Audio hobby complete - tweaks are great

Like most audiophiles know, getting synergy takes a very long time. My 1st audio system took 1 year to build the synergy, my 2nd took another year, and my 3rd took one month. My 3rd system is many times cheaper and sounds much better.

I'm using AKG K1000 earspeakers with Nordost Valkyrja speaker cable, I had it since my 1st system was completed.




I was using Krell KAV-500i and Cary 303/300 which smeared up the details, Nordost Valhalla cables compensated for it. I got synergy from Solid-tech vibration isolation because it made it edgier and faster. I didn't have a problem with bass. Everything sounded very smooth because of the 768kHz upsampling. I made a blind test and scored 99.99%.




I changed to ICEpower amp and Benchmark DAC1. I got loads more detail and transparency, it sounded like there was nothing in front of the music. But the rear soundstage wasn't as deep as with Cary's 768kHz. Because when you get less smearing, you get a narrower soundstage because all the sounds are closer to you. But I didn't care so for a year I tweaked my system for max speed. And then I had to boost up the bass with P300 Power Plant which made it dull, but the cold Valhalla interconnect compensated for it. It sounded fine, but if I didn't listen for 2 days it sounded grey and dry.


So with both my systems the soundstage size was different, it was either a bigger soundstage with less detail or more detail with a narrower soundstage.




I downgraded the electronics again, and did tweaks that were for free.

With my 3rd system I get the best of both worlds. More detail and speed than my 2nd system, and a bigger rear soundstage than my 1st system. With my 1st system the rear soundstage was only 40 meters deep, but with my 3rd system it is 5 miles deep because of the clarity of quiet sounds which weren't there before. The soundstage space is unlimited. It sounds smooth, clear, fast and heavy.

Even if I would downgrade something, it's still good enough to last my whole life. Here is how I tweaked my 3rd system: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=881010

Troll

No, I passed. I answered Statement power cable and it was right, look again. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_bMgSYpZac

As a bonus I also said that it wasn't plugged in deep enough, and I was right about that too. A small gap makes a bigger difference than cable lengths. I guessed 2mm gap on the 1m cable but it was 4mm gap on the 1.5m cable. Both combinations result in the same sound signature, I have heard it before.

Skeptics like to cherry pick and ignore everything else.

I don't know why it is funny. The soundstage gets bigger the smoother the sound is. You can do that from reducing the jitter or add some smearing. But with smearing the lowest level details aren't audible.

But it doesn't matter after you get an overkill in low-level detail, at one point you can't hear any more improvement in low-level detail because it's too quiet. So then it's time to add smearing to the sound to make it smoother and increase the soundstage size.

I have found that Nordost Valhalla power cord (1 conductor per signal) adds smoothness without removing much low-level detail. Valhalla also makes everything faster in the process, it's the best of both worlds; smoother and faster.
With stock power cord the soundstage is small because it's edgy, but with Valhalla it's unlimited size. It makes it sound like real life even when it colors the sound. Audiophiles with tubes or upsampling know what I'm talking about.

I'm feeding my DAC1 with a 192kHz signal but it wasn't enough to remove the last edginess. Valhalla power cord is what fixed the problem. It is similar to upsampling, it sounds like Valhalla power cord boosts up the signal to 1 million kHz! The longer the Valhalla is, the higher the number! But it reduces low-level detail in the process, so I'm using as short as possible. I have found that the longest Valhallas in the beginning of the chain and shortest at the end of the chain gives the most low-level detail and bass. I use 2m for transport, 1m for DAC1, 50cm for amp, 1m for Premier Power Plant. I tried 50cm for the Power Plant but synergy was gone.

But the transport isn't important because my untweaked 44.1kHz computer still sounds much better than my 2nd system ever did, it's very harsh, edgy and distorted, but I still hear more low-level detail from the computer than I did with my 2nd system. The tweaks for the DAC1 and amp are what gives the real improvements.

I wrapped it later.