What to upgrade first

[admin_exported]

Hello. I have decied to build up a new hifi system and am wondering which component should i upgrade next? I used to have a pair of B+W 602's + a Rel Quake and i was pleased. I sold them though due to moaning from parents but as im moving into a new house, volume is no issue! Here is what i have so far:

Rotel RA - 870 Amp (£10 from charity shop!)

Marantz CD5400 (£10 from charit shop, unopened box!)

ProAc Tablette 8 Signature

Cheapish cables + stands

Now i am wondering what should be my next upgrade. I would like to extend the base lower but i also want to achieve the hightest quality. Should i either....

a) Buy a Rel strata III

or

b) Buy a Naim 5i amp and upgrade my cables to Solar Winds?

Thanks guys

 

[Anonymous]

Anyone...?

 

[d_a_n1979]

Couple of questions...

What kind of music do you listen to?

What size/shape room is your system going to be in?

Are you going to 'demo' your choices of upgrades before you buy?

With regards to upgrade, personal preferance for me would be look at the Cyrus 6v2 or 8v2 amps; both very good and will give you some good bass control 🙂

Another amp that could be worth looking at is either an Arcam A75 (if you're happy with decent 2nd hand items off Ebay) and possibly look to add the power amp at a later date OR you could consider the Arcam FMJ A32 amp; again very good, great bass and well controlled, smooth and 'very listenable' midrange and crisp/clear treble.

Whats your budget going to be and what other separates have you considered, if any?

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your reply.

Type of music i listen to Hans zimmer, pink floyd, dire straits and my girlfriend likes shakira, britney spears.

Room is 4m x 4m and i have a budget of just over £500. So would so say it is best to sort out a decent amp before getting a rel strata III?

Yea im going to have demos at audio-t B'stoke

 

[d_a_n1979]

Why do you feel that you need to have a sub with your system?

Are you a bass addict?

There's nothing wrong with that but i'm just trying to get an idea... I also listen top alot of Pink Floyd and Dire Straits but i also listen to alot of bassy, modern music like Leftfield, Layo & Bushwacker, Daft Punk, Underworld, Hed Kandi etc...

It may be worth looking at replacing your whole system, bit by bit. There is obviously a big difference between your old B&W speakers and your Proac speakers now!

I have demo'd th Proac speakers and they were great but not to my tastes; B&W are more suited to what i listen to but i found that Monitor Audio were the best!

You could consider getting a 'system' together when you go to demo that you'd like to own and then compare it to what you've got now and see where you can make changes!

With a small budget there are plenty of decent separates that can be bought on eBay saving you £££ but still giving you a great system.

 

[Anonymous]

Im not really a bass accict its just when i listen to a song where i know thier should be a very deep base and thiers not, it dont feel right.

But yea i will try some things out at my demo and see, im swaying towards getting decent amp and cables though before adding a sub

Cheers 🙂

 

[d_a_n1979]

Why have a sub when you could get a decent pair of speakers that kick out enough welly so that you dont need the sub!

A good integrated amp would deffo be my next upgrade but i'd also be looking at upgrading the speakers as well. Thats IMO BTW

 

[Anonymous]

If you get the right speakers and amp you shouldnt need a sub

 

[drummerman]

Mystical Snail:

Im not really a bass accict its just when i listen to a song where i know thier should be a very deep base and thiers not, it dont feel right.

But yea i will try some things out at my demo and see, im swaying towards getting decent amp and cables though before adding a sub

Cheers 🙂

Naim's as good as they are are also underpowered for 'near PA applications' unless you spend big money or have super efficient speakers. 60 or 80 watts will never reproduce unclipped transients that'll re-arrange your hairdo no matter how 'stable' the powersupply may be. Now I'm not in the 'you need hundreds' of watts camp. I'd rather have quality watts and less of them but if you want (quality) volume you need power, a lot of it. Musical fidelity, Rotel's Class D (B&O module) powered amps and the usual suspects of high end amplification such as Krell give you that. AVI's ADM9 have separate 250W amps to the woofer and 70W ones to the tweeters. Whether they are rated into 8 or 4ohm I dont know but they blast transients out with verocity and clean with it for a grand. They are no bass bins though so you'll may have to add one.