oscroft
Prominent Member
I've been upgrading/servicing/tweaking in recent months, and that has me thinking generally about what things make differences I can hear and what things don't. This is with my 61-year-old ears and fairly modest music system. (Sources = Rega Planar 3/Audiolab 8000CD/Streaming [via Squeezebox Duet, Toslink, USB into DacMagic Plus]. Amps = Audiolab 8000A/8000SX/8000P. Speakers = Mission 780/Eltax home modded bass boxes/IPL active subwoofer). Other people, especially younger ones and people with better equipment, will be able to hear differences I can't, but I hope rating them comparatively might be of interest...
* I can hear a difference between Rega R200 and RB300 arms, big difference
* I can hear a difference aligning my cartridge accurately, small difference
* I can hear a difference replacing my Audiolab 8000A power supply caps, big difference
* I can hear a difference using a Tacima mains strip, fairly big difference
* I can hear a difference replacing my hardened rubber turntable feet, modest difference
* I can hear a difference between different modest level DACs, fairly subtle
* I can hear a difference between the various filters on my DacMagic Plus, fairly subtle
* I can't hear any difference between different speaker cables
* I can't hear any difference between different RCA interconnects
* I can't hear any difference between different mains cables
* I can hear differences in the engineering quality of recordings, from minor to big differences
* I can hear differences between LP, CD and computer streaming, of varying levels
* I can't hear any difference between 192/24 and 44.1/16 FLAC files
* I can't hear any difference between FLAC and 320kbps MP3
* I can hear a difference between Rega R200 and RB300 arms, big difference
* I can hear a difference aligning my cartridge accurately, small difference
* I can hear a difference replacing my Audiolab 8000A power supply caps, big difference
* I can hear a difference using a Tacima mains strip, fairly big difference
* I can hear a difference replacing my hardened rubber turntable feet, modest difference
* I can hear a difference between different modest level DACs, fairly subtle
* I can hear a difference between the various filters on my DacMagic Plus, fairly subtle
* I can't hear any difference between different speaker cables
* I can't hear any difference between different RCA interconnects
* I can't hear any difference between different mains cables
* I can hear differences in the engineering quality of recordings, from minor to big differences
* I can hear differences between LP, CD and computer streaming, of varying levels
* I can't hear any difference between 192/24 and 44.1/16 FLAC files
* I can't hear any difference between FLAC and 320kbps MP3
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