A quality (tube of course) pre-amp will definitely make the most dramatic difference. Yes, source components are very important but amplification of the signal is even more so. As others have stated, digital is constantly changing. Expensive digital is not the best way to spend your money and the sonic differences from moderately priced digital components to the upper echelon are more moderate in comparison to the improvement realized in lower to upper end amplifying devices IMHO. Of front end components, only analog (tt, cartridges, arms) offer big enough improvements to justify the price increments you must pay to attain better sound.
Preamp or CD Player for Best Sonic Improvement
Hello,
I'm new to this forum. I have been considering an upgrade for my system & have come up with the following options.I have not being able to make up my mind yet so i shall very much appreciate any suggestions & comments.
(1) Upgrade my pre to a Mac TUBE C2200. ( I will only consider Mac for now )
(2) Upgrade my source to either Linn Ikemi or electrocompaniet EMC1UP.
Either way i will be upgrading my source at some point but right now i'm only interested in the option which will give me the best sonic improvement TODAY as i will not be able to upgrade again for sometime(at least for 2 years).I have to say that i will prefer option 1,the TUBES, if it can give me the best sonic improvement for the next 2 years till i can afford a better source.Is this correct or should it be vise versa ????
My sys - Linn Genki CDP,Mac MA6900,TDL Reference Studio Monitors(18Hz-20Khz),Transparent Cables
Thanks a lot for the replies,
Dylon
I'm new to this forum. I have been considering an upgrade for my system & have come up with the following options.I have not being able to make up my mind yet so i shall very much appreciate any suggestions & comments.
(1) Upgrade my pre to a Mac TUBE C2200. ( I will only consider Mac for now )
(2) Upgrade my source to either Linn Ikemi or electrocompaniet EMC1UP.
Either way i will be upgrading my source at some point but right now i'm only interested in the option which will give me the best sonic improvement TODAY as i will not be able to upgrade again for sometime(at least for 2 years).I have to say that i will prefer option 1,the TUBES, if it can give me the best sonic improvement for the next 2 years till i can afford a better source.Is this correct or should it be vise versa ????
My sys - Linn Genki CDP,Mac MA6900,TDL Reference Studio Monitors(18Hz-20Khz),Transparent Cables
Thanks a lot for the replies,
Dylon