2020 has been a year of small but significant changes, adding up to a lot in sound quality terms.

There have been no major component changes.

- Improvements to grounding with the SGS-1s dedicated to the Mutec and BR Eflos boxes used elsewhere
- Some mods performed on my LKS DAC
- Bought an EtherREGEN ethernet reclocker
- Added a Chinese BG7TBL master clock
- Replaced the Asus Tinker Board S with a Sonore ultraRendu

Also - I sold my records!

I couldn't be happier with the system sound now. I plan to make only small changes next year.

This year i have done a few things.
Nothing particularly exciting, but noteworthy in terms of things being better.
I bought an airprodigy linear tracking arm then built a lenco for it to go on while it was being built. That deck was a bit too big when i set everything up again, so i built another one that was abit smaller.
The arm is a complete sea change from a pivoted arm, and was well worth it.
I got my cole lcr phono stage fixed. i acquired it as a gift from a friend,it was on its last legs which i knew, but it was too good to pass up. The mains transformer had to be replaced but a custom replacement from toroidy was very good value.
I got myself an audio technica at33sa and a vm760slc to go on the new linear arm and the jvc my wife uses respectively, and managed to get hold of an ancient arcam delta 170.3 cd transport. I wanted another for years since the first one i had packed up years ago.
I got a topping e30 dac to go with it.

And a pass b1 pre which i heard and had to have

I also got hold of a moth rcm which id been wanting for years

To do these things i sold off a lot of my collection of things and stuff, which was abit of a wrench. But my wife told me to get shut of it all and buy some of the things i really wanted.

Quite glad i did.

As it stands, the system now consists of the following
Bte designs type 3 lenco with airprodigy arm and at33sa

Lda ha1 step up

Cole lcr phono stage

Jvc ql-y5f with vm760slc
Benedict audio hothead phono stage (wifes turntable because its fully automatic)

Arcam delta 170.3 transport with topping e30 dac

Nelson pass b1 pre

Nelson pass f5 power

Speakers are some bloody great big sealed box speakers i built with fane 15-300tc 15" full range drivers in them. They are the size of washing machines...
Im also playing with a pair of 12" no-baffle subs which are really nice. They are just there to fill in at the bottom. I wanted a subtle fill, not big pounding bass so i use them in an open baffle that is barely bigger than the driver. The 15 inch driver in the speakers goes low enough but drops of fairly rapidly in a sealed box. I dont like ported bass, but i do like fast and tught sealed box bass. This configuration means i just get the driver output with no cabinet or baffle gain. It just subtly stretches out the bass roll off of the system and add a bit of richness.
Its not much, but the main speakers didnt need much.
Its a pleasing little addition to the capabilities

Surely you can find a little 'me' time, or share some music with the rest of your family?  Does it have to be all or nothing?

The majority of my changes were cable-related.  I kitted the whole of the second system (I will always be talking about my second system, it's what I experiment on.  The main (NVA) system is inviolate) with Blue Jeans Cable Cat 6a ethernet, which covers BT Smart Hub to my (also new this year) CISCO 2960G 8-port gigabit ethernet switch, and from there to both NAS boxes, the streamer, which is currently (again, new this year) an MSI Cubi Mini PC, and the main PC, just for good measure.

As far as the audio signal chain goes I replaced the RCA pair between my DAC and my Amp with AudioQuest Red River, which I'd been wanting to try, and were a ridiculously low price on eBay.  The obvious happened, and literally two days later I found a pair of AudioQuest Big Sur interconnects which were a tenner dearer and nominally a step up in class.  I preferred the Red River in the end, they really are excellent cables.  Obviously this all changed once again when I grabbed probably the second-biggest bargain of the lot, a 0.5m pair of AudioQuest Diamond Interconnects.  They're keepers. 

On the digital side I got my Schiit Wyrd (ordered at the very end of last year, but delivered this year. so it counts.) which sits between the streamer and the Oehlbach XXL Master Clock.  I also picked up a brace of WireWorld Starlight 7 USB cables to slot between streamer Wyrd, and between the Wyrd and the XXL.  The purchase was perfect in two ways, firstly they were sold as "new old stock" by Analogue Seduction, so there was a decent price-reduction, and secondly they were 0.3m and 0.5m respectively.  The only improvement I can think of is if they'd both been 0.3m.  Top of the shop and best bargain though was the AudioQuest Diamond 75Ω coax lead to bridge my CD player and amp.  Another stupidly low price purchase from someone who hadn't taken the time to properly identify what he was selling.  I took the time.

Odds and sods: A Bluesound Node 100 that was "faulty" which, thanks to some great info from Tim , I was able to breathe life back into.  It was one of those "because I can" purchases and now sits there doing nothing.  The novelty of being able to control it via Alexa does not make up for the lack of decent sound quality.

I also picked up some more Clearlight Audio cones and bases, and more Vibrapods.

On the AV front I got yet another AudioQuest Carbon HDMI cable to replace a Cinnamon in the all-AudioQuest cabling, and a Monitor Audio Silver 10i Centre Speaker.

I bought a pair of Sennheiser HD 4.40 BT Bluetooth over-ear cans for the PC too.

The one(s) that got away:  I ordered two heavily discounted 0.3m WireWorld Silver Starlight 7 USB cables, to replace the "ordinary" Starlight 7s, but I'd dithered too long over the outlay, and they were out of stock by the time I placed the order.

And that's probably the most I've written about actual "hi fi" gear since I've been here. 

I bet the cost of just one of your purchases was more than all of mine added together though, or near enough. 

Thanks for reminding me, Steve.

Qobuz Studio is my default music service since earlier this year.

Apart from my system changes, I have learned that noise of all kinds wrecks digital replay. All of these things are critical to get right in order to enhance true resolution and clarity and reduce smearing and loss of fine detail and soundstage:

- Good power supplies. Low output impedance, aided by supercaps, really keeps the noise down as well as enhancing dynamics and micro-detail by responding quickly to demand.

- Good grounding. Use grounding boxes for every digital component (including router) in order to sponge destructive noise from the ground planes.

- Vibration control. Black Ravioli or the equivalent under everything. Granite and weights on top.

- Speaker isolation. Throw those spikes away!

- Good cables. They really do make a difference to digital transmission. Throw cheap printer cables away and spend on good USB and S/PDIF cables.

I thought the Ditton 33 would win out, Chris. Very nice indeed.

I haven't changed anything at all, either.
Today.
So far. (It's only 9am)