# What's Your Weakest Link in Your Hi-Fi



## geekwithfamily (Aug 31, 2006)

I've just been re-reading all my Audio Perfectionist Journals and the author, Richard Hardesty, had this comment on system building: [paraphrasing] "You must have great loudspeakers to hear differences between power amps, great amps to hear differences between preamps and processors, and great preamps to hear differences between sources, great sources let you hear the differences between recordings."

So he's suggesting you build your system from the loudspeaker back (though every section is important). But what if you've made a comprimise along the way.

I don't have a dedicated CD player or DAC. My weakest link is my Pioneer DV-47ai Universal player. I bought it when it looked like SACDs and DVD-As still had a chance (now I can't even sell the coasters and the cases are a funny shape so I have to store them separately). I wish I could upgrade to an Arcam or Ayre CD player. I have enjoyed using an Apple Airport Express as a digital transport, but I have to feed it to my AV receiver's DAC, not as nice as say a Benchmark DAC1.

What breaks your system chain? What's your weakest link? What would you love to replace that could free the rest of your components?


----------



## Danny (May 3, 2006)

I would say that it is still my speakers - when I have the cash to pay $10000 per speaker that would change but i'm also wondering whether it would be worth the extra $'s when the improvement over $1000 speakers may mean that they only sound 3times better (even though they are 10 times the price).


----------



## drf (Oct 22, 2006)

my amp is my weakest link, since my Akia died I have been using an old underpowered P.A amp with a noisy pre . Oh well when the money comes


----------



## lcaillo (May 2, 2006)

In the vast majority of systems that I have experienced (hundreds, thousands) the biggest limitating factor has been the speakers and their interaction with the room.


----------



## Darren (Apr 20, 2006)

My ears.


----------



## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

geekwithfamily said:


> I've just been re-reading all my Audio Perfectionist Journals and the author, Richard Hardesty, had this comment on system building: [paraphrasing] "You must have great loudspeakers to hear differences between power amps, great amps to hear differences between preamps and processors, and great preamps to hear differences between sources, great sources let you hear the differences between recordings."


He was almost making sense until that last part. Even a decent mid-fi system like mine can show the differences between recordings!



> What breaks your system chain? What's your weakest link? What would you love to replace that could free the rest of your components?[/


 Seeing as I haven’t bought any new gear in eight years, except a BFD, I’d say pretty much everything in my system is a weak link! But more specifically, I’d say my throw-down DIY subs.

Regards,
Wayne


----------



## Ayreonaut (Apr 26, 2006)

My living room. The dimensions and surfaces are fine, but doors, windows and necessary furniture locations quash a proper set up. Unfortunately, a new room is an expensive piece of "gear!"

Maybe in a couple of years...


----------



## rcarlton (Apr 29, 2006)

My preamp is the weakest link. It is a 1998 Denon AVR-3200. It is just getting long in the tooth and technology (read digital formats) has passed it by.

Preamp is no longer the weak link...upgraded to an Outlaw 990.:bigsmile:

My DVD player....Denon DVD-2200 held up well against a Cambridge Audio Azur 640C in test of Redbook CD's. Picture looks pretty good. No need to upgrade yet, until the DVD wars are over.

Upgraded the DVD player to an Oppo DV-981HD. I like upconverting to 720p:clap:.


----------



## Guest (Dec 26, 2006)

My wallet 

If anyone has one stuffed to spare I could fix it all.


----------



## Guest (Jan 30, 2007)

my wife
she :boxer: thinks we should pay for other things too with our income (food, bills, clothes etc) than just for the stereo
is she crazy or what???:teeth:


----------



## mulveling (Feb 14, 2007)

My true weak links:

My room (nasty suspended wood floor), lack of more rigorous acoustic treatments (working on that), slightly sub-optimal speaker placement (big 'ol HD CRT TV in the middle). 

My speakers are definitely not the weak link; I've auditioned them extensively in a much more optimal environment (my friend's room before he sold them to me) and they're exactly what I want in a 2ch system.

Electronically - I'd like to experiment with power amps next. I've gone through plenty of electronics and I feel that the amp that interfaces with the transducer (power amp for speakers; headphone amp for headphones) makes a larger difference than the line drivers (preamps), cables, and sources. I really like my PS Audio amp; I think it's a lot of musicality for the price - yet I'd like to see if I can do better. Next I'd like to try biamping with a pure class A amp (Pass Labs or Sugden) for the mids/highs and the PS Audio for bass. The new PS Audio amps also look nice.


----------



## norpus (Oct 11, 2006)

I am thinking at this stage its my old Esoteric P500/Benchmark DAC1 combo - would a new dedicated CDP like a Consonance Droplet or an SACD/CD player like a 2nd hand MF kWSACD bring out a bit more life. It may be paranoia - a home demo or two if I can arrange it would tell me


----------



## geekwithfamily (Aug 31, 2006)

Norpus

Have you considered ditching CDPs altogether and ripping lossless audio to a computer that then streams to a wifi music transport/player like Slim Devices' Transporter? After all the ripping is done it is a more convenient way to listen to music and sound quality is in league with CDPs higher in price.

Otherwise, the Droplet sure is pretty, but I would definitely home demo the tube sound.

Oh and I'll take the Benchmark off your hands, I think the going rate is $5 USD:devil: with free shipping from Australia.


----------



## norpus (Oct 11, 2006)

Thanks for the reply - is it truely the best SQ though? (this is important)
I have considered it - a mate swears by the Sonos.
However, playing with PC's is what I do at work and thats enough for me
Maybe its the ritual of cds like the ritual of cleaning vinyl is to others? 
I just bought another 20cds today - I even found that therapeutic - retail therapy


----------



## Bob in St. Louis (Oct 21, 2006)

As I read throught the thread I had been accumulating my own list of weak links. I was dissappointed to see that some of you also have the same weak links.
- Wallet
- Wife
- Room

norpus, the Droplets are cool. Very nice indeed and they sound wonderful. But to take advantage of equipment like that you must have sooo many other things absolutely perfect. I agree with the geek, go high tech. I played a little with a boulder modded SB3. Those are cool, very slick. They sounds perfect, and you can keep all the discs you love so much too :yes: 

Just my $.02
Bob


----------



## terry j (Jul 31, 2006)

Hi Bob

Norps does have some nice gear to go with it, check out his luurverly looking front end in his avatar, but what you can't see in that pic is some delicious sounding IB's as well. 

Down this side of the planet it's a bit of a running joke. See he is also a kiwi (in case you don't know a kiwi is the national symbol of New Zealand, a flightless bird), and their national team in the game of Rugby Union are called the All Blacks which is usually abbreviated to AB. He of course happens to fly the national flag for that team ( which, as much as it pains me to say as an Aussie ) are arguably the best in the world, by signing off IB IB IB ( corruption of course of AB AB AB ) and in so doing acknowledges two world class acts at once! If you get my drift ha ha ha.


----------



## Bob in St. Louis (Oct 21, 2006)

HA ha Terry! Gotcha! :T 
(I'd love to see a link to his AB's, I mean his IB's :bigsmile: )

Bob


----------



## FlashJim (May 6, 2006)

My problem is my subwoofer. It needs a new system.


----------



## spin (May 2, 2006)

If I were to upgrade any of my equipment right now, my sub would have to go first. Next would probably be the AVR (I want to make my life more complicated by going separates). :bigsmile:

However, I'm not about to do any of those yet, as I'm planning to get myself a BFD in the near future.


----------



## majorloser (May 25, 2006)

My room or theater.

It's too small for everything I want to put in it onder:


----------



## Bob in St. Louis (Oct 21, 2006)

majorloser said:


> My room or theater.
> 
> It's too small for everything I want to put in it onder:


The wife and I built this house 5-6 years ago. My HT room is about finished. She didn't think it was very **** funny when I suggested we needed to build another house so I could have a larger room with 12' ceilings and do all of the things I didn't get to do on this house. :sarcastic: 

Women just don't understand. :bigsmile: 

Bob


----------



## JCD (Apr 20, 2006)

Been said before, but it bears repeating:

The room.

It's laid out horribly.. there are no treatments.. there are a lot of hard/reflective surfaces.. etc

The rest of it is actually ok. Good speakers, decent receiver, decent DVD player. Horribly room/layout.

The following is purely rhetorical (I don't want to hijack the thread), but I wonder what people put as the relative weight for the different items in their system.

JCD


----------



## mazersteven (Apr 5, 2007)

My weakest link is my room also. I don't have a dedicated HT room. My HT is in my family room. The room itself is shaped like an oblong hexagon. (See my Webshots link Home Again). It's also open to other areas of the house. And to top if off I have a fireplace on the wall that would have been perfect for my HT to sit on. opssign:

http://community.webshots.com/user/maze069


----------



## Bob in St. Louis (Oct 21, 2006)

Very nice room Mazer, but I see what you mean. Yea....If we only had it to do all over again. :sarcastic: 
Fireplaces are nice, but absolutely destroy most rooms regarding optimal placement of the rest of the furniture, TV, etc...

Here's a toast to "the way we _SHOULD HAVE_ done it":









Bob


----------



## mazersteven (Apr 5, 2007)

Bob in St. Louis said:


> Fireplaces are nice, but absolutely destroy most rooms regarding optimal placement of the rest of the furniture, TV, etc...
> 
> 
> Bob


Thanks Bob,

Never thought about HT back in "91" when I built this house. "Had" to have the fireplace. I'm in Florida. Don't know why I "had" to have it. LOL :dunno:


----------



## Bob in St. Louis (Oct 21, 2006)

Yea, I live in the midwest, so a fireplace is helpful but the wife is afraid of the kids getting too close so we never use it. Fortunately it's not in the HT room, but the room it _IS_ in could be arranged better without it. 
Hey, maybe I could convice her we need to convert it into an IB! :bigsmile: 

Bob


----------



## BoomieMCT (Dec 11, 2006)

Depends on which setup but I would say that even with my attempts at room treatment and EQing, the room is the weakest link in all my setups. 



geekwithfamily said:


> I've just been re-reading all my Audio Perfectionist Journals and the author, Richard Hardesty, had this comment on system building: [paraphrasing] "You must have great loudspeakers to hear differences between power amps, great amps to hear differences between preamps and processors, and great preamps to hear differences between sources, great sources let you hear the differences between recordings."


I'm not sure I 100% agree with this. Even with my modest equipment I can tell differences in recordings for music and especially HT soundwork.


----------



## Bob in St. Louis (Oct 21, 2006)

Especially with Open Baffle, Boom! :bigsmile:


----------



## Guest (Jul 1, 2007)

My room is the biggest problem. Windows all over the place.


----------



## Bob in St. Louis (Oct 21, 2006)

How about some heavy drapes?:T

Bob


----------



## Guest (Jul 3, 2007)

That's what I've done, recently. I think the high ceilings might be a problem, too, but I'm pretty happy with the sound I've been getting. So I'd say the biggest problem with my room is that it's not big enough to withstand Vandersteen 5s (and my wallet isn't big enough to afford them).


----------



## superchad (Mar 7, 2008)

I have a few weak links but overall am happy, I suppose I would like a better tube pre, then amp, then speakers, then turntable, then CD player in that order if I could invest in it all.I just moved into a great dedicted room and its holding the upgrade bug at bay pretty well so far.


----------



## Guest (Mar 7, 2008)

Not having HDMI built in to my pre-amp(Emotive LMC-1)... I know that I can purchase a switcher so to speak but from I understand It will not decode true uncompressed 7.1 sound from Blu-Ray... It's only 3 years old and I guess in reflection I should have known better.

TG

:hissyfit::hissyfit::hissyfit::hissyfit::hissyfit::hissyfit::hissyfit:


----------



## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

I would have to say my Sanyo Z2 projector is my weakest link. A 1080p projector would be much better but at this point they are still far too pricey.


----------



## thxgoon (Feb 23, 2007)

Ah Tony you beat me too it! The weakest link in my audio chain is also my projector:bigsmile:

Seriously though the room is the worst part of mine. My old Denon 5700 still sounds great as a pre but doesn't do any more than the legacy 5.1 formats. Would love the new Integra pre as a replacement:spend:


----------



## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Tony G said:


> It's only 3 years old and I guess in reflection I should have known better.
> 
> TG
> 
> :hissyfit:


Welcome to the world of home audio and video. Along with computers The receiver is almost worse than buying automobiles within 2 years they are outdated.


----------

