What to judiciously invest in next to improve SQ?

[cyberkank]

I have had good experience with speakers and devialet amp decoupling (herbies audio spikes + pluckies) and upgraded ethernet cable (wireworld cat 8). Those are the two cheapish upgrades I found great bang for buck.

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[flohmann]

I will echo David. I have played with cords, isotek expensive filters, and changing sources. The biggest and greatest impact was when I invited a guy, with measuring equipment and knowledge (he builds very expensive speakers) when he measured, everything was wrong...  I had a 45hz mod,, lack of high frequencies and my system sounded sort of ok, but no wow effect ar all. When we moved the speakers and tuned the bass in my active woofers, added HF on Devialet to get right curve, I can only say wow, the effect was simply astonishing. Even this guy got very impressed by the sound that we got. I was on an edge  to sell my vandies, and seriously doubted if Devialet is such a great amp before. Week after we had hi end show and I went there, and I noticed that my set up was not much behind seriously expensive ones...

And I will echo Alve -- if you can find a reputable room optimization expert in your area, that's likely a much better investment than most cables/power/etc. In my case, I used Stirling Trayle from Audio Systems Optimized in California. Best US$1500 I've ever spent on audio.

[ICUDoc]

So is it a fair bet that the Roon Nucleus will be a big step-up from a Mac-mini, in terms of sound quality? Has anyone any doubts about that?

[David A]

I won't say it's a "big step-up". I think it's a step up but there's a lot of subjectivity involved when it comes to whether or not something is a step-up or a big step-up. Different people have different standards when it comes to saying "big".

[ICUDoc]

Thanks, David A- I guess ill have to lug one home to try.
I was hoping it was a definite step up to save the effort- laziness rarely the way to go.
While we are on the subject- I'm wondering if I should just get the Bricasti- so now I wonder if the Bricasti M5 is a no-brainer improvement?