Which upgrade?

[Naxos]

Hi all -

I'd really welcome some advice. My current set-up is listed below, and I'm now looking to upgrade. Initially I was simply thinking of sampling new loudspeakers along the lines of Spendor A6, Neat Elite SX, Proacs or similar - although I still rather like my venerable Keilidhs. But then I started thinking maybe a PSX-R for the Cyrus or Hi-Cap 2 for the Supernait might be an effective option. Long-term it would be nice to do all these, but where might you spend your money initially? Budget is around £2k.

My listening is around 80% classical, including organ, but quite a bit of rock and jazz too.

Thanks all!

 

[shooter]

Its all about maximising what you have with the available funds.

Personally i would change the Keilidhs and the P3.

Though the Keilidhs are a good speaker your really not hearing the full potential of the Supernait with them. You will get recommendations galore on what speakers to use with the Naim but i would seriously consider Dynaudio. Ive heard a Naim/Dyn set up and it was very nice sound.High in detail and dynamics but also very pleasing on the ear. With the Super i would consider the Dynaudio Contour 1.8 MK2. These are no longer produced but the latest guise S3.4 cost around the 4k mark but are not as musical as the Contours. They have a good frequency response 28hz/30khz, ideal for vinyl playback. The Contours come up on the second hand market pretty regular if you don't mind going in that direction.
Regarding the the P3, again its a good budget TT for a mid priced set up. I would demo a Clearaudio Concept TT or a VPI Scoutmaster (google it) both are a serious step up in performance over the P3 and bring the system into kilt. Obviously you will need to upgrade the phono stage and cart but if your a serious vinyl listener like myself the outlay for a good TT set up will out way the outlay 10 fold.
Just to mention i'm a VPI user.
Goog luck.

 

[Naxos]

Thanks Shooter -

Yes, I'm still preferring the speaker option as making the most obvious sound difference, while maybe scouting for a used PSX-R online if funds allow. A dealer did recommend the Dynaudio Focus 110, which is a bit more in my budget, although I'm certainly not adverse to second hand or ex-dem. I mention the new Neat Elites as Naim and Neat also seem to go together particularly well from what I've read - anybody heard them?

Don't shoot me, but I'm probably going to sell the P3 and the phono stage anyway to help fund my upgrade as I simply don't get the use out of them, much as I love vinyl. I also happen to have a producer friend who is happy to transcribe the odd favourite vinyl-only album into a digital format for me - heresey, I know!

 

[shooter]

Naxos:
Don't shoot me, but I'm probably going to sell the P3 and the phono stage anyway to help fund my upgrade as I simply don't get the use out of them, much as I love vinyl. I also happen to have a producer friend who is happy to transcribe the odd favourite vinyl-only album into a digital format for me - heresey, I know!

As the majority of your listening is classical i would of thought LP to be the best medium. It's a shame were loosing an avid vinyl user to CD but if thats the case maybe speaker and CD to SACD upgrade is a possibility. There seems to be a lot of classical is being released in this format and this would give a good insight to the music.

 

[Naxos]

I hear you, shooter, but I don't want to junk the CD8 SE as I really like it, and the PSX-R would, I'm sure, improve it still more, but I'm generally a bit confused about where to spend my money first. Any other suggestions would be gratefully received.