I have some fairly vintage Hi-Fi and keep wondering whether the time has come to upgrade to something that will (hopefully) sound even better. The trouble is that my current setup sounds good to me and I worry that new gear may not actually be a significant improvement. Unfortunately I've never had chance to listen to any hi-fi other than my own so I really have no idea what might be possible in terms of improved sound. My current setup is a Technics SL-PG400A CD player (approx 1990), a Pioneer SA-508 amplifier (1980) and Celestion Ditton 15XR speakers (1980). I also have a Rega Planar 2 turntable. I've spent a fair bit on new cables, stands etc to provide the best possible conditions for my elderly equipment and all the gear has been regularly used and well cared for. Does anyone have any thoughts on all this? If I do go for new gear I'm currently thinking in terms of a Rega Saturn CD player / Rega Elex Mk4 amp or possibly Naim CD5si / Naim Nait 5si amp. I've no idea about speakers at the moment.
It's all in the demo room.
Can you get to a dealer and demo anything you may be interested in.
It will give you the experience of what newer gear has to offer.
I will say I regularly go from a modern hifi to a vintage second hifi in the living room which is a pioneer a400 and Marantz cd52 mk2 and I still consider it one of the best amps and CD players I've had even in comparison to amps and CDP's I've had, demoed and have got costing much more.
I've only seen connectivity and the way we listen to music change not the sonic quality improve much over quality vintage hifi.
My old mission 763i that belonged to the aforementioned CDP and amp took me ages and a few mistakes to finally improve on only recently.
A clean sweep of budget award winners from 1990-93 come to me and went backwards and replaced my modern equivalent with it until failures and needing to update connectivity prompted me into bettering it with modern equipment.
It cost a lot more to get there especially with the amp and speakers.
I'd certainly not buy deaf though and demo whatever it is that takes your fancy.