What would you upgrade?

Thank you all for the great responses/recommendations.

1. I do have 5k going nuclear in my pocket. It's money that I've saved on the side specifically for this hobby.

2. High ceilings...definitely. Speakers are in a space that has a loft, but the speakers are in an area where there are 2 stories up before any ceiling space is hit. One side wall is 4 feet away, the other about 15. It's an odd space but it's home.

3. Listing to jazz, electronic, and rock primarily. 320kbs MP3 through Spotify from the MacBook Pro. Planning to add a turntable soon.

4. What I do not like about the current system:

A. High amont of distortion from the tube pre's, even after swapping the tubes (pretty good ones at that). Both may be defective, which annoys me considering both are less then a year old. Different distortion for each one, so it's definitely the amps. The Emo is dead quiet by itself, and I ran the pre out from the Peachtree through it with the same results.

B. I've heard some very nice sounding towers and it seems to have me longing for a speaker that has a fuller bottom end. I like the idea of going 2.0 as this is primarily a music system. The Focals drop out at 50hz and the Totems at 42hz, but that's at the expense of too much midrange in my opinion.

C. A twice repaired and still defective Decco65. 2 times the USB implementation has been repaired. It's been fine since the second repair about 6 months ago, but it's only got about 15 hours on that particular input because I no longer trust it, leaving DAC duty to the DacMagic. Additionaly, when at low volumes, the Peachtree clips out signal to the left speaker. The volume must be raised higher on the Peachtree's dial (then lowered on the computer) to get signal to both L and R. Though I do not think its a bad sounding amp, it does strike me as a bit on the warm side. I ran it into the tweets of the Totems (with the Emo's on the bottom) and the sound seemed very congested compared to the Emo being on the tweets. The bass was also flabbier with the Peachtree on the bottom. They may just not be a good match I suppose.

D. While the Dacmagic has been rock solid and reliable, I sometimes feel like the sound is a bit sterile. Too clean, I suppose, and almost a tough listen without tubes between it and the amp. I chalk it up mostly to the content it's being fed, so I suppose I am looking for a DAC/Amp combo that will be a little more forgiving of the less then stellar recording practices used by some of the musicians that I listen too.

I feel like a high quality tube pre or integrated could go a long way for the Focals, but I'm not sure I want to pick out an amp that will complement them should I decide to go for towers I the end.

Hopefully that sheds a bit more light. I apologize for being so vague in the original post.

Sabi, I agree. I really enjoy the Rainmakers for Jazz specifically, but in all other areas (except low end extension) they seem inferior to the Focals. I think the Totems will end up in the bedroom as background music to fall asleep too.

Hi Mesch.

Thanks for the reply.

You touch on point worthy of discussion. How we listen.

The way I listen is primarily the 'background music' way, with my stereo in the background while I'm doing something else. No dedicated listening room with one chair in the middle. Nothing wrong with that at all, just nothing right about it for me.

Most of the time I'm not listening super critically. Just looking for a fuller range of sound then what I currently have speaker wise, as well as higher quality components then the ones that I'm having some trouble with at the moment. I'm planning on going to demo a pair of 1027be tomorrow if possible as I'm not ruling out the Focal sound all together. They might get 75% of the way there if all goes well.

Regarding formats, perhaps "on life support" is a better way to put it, Cerrot.

That's not to say their sound quality is not more enjoyable, as I know vinyl to sometimes be. Which is why I've considered adding a turntable in the first place.

Still, 25-40% of the budget would be overkill for an item that would be used less then 25% of the time, in my opinion. I'd sooner take that money and invest more in a DAC to max my return on digital playback.

Thank you all for the responses!

BCgator, I agree on the source material not being of the finest quality, no doubt about it. I thinks that's why I'm looking for a setup that is a little more forgiving then what I currently have.

The DirectSteam DAC looks really nice, but the focus seems to be on CD's and DSD. I do not own any CD's, only a vinyl collection that's been collecting dust for about 10 years. Have not really looked hard at DSD yet because I can not find much content that I would enjoy listening too. Truthfully I have not looked that hard because I do not have a DSD capable DAC.

Regarding a turntable, I'd like to stay somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 assuming the amp/pre I end up with has a phono stage. If not, I would probably budget around $700.

I'm starting to think that selling off my entire amp/speaker setup and reinvesting might be the way to go, not to mention it would increase my budget to around 8k. That changes things a bit.

Michael, regarding the Totem Hawks, I plan to listen to them tomorrow at a shop in New Jersey. They seem to be on AG on a regular basis at good prices. I feel good about the Rainmakers regarding Jazz but nothing else, really. Are the Hawks that different that they'll be able to cover more types of music comfortably? I plan to research the Plinous tonight. Any other recommendations for a full ranger that covers rock/jazz/electronic well? Starting with the speaker and working backwards would seem to make the most sense.

Thank you all again for taking the time. Regardless of how long it takes or where it ends up, I'll report back once the dust settles.

Agreed, noromance. Scratch the turntable all together. If I'm heavily investing in dead formats I might as well go out an buy a SACD player.

Which reminds me..

Any OPPO owners in this thread? I've read amazing things about its capabilities as a DAC and could kill 2 birds with one stone using it for bluray as well. Any users with any of the tube modified ones?

Thanks, Paul.

I'm noticing a trend here. Everyone is very emphatic about the source. Perhaps I will give HDtracks another go. Maybe my system with turn into something completely different then I've been used to. Only drawback is there is significantly less content available at this point.

I do like the "buy the best you can afford" idea instead do spreading thin, though. Maybe 1 major upgrade every 3-5 years.

M-dab, I like the idea about speaker specific forums. I should take some photos and get some suggestions on how I could best handle the room situation. I can also use the loft upstairs and take care of a lot do the issue I face setting up downstairs, however, that's a much smaller room with quite low ceilings. Worth getting opinions for sure.

I ended up demoing the 1028BE's today and really enjoyed them. It looks like I'll be able to get great trade value on both sets of speakers and the sub so I think I'll be pulling the trigger on them this week. I think they'd overpower the loft so downstairs might be the only option.

I'll be bringing the Peachtree/MacBook Pro in to demo with the Focals. Should he interesting too see how they play together.

I hear ya. The dealer was giving me crap about it, too. I have plenty of CD rips of long gone disks as well as a plethora of FLAC files on my computer that I fire up on occasion, but I always seem to come back to Spotify. I think I enjoy music discovery more then anything else these days.

Best part was that I brought my girlfriend with me to the demo. She fell more in love with the 1028be's then I did (though I really enjoyed them as well). She was able to easily differentiate between them and the Aria 936, which was kind of cool to hear. She's going to invest in a CD player since we have a shop nearby with a massive selection and she's actually quite adamant about upgrading now. Regardless of where the journey takes us, life is good.

Thanks again for the reply, Bcgator. I played around with the volume level setting after your recommendation and I, too, noticed a difference. I guess it's applying some kind of compression to keep all tracks at the same level. Great find for sure.

Additionally, iOS version of spotify finally brought the EQ back. I believe it's a 6 band. Made my day when I saw it.

I went out and bought some CD's the other day as well. I can not argue that they don't sound better then MP3, which I always knew, but needed a refresher. Xbox One will suffice as a transport for now.

Just as an update to the gear quest, heading to the shop tomorrow morning to order the 1028be. I do not expect the Decco65 to floor me when the 2 are combined. It looks like my next focus will be on amplification.

Sorry to bump this again, but now that the speakers have been chosen, I'm looking specifically for an integrated amp.

While the Decco65 has been problamatic at times, the thing that was great about it was it was a DAC, preamp, and amp all in one with a volume control.

Right now I'm leaning towards a refurbished Grand Integrated X-1 for $3000 primarily because I do not know of good competing products in that price range. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Home Theater is not a concern as the speakers will be 90% music 10% video games and movies.

Thank you!

Noromance, any particular reason you'd mention the Rogue amp? The price is certainly right, but do you think it will have enough power in the long run? I read up a bit on that amp and it seems quite user friendly regarding basing and such. I would also need to add a dac/digital pre to get all of my sources (tv, AppleTV, Xbox One, computer) routed to it.

Bcgator, I'm guessing the x-1 functions very similarly to the Decco65, only it performs better in most respects. I loved the convenience of the D65 with all of its digital inputs. And a remote...need that remote for sure. It seems like a great fit.