't really an addition to the system per se - more on that later...

I guess it's time to buy something new!?! I have been looking at some tubed monoblocks lately, and depending on the economy this year should result in my finally building the dedicated room - that would be the biggest change I could expect.

Of course I haven't heard the CLX yet, and Jeff's review has me salivating. Who know's what kind of crazy stuff might happen.

Wow Tim that Marantz looks beautiful!!!:drool: And I know how that SDS can really make a difference. It sure has for me. As for the balanced cables that you experimented with I can attest to the same improvement. When I added the Ayre preamp, that allowed me to run balanced cables all the way through excluding the turntable. The noise floor seemed to really drop and the overall dynamics seemed to increase. It definitely was a noticeable improvement for me as well. Keep us updated with what you decide to do with the tubed mono blocks and dedicated room. That will be fun to follow.

 

[MiTT]

Still NO stands Tim???????????

Unfortunately no. A life on the road for most of the year has left me with a great set of plans, but no execution.

I have dreams of getting new panels, getting the electronics updated and adding the stands all at once - but seeing as how it's been 8 months since I aquired the CLS's and still haven't made the stands a reality I'm not going to hold my breath.

In short I'm busy, lazy, slow etc... I bet I have them complete though about 6 months before Rich ever posts his mythical system!
:devil:

 

[JonFo]

Wow, this one is going to be long, as ’08 was a year of many changes:

Started the year with massive acoustic treatment updates, installing 25 RealTraps products into the HT

Added dedicated air conditioning to the HT equipment room

Then followed that up with an upgrade to the speaker processor subsystem, installing an awesome DriveRack 4800 to do all front channels.

In July, with impeccable timing, snagged a good deal on the stunning Denon AVP-A1HDci Preamp

Then, just a few weeks later, a massive DIY acoustics project, combining the MartinLogan Theme of my XStatic home theater into the décor + acoustics.

August saw the arrival of my Audyssey pro installer kit, with calibrated mic and custom software. Upgraded to ver. 3.0 a few weeks later. Awesome results with this stuff.

November and December saw the installation of some of the acoustic treatments on the ceiling and the implementation of some more DIY side-wall acoustic treatments with an artistic flair.

Oh, and lots and lots of cool discs. Latest set of the Genesis remastered SACDs just arrived from the UK today !

 

[Gordon Gray]

Compared to JonFo and others, this year's additions were small in number but very significant.

1) Cary Audio 306 SACD CDP. A wonderful hunk of metal and other funny stuff that can upconvert in the analogue and digital domains.

2) DH Labs Revelation (silver RCA) interconnects between CDP / preamp and preamp / amp.

3) Recently added some ATS Acoustics panels in back and to the sides of the Summits.

GG

 

[sleepysurf]

1) Room acoustics- GIK Elite Pillar Bass Trap and Table Trap, along with "Soft Sound" decorative acoustic panels from soundprooffoam.com (significantly tamed my room bass modes, and improved imaging). Also bought the XTZ Room Analyzer for speaker/room frequency response measurements (a work in progress).
2) Cables- Upgraded to Audience AU24e speaker cables (moderate improvement in bass and overall "musicality" vs. my stock Blue Jeans Belden cables).
3) Server- Upgraded to ReadyNas NV+ NAS for FLAC storage, and running SqueezeCenter (no audio improvement, but XRaid redundancy ensures I'll never lose my music library again!)

 

[Bernard]

In 2008 I moved from a house with a dedicated 16 x 12 x 8 music room to an apartment with a 22 x 14 x 10.5 living/music room. I have not yet sorted out the room treatment - with a glass front wall I need some serious absorbant stuff behind the speakers, but, fool that I am, I tend to forget the inadequacies and enjoy the music. I plan to make some tube traps per the John Risch plans.

After the move I acquired a Salamander rack and positioned the electronics so that they are not between the speakers, hence not messing up the image. This required the purchase of long interconnects (my standard Cardas Neutral Reference), which I got off Audiogon.

I replaced my CAL CD transport and DAC with the PrimaLuna CDP; great-sounding unit, but I am looking forward to tube rolling.

I also bought an Onzow stylus cleaner after reading MiTT's post on it.

My most significant purchases, though, were THE MUSIC - Amanda Martinez, Sara Tavares, Rosa Passos, Pimpinela, etc. Looking forward to the new Jane Monheit CD being released in January 2009.

 

[tonepub]

2nd PS 555 for the CD555 is on the list, but a convertible is looking more interesting....

 

[DrJRapp]

The only upgrade I did this year was a huge one. I upgraded my digital source from a Theta Data Basic and Benchmark DAC 1 to a Meridian 808. This changed the entire sound and character of my system.

Unfortunatly, by comparison my analog side now sounds like du-du so my resolution for 2009 is to upgrade the analog side.

 

[slowGEEZR]

Hmm, 2008? Let's see...
1)Built new house, so have a new listening room.
2)Bought new Porsche, with BOSE!! Sorry, not really system upgrade, but big reason why there wasn't more system upgrading!
3)New Adona audio racks.
4)New Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood cartridge. Offers more refined sound than the Clearaudio Aurem Beta Wood it replaced.
5)GIK Acoustic treatments, TriTraps (2), 242 Acoustic Panels (3), Elite Pillar Bass Traps (2).
6)Sound absorbing curtains.
7)Bought several hundred new vinyl albums!
8)Bought two record racks (bookcases) from IKEA, to house the albums.
9)Put over 700 CDs into 3 books that fit into one 15" shelf of record rack, eliminating storage problems.
10)Tube rolled the driver tubes in my mighty Jolida amp!
Ok, that's ten. Here's a pic of the new room front wall...

 

[Scumurculum]

A few changes recently.

Replaced Musical Fidelity A3.24 Dac with Densen 400xs cd player. Huge difference, not necessarily that much greater detail but drums sound more like real drums and guitars sound more like real guitars etc, if you get my drift.

Replaced Krell 300ir and Thule Prologue 3 Pre Amp with with Conrad Johnson CA200 Control amp - wow

Replaced Kimber 8TC speaker cable with Oyaide OR-800 speaker cable - also smoothing the sounds, very subtle change.



Also, depending on the economy - New house with dedicated media room next year.

 

[Ron]

I went from Vantage to Summits. Vignettes surrounds to Motifs. McIntosh 205 amp to McIntosh 402 amp after speaker changes. Added a Denon blu ray 3800 bdci.

 

[amey01]

Not a lot - even the room was last year. I did get my new Musical Fidelity X-DAC v3 though!

Of course, I'm enjoying the cricket on the TV at the moment too!!

 

[amey01]

but XRaid redundancy ensures I'll never lose my music library again!)

Be careful - Be VERY careful - - RAID is high availability - RAID is NOT backup! X-RAID won't help you if:

* You drop your ReadyNAS
* Water is spilt on it
* There is a power surge and does all the disks in
and.....
* Most likely scenario, the RAID set becomes corrupted - it DOES happen.

I'm sure there are other scenarios too. Personally, I store a backup on an external USB HDD and periodically take this to work and back it up to HP Ultrium tape, then send the tape down to Sydney for Mum & Dad to store.

Ok - this method of backup is a little extreme and not available to everyone (it helps working in IT), but you really do need an external backup that is independent of one piece of hardware / RAID set.

 

[taylode]

Well in 2008 I did the following:

• Replaced Denon 3910 with Pioneer BDP-95FD & McIntosh MCD500 SACD Player
• Added McIntosh MS750 music server
• Added a pair of McIntosh MC501 mono blocks
• Added and swithched to Wireworld XLR interconnects

I can't wait to see how 2009 turns out!