something wrong with my ears......?

[admin_exported]

evening all

I'm after a new pair of floor standers to compliment my Cambridge 740a and Arcam Alpha8 cd player i'm currently running MS 904 Avants, after several hours trying Kef IQ70 B&W864 and QuadL21 (on a Roksan system) i've almost decided on the Quads but on coming home and listening to my test tracks again i'm wondering if there really is £700 difference to my old MS's? Is it my ears or am i am just scared to part with 700 notes????

Any opinions or suggestions for other speakers would be appreciated

cheers

oozle

 

[Messiah]

Best thing to do is to try to get a home demo to see how they sound in your house with your equipment. Then you can judge if they are worth the outlay.

Otherwise, take your electronics to the dealers. The problem is you are listening to a completely different system.

 

[matthewpiano]

Your problem is that the 904s perform well above their price tag and work very well with your amp. You aren't going to see massive improvements by moving up to the price range you've been looking at.

Oh, and Messiah's advice is spot on.

 

[Anonymous]

thanks matthewpiano

thats been the niggling thought at the back of my mind since i started listening to possible replacements apart from a slightly warmer open sound there's not a lot in it, not for the money!

cheers oozle

 

[PJPro]

You can get a lot of music for £700. What's going to give you more enjoyment? The speaker upgrade or the CDs?

 

[Anonymous]

damn right!!!

the decision's made i'm gonna buy the whole NOW THATS WHAT I CALL MUSIC back catolouge!!

Seriously though your right i would be up(?)grading for the sake of it BUT it is Christmas and i must buy something Hi-Fi related...... it's tradition, any one recommend a good DAB reciever? :

Oozle

 

[matthewpiano]

Buy a Denon TU1800DAB. Its superb.

 

[Anonymous]

oozle:
damn right!!!

the decision's made i'm gonna buy the whole NOW THATS WHAT I CALL MUSIC back catolouge!!

Seriously though your right i would be up(?)grading for the sake of it BUT it is Christmas and i must buy something Hi-Fi related...... it's tradition, any one recommend a good DAB reciever? :

Oozle

Do youuse a pc or laptop?

If yes then id consider a DAC or decent soundcard anda subscription to Spotify. 95% of my listening is done through Spotify. Ive discovered lots of new music through the recommendations on here.

BJH being one. Cheers Matthewpiano!

 

[Frank Harvey]

PJPro:You can get a lot of music for £700. What's going to give you more enjoyment? The speaker upgrade or the CDs?

Or you could get a Sonos system and get a hell of a lot more!!

 

[jaxwired]

PJPro:You can get a lot of music for £700. What's going to give you more enjoyment? The speaker upgrade or the CDs?

Gotta disagree with this. A carefully tweaked system with painstakingly selected components will create a wow factor that will glue you to your chair. This is just not true of most systems regardless of the great music playing. Hopefully you can afford both music AND great speakers.

 

[matthewpiano]

Jax, I agree with you but I just don't think £700 is going to give enough of a step forward, and buying a DAB radio and music is going to open up a huge amount more pleasure. The OP has a very well balanced system, and my feeling is that to get a real upgrade without losing the sense of synergy he would have to be looking at some much more expensive floorstanders from someone like Epos.

Also, there is nothing as satisfying as splurging a couple of hundred pounds of new CDs and then spending time at home exploring them and getting to know some new music. Spotify is a great way of preparing for such a splurge.

 

[the record spot]

What's the rationale behind the speaker change idea? Unless you're looking at a major outlay, the only thing under £500 would be the Q Acoustics floorstanders; either the 1030i or the (if you have the room) 1050i. Both excellent and both capable of some serious scale, esp the latter which will happily go with much more expensive amps (e.g. Leema Pulse). Both available now for under £200 as Q Acoustics latest range just hit the shops recently.

 

[PJPro]

jaxwired:
PJPro:You can get a lot of music for £700. What's going to give you more enjoyment? The speaker upgrade or the CDs?

Gotta disagree with this. A carefully tweaked system with painstakingly selected components will create a wow factor that will glue you to your chair. This is just not true of most systems regardless of the great music playing. Hopefully you can afford both music AND great speakers.

My statement was based on the OP not being able to hear much of a difference between his current and £700 more expensive speakers. Of course, he may be able to spend £1500 and achieve the improvement he's after.

 

[PJPro]

FrankHarveyHiFi:
PJPro:You can get a lot of music for £700. What's going to give you more enjoyment? The speaker upgrade or the CDs?

Or you could get a Sonos system and get a hell of a lot more!!

Yes. What about a media player based source? Changed my listening habits (for the better). And definately worth the outlay.

 

[Anonymous]

thanks PJPRO

i could afford the £1500 it's the inevitable divorce that would surely follow that would break the bank! 😉

 

[PJPro]

OK. How about one of these? You can get cheaper versions (which lack the ethernet port). Simply add an external HDD with your tunes on, connect via an optical cable to your amp (you'll need a DAC if it doesn't accept optical) and a screen (your TV?) and away you go.

The library software on the WDTVLive is a PITA so you'll need something (like foober2000) to create playlists for music.

Just an idea.

 

[Anonymous]

If you have a computer at home then I wouldn't bother with DAB. Get a DAC instead and use internet radio and Freeview radio. This should cover all the DAB stations and then some. Quality on internet stations is getting better all the time(usually 128 kbps or more) and Freeview digital streams at 192 kbps, I believe. You will also have to budget for a decent aerial with DAB.

 

[SHAXOS]

Hey oozle!
If you cant hear a difference dont waste your money. Wait till you hear something you HAVE to buy instead.