System Upgrade Recommendations


Hello Everyone,

I'm looking for feedback for upgrading my system.  I'm just getting into HiFi and wanted to get some feedback from audio enthusiasts.  I think I'm basically done with my Home Theater setup, but would like to improve my 2 Channel listening experience.  I listen to music about 50% of the time, watch 2-Channel TV 30% of the time, and watch 5.1 movies, TV about 20% of the time.

I have the following set-up and about $2k to update the system and will have another $2k in 6 months:
  • Magnepan 1.7i Speakers
  • Marantz SR6010 Receiver
  • Rel T-7 Sub
  • MartinLogan Motion 4 Surrounds
Per the Maggie Dealer, I need to properly amp my maggies and the SR6010 doesn't fully cut it and I agree.  His setup sounds better on 1.7i's than mine does (He is using a $20k+ setup from source to speaker).

I'm debating on putting all $2k into a stereo amp, then $2k into a pre-amp with HT Bypass and music source in 6 months or splitting the $2k into an integrated amp with HT Bypass and a music source now.

I currently play my music via Spotify Connect through my receiver and don't have a music collection at all.  If I move away from Spotify (which I want to) I need to re-allocate some of my equipment funds towards purchasing a music collection (CD, Vinyl, or Digital) or reallocate $250/year of my equipment funds to a Tidal Premium subscription.  I plan on putting a Vinyl collection in the future (1+ years from now) but I don't feel that my current setup will benefit from Vinyl.

How would you spend $2k to improve my 2-Channel listening experience?  Any recommendations on specific equipment that I should listen to?
rjb1101

@rjb1101 - your dealer's statement that a "home theater bypass" in a preamp will completely bypass the 2x preamp stages in a particular preamp is not entirely correct.  A lot of preamps will just act as a "unity gain stage".  This means that the signal will still go through the one or two analog stages (which are usually configured to be unity gain anyways -- the definition of unity gain being that a signal exits the analog circuit at the same voltage level as input).  In a lot of cases, the "home theater bypass" will just bypass the volume attenuation and balance controls (which are usually just volume potentiometers or resistor-ladder arrays).

It's not always clear what a preamp will actually do.  For example, looking at any Krell preamp documentation, their documentation specifically states that the unit will act as a "unity gain stage" and the volume/balance controls are disabled for "ease of use" -- so that you can use the volume & speaker calibration from the HT receiver.

Sometimes a unit documentation will not specifically say what exacty it does (whether it is truly bypassing the analog circuits or just bypassing/disabling any volume/balance/tone adjustors). 

In any event, I would not call this a degradation of sound quality.  Running the sound through a very nice preamp analog stages can help shape the sound better.  This may, at a minimum, give you better sonic quality when music plays during a movie (primarily output on left/right channels). 

Also, you don't necessarily have to have a "home theater bypass",  per say.  If you don't, you will just have to set the preamp/integrated volume setting at exactly the same place you did when you calibrated the left/right channels on the HT Receiver.

Why not sit tight, you will have a $4k budget in six months. Why not use that to buy a better integrated amp. At this price range you might do better than you could with separates
I used a Belles Soloist 1 Integrated and Simaudio 260D CD player (combined about $2000 used) with Mini Maggie system and it sounded great