Upgrade options for Newbie: all advice greatly received !

[Zeitgeist]

Hello again to the Board ..

I am currently in receipt of a yamaha as500 - which I picked up for the princely sum of £180, which I am delighted with in the light of the fact that it's in mint condition! - which are connected to a set of q2020i's. I have them bi-wired with qed 79 classic strand cable. That is the good news.

The not so good news is that I play my music via an ipod connected via twin RCA phono plugs..

So here is my current thinking as regards upgrade options.

1. By dedicated yamaha ipod connector and upgrade to a set of bx2's

2. Purchase dedicated DAC (300-400 pound) and keep current speakers.

I will somehow manage to squeeze in money for new cable, even if it means eating beans on toast for a week!

Thoughts?

 

[BenLaw]

I suspect the proposed change of speakers would not be a huge step up. I would consider a much cheaper DAC and then use the money saved from that and from NOT bothering to spend extra money on cables to get a better pair of speakers.

You could also consider second hand.

 

[Zeitgeist]

Interesting. I was curious about the 'upgrade' from current speakers to BX2s.

I have no problem with second-hand kit. What price range would I need to consider for a real upgrade in terms of new speakers? As much as I enjoy the 2020i's they don't sound 'gutsy', if that makes sense (although they're lovely and bright).

And playing music through an ipod is less than ideal.

 

[richardw42]

An iPod dock that bypasses the DAC in the iPod, might give you something to go on, and leaves some budget to keep or spend elsewhere.

such as this

http://www.whathifi.com/review/pure-digital-i20

Also something like the Onkyou NDS1.

There are also items like the QED uplay which goes into your amp and lets you stream your iPod by Bluetooth, it still uses the Apples DAC though.

Can you home demo or at least take your amp to demo speakers, it might be the amp that doesn't float your boat.

Also, there's so much more value in 2nd hand hi fi. For not much more than the Yam you could get a Musical Fidelity XA2 (example) which is a seriously good amp.

 

[BenLaw]

I see the point in getting a DAC, but it doesn't make sense to me to have one double the cost of the amp and double the cost of the speakers. I would consider one like this. I would stick with your current speaker cable, which would leave you with a budget of, what, £400? I would demo as many speakers as possible in that price bracket and see what I liked - it seems to me you may be at the very early stages of deciding the sound you like and how to achieve it.

 

[Zeitgeist]

Thanks for all the input. General consenus seems to point towards quick-fix for the ipod issue, i.e. cheap DAC and 'throw' all possible funds at new speakers.

And yes, you are right in the sense that being new to hi-fi, I have yet to discover the sweet spot whereupon I think 'Wow! Sounds terrific!'

It's all a learning curve (although a brilliant one I must admit). As an aside, I fear it may bankrupt me as everything seems infinitely upgradable !

 

[Zeitgeist]

Edit: Double post.