What to Upgrade??

[admin_exported]

Im thinking of buying a relative something to compliment his hi-fi setup by replacing a component for christmas and thought you guys would be the people to consult. His current setup is as follows:

Pioneer A400 amp

Rotel RCD-02 cd player

Dynaudio Audience 42 speakers

Dont really want to spend more than £400 and if speakers were replaced, they would have to be bookshelf size due to size constraints. Your ideas, help, opinions and experiences will be greatly received.

 

[John Duncan]

I wouldn't replace any of those with a £400 component, I don't think. Does he have any vinyl?

 

[Anonymous]

I agree with JD. A Debut III would be just the ticket. Seeing as he doesn't have a table I'm going to go out on a limb and guess no vinyl either. Fortunately common sense is abounding lately and you buy purchase the stuff new again. Grab him his two favourite albums on wax and let him appreciate music all over again.

 

[John Duncan]

Good call - buy him a £200 'table (which was where I was going with this, if you hadn't already guessed) *and* a stack of vinyl.

The A400 has a phono stage doesn't it?

 

[JoelSim]

You could get him a mains conditioning block instead

 

[chebby]

Ok.

1) In case he is not a vinyl sort of guy, how about an FM tuner and an appointment for a bloke to come around and fit a nice rooftop FM antenna? £400 should cover both tuner and aerial (and bloke to fit it.)

2) Has he already got a computer? £400 will get a good DAC + cables + enough money to buy a wealth of iTunes vouchers from WH Smiths. (This will get him internet radio through the hifi also.)

3) £400 will buy some superb headphones AND an excellent headphone amp. (Or Headphones + Headphone amp and DAC combined).

 

[batonwielder]

You could get the Rotel RA1062 integrated amplifier. Give those speakers something to chew on.

 

[matthewpiano]

Following on from Chebby's excellent ideas, I'd be a bit more specific and recommend Denon's stunning TU1800 DAB/FM tuner at £200 and a proper roof aerial installation. Access to loads of free music and chat in excellent quality through one of the best tuners ever made, and all within budget.

 

[Anonymous]

From me personally, I would by more CDs and an FM tuner (such as the afore mentioned Denon and with a proper roof aerial.)

 

[the record spot]

£400 options:-

1) Turntable - a new P2 or used P3 - if the A400 has no phono stage, add a Cambridge 640P phono stage for £60. £70 for a Denon DL110 and the remainder on some LPs.

2) Tuner - used Quad FM3 or FM4, £250, aerial and installation allow roughly another £100. £50 on a decent interconnect - van den hul "The Name" 0.8m cable.

3) Upgrade the amp with a good used buy - see the (e.g.) Bada Marketplace; Linn Kolektor and LK85 pre-power combo was very well rated in its' day (2000) and you could haggle a deal for instance and would definately beat the A400. £400 gets you more for your money, so it's worth considering. New, the Linns came in at about £1000 incidentally.

4) Computer thing if you don't mind faffing around with downloads, uploads, nothing to hold and talking bitrates to bore people with. If God has wanted us to have all round joy in music he'd have made the record deck. Ah! See 1.

 

[Thaiman]

Keep the Dyn and Rotel, spend the whole £400 on an amp that have a meaty output and the improvment will be massive.

 

[drummerman]

Thaiman:Keep the Dyn and Rotel, spend the whole £400 on an amp that have a meaty output and the improvment will be massive.

Agree. Then as a next step perhaps change the player or add a DacMagic. Personally I never thought much about rotel players though in all fairness, it's been a good while since I've heard one so perhaps I like them now, a bit like Kef's

.

Regards

 

[Anonymous]

Hughes123:From me personally, I would by more CDs and an FM tuner (such as the afore mentioned Denon and with a proper roof aerial.)Hughes! Shock!

A man of your retro sensibilities not advocating wax?!

 

[Anonymous]

Thaiman:Keep the Dyn and Rotel, spend the whole £400 on an amp that have a meaty output and the improvment will be massive.

meaty? the pioneer has more than enough grunt across the whole bandwidth. im not saying its perfect but for the money its a whole lot of amp! further to that i am currently looking to upgrade from my A400. to do so though i am looking at the Naim Nait 5i, Cyrus 8vs2 and the Arcam A28. im going to demo them tomorrow and then take my favourite for a home trial. and to answer an earlier question yes the A400 does have a phono stage - both MM and MC.

 

[Anonymous]

Wow, Thanks for all your advice people! It seems that most agree that he would be taking a sideways step changing something with only 400 to spend (without going vinyl). He really isnt a vinyl fan anymore - House is dusty as hell (open fires) and kids/dogs running round only add to problems. I like the idea of the computer option as I am a big fan of the whole digital music thing. I like the idea of having a media centre type pc with his cd's ripped on - will definately look into the possibility of getting one. Anyone had any experiences with these things? Also, what are DACS?

 

[Anonymous]

A DAC is Digital to Analog Converter - basically its a standalone device that you can send a digital signal to (either from you PC or CD player) and it will convert it to an analog signal which you will then be able to send to your amplifier.
the advantage of doing this is that these standalone DACs or (typically) of much higher quality than the ones you will have in your PC and your CD player (if it is more than 5 yeras old).