What next.....upgrade wise

[Pete Shields]

I have up to a grand burning a hole in my pocket and am conidering an upgrade. I currently have a reasonable and budget setup but every time I look at a specific piece of kit, the advice I get is stick to what you already have unless you want to spend mega bucks (which I don't). My kit is as follows, and I have put some comments from the forums here, Richer Sounds and Audio -T and Superfi in Manchester.

Audiolab M-Dac - a great bit of kit and the heart of my system, everybody seems to say not worth an upgrade

Audiolab M-Pwr - matches the M-Dac, got new for a magic £200, sounds good, but a few dealers said not the greatest, but I like the sound from it.

Tannoy Revolution DC6t se speakers - great speakers and M-Pwr seems capable of driving them - and a bargain at £400

Cyrus 6s CD player, used as a transport through the M-Dac via a Chord optical cable. Potentially a weak link and I fancy a transport only with Coax cable. possible upgrade? I've however been told that as we are dealing with digital here, I'd hardly notice the difference.

Sonos Connect - connected to M-Dac via chord coax cables. This is the family go to music source and it still sounds reasonably good playing my FLAC library and Spotify.

Raspberry Pi with Hiberry coaxial out and Rune Audio. playing a large collection of HD tracks from an extenal hard drive. Sounds great and has become my go to source when serious listening. Upgrade options include a dedicated streaming device such as the Cambridge Audio or Pioneer models. I have been told that they may make my life easier, but will sound the same as they are just passing the same info into the M-Dac. So no real need for changing.

Cables - Speaker - Chord Carnival Silver Screen unterminated- thought about upgrading these but again got told I'd probably not notice any difference

Interconnect between DAC/Power amp - Chord Chameleon XLR. Again a good cable, told not to bother upgrading

Any suggestions, probably need some advice on the choice/need of a new CD transport, streamer or speaker cables.......Can't stretch to a Naim system to swop out this lot

thanks

 

[paulkebab]

A very good setup you have, your question is a difficult one. As you have learned, your digital sources and cables are pretty much as good as you'll get without spending a significant amount of money. The MDAC is a great 'central' hub to run it all to and from, the Cyrus you already have as a 'slave' and if you like the Tannoys then great. The answer must be the M-PWR is the weak link, albeit not that weak, I don't have any idea what it sounds like but if you absolutely have to spend that grand, that's where I would go. As for which amp, that's a question for people on here who have a better idea of what will work well in your setup. Off the top of my head I'd probably go for the Cambridge Audio 851A, only slightly over the grand. Good luck!

 

[insider9]

I agree with above. MPWR is the weak link in your setup. Some forum members might also say that the speakers could be improved upon. I personally like them.

As an observation I'd say your system must sound rather bright. I used a pair of Tannoy DC6T for a second system and they could be easily pushed into brightness when paired incorrectly. So amp pairing will be vital. Unless bright sound is what you like then you could go with just about anything.

With your budget you can do a lot. Going second hand will give you best value. Musical taste will determine which way to go.

What music do you listen to?

What sound do you prefer (bright, warm)?

 

[ellisdj]

Worth a home demo of an Isotek Aquarius that roughly that price from memory

 

[seemorebtts]

Sounds good to me.i would suggest the Atacama Bamboo hifi stand to put your pretty good setup on and some good power cable for your DAC and amp Clearer audio copper line at £175. Combined all this together should give you a decent upgrade

 

[DocG]

Your system looks well chosen and very balanced. I would keep everything as is!

And... add one more box just upstream to your M-Dac: a DSP unit for speaker and room correction. I'm using DEQX (which is a little more expensive) myself, but this DDRC-22D should be well within budget.

Gazzip and Ellisdj had a very entertaining thread on the subject recently. And there's Luckylion's post at the moment. Have a look!

 

[jjbomber]

Cyrus 6s CD player, used as a transport through the M-Dac via a Chord optical cable. Potentially a weak link and I fancy a transport only with Coax cable. possible upgrade? I've however been told that as we are dealing with digital here, I'd hardly notice the difference.

thanks

Cyrus can upgrade this to the CD8x spec, which adds a second transformer to the power supply. That should improve the bass.

Is there anything on the sound that you are not happy with? What area are you trying to improve?

 

[muljao]

Mdac- great. Any digital source going through this will get the mdac sound. No point in changing transport as you pointed out, cables either, being they are just carrying the ones and zeros.

The only thing to look at are amp and speakers, and frankly you won't do much better for a grand, it might be a sideways move rather than an upgrade.It seems like you enjoy the sound, why change it? I'd keep the grand and add or change when i needed to.

If you think you really need to change it might also be worth looking at self powered or active speakers to take over the duty of both the m power and tannoys, not sure how much these are worth but add their sale to your grand and it gives a good budget for these type sound system as an option

You could also use the mdac at line level and try a conventional amp instead of a power amp, Cyrus one might be nice

 

[DocG]

Should you wish to stay with conventional box swapping, I would change the amp.

A Nord One will give you 350 W (8 Ohm) and 500 W (4 Ohm) of clean Ncore power. Though the Tannoys are not that demanding speakers, you'll definitely hear the difference over the M-PWR's 40/60W. And the price is right too...

 

[drummerman]

Should you wish to stay with conventional box swapping, I would change the amp. 

A Nord One will give you 350 W (8 Ohm) and 500 W (4 Ohm) of clean Ncore power. Though the Tannoys are not that demanding speakers, you'll definitely hear the difference over the M-PWR's 40/60W. And the price is right too...

I'd go with that.

I can't see how a transport or cables would warrant a £1k outlay.

That is assuming you really like the speakers you have at present.

 

[hybridauth_Facebook_100004211376004]

I recently had just over a grand to spend also....but I went and bought a new camera and left the hi-fi alone.....if you like what your system does why bother changing anything.....and to really get a decent upgrade to what you have,your going to have to shell out more than 1k I'm afraid.Go get a camera.lol.

 

[drummerman]

I recently had just over a grand to spend also....but I went and bought a new camera and left the hi-fi alone.....if you like what your system does why bother changing anything.....and to really get a decent upgrade to what you have,your going to have to shell out more than 1k I'm afraid.Go get a camera.lol.

Not a bad idea, not a bad idea at all.

Problem is, it feeds into the same gadget obsession and being a camera (with millions of accessories), will likely cost another fortune.

Have fun

 

[muljao]

Yes I'm into photography and it's much more expensive than hifi because you can upgrade without the wife knowing which isn't quite as easy with a lot of hifi, hence hifi is cheaper

 

[hybridauth_Facebook_100004211376004]

Yeah.it does get expensive once into csc,dslr,fx kit.....f2.8 lens £££££££££.lol.

 

[Gazzip]

Your system looks well chosen and very balanced. I would keep everything as is!

And... add one more box just upstream to your M-Dac: a DSP unit for speaker and room correction. I'm using DEQX (which is a little more expensive) myself, but this DDRC-22D should be well within budget.

Gazzip and Ellisdj had a very entertaining thread on the subject recently. And there's Luckylion's post at the moment. Have a look!

Yup. Get your room sorted with either DSP or physical treatment. The DDRC-22D is the biggest upgrade I have ever made. My system is (I am ashamed to say) running at £50K-ish so £750 as my biggest ever upgrade says it all really...

 

[gasolin]

Without any doubt a new amp maby the best amp under 1000£

Rega Elex-R

http://www.whathifi.com/rega/elex-r/review

My amp Marantz PM8005 would also be a good suggestion

 

[Pete Shields]

thanks everybody for the posts.

It looks like all of the areas I've been considering won't make that much of a difference to the end result.

A common option seems to swap out the amp. The M-Pwr is only a few months old (I swapped it out for a Cyrus 6 amp and ebayed it - for virtually the price I paid for th M-Pwr) so I'm going to stick with it for now as it's growing on me.

I do see streaming as the future so will hold out until somebody brings out a new all singing and dancing bit of kit. Until then, I'll stick with my Rasberry Pi. I'm amazed that the magazine hasn't done any articles on this or other DIY projects.....

So it looks like a grand towards summer holidays!

 

[muljao]

thanks everybody for the posts.

It looks like all of the areas I've been considering won't make that much of a difference to the end result.

A common option seems to swap out the amp. The M-Pwr is only a few months old (I swapped it out for a Cyrus 6 amp and ebayed it - for virtually the price I paid for th M-Pwr) so I'm going to stick with it for now as it's growing on me.

I do see streaming as the future so will hold out until somebody brings out a new all singing and dancing bit of kit. Until then, I'll stick with my Rasberry Pi. I'm amazed that the magazine hasn't done any articles on this or other DIY projects.....

So it looks like a grand towards summer holidays!

You could buy a nice small audio player for taking on hols for a grand

But dont do that

 

[Pete Shields]

thanks everybody for the posts.

It looks like all of the areas I've been considering won't make that much of a difference to the end result.

A common option seems to swap out the amp. The M-Pwr is only a few months old (I swapped it out for a Cyrus 6 amp and ebayed it - for virtually the price I paid for th M-Pwr) so I'm going to stick with it for now as it's growing on me.

I do see streaming as the future so will hold out until somebody brings out a new all singing and dancing bit of kit. Until then, I'll stick with my Rasberry Pi. I'm amazed that the magazine hasn't done any articles on this or other DIY projects.....

So it looks like a grand towards summer holidays!

You could buy a nice small audio player for taking on hols for a grand

But dont do that

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

More than happy with 7th Gen Nano, iphone 7 plus and my Bose Quietcomfort 35's for the moment......

 

[ellisdj]

£1k - room acoustic treatment - Massive difference for the money - more than anything else you can spend your money on

Mini DSP Dirac Live solution

Mains conditioning - worth a home demo if your not sure.

Isolation products for kit

All ways to get better sound - doesnt have to only be about box swopping to get better sound

 

[Al ears]

£1k - room acoustic treatment - Massive difference for the money - more than anything else you can spend your money on

Mini DSP Dirac Live solution

Mains conditioning - worth a home demo if your not sure.

Isolation products for kit

All ways to get better sound - doesnt have to only be about box swopping to get better sound

Of coursr you could just move it all to a different room..... ;-)

 

[ellisdj]

different room same problems

 

[Pete Shields]

So I've had the dream holiday to the US, but this is still niggling me!

I've started to go off the sound of the M/pwr (too lean and bright) and I find I'm back to doing my listening in solitary through my MDAC and Sennheiser HD650's. They sound miles better than speakers.

So first port of call is probably swap my amp to something that will drive my speakers better.

Seen a lot on Ebay for my £1k spend and also some good deals on the web at the moment. Power amps amongst them that I am able to control off the MDAC. Roksan Caspian 2's always seem to be on offer.

So the main question is doe anybody recommend a good match for my Tannoy Revolution DC6t SE's?

 

[QuestForThe13thNote]

I used to own a pair of dc6t se's which I really loved. Lovely room filling spacious expansive sound and pretty decent on detail and dynamics. But scale very good.

I ran mine off a Cyrus 6dac at the time and it worked well. I then added a Cyrus x power in bi amped mode. Cyrus can be described as a leanish sound, but I never found it bright with the tannoys. If anything it gave the tannoys a welcome kick of dynamics and clarity, which comparatively to some more expensive speakers the tannoys are lacking a bit.

If you wanted something with quite a bit of guts, and not too bright, I'd recommend trialling that rega elex r amp. But if I were you I'd try a detailed amp with the tannoys to get this balance, something like in the musical fidelity, Cyrus, stable, rather than something like arcam or naim which might make the tannoys a tad bland without much detail, with all the bass richness.

Did a cable change do much with the audiolabs or are you not a believer / advocate. I'm surprised you don't like the audiolab with the tannoys, as I would have thought it would work well.

 

[rainsoothe]

So I've had the dream holiday to the US, but this is still niggling me!

I've started to go off the sound of the M/pwr (too lean and bright) and I find I'm back to doing my listening in solitary through my MDAC and Sennheiser HD650's. They sound miles better than speakers.

So first port of call is probably swap my amp to something that will drive my speakers better.

Seen a lot on Ebay for my £1k spend and also some good deals on the web at the moment. Power amps amongst them that I am able to control off the MDAC. Roksan Caspian 2's always seem to be on offer.

So the main question is doe anybody recommend a good match for my Tannoy Revolution DC6t SE's? 

 

Naim Nap 100. That little box sounds great, has a very balanced sound, and in the right combination and room, sounds even better then Naim's bigger amps. And, if you go for a SH One, you save quite a bit of money. Don't let it's size and specs fool you, it sounds bigger then it all seems. And, if you don't like it, you can get rid of it for no loss.

Also, imo, most of your system veers towards brightness/clinical. I would also change the speaker cable, if you're still running the chord silverscreen. Maybe Chord Clearway, DNM Reason or even QED XT40.

Also, I don't think you'll be able to match the Sennheiser's sound signature with Tannoy.