Douglas, What do you mean by "better quality/detail"? Do you find your present combo lacks or has too much "detail", that is its too dull or bright? If you could be a bit more specific about the tonal qualities you are looking for and what you now have it might be more helpful. Also, as you are aware the Maggies like power - so you might comment on the types of music you listen to and how loud you play it. My gut reaction to your question is you could probably get a lot of mileage out of changing your preamp/amp combo but the Unico would be underpowered for your speakers unless you don't listen to them very loud and you have a small room. There are many alternatives.........
Mistake to
In the never ending quest for the "holy grail" of music, I'm wondering if I'm being tempted to make a mistake by possibly purchasing a component that may take me further away from my goal... I'd like some advice from the illustrious Audion community!
I currently have the following front end: Ah! Njoe Tjoeb 4000 with upsampler going into Audio Research LS-9 (solid state pre), which feeds into four channels of an Outlaw 755 (200 wpc) biamping each of my Magnepan 1.6QR's.
My question: Is it diminishing returns to try a high quality integrated amp, such as the Unison Research Unico, with only 80 watts/channel? I'm assuming that the LS-9 would have as high a quality as the Unico. Is that assumption correct? Has anyone listened to the Unico and AR LS-9? Assuming that the LS-9's pre capabilities are in the same league as the preamp section on the Unico, I'd be lowering the power in the system and not getting as much from my inefficient Magnepans as I could using the LS-9 and Outlaw amp combo.
I have come to love the sense of power using biamping with the 1.6's and would prefer not to revert back to lower power, but would consider doing so IF, and only if, using a high quality integrated would give me significantly better quality/detail of sound than now.
Or, would I be better served to seek an upgrade to my cd player? And if that's the case, are there good candidates in the 1k range for replacing the Ah! Njoe Tjoeb?
So, what would put me farther ahead? Eliminating a component and cable by moving to a quality integrated amp, or upgrading the cd? I'm trying to stay within the budget of about $1k (Audiogon used equipment) for a cd upgrade, or about 1.5k for a potential integrated upgrade. This may be unrealistic, but is my ideal, and starting point.
Thinking in terms of possibly going back to an integrated amp has me scared. This may be a big mistake. I definitely don't want to make a blunder unnecessarily.
I appreciate your thoughts and hardware suggestions!
I currently have the following front end: Ah! Njoe Tjoeb 4000 with upsampler going into Audio Research LS-9 (solid state pre), which feeds into four channels of an Outlaw 755 (200 wpc) biamping each of my Magnepan 1.6QR's.
My question: Is it diminishing returns to try a high quality integrated amp, such as the Unison Research Unico, with only 80 watts/channel? I'm assuming that the LS-9 would have as high a quality as the Unico. Is that assumption correct? Has anyone listened to the Unico and AR LS-9? Assuming that the LS-9's pre capabilities are in the same league as the preamp section on the Unico, I'd be lowering the power in the system and not getting as much from my inefficient Magnepans as I could using the LS-9 and Outlaw amp combo.
I have come to love the sense of power using biamping with the 1.6's and would prefer not to revert back to lower power, but would consider doing so IF, and only if, using a high quality integrated would give me significantly better quality/detail of sound than now.
Or, would I be better served to seek an upgrade to my cd player? And if that's the case, are there good candidates in the 1k range for replacing the Ah! Njoe Tjoeb?
So, what would put me farther ahead? Eliminating a component and cable by moving to a quality integrated amp, or upgrading the cd? I'm trying to stay within the budget of about $1k (Audiogon used equipment) for a cd upgrade, or about 1.5k for a potential integrated upgrade. This may be unrealistic, but is my ideal, and starting point.
Thinking in terms of possibly going back to an integrated amp has me scared. This may be a big mistake. I definitely don't want to make a blunder unnecessarily.
I appreciate your thoughts and hardware suggestions!