Help Needed: Is my system balanced?

Upgrading the speakers would be the next step I would take. They will make a big difference in sound quality.

I think if you frequent your local hifi shops you will want to upgrade a whole heck of a lot faster than that...I started this hobby about two years ago and have gone through more than one pair of speakers...Take a look at my system now...I started with the B&W 602 S3's too!

Take care,
Ben

very nice system

600/2900 = 21 percent of your system cost was on speakers.

Just my two cents: this is too low to be balanced.

Speakers are were the rubber hits the road. Turning electrical signals to sound vibrations in the air is where nearly all the major distortion and limitations occurs.

Speaker distortion at high levels and particularly in the base can easily be far above 1% THD and therefore quite easily audible.... while many ordinary amps are rated better than 0.01 % THD, which is 100 times less and probably below audible levels....notice that few if any manufacturers will give out distortion figures for their speakers!

It is also not just a distortion issue there are many other factors that make speakers a big limitation on the overall system...

CD and amplifiers have a large dynamic range....not so with speakers which will compress your sound - typically around 60 db dynamic range, which is much less than electronics.

Speakers interact with your room significantly more than other components.

Speakers control dispersion....how evenly sound is distributed within the room...how much floor and ceiling reflections etc.

Phase accuracy alignment is largely a speaker issue

Frequency response and bandwidth...again a speaker issue.

Intermodulation distortion ...I have not seen figures...but it is well known that speakers introduce a lot of this too (as all those mechanical vibrating surfaces/systems interact)

Mechanical systems have inertia...therefore they have resonances...speakers are mechanical systems and suffer from resonances....

Cones suffer from break-up and ringing like a bell.

Voice coils heat up causing a drfit in reponse from low levels to higher levels....called "thermal compression"

I have tried a wide variety of CD players and SS amps, all of which have proved satisfactory to my ears. My personal experience is that today's SS electronics are all pretty good (even at low prices) in terms of accurately producing and amplifying the electrical audio signal... ABX testing seems to support my impression (good equipment with similar specifications are difficult to tell apart). Speakers, however, so very far from perfect, are where the greatest audible differences and improvents can be had.

Shadorne, I agree, it is the speakers where the biggest differences will be found. But I am curious on what differences you have found on all the CD players you have had and what would you recommend as good buy? I currently use a cheap DVD player.