Spending a month's salary


I don't have much experience as an audiophile. Based on my research, the bulk of spend should be on fine speakers. I have $20k to invest in either a superior AMP, DAC or pair of speakers. What to do?

My room is on the smaller side, listening position is about 7-8ft from the speakers. I suppose bookshelf speakers are appropriate. Right side speaker is very close to side wall <1ft. Left side is open to 6-8ft. Back wall is about 10 ft from listening position. Speakers sit about 3ft from front wall.

My current setup:

Revel 106 speakers

Parasound P6 pre and A21+ amp

Node 130 streamer w/ upgraded Teddy PS

AQ cable loom.

I prefer bookshelfs given my room. Separates are ideal, though I would like to consider an all in one like a Boulder 866.

Which component is most important. I'm not looking to have an unbalanced system. Eg. $15k speakers and a $500 DAC.

Appreciate any insight.

 

 

tee_dee

Having owned a Audiostore and 40 years in Audio ,here my recommendation For synergy .

Your source makes or breaks your system , and your speakers equally important 

buy the excellent Marten Oscar duo standmounts , and maybe a Svs SB-4000 powered sub with great app, for digital  if youhave the funds the T+A 200 dac, if-not 

the Denafrips Terminator-2 dac  a excellent duo just look up the reviews !!

If you get larger speakers, you will  NEED anproper amp

those small tick turd amps will do nothing and you,will clip them, even at medium volume. 
it may sound fine, but turning the knob will stress the amp, most likely fry a tweeter or mid. 
had low powered receivers, clip, clip. 
 

min 250-300 rms WPC. 
 

plus, WHEN you upgrade speakers, your all set with power./ current is better than watts, for some speakers. 
 

 

if I had 15-20 thousand dollars….re.wow

 

a good solid amp 300 WPC. At 8ohm

9500 nice speaker pair, 

flagship Rotel CD player, 

6k on a digital audio converter?? Your buying hype and a name. 
 

grab a top tier CD player or UDP PLAYER. 

good cables, nice solid 8-10ga wire. 
you won’t hear a difference from a transport to a 6K dac or a top of the line Rotel or bryston CD player. 
 

speakers, amp, disc player, cables

 

you may hear extended bass on speaker in corner, put a couple pillows behind, or a bass trap. 

What is wrong with what you have? Parasound and revel are two nice brands...

Spend 3-4k on room treatment, get advice from gik, a pair of Fritz and a Luxman integrated

First off you never mention what type of sound you like and what type of music.  So all the recommendations here IMO mean nothing until I understand what you prefer.  I understand the room treatment thing but again what size is your room.  We have a Listening Room with brick walls and practically no room treatment.  I would bet that we achieve better sound than most people making recommendations here.  Source is important, speakers and then the amplifier.  You cannot get there by most recommendations mentioned here IMO again.  We have more speakers, and components in our Listening Room than most people posting here have heard in their lifetime.  There is so much that goes into sound.  But unless I understand what you like, I cannot recommend anything to you.  We manufacture our own line of audio components that can be build to your ears.  So help us understand what you like. You can spend $20K and get poor sound also.

 

Happy Listening.