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I'm finally at the end of the road and have the best system for me




I've been away from the Asylum for awhile due to various factors I'll not bore you with. But I've been "upgrading" (silly word) for some time while collecting and listening to a lot of music via ROON.

So why do I think I'm at the end of the road?

Submitting to the itch that, although the sound was pretty good, it could be upgraded, I purchased an Audio-gd R8 DAC. The inspiration for this was because I did find the Audio-gd Master 9 a significant improvement and inspired by a glowing review went ahead and imported an R8.

Hopefully have the wisdom of old age (currently 85), I hooked up a setup where the output from the previous modded LKS DA-004 or the new R8 could be fed into the Master 9 amp by a simple input switch change - virtually instantaneous with minimal error due to (unreliable) auditory memory.

The result was the AQ from either source sounded identical!!

Conclusion - I had gone about as far as I could go!!

I posted all this up on another forum but my conclusion was unacceptable to some - there was nit picking about my methology. My conclusion was not to be believed.

Anyway I did end up replacing the LKS with the R8, moving it to a second system here in the office. The R8 does do a great job and I am hearing very deep bass that maybe I was not hearing with the LKS but I'm really not obsessed enough about it all to do further testing. It could be the R8 is a shade better after several hundred hours of burn in but it is only a shade. At times I feel a Eureka moment and go to the system here in the office to see if the AQ is as good as in the room with the R8 but it has always sounded the same to me. But I do not trust auditory memory so any conclusion is unreliable.

Yes it has been a LONG (and expensive) road but I'm now hearing beautifully reproduced music via headphones at far less cost than my excellent amp/speaker setup. Been there done that, messed around with floppy Linn turntables, Koetsu cartridge's etc etc, often not moving forward and only moving sideways. Yes the new toys did yield a different sound but that was not to be equated to a better sound.

I'll append a diagram showing the headphone madness and must go into the gallery and update it. The changes are a bit embarrassing but then I'm in good company here!!
What can be more subjective than music? It reflects our personal tastes and preferences.


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Topic - I'm finally at the end of the road and have the best system for me - John C. - Aussie 20:51:23 06/03/21 (5)

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