Getting back into the fold

[admin_exported]

Well I thought it was time I got back into my hifi and go for a raft of upgrades. I bought my original setup about a decade and a half ago for various reasons I have never changed it until now. I haven’t read much until the last week where I have tried to catch up on a decades worth of changes.

I have about £1400 to spend. As with most people I listen to a huge range of music. And quite liked the sound my old set up gave me

My old set up was

Amp – Sony F235R

CD - Manaratz CD63 11 Ki Signature

TT – soundlab 1600

Speakers – Morden short MS35TI

Interconnects - Cambridge audio reference

Speaker cable - cable talk 3.1

I am looking to replace it with most of this is to do with fond memory’s of my dads Rega Planner 1

Amp- Rega Brio –r

CD – Ditch it and replace with Apple lossless on a Mac mini (already own) with an acram rdac

TT – Rega RP1

Speakers – Tannoy mercury V1

Speaker cable - I was planning on using my original ones. Would I see a benefit for updating them

Interconnects - Once again I was planning on using my original ones. Would I see a benefit for updating them

Just looking for general advice on what has changed and alternatives so that I can set up an afternoon to go listening

In case you are wondering what has brought about this sudden change of attitude a friend has just got himself a Linn sneaky DS

 

[Trefor Patten]

MORDEN Short? MANARATZ? Rega PLANNER? Those are rare items my friend...

 

[Anonymous]

yes its true i can't spell but i already know that.

 

[the record spot]

Hello blakec, welcome to the forum; I suppose first things off would be what's the desire fo rchanging your current system, or is it just that it's been around a while and you fancied a change? You can hang on, as you say, to your interconnects and speaker cable as they'll be fine (IMO - opinions vary widely on this, but I've never noticed a massive difference between copper interconnects or cables, better to invest the money somewhere else or if you must try some new ones, go to somewhere that'll do you a set on sale or return).

Speakers - if you like the Tannoy sound and are still in need of something compact-ish, then the Tannoy Reference DC4s are well worth auditioning. Lovely sound quality, great build and a bigger performer than their size would have you believe. See also Castle Knight 1, which is a near second to the Tannoys. Other models are out there and Monitor Audio and B&W are very favourable with the forum too, so check those out as well. A lesser mentioned model are the Usher S-520 which are a few years on now (2007 or 2008 I think) and also AVI's Neutron. All of these are around the £300-400 mark. The AVI's I think are still available at a reduced price of £300, but usually only available direct from AVI and possibly one or two other dealers.

Amps - do you need other features such as internet connectivity with your amp or streaming facilities? Some amps now come with an onboard DAC, or additional features in addition to just a straight integrated which doesn't do any of this but provide a means to convey your CD player's signal out to the speakers. If that's all you need, there's plenty on the market that'll do that, but with the additional means of accessing music and other entertainment today, this might be worth a moment's thought.

Source - Your CD player is still very popular as a glance at Ebay will tell you. Unless it's going pear-shaped, you could hang on to it, but great things are talked of the current Marantz 6004 CDP. I'm assuming you still want a CD player, but universal players are out there from the likes of Cambridge Audio, Marantz and others that play CD, SACD, DVD-A, Blu-Ray, in addition to MP3, FLAC, WMA, etc, etc. Depends what you want/need and so on.

All that said, it's a great time to be able to get high quality reproduction for low cost and you might find you don't have to spend your whole budget.

 

[Overdose]

One solution is to get a pair of AVI ADM9's and add a phono stage for your TT.

That's it.

 

[HDNumpty]

I would upgrade the speaker cables at least if you're buying new kit. I recommended QED or Chord Carnival to a friend recently and she reported a huge difference between newer and older QED cables alone. Happy Shopping!

 

[Anonymous]

@ the record spot

Thank you for your reply. Reason for a change is I just fancy it really. I was planning on getting rif of the CD player altogether and going digital. Good to see I made a wise choice all those years ago I can almost get back what I paid for it.

As for the speakers some choice I wouldn't have looked at. looks like I have a bit more reading and a lot of listening to do.

@ Overdose

I would never have thought about those. thanks

 

[Pistol Pete1]

May I suggest the following, even though this combo is an obvious one judging by latest reviews:

Amp: Marantz PM6004 @ £250

Speakers: KEF Q300 @ £450

Connectors: Chord Cobraplus @ £66

Speaker cable: Chord Silverscreen @ £6/metre.

Then if you decide to keep your cd player too, the combo should work very well.....