[VW]

I have read through most if not all of the posts regarding sonic upgrades to the HT3 and have not come across any meaningful end user comparisons of stock HT3's versus upgrades.  Zybar suggested in an earlier post he may have the opportunity to do an A/B comparison; I may have missed this post if there was one.  Are there any owners there ( aside from Jim himself ) who have performed such comparisons and established some sort of relative pecking order of performance related value. I am assuming such comparison would need to be performed with near reference class equipment, to gain a more accurate idea of the sonic gains possible with said upgrades. I have settled on purchasing a pair of Jims speakers, in spite of zero response to my post about running them with Nu Force Ref9 SE's. There are many other high end speakers such as Avalon Eidolons, WATT Puppy 7's , the new Quads and Tyler Accoustic Woodmeres which are said to match up beautifully with the 9SE's, so I see no reason why the HT3's should differ.  I will be running them with the new Ref9 V2SE version and will keep you posted.  However I am uncertain about which upgrades to go for.  Is there any HT3 owner out there who is clear on this issue ?

[zybar]

I am not going to be able to do any type of comparison.

George

[avahifi]

I own two pair, one with all Soniccaps and one without.  The pair with Soniccaps is a standard burled walnut finish, the other an utterly drop dead awsome highly polished Pal Dao exotic wood veneer and finish.

My advice put the extra money into the wood rather than the capacitors.

Regards,

Frank Van Alstine

[zybar]

I own two pair, one with all Soniccaps and one without.  The pair with Soniccaps is a standard burled walnut finish, the other an utterly drop dead awsome highly polished Pal Dao exotic wood veneer and finish.

My advice put the extra money into the wood rather than the capacitors.

Regards,

Frank Van Alstine

Frank,

Is that to say you can't hear a difference between the two?

George

[ctviggen]

Yeah, is the cap upgrade worth the money, ignoring the looks of the speakers?

[yooper]

Not sure if you saw Jim's post from a while ago.  But, in case you missed it....If I remember correctly, Jim mentioned the Sonicap upgrade made a subtle difference, provided you knew what to listen for.  I believe he also mentioned if you could do an A/B comparison, it may take several tries before the difference may become apparent.

Edit...Here is a link to the discussion I was referring to http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=25538.0

[pugs]

I recommend the contour switch.  I use it every once in a while depending on the mood I'm in, the DAC I'm using, volume I'm listening at, and the type of music I'm listening to.  It has come in handy a lot.  I just wish there was one more adjustment in between the two. 

If I were to do it all over again I would have skipped the sonicap upgrade because of the comparisons others have done. 

Just as a heads up, I may be selling my my HT3's and HTC sometime in the future to get a little money out of my system.  I might go back to used pair of Odyssey Loreleis.  I loved those speakers when I had them a few years ago.

[avahifi]

What I mean is that the visual difference is obvious, as nice as the walnut set is. The audible difference is subtile if it exists at all. I have each set in a very different listening room that likely swamps any differences.

Again, I would budget for the premium finish over premium capacitors.

Regarding the contour switch, have never used it with our current electronics. With "crispy" sounding electronics it might be useful.

Regards,

Frank

[pugs]

A lot of times I use the contour switch to get more bass out of the speakers rather than cutting down on the high end.  Of course it doesn't add bass, but by cutting down on the high end, it sounds like there's more bass.  Maybe it's my large room, but I just can't get enough bass.

[VW]

Pugs, though I haven't heard the HT3's and am buying on faith, bass quantity or authority should not be an issue with the HT3's. In this area, it should be on a par with the very best. For years I lived with what I thought was an inadequate bass response from my old Dali 7's with 10" woofers, leading to a tilted high frequency response. With various system tweaks, especially in regard to isolation feet on components and de-coupling the Dalis from my hardwood floors, as opposed to coupling with spikes,  ( this would vary depending on the speaker, flooring and room size ), I was able to get satisfactory, strong bass when I thought I needed a component change. Change of cabling also made a significant difference, this can easily tilt the frequency balance the wrong way. For increased bass weight and authority, I strongly recommend you try a double run of anti-cable ( single in my system sounded a little lean ).  I found the best performance from using cable ties to bind the parallel runs together and terminating with Eichmann (terrilium copper) bayonets.  In this configuration, the sound is very smooth, with great bass weight and authority and a slightly rolled off top-end, which would reduce glare in a bright room.   You can experiment with twisting the double run, which I preferred for more top end extension. You can get the anti-cable in bulk for $1.25/foot and try bare-wiring first. What they say on the forums is true - will outperform many top cables; what you won't read about is the double run, a great improvement and must be tried.  What I am saying is don't give up on your speakers, if you haven't experimented with the above. If you want satisfactory high-end sound, you will have to launch yourself on a learning curve, it doesn't always come easy.