what would you do ?

[pauldownton1979]

as i keep saying - time is near for upgrade! funds are being finalised. prob £450. how would you use it for most noticeable upgrade from gear stated in my sig ?

i dont know wether to max out on the speakers, or keep enough back for a 2nd hand/ex dem/graded amp too. im defo going to keep my cdp for now as i think i will have to spend alot to beat it so unless granny stumps up proper birthday money next week....................!!

my amp is only 30wpc, its ok with most speakers, but the odd pair ive seen on bay need a bit more power.

if i do go cheap net deal or 2nd han etc i wont be privvy to demos, is there anything that wont go well with my cdp ?

im leaning towards floorstanders as i wont need to buget for stands, if i do go standmount ill prob buy mezzos which ive heard and like alot#

theres deals to be had for q 1050i, dont know much about them, but good reviews

if a get an amp i may look at audiolab 8000s, would they go with the 1050i's ?

then theres 2nd hand marantz ose ki versions from years gone by - how would they compare to the just superseeded 6002 ? which ones are worth looking out for pm66se/67se etc ?

been looking for a while now and getting more confused!

listen to everything

 

[pauldownton1979]

how much room will i need for the 1050i's ? my room is 3x5m they will be about 14" from rear wall, 10" from side wall and about 2m apart.

 

[a91gti]

I'd have to say a new cdp and interconnect would reap most benefit.

 

[pauldownton1979]

the cdp is fantastic and im not selling, tho i agree with the interconnect. im looking at getting a chord crimson.

 

[rtweed]

On the assumption that you want to spend that 450 quid in the wisest way to get maximum sound improvement for every pound you spend:

I'm going to assume that you mainly play CDs and you don't play vinyl records or listen to FM radio through your system. If your current CD player has an SPDIF optical or coax output then I'd first spend about 150 quid on a DAC such as the Beresford - you should get an immediate improvement in your sound. Unless it's a complete piece of junk, the raw digital output from your CD player will do the job of delivering all the 1's and 0's from your CDs to the DAC which will then do a proper job of turning it into an analogue signal like you've never heard it before.

If you want to get better speakers, get some second hand Mission or similar bookshelf speakers and second-hand stands on EBay - it took me a while but I managed to do this when getting the speakers before the current ones I use. There are good bargains out there. As a rule of thumb I reckoned that you should be able to get second-hand speakers for about half their original price. Check out online historical reviews or see if your local library has back-issues of hi-fi mags from a few years ago to allow you to put together a shortlist of speakers worth bidding for. You'll generally find that unless you're spending huge sums on speakers, you'll get the best sound for your pound with bookshelf speakers. Provided the stand you put them on is pretty dead acoustically (fill the tubes with builder's sand from your local B&Q), you should get a great sound from them and ultra-expensive stands won't make a particularly significant difference.

If you've gone the DAC route then you don't need an integrated amp any more, and there are some amazing power amps out there that aren't targetted at the hi-fi market but nevertheless deliver seriously high-end sound for ridiculously low cost. I swear by my Behringer A500 which costs 150 quid, but there are similar amps from Alesis and others. Check out stores such as Digital Village and Dolphin who cater for the home studio and DJ markets.

Forget about spending any of your limited funds on cables - unless you're currently using absolute rubbish connectors, you're unlikely to hear any difference whatsoever. These days the one part of the audio chain that makes the most difference sound-wise are your speakers. Everything else now uses commodity electronics and components and sonically the differences tend to be subtle at best, though lots of people will try to persuade you otherwise

The bottom line is: spend those pounds wisely and you'll be surprised how little money you have to spend on anything other than your speakers.

 

[chebby]

Consider an upgrade for your Rotel CD player. (Assuming yours 'qualifies' as the right type.)

[Late edit] Scrub that suggestion unless you are OK soldering things. I thought Netaudio fitted these upgrades but upon further reading, they don't. Sorry.

This should leave you around £350 - £400 for a new amp or new speakers. (One or the other. Don't spread it too thin by getting both.)

The Audiolab 8000S can be found easily within this price with enough left over for that Crimson interconnect.

If spending on speakers instead then look at this seller's £349 + £20 p&p offer for brand new/unused/boxed Rega R3's.

Until Rega brought out the RS range recently, the Rega R3's were £500. They are superb and will serve you through more amp/CDP upgrades in future with no problem. They are quite efficient at 89db so will make the most of your RA-820AX.

I don't know much about your Aegis 2 floorstanders so I don't know whether the system will benefit most from an upgrade to amp or speakers.

 

[the record spot]

Going by your earlier reply, if you are happy with the CDP and I'm assuming then that you don't wish to add an offboard DAC, then I'd look at the speakers first and then the amp. Does the Rotel amp have the means to add a Rotel power amp? That might be another consideration; you can often pick up the 970-series power amps for less than £100 off Ebay and in excellent condition typically too.

 

[pauldownton1979]

thanks for the advice guys - some good suggestions there.

record spot - i was thinking the same mate but alas no pre outs, so a non starter, tho i know you know your retro marantz. what ose/ki models shoul i look out for ?

chebby - thanks for the heads up, superb suggestion, im only 35m from the shop and the missus loves the piano black model, so its looking good, i will go for a demo soon and compare with the mezzo 2 i listend to last week. i have now gone back to my original plan to max out on speakers and leave the amp for another day, unless i see something unmissable. i'd also been looking at the audiolab chebby. am i right in thinking the 8000s is the successor to the 8000a ?

chord crimson - is the same price i paid for a ca pacific i/c 2 yrs ago - is it going to improve much, or am i better looking at a qed spiral or chord cobra ?

its all fun isnt it ?!!!

 

[pauldownton1979]

ive got a great price on some ex demo monitor audio rs1's, so they are the first component i will build my system around. would cambridge 540cv2 amp make to bright a pairing ?

2nd hand wise, what would go well - marantz such as 6010 se or pm66se , nad arcam alpha ?

or should i stick with the rotel ? i think may be a bit lean tbh.

this is very much a system to progress, so im not to worried if i have to stick with what i have for now

budget around £100 -£120

like rock mostly, i like a forward, detailed soundstage, hence the speaker purchase.

 

[pauldownton1979]

decided to keep my money and stick with the rotel combo for a while longer and properly anaylize my new setup before the next purchase and not just panic buy. i nearly got a marantz 6010 se but didnt want to go to the price tbh. ive given my old rotels the best chance to impress me by spending the cash on another run of rumour 2 to biwire, some decent atacame stands and a chord crimson should be on the way too.

that lot only came to £65 so spent the rest on 12 albums off ebay on the graveyard shift last night - all uncontested bids!

cant wait to get them and give them all a spin

been 6 days without speakers now though, new ones should arrive friday - well hope so anyway coz i need a fix - this is hell hope its worth the wait!!!