2. amps-preamps
  3. 1129306873

upgrade advice for budget-minded beginner

I was looking for some advice on possible upgrade paths. I'm new to this A'gon community and want to get the most out of my "investments" since I'm a college student with limited funds. Currently, I have B&W 602s with an old Denon DCD1000, Yamaha M-60, and a Kenwood pre that needs to go. My noise floor is just awful, the highs are very forward and bright, and alot of music sounds lifeless and overtly digital.
I was considering the Onix reference 1/SP3/XCD88 combo for $1500, but wasn't sure if the Ref1's would be a huge step up from my 602s thus justifying the purchase. Also, I've never heard a tube amp, and although the characteristic naturalness and soundstage abilities seem to be what I'm looking for the supposed lack of woofer control and low wattage make me a bit nervous.
Another option I was toying with was keeping the Yamaha M-60 and adding an Eastern Electric Minimax preamp and possibly CDP to my setup hoping to take the edge off the highs, open up my soundstage, and eliminate background noise.
Basically, I was wondering what people that have more experience with this hobby think would yield the most "bang for the buck" in my situation. I want a deep and broad soundstage, natural sounding mids, musical highs, and authoritative bass but don't want to spend an arm and a leg to get it (like everyone else, I'm sure!). I'd appreciate any input, and am sorry about the length of the post.
ethanh

Showing 1 response by tobias

tobias
1,534 posts
 
Hi Ethan. Rich's advice (Rar1) is excellent, as usual. Notice that he's talking about your front end. For many of us, speakers are the last thing to upgrade. This is because it is easier, musically, to live with speakers that partially reveal a great source, than to live with speakers that let absolutely all of an ordinary source come through.

If the Onix is really the same as the old Music Hall 25/Shanling CD-S100 I used to have and traded to my brother for a nice guitar, go for it. It is the best you can find for the money, even including vintage. Upgrade the power cord when you can, it will like that.

I like the NAD C320 BEE so much, I bought... no not the company, I bought three of the amps. If you are an audio phool you might get more pleasure out of buying ( and restoring ) vintage for the same money, but the NAD is simple to use, does all you need and sounds great. If you are a borderline phool, it is tweakable, with better jumpers, power cord and terminals.

Note that this combination of source and amp is not going to cost a whole lot. Easy to find too. You can get the C320 BEE used here ( and maybe the CD-25 too, but for only a tad less than the Onix new ).

Once you have all that, plus cables, your next upgrade step will be... no not the speakers. Start all over again at the source, and work downstream through the amp. Then you can change the speakers!
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