Decisions, decisions.....Hifi upgrade

[admin_exported]

To celebrate the birth of my new baby boy, I've decided to treat myself to a serious upgrade of my system to listen to music.

As you can see from my current set-up, it was very much geared up for home cinema; CDs are currently played through the PS3 and when I can't be bothered to get up and change the CD, I fall back on iTunes from the MacMini. There is a slight improvement in playing the CDs themselves, but obviously the PS3 isn't designed as a dedicated CDP, hence my lack of motivation to change the CD. This led me to believe that the best thing I could do to improve my music listening would be to invest in a serious CDP, such as the Arcam 192, Cyrus 6SE or even 8SE, and to this end I'm heading along to my nearest dealer with a few cherished CDs next week for a trial run.

Or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Would I be better off spending my budget (around 1200-1500quid) on a significant upgrade to my speakers, eg floorstanders to replace the KEFQ7's together with a good quality DAC + Airport to route the lossless ripped CDs from the Mac.

In time I'd like to upgrade the Onkyo to perhaps the denon-2310, but I don't think that that should be my priority for now.

Any suggestions are very welcome,

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Onkyo SR605 / KEF Q7 / KEF 3005SE / PS3 / MacMini

 

[vinod_david]

Thor Frette:To celebrate the birth of my new baby boy

Congrats!

 

[the record spot]

I'd look at improving the amp, using the Mac Mini via iTunes, stream WAV files and see how the speakers go with that. Failing that, upgrade them and enjoy. The sound quality is excellent. I use a traditional set-up and the quality from the iTunes and CDP are comparable.

 

[josh05]

It might be worth looking in to a multi channel power amp/surround sound processor combination. might be a bit pricey im not sure, theres only a couple of reviews on this site, specially if you wanted DTS-HD/Dolby True HD decoding. A pre/processor combination should sound a lot more musical than a AV reciever.

 

[Anonymous]

Consider soundproofing the babys room. If he's balling at max volume it doesnt matter what hifi you have, you aint going to hear it at its best. ....

 

[ayjaycee]

Can anybody give a authoritive comment (ie. one based upon experience) as to whether an alternative Blu Ray player would make a better CD player that the PS3?

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice guys (and I take your point about sound-proofing the baby's room )

Is changing the amplification really going to provide the step change in sound quality I'm after? When you say a pre/processor combination, what sort of kit did you have in mind?

I would like to keep the functionality of having the home cinema set-up, hence the idea of upgrading the amp.

However, from what I've read, the biggest single thing I can do to improve sound quality is to improve my source. Seeing as I don't have a CD player then it would seem a logical step to invest in a decent quality CDP. Is it worth it or is the alternative of AirPort plus a decent DAC better value for money???

I've also read that my floorstanders (the KEF Q7's) have a pretty poor rep, so perhaps this is the weak link in my setup. Does anyone have an opinion on whether I'd be better spending my hard-earned cash on replacing these guys.

thanks,

Thor

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Onkyo SR605 / KEF Q7 / KEF 3005SE / PS3 / MacMini

 

[the record spot]

ayjaycee:Can anybody give a authoritive comment (ie. one based upon experience) as to whether an alternative Blu Ray player would make a better CD player that the PS3?

Forget experience, but the new Cambridge Audio 650BD will give it a run for the money and likely better it I imagine. Fine reviwe, more functionality than you can shake a stick at and the Cambridge track record in turning out good quality wallet-friendly budget CDPs is second to none I think.

 

[caddyhound]

Blu Ray players make poor Cd players.Use your Macmini as a music source and upgrade your amp to one good with music and movies - Yamaha or Marantz spring to mind.See how it sounds with your current speakers before looking to upgrade them.If you don't play multichannel music then the rear channels are surround sounds only so you only need to upgrade front and centre speakers.Alternatively you could add a DAC ,Cambridge Dacmagic or similar ,to your Macmini and feed it into your current set up and see how it sounds.

 

[Anonymous]

So would you recommend the Yamaha V1065 /marantz 6004 over the Denon 2310 ?

As for the DACMagic, I've read an awful lot on these pages over the past few days and it seems like the general consensus is that unless you go for a 1000+ CDP, (which I'm not going to do) then it just isn't worth splashing the cash on a super-duper machine like the Arcam192 or Cyrus 6se, or at best the difference is borderline. The difference in price is huge (200quid for the DM vs 800+ for CDP), so for my budget, I'm definitely leaning towards the amp upgrade together with DM.

The only other question remaining is on the front speakers, but I guess I'll leave that for another day, unless anyone has a strong opinion on the Q7's?

 

[Anonymous]

Right, so I went to my local dealer here in Paris this morning and trialled the Cyrus and the Naim CD5i. Both of which were excellent, although the Cyrus was a little smoother (still problems with the disc loading mechanism and the disc errors though). When I mentioned the DACMagic, he was quite adamant that this could not touch the performance of the CDPs. However the difference in price is huge and quite frankly I'm not impressed with a 1200euro CD player which doesn't load properly.

As another argument against, he was concerned that this level of CDP would sound "sharp" with my current amp, so I'd be spending money for nothing....!

Unfortunately this particular dealer only deals in hifi (not home cinema), so I couldn't get any further with investigating the relative merits of a better AV amp.

To be honest, I'm not much further down the road to making a decision, so any additional advice is very welcome.

 

[Anonymous]

Thor Frette:

So would you recommend the Yamaha V1065 /marantz 6004 over the Denon 2310 ?

I would say the Marantz, it blew the denon away to my ears. As for the Yamaha V1065, I have read user opinions of the Marantz bettering its bigger brother the RX-V3900 in sound quality! should say it all if thats the case 🙂

 

[bezza79]

Are you able to take your AV amp along for a demo? If you are I think you'll be really impressed with the level of improvement available with a dedicated stereo amplifier.

I've been able to demo some AV amps alongside stereo amps and for music the dedicated stereo amps were streets ahead! As for the CD player as much as I would like one I love both the sound and convenience of my DACMagic connected to my PC. I've got such a large music collection that I couldn't possibly have that many CD's (and that much Vinyl) lying around the flat, even if my better half would let me!!

I've got an iPhone and use the remote app to access my entire music library in iTunes through my hifi!

My friend has lent me his Arcam CD73T which I am trying at the moment to see if the urge for a CD player overwhelms me and I finally cave in! I intend to try it on its own and connected to the DACMagic to see whats better.

I think you have a healthy budget to buy a great stereo amp, a DACMagic and then sit back and see which part you want to upgrade next, perhaps even demo'ing potential new speakers when you audition your amp!

 

[Anonymous]

Sounds good!

I don't know how practical it will be to get the av amp to a local dealer, as I have no car, so will have to lug the thing around with me. Ah well, good exercise i suppose !

Please let me know how you get on with the CD73T, as my brother alerted me to a cheap second hand CD72T last night. In particular if the DACMagic makes any difference.......

Any recommendations for a stereo amp??

 

[bezza79]

I will obviously be suggesting you listen to the Rotel RA-1520 as that's what I've got!! But others to audition would be the Roksan Kandy K2, I preferred the bass on the Rotel but the Kandy was still very good. Not that I've heard them but the Naim Nait 5i and a Cyrus amp (I forget the model) are also similarly priced (all approx £700-900 although good old fashioned bartering can get that down!!) and have very good reviews so would be worth a listen. I listened to the older Rotel RA-06 which was quite good so the improved SE version should be much better too and auditioned also.

I'm not trying to dismiss the cheaper priced amps but for me the difference between the Rotel RA-04, Marantz PM6002 and NAD 326BEE (I did audition these a few months ago!!) and the models above was such that it was well worth paying the extra money.

I'll keep you posted on the CD73T!

 

[Anonymous]

Took the first step today and bought the DACMagic. It certainly is a big step-up from playing CDs through the PS3, or routing the Apple lossless files directly to the AV amp. Very pleased with my purchase, thank you

Still looking forward to your feedback Bezza on 'digital files + DAC' vs 'CD73T + DAC' to see if it is worthwhile in adding that level of CD player....... ?

After that, next on the list was the amp upgrade. I'm still torn between upgrading the Onkyo 605 to one of the above-mentioned more recent efforts, or to go for a dedicated hifi amp.

Upgrading the Onkyo also has the advantage of adding extra HDMI inputs so I don't have to faff around with hunting out the TV remote every time I want to pull up the macmini.......