which speaker recomendations for this system...

Keep what you have, it seems to be a pretty nice marriage. Take the money that you were going to use for the upgrade and buy some movies and cds. "If it works, don't try to fix it"!

You don't mention why you want to upgrade. Well, you gave an excuse but an excuse is not necessarily a reason. Sounds like you simply have the upgrade bug. If that's the case and you are just searching for better performance, I'd like to offer the following recommendations with the assumption that you're on a relatively tight budget and you simply want better transparency, detail, dynamics, soundstaging, and generally better musicality.

1. B&K usually receives decent to good ratings in the home theater mags but that's all. However, about 4 months back, Perfect Vision happened to rate the B&K Ref 30 pre as nice for an all around ht setup but slandered it pretty good for music repro. I'd sell it and look for a more musically oriented pre/pro like Classe or Primare, used of course. That will probably be your biggest bang for the buck right now as far as swapping components out. And if you get a good sell from your B&K, it may not cost much.

2. Your Sony DVP-S7700 DVD player most likely far out performs your Yamaha cd player, so why not sell the Yamaha also? I wouldn't bother with the dac.

3. Look toward installing dedicated circuits and lines for your amp, pre, and dvd player by either you or your electrician. Having your amp on it's own circuit could really open up the dynamic headroom even at low volume levels. It's amazing how even having a low power drawing component like a pre-amp on the same circuit can/will draw just enough juice from the amp to make your presentation sound rather flat and lifeless. Also, if possible, the dvd player should be on an entirely seperate circuit from the amp and pre because of the digital noise cd and dvd players generate back into the ac lines for the next component to deal with.

4. Room acoustics actually account for up to 80% of the sonics of your system. Research that part and see what improvements you can do for free.

5. Install some relatively inexpensive power conditioners for your 3 main components. Can present a large sonic improvement.

6. Speaker placement should be a serious consideration as well if you want a large deep and wide soundstage, well defined bass, etc..

All the above could actually cost you very little , yet help your system lean toward the high-end in it's sonic capabilities. If you did the above, then you would probably have a much better understanding what your system is really capable of and where it's weakest links are.

BTW, it really shouldn't matter much whether you're more into movies or music. However, imo, if you focus your attention on excellent music reproduction, then whatever movies you watch should also sound that much better.

Good luck,

I have spent considerable time with silvers and minis. The minis image better and are much less intrusive. If you love bass, stick with the Golds. They can't be beat for bass. Regardless, keep the sub.

Upgrading your CD will help but if you have digital outs, using the built in b&k d/a will help. However, if you want to hear a big change, you do need new speakers.

If you set the B&K's built in crossover properly, smaller speakers will still have as much impact with the PSB sub and probably image better. Want detail, imaging and amazing music, try smaller Thiels, any Coincident, Martin Logans or just about any B&W (I would gladly take 805s or even the 600 series over the golds any day). Good Luck

Sell the Yamaha and buy a quality new 24 bit / 192 kHz "upsampling" CD player that also is able to decode HDCD discs.

I think Cary, Electrocompaniet, and Accuphase all produce good units that will do this.

I'm currious...I'm looking at your system and would ilke to know what your complaints are? Why are you looking to upgrade? Are you not satisfied with the music sound reproduction, or is the movie playback not up to what you expect???
Anyway, I'd want to know what seeds of thought you have that are leading you to want to change. The speakers you have ought to yield you much better than average results, infact very good! They are the most important pieces in your equipment chain, for sure. I've sold these speakers,and know they do very well.
Your room/set-up is critical however (at least 50% of the sound), and must take care to set speakers properly in relation to seating, plus acoustical considerations and treatments.
How's your cabling? What are you using?..that makes a big difference as well. Also, power supply/conditioners/outlets.
Let me know. I've sold/bought/heard/used it all pretty much, and can help I think.
E. Alexander

I wouldn't recommend upgrading to a DAC for it. Granted, it would sound better, but the digital out for that model is 48.something (yes, NOT 44 and unfortunately not 96). If you were to modify the input, I'd shoot for a new CD player that does 24/96 HDCD (HDCD is AMAZING). I did add a Monarchy 24/96 DIP to reduce jitter, and I've found the bass to be more tonally accurate and a tad bit deeper. Not a bad $250 upgrade.

I always recommend better speakers to people. I own PSB Stratus Golds and have been auditioning speakers for the last 5-6 months. My electronics are better than yours (EAD Ovation/EAD PowerMaster 2000) and I still can't get the Golds to image right, even though I love their tonal quality. There are tons of better speakers out there to try, including Ariel, Revel, and B&W and many reviews. I strongly suggest you audition everything yourself - do NOT buy them if you haven't heard them. Then look for the desired model used.

You may want to consider maintaining your existing system, which is perfectly good at home theater and adding a new music system. I've been a complete digital nut, but I recently put my hands on a tube set-up and the sound is mind bending...

Your system is pretty balanced. Have you thought about upgrading the electronics instead? What is your budget? Is music important to you? The Yamaha CD player could go and replace it with a DAC running off the DVD player for music.