Best Bang for the Buck Upgrade


So I have an unexpected bonus coming my way and may want to dedicate a portion of it to a system upgrade. Let's say 5-7k. Current system is Pioneer S-1ex speakers, Cambridge CXC transport, Musical Fidelity A1008 integrated, Burson Composer 3xp dac. Cables are mid grade nothing fancy but better than stock. Not really interested in streaming at the moment.

So for a descent chunk of change what should I be looking at? If I sold the speakers I could probably go up to 10k for another pair (used always) but I really don't think I have come close yet to maxing out the potential of these Pioneers (tad). 

mofojo

i owned 1008... get rid of Pioneer soon... you need an ATC 50... or at least Klipsch rf-7

 

the source is also no good ... but that's later

I recommend the top models Ayon 10 or 5 CD 

if you are happy with your turntable --if you have one--  or other front end, try replacing stock RCA phono sockets for WBT NextGen silver and convert RCA plugs on your front end IC cable(s) to ETI research silver link RCA for a startling uplift in information transmission. Other similarly designed solid silver pin RCA's may give similar results. Not tried all WBT, liking ETI.

+1 @djones51 

@mofojo I went to see a photo of your room but couldn't find it. Audio in a shared space is tough.

After learning how to measure room reflections and SPL curves, I cannot imagine making major changes in some areas without some estimation about what is happening in the room when it's optimized. In other words, I could not have optimized my room without some iterative listening-measuring-positioning work. And without that work, more equipment would risk time-wasting and money-wasting ventures.

That said, power improvements can lower your noise floor, which would be good, regardless of those acoustic measurements. Unless, you already have pretty clean power. If you search back over threads about power, you will find people realizing that thousands spent on power products didn't help because they had quieter, cleaner power than they realized. It's not clear to me how one can assess the level of noise in one's electrical system without a professional. If anyone knows, I'm all ears.

Subwoofers do bring so much to the party if you can integrate them with your system and room well, even though your speakers are almost full range.

Room treatments, are a good suggestion.

Getting your power right is also a good call but this is very dependant on your own situation as to how much benefit you will get.

I would also reccomend you look at isolation for you components. Decoupling is the way to go. Speakers and source components benefit the most. I'm using a mix of isoacoustics, stillpoints and black ravioli in my system. I would reccomend black ravioli if you are starting from scratch for most components but speakers and turntables do like something springy like Townshend or isoacoustics.

Once all that is sorted you will start to get good benefits from well sorted cabling lots of options for DIY here.

Finally don't ignore tweaks such as contact enhancers, fuses rfi/emi control and ground plane reference voltage.

If you want some immediate noticeable improvements get black ravioli big pads for your source and DAC. They will lower the noise floor giving you more details improved soundstage and better bass and tone.

Judging from your system, I see no mention of a turntable. If it were me, I'd throw the money at a nice turntable from maybe Avid or Origin Live, along with a nice tubed phono preamp like a Tavish design Adagio.