Pondering my next move - where to spend £1k

[hifikrazy]

Yea they are rather big. B&W do make some rather desirable stuff. I still remember my 805s with a great deal of fondness and lots of regret for letting them go.

Spendor D7's in your signature. You deserve no pitty. oke:

I guess there are certain components that have a special place in one's heart, in this case the 805s were a used pair that I managed to pick up to replace a pair of B&W 601 S3. The moment I hooked them up and the first few notes emerged from them was probably the only hallelujah moment in my hifi journey. In an instant, I grasped what was the difference between high end and entry level. It was quite the eargasm.

 

[ISAC69]

Yea they are rather big. B&W do make some rather desirable stuff. I still remember my 805s with a great deal of fondness and lots of regret for letting them go.

Spendor D7's in your signature. You deserve no pitty. oke:

I guess there are certain components that have a special place in one's heart, in this case the 805s were a used pair that I managed to pick up to replace a pair of B&W 601 S3. The moment I hooked them up and the first few notes emerged from them was probably the only hallelujah moment in my hifi journey. In an instant, I grasped what was the difference between high end and entry level. It was quite the eargasm.

Spendor D7 are great speakers indeed . IMO the difference between high end and entry level speakers start at around 2K .

 

[Vladimir]

IMO Hi-FI starts arround 2K per component. Hi-End is everything above 100K. Someday I will own a new Hi-Fi system. ray:

 

[CnoEvil]

IMO Hi-FI starts arround 2K per component. Hi-End is everything above 100K.

...and Ultra H-End? :twisted:

 

[hifikrazy]

My description of the B&W 805S as high end even though I know it's not high end price when compared to most of the products you see in Stereophile magazine, is purely based on the fact that it was part of B&W's top of the line range. And it really was a huge gulf compared to the 601 S3.

Incidentally the 805S was replaced by a Usher Be718 which was a cheaper speaker but was marginally superior to the 805S in every area, proof that you can sometimes upgrade for less money. But somehow I don't remember the Usher with as much fondness as the 805S. Perhaps it's true what they say about your first love.

 

[cannibal_ox77]

HiFiKrazy - ideally it would be small floorstanders but I'm open to any speaker up to £1k if it brings an improvement. My living room is about 7.5m x 3.5m with the speakers down one half of the room firing across the 3.5m so smaller speakers should do the job anyway. Floorstanders more ideal with the kids running around in there

IMO if you really want a serious upgrade to your speakers you should consider standmounts around 2K area such as the PMC 23 , Proac Studio 140MK Proac Resopne D18 act.

I don't see any speakers in 1K level that will give you a serious improvement to your MA speakerrs . instead of you wait till you can afford it .

It's a reasonable point, though I'm not sure that I agree in this case.

IIRC The RS6 cost about £600 and are now about 9 years old, having had several reincarnations, each of which have given an improvement.

The R300s are a new, state of the art design, cost £1k and (imo) can hold their own with more expensive speakers.

Now, the above points (along with personal taste / system synergy), don't guarantee anything.....but a good case can be made as to why there would be a worthwhile improvement.

Thanks all for the suggestions. My thinking was in line with Cno's really - the RS6 are good speakers but I would imagine with technology trickling down from reference models into more affordable speakers over the past 9 years, there should be better speakers for less money around these days. At the same time, I think the RS6 may have a little more to give if I added some power amp(s) in place of the pearl lite. Too many options and a lot to think about....

Regarding the Kef R300, I would have thought a £1k standmount would be quite a step up in quality over a £600 9 year old floorstander Also I read a lot of comments saying the R300 sounds a lot bigger than it is so I think it would suit my living room although ideally it'd be R500 if I can stretch the budget. I'd like to hear Tannoy Precision 6.2, PMC GB1i, Concept 40's too (that list is not exhaustive!) -

I suppose the amp vs speaker upgrade thing needs to come down to which would bring more 'life' to the sound at lower volumes (and better defined and exended bass at higher volumes a bonus).

 

[Esra]

imo it is not a good idea going from a floorstander to a standmount if you have the place.

 

[steve4232]

If you're so convinced that your speakers are the wekaest link (I doubt it somehow) why not replace your RS6's with a new pair of MA Silver 8's? They're only £1250 but they'll see off your RS6's but still give you that MA "house sound"

 

[cannibal_ox77]

Hi Esra,

The footprint is the same really, space isn't an issue. More than anything I'd rather have a floorstander so I don't have to worry about kids knocking a speaker of its stand! But I'm keen to hear what a larger stand mount like the R300 can sound like compared to a relatively small floorstander, it may even be better suited to my room. I've moved house 3 times in the past 4 years and will be moving again at the end of this year/start of next year, possibly abroad, so I don't even know what sort of room I will be putting the kit in in future.

Saw your post about the 8200P; IIRC do you have a pair of 8200MBs? If so, out of interest what speakers are you using?

 

[cannibal_ox77]

If you're so convinced that your speakers are the wekaest link (I doubt it somehow) why not replace your RS6's with a new pair of MA Silver 8's? They're only £1250 but they'll see off your RS6's but still give you that MA "house sound"

Silver 8's are a bit too big for the space (there's very limited options for positioning and not a great deal of space around them). I'd consider the Silver 6's though, but I have a feeling it wouldn't be a significant enough upgrade for the $.

Not sure if my speakers are the weakest link, or the amp. I think the speakers would benefit from more power, but I also think the amp could drive higher quality speakers!

As mentioned, the long term plan is to use the pearl lite in a 2nd system where it'll do a wonderful job with some Dali Zensor 3's for example (I heard it with LS50s before and thought it sounded fantastic too). I'll get dedicated power amps in the living room set up, fed by the CDQ.

 

[Esra]

Cannibal I use 8200Mb´s for front, 8200P for back and (will when it arrives) 8200M for center with RX6.I exchanged 2 8200MB which I used for back for the 8200P and 8200M,don´t know if that was a good idea,i will see.

 

[CnoEvil]

The footprint is the same really, space isn't an issue. More than anything I'd rather have a floorstander so I don't have to worry about kids knocking a speaker of its stand! But I'm keen to hear what a larger stand mount like the R300 can sound like compared to a relatively small floorstander, it may even be better suited to my room. I've moved house 3 times in the past 4 years and will be moving again at the end of this year/start of next year, possibly abroad, so I don't even know what sort of room I will be putting the kit in in future.

Saw your post about the 8200P; IIRC do you have a pair of 8200MBs? If so, out of interest what speakers are you using?

When a speaker is Blu-Tak'd to a decent filled stand, it is more stable than many of the trendy slim floorstanders, that often have a narrow footprint.

The R300 does produce a surprising amount of scale, so you are right to consider it.

 

[steve_1979]

IMO Hi-FI starts arround 2K per component. Hi-End is everything above 100K.

...and Ultra H-End? :twisted:

what about URBER high end?

 

[James7]

The focus here has been on speakers, but you are going to need a power amp to decouple the Pearl Lite for a second system. I think there are a couple of options worth considering as alternatives to Audiolab. It's slightly above £1000 though not by much but QUAD's QSP power amp, their reworking of the classic 909, would be worth auditioning, as would a pair of Musical Fidelity M1 PWR amps, which are priced at £500 each so on the money. Personally, I would go for the power amps first, sell the AV receiver, which I think I understand you no longer need, to fund those Zensor 3s so as to get your second system up and running, and worry about upgrading your MAs later. When you come to upgrading those it may well be something like the Q Acoustics Concept 40 would provide a genuine step-up, but as others have suggested, to get a real jump in SQ might require greater outlay.

 

[nirvy111]

Of course as soon as you hook up new speakers your immediate thought will be, 'how great would these sound with a new amp'. The point is upgrading both the speakers and amp is inevitable.

Case in point, I recently upgraded my front speakers in my home theatre with no intention of changing the surrounds but almost straight away I could tell the surrounds were no longer keeping up with my new fronts so 2 weeks later I was buying new matching surrounds.