What is the better upgrade, receiver or speakers

[Blaise Haguinet]

Hello,
Having a denon avr-x2600h with dali oberon vokal as center speaker and tannoy mercury M4 as fronts.
What is your advice for a good upgrade, a denon x3700h or two dali oberon 7 ?
I've not enough money to replace the whole

 

[Al ears]

Big jump up to the Oberon 7, perhaps get the Oberon 5 and save a couple of hundred to put towards a future amp upgrade.
do you only have front and centre speaker? If so why a 9.2 channel receiver?

 

[Blaise Haguinet]

Big jump up to the Oberon 7, perhaps get the Oberon 5 and save a couple of hundred to put towards a future amp upgrade.
do you only have front and centre speaker? If so why a 9.2 channel receiver?

No, i've also tannoy mercury m1 as rears. From whathifi source, the denon avr-x3700h is the best avr for sound quality (over the Sony) in their avr chart, even if you don't use the extra channels

 

[giggsy1977]

You'll notice more sound difference with a speaker upgrade, but better processing from a better amp also improves the feeling of surround sound, if not the individual sounds themselves in my experience.

 

[Deleted member 116933]

It's a difficult one because, on one hand, you'll notice more of a difference with the speaker but if the amplifier doesn't have the guts to drive those new said speakers then you might not notice much of a difference and feel you have wasted your money.

In general, I prefer to buy cheaper speakers and drive them really well. It constantly surprises me how far budget speakers can be pushed and speakers always respond to power.

Personally, i'd drop the budget of the speakers even with a 1k amp, 5-600 quid would be the sweat spot. I'd look at the Spektor range, still a very nice step up over the mercury and rather than Denon look at Yamaha its a much better match. As the Dalis are a very smooth and rich sounding speaker and the Yamaha will counter that with a bit more zip to make them come alive a little more.

Edit, I don't mean to be rude saying "budget" as I know its still a good chunk of change, its just what the market segment refers to them as.

 

[izools]

I'd definitely upgrade the speakers first.

I have similiar Tannoys and they're really entry level. They're about to go on eBay and I'm not holding out for much!

The Oberon 5's as mentioned will be a grand step up.

What do you have in terms of Subwoofer? That might be the next place you should look at upgrading depending on what you already have.

 

[Blaise Haguinet]

The subwoofer is a Yamaha yst-sw300 (300mm, 185watts) 20 years old, but i plan to get a BK P12-300-sb-PR because of their good review from the US forums.

The Oberon 7 have larger medium/woofer than the 5, that's why i think that they were better to replace the Tannoy mercury M4.

 

[monster]

It's a difficult one because, on one hand, you'll notice more of a difference with the speaker but if the amplifier doesn't have the guts to drive those new said speakers then you might not notice much of a difference and feel you have wasted your money.
In general, I prefer to buy cheaper speakers and drive them really well. It constantly surprises me how far budget speakers can be pushed and speakers always respond to power.

I agree with what you're saying about feeling that money was wasted and it could be simply not the right combination. But I disagree about cheaper speakers being driven hard as a solution. There's probably a term for it, I don't know what it is, but when you can't listen for very long from it tiring your ears that's from what you suggest. I guess anything along the signal chain can be the cause but cheap speakers would be where I'd look first.

 

[Deleted member 116933]

I agree with what you're saying about feeling that money was wasted and it could be simply not the right combination. But I disagree about cheaper speakers being driven hard as a solution. There's probably a term for it, I don't know what it is, but when you can't listen for very long from it tiring your ears that's from what you suggest. I guess anything along the signal chain can be the cause but cheap speakers would be where I'd look first.

You've misunderstood what I said.

I said "well" not hard, big difference im ot talking about overdriving at all. Driving budget speakers properly will not lead to fatigue far from it. It will lead to better sound as even budget speakers can have very low impedance dips, Q acoustics can drop as low as 3.5ohms. Let alone higher-end speakers Wharfedale Linton's dip to 3.2, kef ls50's under 3 I believe. So an amp that has the current reserves to control that swing is imperative. Amps like rotel, NAD, naim all able to drive really hard loads naim as low as 2ohms for long periods of time.

I'd have no quims pairing a 3-4k amp with the Lintons or ls50's with around 2-300watts on tap. Current, power and/or efficiency or both will always be king.

Buying the best speakers that you can afford is completely flawed advice and have no idea where this ever came from. It makes no sense at all.

 

[idc]

So long the amp has the power to drive the speakers, and for a domestic hifi, most amps have the power to drive most speakers, then the most noticeable upgrade is always the speakers. In all forms of testing, speakers have the most noticeable difference to the sound.