Speaker upgrade advise please

mmichbam

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Jun 7, 2013
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Hi, looking for some advice regarding upgrading speakers please. Current system is Arcam 192 CD, Cyrus 3i and PSXR, Kef Reference 102 speakers on Partington Dreadnought stands, Nordost Red Dawn speaker cable and interconnect and a Isotek mini sub mains conditioner and power cables.

The room is around 3.5m x 3m, and music my tastes go from Taj Mahal and Dire Straits to Eva Cassidy and Diana Krall.

As the speakers are around 25 years old now I can either have the crossovers recapped, cost around £50 or upgrade to something newer. Budget for new speakers is around £750 and I don't mind buying used.

Not sure what to do, has speaker technology and sound quality moved on much in 25 years.

Many thanks.
 

BigH

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Yes speakers have changed in the last 25 years, they sound different as well, may take some getting used to, generally more detail and clarity less warm.

Best thing to do is go and do some auditions at a decent hifi dealer. I would try speakers like Kek R100s and LS50s, Dali Zensor 3 and Epos range just to name a few. You may want to take your amp along as well.
 

chebby

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mmichbam said:
Hi, looking for some advice regarding upgrading speakers please. Current system is Arcam 192 CD, Cyrus 3i and PSXR, Kef Reference 102 speakers on Partington Dreadnought stands, Nordost Red Dawn speaker cable and interconnect and a Isotek mini sub mains conditioner and power cables.

The room is around 3.5m x 3m, and music my tastes go from Taj Mahal and Dire Straits to Eva Cassidy and Diana Krall.

As the speakers are around 25 years old now I can either have the crossovers recapped, cost around £50 or upgrade to something newer. Budget for new speakers is around £750 and I don't mind buying used.

Not sure what to do, has speaker technology and sound quality moved on much in 25 years.

Many thanks.

I would be tempted to have the speakers and the amp + PSX-R serviced. (The amp must be getting on for 20 years-old.)

Fom what I remember of them (with Quad amplifiers) I think you would need a lot more than £750 to significantly better the sound of a top-class pair of enclosed reference monitors like the 102s. (Do you use the KUBE?)
 

mmichbam

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Thanks for the advise, yes I do use the KUBE they just don't sound right without it.

i think I will get the speakers recapped and see what difference that makes, the amp and PSXR were done around 6 years ago.
 

NSA_watch_my_toilet

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I can say to you... a lot didn't change. We went through different style periods, the "big bass period", then the "no bass at all high and trebly", "the warm way" and so on. But the fact is, speakers are always pushing air. Other things came out like the big pannels like magnepan, ribbon tweeter or carbon and ceramic woofers. But, in the end, they are all giving sound. The old concepts works well always today. Another thing changed, hifi became a luxury thing... the prices raised constantly and now we came to a point where prices have nothing to do with the sound performance of the products anymore.

IMHO, if you have somebody in your region that sells some used Xavian "XN" bookshelf speakers, it could be worth to throw an ear on it. Really pleasing on everything, but although on what you are listening. But I really don't know what your kef's could do. It could although be that they will be difficult to beat by modern products in the 5'000$ area.

A good way would be to compare in your room. Maybe a friend of you have other models that you could compare together. Maybe you could go in a shop with your old speakers and try to find out how many you will be forced to lay on the table for outpassing what you already have.
 

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