2. misc-audio
  3. 1134183184

New to the Hobby what would you do next?

I have spent six to eight months trying to stretch my very Modest sub $1000 budget on my first audio system. It started when I was looking to upgrade my HT system from a cheap Onkyo reciever and Cd changer to an older Carver amp/preamp combo. I had $600 and a few parts to sell to get the starting budget to about $1000.
Long story short I spent months buying "value used components" but never getting the last piece to be able to listen to music.
I went from Adcom, to JBL Synthesis, to NAD and ended up finding an Odyssey amp that has made me very happy. The Adcom processor, JBL processor, led to a Passive Odyssey preamp. And my Polk audio LS 50 were sold to make room for Vandersteen 1B, sold to make room for DCM TF400, that are going to be leaving soon to make room for Chapman T-7 speakers.
I have a cheap Pioneer DV-578A SACD/DVD player model and a Denon DCD 3250 cd player and some garbage ICs. I have Impact Accoustics sonic wave speaker wire and ICs.

The question is: What would you do next?

I know that there are tons of "tweaks" that can make this sound better for a few bucks. I have read about small little boxes that help the cd sound. I wanted a tuved cd, but could never find one in my range.

At this point I will keep looking for the "right speaker" and a Odyssey Stratos Extreem Amp and eventually a better preamp. But I would like to tinker with what I have without making any huge changes.

Any and all help welcomed.
brownsanandy

Showing 2 responses by qualia8

qualia8
49 posts
 
Best bang-for-buck investment I ever made... if you haven't already done so...

$3 at Home Depot for sand to fill your stands. Also mount speakers on stands with spikes and stand-to-floor with spikes also. Whoa! These things, all done at once, made a *major* improvement in bass. It got much tighter and a little louder. Made more of a difference than adding a 1K+ DAC setup to my multiplayer. In fact, made as much difference as going from a cheap Yamaha receiver to a Classe integrated (or more).
qualia8
49 posts
 
I want to second Warner's post, above. Room acoustics for some reason doesn't seem as sexy as equipment, but IMO it makes a bigger difference for the $. Here's one more thing to try...

get your rack out from between your speakers. As I see the pic on your system thread, your speakers are no taller than your rack, and it's directly between them. When I took my tv, and then my rack, out from between the speakers, I got a huge improvement in imaging. (I went so far as to remove everything from center except my amp.)

you could just try pulling the speakers forward, and maybe also mounting them on top of some blocks to get the tweeters to ear-level.
More to discover