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.

Ag insider logo xs@2xideal8592

Forgot to add, use your existing cables as a baseline. You can explore upgrades there with the new system.

@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?

@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.