What to upgrade first?

hey danvetc, any adwantage to going to name-brand multi-witamins vs the generics? ;~)

regards, doug

Hello Scmca; I wholehearted agree with Costrosk. For your situation i would think ahead and start with the speakers. Though 500 is a little lite for what i suggest. I can tell you how to plan ahead and knock your socks off with the components you now have. Later as funds become more available you can get a high quility intergrated amp. First save about another 900 or 1000 (you can do it, work hard and save and watch every penny). Than FIND, BEG, BORROW but don't steal and get a USED PAIR OF INFINITY PRELUDE PFRs. This is a former Stereophile Class B speaker that has been discontinued by Infinity. It has a 96db sensitivity which means that the Prelude PFR will play loud with your 50 watt receiver and the sound will KNOCK YOUR SOCKS OFF. The Prelude also has an integrated sub that blends in great and will give you FULL RANGE with HIGH QUALITY SOUND with your present equipment. MAKE SURE that the used pair you will buy IS IN VERY GOOD CONDITION both sonically and cosmeticly. You will be very happy with the PFRs and your present receiver and CD player. Now for the future, next you find a high quality integrated amp. It doesn't have to have alot of watts because the PFRs don't need alot to upset your neighbors. So you will be able to buy a used high quality integrated amp for a very reasonable price right here at this site. Than later on you can get a better CD player and cables. With this setup you will be impressing all you friends and most important yourself. If you need more help and good advice, you can email me and i will send you my tele#. Start saving your money and don't make any spuratic purchases until you have around 1500. Trust me, you will be very happy and have a great system right at the start with what you have now. Just save till you can afford to spend 1500 or so.

It's clear that if you want better sound you must upgrade everything except your CD player. Very tough question to answer given the price point you mentioned. But, here it goes...

The good news is that there are so many great re-sale deals to be had. And, given your current equipment, you will notice a big difference in sound quality. There is some high end equipment -- with mileage on it -- that goes for a song. Much to your benefit.

My advice? Patience. Don't be in too much of a hurry to spend $500 to upgrade either your speakers or your receiver right now. I think you should get our and listen to as much mid-fi and budget hi-fi gear as you can and find out what you like. Then, develop a plan to get as close as possible to the sound you like. I really think your ears would be better served by taking your time rather than buying the best $500 upgrade you can find now, (whether it be speakers or whatever), without knowing where you plan on going with it.

I'm not suggesting that you need a ton of money, (it does help, though -- no doubt about that), but with another $1500-$2000 you can build a very satisfying system if you buy used gear wisely. And, believe me, what you buy on the cheap can sound fantastic compared to what you currently have. Hell, it can sound fantastic, period. But, you can also get tangled up if you don't pay attention to the synergy of the equipment you put together, especially if you listen to people teling you to "buy this" or "buy that" without having a sense of what it sounds like. How do you know if you like it? For instance, I have some swell Apogee hybrids that cost $2,500 that I could sell you for a few hundred dollars. A lot of speaker for the money. Whatcha gonna drive them with? Will you even like ribbons? Someone here mentioned Vandy 2 CE's. Popular speakers and some people love them -- I don't like what they do (actually I like what other speakers do that they aren't capable of). Synergy and matching equipment to your taste is the real key, and that is something that takes a little time to figure out. My advice is save your scratch for now. Best of luck.

SCMCA: I have a pair of Castle Acoustic's Isis speakers listed for sale that are well within your budget, they are very good for your source material and I feel that the reviews are fairly accurate. Review sources of the speakers are listed in the ad. I was running them in an 18 x 24 room with a musical fidelity X-A1 amplifier that is rated at 50 watts per channel. The speakers sounstage and image well when placed as close as 12" from the back wall which is a nice feature in most living room applications. They do need decent 24" sand fillable stands though that should be available for around $100.00. Other speakers that are around the top of your price range that you may want to check out are Linn Tukans (now discontinued but available on the used market), the small PSB's that DanVet mentions and Coincident Triumph Signature's that can sometimes be had for $600.00 or so. I am for upgrading the speakers first as you can see. I am familiar with your CAL player and would leave that for way last following your amplification and cabling down the line, granted that you like its sound. The CAL has a very full, balanced and musical character to it, IMO and is hard to beat without spending a lot more money. I use a CAL Icon Mark II now as a tranport but used it as a stand alone as well and am partial to CAL's sound.

Hi Scmca; All of the above posts offer good advice. You, yourself have already recognized the need to upgrade both your speakers and amp/pre-amp. Being pretty much of a "front end" kind of guy myself, I personally would go with a decent integrated amp first, but I also like Danvetc's, and especially Jim's advice about getting out and perusing the marketplace, listen a lot, and see (listen for) what YOU like. In a way you're fortunate as in the last few years high end manufacturers have turned their attention to integrated amps, so there are many good ones to choose from in the used market. Charlie mentioned the Creek, which I agree is excellent, but there are others. Maybe you'll like tubes, and there, Jolida is a good candidate. It's your call, but enjoy the process. Good Hunting. Craig.