Who's to blame for the Grain??

Thanks for all the advice guys. I think I'll be upgrading my source first. I haved to admit,,,,,,,,,,,I kinda like the convenience of having all of my cd's in one player but I always knew that the CD changer would have to go. I've been reading good things about that new Philips 963 Cd player. I've also heard that tube cd players are supposed to be extremeley smooth ( Jolida, AH tjoeb, etc).

Zaikesman-----I will take your advice. I will wait until the new speakers get hear before I make any changes. This will also give me a few weeks to save up a litlle more money. Maybe during that time I can narrow down my choice of the best cd player for my system. I really do like the way that Shanling CD-T100 looks but from what I hear, it looks a lot better than it sounds. That would take me almost 2 months to save for anyway.

Any more suggestions on a good starter Pre-amp?

I find Zaikesman's advice excellent, because it does not swamp you with subjective recommendations, but tells you how to proceed carefully and objectively. After all it is YOUR ears and YOUR pocketbook. Grain is indeed a nasty thing to have and to my experience it is most often in the amplification chain, sometimes in the speakers, rarely in the wires, sometimes in the "juice", depending where you live and the quality of your power-grid. But that I would tackle last, if at all. I would follow Zaike's advice and familiarise myself with the new speakers first, before proceeding to the preamp. Perhaps you could borrow a unit from somebody and see what difference it would make. If it does not, I would first try switching interconnects and learn about their influence on sound, before tackling the amp, always trying to borrow gear and to experiment. It takes time and patience, especially the latter, because as Z. has so rightly pointed out, you should limit your variables, best in one step at a time. Happy experimenting!

The source. I believe that is always the best place to start. It's going to be the beginning of the end of your system as you know it, now. Welcome to the world of audiomania. Have fun and go with it. Start with the best cdp you can go for. You'll be on your way. You will, eventually, get rid of that grain. WARNING: there are plenty of other things out there to bother you (soundwise) other than, just, grain. With my 2 cents as well as everybody elses, you'll have a few bucks worth of good suggestions. peace, warren

First, how is your cd player connected? Digital or Analog? If you are using digital then a tube cd player is not going to help you unless you switch to a non-digitizing pre-amp (or you have analog bypass). If you are using digital, look at the Audio Alchemy DTI, for $50 it will help to remove a lot of digital hash. I went through a similiar situation and decided to split my HT from my 2 channel. Ended up selling my klipsch for less forward w/ss speakers. I chose a PS Audio 6.0 linestage pre-amp which ran about $225. The difference between analog on the pre vs. analog/digital (if your receiver does analog to digital conversion they are going to sound almost the same) on the receiver was much bigger than switching cd players (i had a sony sacd player and a denon cd player). The moster HTS2000 was a big step, although the new 2100 you can get on ebay has a 2800 joule rating vs. the 1775 joule rating of the 2000 series. The power conditioner really helped to lower the noise floor and the anti-jitter filter really made the digital much more livable. I also tended to only make one change at a time so I could get used to living with the components and then making one change and auditioning it with source material I was very familiar with.

If you like the convenience of your multi-disc arrangement, look into purchasing a DAC. If your player only has an optical out, i would recommend a Cal Audio Labs unit. If it has a coaxial digital out, i would opt for an EVS Millennium unit. The EVS is far more refined than the CAL if you can use it, but you might not be able to. As such, i tried to cover both bases with excellent units that offer phenomenal bang for the buck. Some would recommend the MSB unit, but given your current preamp / amp / speaker combo, i would not go that route.

If you need a Toslink, i would recommend either the glass Toslink cable found on Ebay or a plastic model as sold by DH Labs. Coaxial based digital cables come in all shapes and sizes and will boil down to personal preference.

This will give you far more enjoyable music and allow you to maintain the level of convenience that you are currently able to take advantage of. While some will see this as a trade-off, life and system building are all about intelligent compromises. For those that have used such things as a music server or a mega-disc changer, it is hard to adapt to using a single or five disc unit for more than a few reasons. I find that these people tend to use their system less as they find it to be more of a hassle. As such, i think that once a person has gone that route, they are best off to optimize what they have ( within reason ) and have both the quantity that they are used to with much improved quality.

Other than that, you can always upgrade your preamp, amp and speakers while maintaining both a musical and convenient front end. While you may not achieve the most revealing system in this manner, you will probably find it far more user friendly and enjoyable in the long run. Sean
>

PS... I don't think that your preamp, amp or speakers are a good match. Changing over to the speakers that you mention will probably not be much of a step forward either. Yes, it will sound "different", but that does not make it "better". Sit down and figure out what your long term goals are and then go from there. Otherwise, you will be joining those that are members of the "used" flavour of the month club.