Budget upgrade

[admin_exported]

Question for those who of you who know more about this than me - what would the best upgrade for my system be? I'm interested in increasing the sound quality, with a budget of ideally no more than £200. I'm open to any and all suggestions, from cables, stand filling, mains conditioning to DACs. In your experience what would give me the best pound for sound value?

Here is what I have:

CA 640A
MA BR2
Atacama Nexus 7s
QED Silver Anniversary XT
QED Qunex 1 interconnects

TV is connected to amp by phono, and to the PS3 via HDMI.

Most of my music is in mp3 format on my laptop, which I stream to the PS3. I do play CDs about 20% of the time though, again through the PS3.

Thanks!

(edit - wrong speaker cable listed.)

 

[d_a_n1979]

IMO i'd be looking to change the amp.

Sell your C/A, use that and your budget to aim for a NAD C325 integrated along with a Chord Crimson interconnect and Atabites to fill your stands (although i'd be tempted to sell them on as well and get ther Soundstyle Z2's or the Nexus 5/6i's as to me the Nexus 7's are too high).

Personally; i dont like C/A gear; i find it too clinical and forward and to me; it would be even more so when partnered with M/A speakers.

The BR2's are superb for their money but they gel hell of a lot better with Arcam and NAD amplification!

Then; after all of that and if budget alloys futher down the line (or as soon as possible), a Beresford DAC!

 

[matthewpiano]

Completely agree. Spot-on advice from Dan.

 

[Anonymous]

So do you think upgrading the amp would produce a more noticable difference than adding, say, a DACMagic or Beresford DAC?

[I have to admit I'm still slightly confused as to what/how DACs work. Would I connect it to my laptop? And would the fact that I only use mp3s rather than a lossless format hinder any gain I would get from it? And if it was connected to my laptop, what about when I play CDs/games/watch films from the PS3? Arghh...]

Hmm, would streaming via a different device, like a Squeezebox, make any difference either?

So many options to think about, so little I can buy

Cheers.

 

[the record spot]

I'd be inclined along the GIGO route, so my hunch would lean towards the DAC rather than the amp, so you can always allow for that later on. Not heard the CA though, but assume it's a decent amp (from the reviews, etc.) all the same.

 

[d_a_n1979]

CapnR:So do you think upgrading the amp would produce a more noticable difference than adding, say, a DACMagic or Beresford DAC?

[I have to admit I'm still slightly confused as to what/how DACs work. Would I connect it to my laptop? And would the fact that I only use mp3s rather than a lossless format hinder any gain I would get from it? And if it was connected to my laptop, what about when I play CDs/games/watch films from the PS3? Arghh...]

Hmm, would streaming via a different device, like a Squeezebox, make any difference either?

So many options to think about, so little I can buy

Cheers.

Yes; straight away (but please; demo them first if you can, try not to buy blind)...

The NAD amp has a lot more gusto about it and a completely different soundstage compared to the C/A amp. Better, deeper and more solid bass; smoother midrange and crisp treble.

I think; if you can, change the amp and see if you can get a Beresford DAC at the same time and then look to other ideas after that; youll be bang on the buck.

 

[Anonymous]

I think an amp upgrade would be marginal, particularly since you haven't said that you find the CA/MA combo bright/harsh (please let me know if you do find it harsh).

I'd more go for updating your source, as per the last post. I personally I'd question how "HiFi" a PS3/Laptop can ever be. I'm tempted to say buy a CD player (NAD, Marantz, CA, etc) for under £200 and sit back and enjoy!

If you are committed to MP3 then try a dedicated storage device and rip in lossless (time consuming yes). Yamaha do a music server as do Cambridge but it could be more than £200. Or you could get an ipod classic and an arcam dock. The quality gains may not be huge here but I'd argue its a better base to start from.

To be honest the best bang for buck is to re-rip all your MP3's in WAV format and buy a massive HDD if you run out of space. This could be free (if your time is worthless!)

 

[Anonymous]

Here is what I do, (not saying you have to do the same of course) bought a 250g external hdd, transferred mp3's and lossless files onto that, connected that to my ps3 and bought a beresford dac second hand from ebay (look for the mk6/3 or above and connected a digital cable (toslink from the ps3 to the dac). Then connecting the beresford to the dac via rca phono cables and the outcome as far as I am concerned has been absolutely brilliant. It is worth noting though there are definite gains to be had in ripping cds to wav, so i would recommend going on ebay and amazon and buying used cds (if money is an issue) as there are a few companies who sell thousands of used cds. Probably not everyones cuppa tea but I bought Linkin Park Hybrid Theory from amazon only last week for 1.70 inc p&p.

Having said that, if you do use mp3's would recommend you try getting them in at least 320 kbs, the more revealing the amp and speakers, the more noticable the difference in sound quality between wav/lossless and mp3.

 

[Anonymous]

My advice:

GET A DACMAGIC.