Lon quipped:
Quote:I've decided a lot of my "upgraditis" was because I had killer killer amp and speakers and there was no disguising my front end could have been better. Since I've upgraded my front end, I've found my "upgraditis" is at least in remission for a while. . . .
Yesterday, I put together some nice new barstools my wife got me for Christmas. Well made, and I enjoy the "some assembly required" thing, especially since I can listen to my system while doing so. As I did the final rotational tightening of bolts—you know, tighten one bolt, and then move in a pattern, because each tightened bolt produces a little looseness elsewhere—I was reminded of the "upgrade merry-go-round."
Lon is right, the Decware equipment is exceptionally revealing, and in my system, when I do a direct comparison of the same file read on my Oppo player versus my PerfectWave DAC, you can hear the difference. The Oppo incorporates a remarkable DAC for its price, but it's no PWDAC. And the Ultra & Torii combo is quite revealing of those differences, not unkindly, but quite clearly.
I went on a bit of a "tube bender" over the holidays, and it will be interesting to see what comes out of the new NOS tubes I bought. The good news is that my wallet is DOA, and so my upgradeitis is also temporarily in remission.