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Advice needed building a system over time???

I'm new to AudiogoN, but happy to have found it. Long back, I got a taste for HiFi, but then had a very long hiatus. Always dreamt of the killer system, but other priorities reared their heads. About 7 years ago I bought some gear to drive the speakers in the ceiling throughout my house, without too much concern. Ended up with ROTEL separates which I even used to watch TV, again with the speakers that were in the cieling. Finally got a 5.1 home theater system which satisfies my needs using an integrated amp and MK speakers - I consider watching a movie a passive listening event and if it sounds pretty good I'm happy. It does.

So I had these ROTEL parts sitting around and decided to buy some speakers for them, to dedicate a room for active listening. At first the room was going to be a small space ~14 x 14, so I thought some stand mounted speakers would be best for that small space. I purchased some Usher BE718's that I thought sounded great. Apparently many reviewers have thought the same. My thoughts were to get a good sounding speaker at a reasonable price, then build up my components around them, finally getting something along the lines of Wilson Sophia 2s or Watt/Puppys.

Maybe not the best logic in system design. The room, however, changed. The acoustics in that room were not good, and the WAF (wife acceptance factor) limited anything I could do in terms of acoustic treatments, so I moved my audio room to a "bonus" room that is roughly 17 x 23. The Ushers still sound great the bigger room can handle more volume which seems to make the speakers even better.

Given I have a ROTEL pre- and power amp, with a ROTEL 5 CD changer, what would you all recommend as the first piece to invest in when moving to class-A or reference components.

Buy the way, long back I had an Audio Research tube pre-amp mated to a GAS "Son of Ampzilla" and I see ARC is alive and well (though recently acquired). Their gear seems to get tremendous reviews and I have a soft-spot for ARC. I plan to audition the Ref CD player and Pre-amp soon. I've also heard some great SS gear like Parasound HALO amp, T&A gear too. I listen to classical (my great great uncle was Antonin Dvorak) and a little bit of rock, Dylan, Mark Knopfler, Van Morrison, Norah Jones - broad range but no HipHop, metal, etc. I like musical sounds and sweet sounding vocals. I tend to dislike jazz when it gets too wierd.

So where would you spend your first upgrade $$ ???
bobvin
bobvin OP
26 posts
 
Greetings and thanks to all who responded.

From your advice, I believe my next step is to set-up the room acoustically. I've visited the Rives Audio site and already have drawn up the room. It'll probably be a level 2 design, though there might be accomodations for some custom work.

Following the room design, I expect I'll watch the 'goN for some used Wilsons Watt / Puppies or something in that class, and then upgrade the system components. Having the speakers with which to notice changes brought by various components makes sense to me.

The RIVES Audio approach makes sense to me too - application of a little bit of objective science to this subjective world of hifi.

Its all a bit overwhelming -- coming back into this world after such a long hiatus. Reviewer's prejudice towards advertiser $$, dealer prejudice to what they carry, and I've lost touch with fellow 'philes from years ago. And my wife thinks I've got over the edge, which is not atypical when I find or renew a curiosity.

Thanks again to those who replied.
bobvin OP
26 posts
 
As an update, room treatment moved lower in priority due to need to shuffle things around the house. Bonus room was the gym, so the gym stuff needs to move to spare bedrooms - and the bedroom stuff has to be sold off.

In the meantime I've acquired a used ARC CD3 MKII, and am waiting arrival of a used LS26. Very likely I'll be getting a VS115 shortly. ARC just swapped the dealership here to a much larger store compared to the tiny appointment only dealer previous. Current dealer is much more accessable and has full ARC ref class setup and burning in.

A post I read on Stereophile said this hifi thing is a bottomless pit - of happiness!
wavetrader
260 posts
 
After years of doing this...The 1st thing is get a electrician to install some dedicated circuts and then contact Albert Porter and order some of his cryoed duplexes.

If you like your speakers move on to the amplifier and audition several tube and SS. Look for a amp that can produce dynamics and spatial ques of the recording. In other words the ability to capture the ambience of the original venue..It sounds live. Next is the Preamp....same criteria and match it with your amp.

There are a couple tube dacs out there. One has a linestage that performs very well to trying different tubes.

Interconnects and cables make a big difference. I would buy cables on Audiogon as they are priced well and can always be resold with out much loss.

I would list importance of equipment as follows: Speakers,Amplifier,Linestage,Cables and then CD player and DAC.

You can find many exceptional equipment pieces used. As a expample...I have a Sony cdp x-707-es player and I have never heard a player produce a quieter background with spatial ques that are as close to live as you can get. I saw one sell for $700 which was a steal.

Have fun it's a great hobby.
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