2. speakers
  3. 176877-166623

everything sounded great until the upgrade

In short: I loved the sound of my modest system, until I upgraded my amp. Now it  sounds pretty horrible. It went from a warm sweet embracing easy-to-listen sound to knives and forks trying to escape from a bathtub.

So...

1. I can just unplug this new amp (used) and sell it

Any other options? I could upgrade my speakers but I have no budget for that.

2. I could sell the speakers and use money to buy used ones that go with the amp. 

3. Lastly I could change the source, but was it the culprit - to begin with?

btw - the sound of the "new" amp is decent with my turntable, and terrible with my CD player.

(If I wrote brands and models it would throw the discussion into "A sucks, B is great")

grislybutter
grislybutter OP
3,039 posts
 

overall feedback processing notes: just like with anything: learning a little reveals how little I knew and how much I thought I knew! Some of the advices are scary, I should not remove the cover and tweak this thing, that never ended well for me. (As a kid I took apart a lot of alarm clocks, none I was able to put back together, (I am a theoretical guy)

 

@decooney absolutely! You know me by now. My current RCA is crap, something that came 15 years ago with a $20 cd player. I ordered a cable from Amazon last night for $35, I was too embarrassed to ask here. May suck but will still be better than these.

@asvjerry I started it, @dadork is the second in line to be visited by the FBI with a warrant.in case of an incident

@mofojo first time I heard pink noise :)

@clearthinker right! It’s used, no returns, brother’s advice that I always trust. Little prick.... he got me!

grislybutter OP
3,039 posts
 

my little prick brother got back to me, he is just probably reading the forum,

He says:

  • CD input is likely crap, and next to phono which is suspect, try any other input
  • get a DAC (a$$hole!) but maybe I will get away with
  • a decent RCA cable https://tinyurl.com/fzj48ccn

Update: CD input IS crap, aux1 is times better

 

 

 

scowler1
54 posts
 

grislybutter, your “little prick brother” beat me to the point I wanted to make. Since you say the phono sounds good and CD sound is poor, I was sure your issue is in the digital signal path. A separate DAC, imho, can eliminate the discrepancy assuming the CD player has an acceptable transport, digital out, and decent interconnects and power cords are in use. How much better depends in large part on budget. You seem to already have discovered an easy improvement by using a different input…good move and good luck.

grislybutter OP
3,039 posts
 

@scowler1 thank you :)

cd318
2,636 posts
 

@audioguy85

Just do class A with some Tannoys and get off merry go round.

 

Good advice but you know what we audiophiles are like.

Only sheer exhaustion after many futile years of trying in vain can finally convince us.

I’ve not upgraded my speakers for over 10 years but not for want of trying.

Damn, those Tannoys are hard to beat!

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