2. misc-audio
  3. 151860-120

Help wanted

Have been without music for about two and a half years. I left my house in Southern California and moved to the state of Idaho. Had to sell my stereo  and bought a home in Idaho. Saved a few dollars and putting together a new stereo. Want to know how I can improve the sound with a very limited budget about 1500 dollars. My current equipment

Line magnetic 845 IA
LKS dac 004 with USB upgrade and modded by EVS
Proac d20r speakers
Acoustic Zen tsunami III PC
Acoustic Zen absolute copper
Interconnect
Acoustic Zen hologram II biwired speaker cables 
Curious evolved USB cable
Upgraded my computer with a titanium fanless 650 power supply

Listening Room is 15 x 20 and has carpet over raised floor. Speakers will be 31 inches from front of speaker to wall behind them. Speakers will be 8 feet apart and 8 feet to listening area. From listening area to wall behind them is roughly 5 ft and 6ft to side walls.

Still not listening to music as I am waiting on my DAC and speaker cables to arrive. Have $1,500 to spend on one of the following either a power conditioner a subwoofer or a preamplifier. Any help will be greatly appreciated. We'll roll some tubes after listening to the stock amp. Thank you for your time.









128x128needfreestuff
glennewdick's avatar
glennewdick
1,500 posts
 
To be honest I’d wait until you get everything set up and working before you make any decisions. You may find your happy with what you have.

Not sure why you need a preamp with you integrated, your integrated is quite nice. I loved tube amps on my Proac's when I had them. 

Power conditioners - regenerators work well in areas with poor power or much noise on the power line, but if it was my money I’d wait to see how everything sounds and upgrade what’s needed then.
arion1
39 posts
 
As stated before, get the system set up and working first. Listen to it as-is for awhile then evaluate. My guess is that $800 worth of room treatment will improve your sound more than $1500 of anything else.
jetter
2,948 posts
 
As the posters mentioned above, wait and see, but unlike some I think subwoofers are just plain fun, especially if you hook up your system to your DVD player and TV for audio to enhance video.
rocray's avatar
rocray
1,446 posts
 
Listen to your system when it's complete. You may just like it as is. There is also the possibility that you may need some acoustic treatments to bring everything together. My advice would be to NOT let that money burn a hole in your pocket. 
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