Forgot to add, use your existing cables as a baseline. You can explore upgrades there with the new system.
Changes to older system
My system is the following, electronics and speakers bought from the store where I worked through college and grad school in the late 80s and early 90s:
- Cambridge Audio CXN v1
- NAD 1600 preamp
- NAD 2200PE amp
- B&W Matrix 3 Series 2 speakers
- Monster Cable interconnects and speaker cable
Overall I still enjoy the sound, but I’ve always thought it was bright and bass shy.
Where should I start to upgrade this rig?
- First and most obvious choice is cabling, but what?
- Second, Quirk Audio can upgrade the amp and preamp, but is it better to do that or buy new?
I’d like to stay in the $2k range per component - used or new.
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- 26 posts total
@ghdprentice I also thought a tube preamp may help, and I’m currently looking at an Audio Research SP-8. Unfortunately I’m only using digital sources, so the phono stage would be wasted, but I always loved that preamp nonetheless. Thoughts on that anyone, or any other tube preamp recommendations? |
@jasonbourne52 Thanks for the placement recommendations - extremely helpful! |
@holmz @audphile1 You’re spot on with the sub recommendation. Got a used SVS SB-3000, and it’s helped with bass extension and seems to help the balance overall. The SVS website and app were enormously successful in setting it up and getting it integrated; although, I’d venture that, like most of us, I’m still refining that integration. |
@soix @audphile1 @mesch I’d suspected I would replace the speakers, so I’d ordered a set of Zu Audio Omen Dirty Weekends that recently came in. That said, I put those upstairs while the other system was downstairs, and now I’ve decided both to upgrade the old system, as well as build a new system upstairs around the Zus. I hear people have a love/hate relationship with Zu, but I love them! Right now I’m playing them using a TubeCube 7 from Tube Depot (3.5wpc) I had using an old Sonos Connect and cheap 24/192 DAC, and they sound great - believe it or not. I’d appreciate any recommendations particularly for an integrated tube amp, streamer, and DAC for that setup too. |
- 26 posts total