Advice

[winiar560]

I should not say it but the order of magnitude improvement you can make is: room treatment > changing your speakers > moving to a 250.

Jean-Marie

As of two nights ago I would put setting up your listening seat and speakers to work in the room you have as the first priority. 

I have what I would call a terrible room. When it was empty I could hear the echo of opening a window latch for 2.15 seconds repetitively. Now we have lots of furniture and wall decorations (some proper absorbing posters) it is still no where near an ideal room.

I've been playing with where I put my ears and speaker setup for as long as I've been in this room and two nights ago I hit the jackpot. It sounded so good, I was literally laughing out loud and astonished by what my little speakers were throwing towards me. There was even some thumping bass. I have never heard that from my Dynaudio C1's. I never expected it either because they are after all just small two way speakers.

For years I've been a big fan of Jim Smiths 'Get Better Sound'. It's a $35.- book that talks about setting up your listening seat and speakers and other bits and pieces. Jim can also be hired to do the work for you. From what I've read on forums so far the usual way it goes is like this; someone buys Jim's book and starts playing with set up. He then gets to a certain point of musical engagement and that's it. It's those who are looking for more who hire Jim to push their system up to the next level. It seems that whatever people have done to their system, Jim always seems to be able to push it up another notch. 

I think the other night was my first ever insight into how much better a system can sound when everything is in it's best spot. The sound you get when your system has been set up by the master of setting up. 

This all in a room that, even though it has some room treatment, would be identified as a poor sounding room by just about anyone on this forum.

So there you have it; Set up> Room treatment > Changing speakers > move to 250.

Never in my wildest dreams did I think set up could be so good that room treatment becomes less important.

Hi Pim 

1.Setup.It took me a while to get to the point ive started enjoying my listening and this happened once I acquired d200 then found the audio physics speakers are a lot better than my pmc ob1i at the time found virgo 5 I could afford and bought them.The virgo happened to make a significant improvement in bass in my room as they are down firing it worked.
Later on found the best suited speaker cables for my setup (atlas mavros) great synergy in my system.

2.This point is the most underrated by some people but the most important in my experience.
I've long waited but finally decided to get some treatment and bought a set of acoustic panels .Installed 2 behind me then first reflection points and some behind the speakers.
I would say this made the biggest improvement in my listening experience so far, ive started to clearly hear sounds never heard before,also every aspect of it got into its place.

The speaker positioning also hugely improved things especially the soundstage,clarity ,separation.

3.That was one of my point related to upgrade.
I'm not sure if my speakers are not the weak point here (quite unlikely but possible).
If I could earn more by just changing the speakers instead the amplifier.

4.As found to have a chance to get upgraded d-premier to 250 pro ci for well under 6k £ which I think is a great deal in my view as ive never seen one gone below 8k £ to be honest but then on the other hand I could get my d200 upgraded for 2100£  to 220 pro ci by Devialet France and not so sure the D 250 pro ci will make big difference considering my square 16m2 small listening space.