Heard my friend's system, thinking of leaving hifi


I asked a friend to come over and listen to my system which consists of a Cary 303/200 CD player, Plinius 8200 integrated and Soliloquy 6.2 speakers with Acoustic Zen cabling all around, most of which was purchased from this site. He politely told me to gather my best music and invited me to go to his place and listen to his system.

He has some type of Meridian arrangement where the CD player goes directly to internally powered fullrange speakers. Oh my, the first 10 seconds and I wanted to cry! It was all there: imaging, soundstage, naturalness to all instruments, non-fatigue, front row... I've been to alot of trade shows and dealers in my area so I know what a great system sounds like and where my modest system stands in comparison, but geez that Meridian system sounded amazing! I mean it dwarfed all by comparison. (The only flaw that I could find was that in the systems current state it didn't allow for the addition of an FM tuner.)

Naturally most of us can't afford to drop that kind of money on a passtime. Certainly, I really can't afford to drop $50k on a system like that, but jeez it sounded great! I mean I came home and wanted to give my system away and find another hobby!

Does anyone have any suggestions about any changes I could make to my system to start working towards getting to that sound? I would say that first the speakers would have to go. Something "fuller" than the 2-ways I currently have. Perhaps something with powered woofers? His sytem seemed to present all frequencies in a balanced manner. Mine seems a bit thin in comparison and certainly lacks the lower end. Any suggestions would be appreciated...
portugal11
It's really tough to better the sound of active speakers. Audiophiles are too picky to use them, but active speakers tend to be the best sounding systems! I had them once, but I'm too picky too.

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no offense, but your speakers are not the last word, even in their price point. changing them may put your system ahead of your friend's meridian...and you certainly don't need to drop a fortune to do it.
Deal with it, accept it and go on and have a happy life. One of the nice things about being an audiophile is that when you are bested nobody cuts off your head and parades it through the center of town on a stick to the cheers of the crowd. None of this stuff is that serious.
If your serious about giving it all away I know a good home for it.
But seriously, there will always be greater and lesser systems enjoy what you have.
Look to the room acoustics first. There are many threads on this subject and lots can be accomplished without spending much $.