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, 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.

@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!

I own musical fidelity m6si amplifier it’s paired with dynaudio special forty’s it sounds great.Give it time for the amplifier to break in.

@cd318 I don't like the Tannoy looks, but it's actually good because I couldn't afford them anyway.

@bigmac1963 Sweet Special Forties :) I love those