Npt getting the most from my system

[BluePotato]

All

My system is currently as so: Leema Pulse (i) amp, Spendor A5's, Arcam R Dac - music streaming wirelessly at lossless from imac (via airport express). Speaker cable Chord Carnival Silverscreen, interconnect Chord Crimson Plus.

The sound from the system is decent enough but not blowing me away by any stretch. I feel like there is some zing and sparkle missing across the board and wanted to gauge some opinion on where best to spend some money to improve things. For now at least I'd probably rule out replacing either the Spendors or the Leema and was thinking maybe an upgrade to the DAC (Rega DAC maybe) might bring me closer to the desired results. Before I look at that though I'm wondering whether I should focus on the cabling first? Are those cables good enough for the kit? Trawling the forums I've heard people talk very highly of the improvement from Silverscreen to Rumour or Odyssey - one member mentioned it was like taking a big cover off his speakers it opened up the clarity so much - that's exactly what I'm looking for. Likewise the interconnect - at the time I was thinking I should go Chord Cobra Plus - maybe I should have?

Budget wise I've only this year bought the whole set up this year so the less money I spend the better.

Apologies PP - I know you've heard this (along with maybe one or two others) before but thought I'd stick it out there on a dedicated thread before deciding on next steps!

 

[BluePotato]

Should have read 'Not' rather than 'Npt' in subject!

 

[stevebrock]

The DAC is probably the weak point IMHO

if you sold it you could get well over half back what you paid for it, then home audition the audiolab & Rega DAC and see which you prefer, both will be an improvement over the Arcam also your cables are fine!

 

[CnoEvil]

To put more spring in its step, consider the Audiolab M-Dac as well.

 

[Shanka]

Hi,

You could try van damme lc ofc speaker cable, may give an improvement and is quite cheap.

I recently put the cable through both speaker terminals instead of using copper plates which gave an improvement ..............but now thought the spendors only have two posts so maybe just try the cable.

Coat time .................

 

[BluePotato]

Sounds like it is the DAC I need to focus on over upgrading cables.....

 

[Campaign]

I'd say the Arcam is relatively laid back and the A5 are probably pushing in that same direction making it all a bit too smooth, however I'd suggest connecting the source to the DAC over cable before you pitch it for something else. I wouldn't be surprised if its noticably better with a hard cable rather than streaming.

 

[BluePotato]

Thanks Campaign. I've got a friend lending me a 5m USB cable tomorrow so I can test this out. Will post the results!