upgrade or all new?

You guys are so helpful and forthcoming with great information, thanks so much!John, you're right, and I've been asking myself do I spend first on new speakers or the amp. The Athenas seem to have a detailed presentation, minus some better low-end. Good speakers for $160 I think. But an upgrade to Rotel, Adcom, NAD etc would probably necessitate new speakers, so there you go with money, money money. And then there's the wife, but that's for another forum.
The idea of auditioning units is something I want to do. Here in Nashville there are just 2 higher end dealers, not sure of their brand offerings, but I'm afraid I might find the prices of NEW items, diconcerting, so I would probably have to go with used. Right now I'm watching a couple of items on ebay; Rotel RA971 60w Integrated Amplifier and Matching Rotel RT-935AX AM/FM Tuner; and anOther auction for NAD PRE AMPLIFIER 1130, POWER AMPLIFIER 2200, TUNER 4130(the uppercase letters are not mine; i pasted from the listing) Not really interested in the turners in either one of these offerings, but i'm happy to see from knownothing that the rotel or nad could be good considerations, but are these that i watching too old or lacking in some way that i should really take into account? BTW i'm not asking anyone here to be the salespeson for any brand or to make my decisions for me, just your opinions as you guys have listened to alot more different components and configurations than I have.
thanx
Don in Tennessee

Typically NAD has been all about delivering the best possible sound for the least possible money. As a result, they are not built all that tough and I think you are taking a risk that a used component might fail before perhaps another brand. There is plenty of older NAD stuff chugging away out there, but they had to cut corners somewhere to deliver the great sound per price point (their newer entry level amps have plastic face plates). You already own and NAD and so are familiar with the smooth and natural "house sound".

Cambridge Audio gear is probably only slightly more robust than NAD on average, although the new CA Azur line is physically imposing with thick aluminum face plates, solid chassis and "how did they do that for the price" circuitry. If you decide to buy a used CD player from this mark I would opt for the 540C and 640C Version 2's which are more musical and less noisy than the Version 1's, or get one of the older D500's. Their integrated amps have been uniformly good, providing a little more punchy sound than the NADs.

Rotel equipment has been considered a step up from the other two brands in terms of price and build quality, but not always sound quality. Their amps provide a neutral and very solid foundation for any system with conservative power ratings - a 60W rating should give you all of that and then some. Their CD players are OK, but sound a little dry to my ear. I would think Rotel's approach to overbuilding would serve well when looking at used gear.

Again good luck. If any city in the U.S. besides LA and NY were likely to have some decent stereo stores with clients and sales people who know and care about music production and reproduction, it would probably be Nashville. Take some of your favorite music to the stores in your area and listen to some expensive gear to get a frame of reference. Then listen to some the more affordable gear to get an idea of what you like, what you can expect at that price point, and what brands and models you prefer. My guess is that somebody carries NAD, Rotel and Rega.

Lastly, if you want to look into a new cartridge for your Dual, take a look at this site:

http://www.needledoctor.com/

Sell off what you have and buy used as an upgrade. Don't buy anything new from a dealer, maybe demo's and b stock. Otherwise selling the old does not make sense.

Thanks again yaw!
Don

Don in TN,

I'll "Volunteer" another opinion....

Looks like you've got mostly older stuff of reasonably good quality. I don't have any personnel experience with any of the equipment in either of your systems, except the Athenas. So, I'll start there.

The Athenas are good "bang for the buck speaker". Last I saw them, they were selling for $99/pr at AudioAdvisor before the were replaced by the newer Athena line. I previously owned a pair and they were OK speakers, but they could be greatly out performed by speakers that are well within your $500-$1000 budget.

Since it appears that you like monitors and already own stands, here's a potential solution that may pay huge sonic dividends: Buy a pair of Quad 12L Active monitors! The Quads are very attractive, very good sounding speakers and they have bi-amplification (60W-woofer, 40W-Tweeter) built into the speaker. So, the Quads would cover new speakers and amplification for $800 or less. If either of your current integrated amps have pre-outs, you could simply connect the Quads to your existing system and live with it. Or, you could buy a reasonably inexpensive pre-amp for use with the Quads. Either way, if you would sell off the components you replaced, this solution would easily fit into the top end of your budget and you could potentially even have money left over to use toward a new CD player or TT.

Enjoy,

TIC