Best Bang for the Buck Upgrade


So I have an unexpected bonus coming my way and may want to dedicate a portion of it to a system upgrade. Let's say 5-7k. Current system is Pioneer S-1ex speakers, Cambridge CXC transport, Musical Fidelity A1008 integrated, Burson Composer 3xp dac. Cables are mid grade nothing fancy but better than stock. Not really interested in streaming at the moment.

So for a descent chunk of change what should I be looking at? If I sold the speakers I could probably go up to 10k for another pair (used always) but I really don't think I have come close yet to maxing out the potential of these Pioneers (tad). 

mofojo

Showing 1 response by discopants

Subwoofers do bring so much to the party if you can integrate them with your system and room well, even though your speakers are almost full range.

Room treatments, are a good suggestion.

Getting your power right is also a good call but this is very dependant on your own situation as to how much benefit you will get.

I would also reccomend you look at isolation for you components. Decoupling is the way to go. Speakers and source components benefit the most. I'm using a mix of isoacoustics, stillpoints and black ravioli in my system. I would reccomend black ravioli if you are starting from scratch for most components but speakers and turntables do like something springy like Townshend or isoacoustics.

Once all that is sorted you will start to get good benefits from well sorted cabling lots of options for DIY here.

Finally don't ignore tweaks such as contact enhancers, fuses rfi/emi control and ground plane reference voltage.

If you want some immediate noticeable improvements get black ravioli big pads for your source and DAC. They will lower the noise floor giving you more details improved soundstage and better bass and tone.