$3000: upgrade Tyler Linbrooks or amplification?


HI,

I am going through my 2-3 year upgrade itch, and was looking at ways to spend $2000 to $3000 into my system. My question is this: should I be looking at a $3000 speaker upgrade, or should I be spending that money on amplfication? Where do most of the benefits come from? Honestly, in the several years I have been doing audio, the biggest benefits have always come from speaker upgrades, assuming the associated electronics weren't crap (and mine aren't).

Currently I am running the Tyler Acoustics Linbrook signature speaker, a McCormack DNA-125 revision Gold amp, and a borrowed Dehavilland Superverve (C-J PV5 was in my system). I was planning on throwing a bunch of money at the preamp, but the Superverve sounds nice for the price, so am likely set there for a minimal upgrade cost. That leaves $2500 in my budget. For that, I could likely:

1) get a nicer set of speakers. That gets me close to the new Tyler D1's, or another very nice speaker. There is a dealer nearby selling the Devore Gibbon Nines that I could afford (hoping to get them home for a test). The Tylers are very seductive, so I would obviously be interested in his new D1 as well, or anything else I could get for $6000-7000 (Merlin maybe)?

2) upgrade amplification (take my amp to Platinum status for another $700), get something even nicer than the Superverve preamp.

3) Keep the money, in case the economy really goes down the toilet. System sounds great as-is (but it can always get better, right)?

I am also budgeting another $300 for room treatments. I can't go too crazy there, as the listening room is also the living room, and my wife hates the look.
dawgcatching
Hey Newbee i have D1s on order to most likely replace my LLS. I should have them in January. If you havent made a move by then i will chime in and let you know my feelings on the two. Good luck and i understand what you mean by itch. I am most satisfied with my LLS sound wise. So much so i got the itch to take it up a notch and hear what D1 is all about in my system and room. I got one good reply in another thread on D1s at RMAF.
Tyler was pretty modest when he described the improvements of the D1 to me, but that is probably a good thing: he is a very modest person in general, and his product sound very, very good, so I am excited to hear how the D1's sound. So many people in this industry hype their product as "the best ever" and then the product fails to meet expectations.

He did seem very excited about the quality of the new product, but definitely thought the D1 was the upgrade to the LSS for a bigger room, not the D2.
Stltrains, I'll be looking forward to hearing about the D1's, especially since you will have the LLS' on hand for an A/B comparison. I suspect from the generalized description that Ty may have made a couple of important changes. They sure look better IMHO.
It replaced a highly modded over many years ARC SP6B Which uses 6 12AX7s. But this pre was just an ARC by nameplate. The guy I bought it from was a fanatic -he wanted a wire with gain. I thought that's the ticket the proverbial wire with gain. I tried it in my own system at home and was impressed with it's nuetrality.
About 3 months later I started thinking I could use a little warmth and a more tube responsive pre. The gain was ridiculously high. The legendary phono stage caught every nuance that a note of dust can... it sounded like firecracker. If any one wants a......
I've never heard your amp, but in general I think the differences in amps and pre-amps is smaller than most audiophiles imagine, once you get to a certain level of build quality. Speakers are another matter. That said, I'd be reluctant to spend 3k on speakers I couldn't audition in my home (though I did just that when I bought by VR4 HSEs sight unseen, or sound unheard--go figure). And my own opinion, if I might respectfully dissent from Newbee's view, is that you already have the only goal you'll ever need: a better sounding audio system. In my own experience, I've had trouble hearing deficits in my system until I heard something I liked better. Good luck.