In need of some Amplifier advice. Is therereally any point in it with my current setup?


Hello. I have posted in the past, but have since learned a little bit more from reading audio forums, and doing some research and have come to somewhat of a juncture. 

I figure I could "stair step" up on my own and enjoy the ride, or, ask those who have most likely been where i am before and skip a few steps =). 

My current setup consists of a Yamaha adventage-A3070 AV receiver (150wattsx8ohms 2chd), and 2 Polk LSIM707 towers. 

I've been looking at used Classe amps here on audiogon, or possibly a new parasound Halo A21 power aplifier,  and have thought about purchasing them. 

My question is, would my Yamaha advantage 3070 even be a sufficient pre-amp? It has pre-outs for all channels, and it also has an ess sabre DAC for my digital flac files. Or would using the Yamaha as a pre completely destroy the sound of the power amplifier? Essentially wasting $1,000-$3,000. 

My other question is pretty obvious. Should I trade up, just spend the $1,000-$3,000 on better set of speakers I've been eye balling like  the EMT-LFT8s, and stick with the Yamaha receiver's power for now. 

If it were you. What would you do? 


moskaudio
@mrdecibel  i have listened to many audiophile quality recordings to get a good idea of what the polks can do. I've listened to some remastered MQA 32bit pink floyd tracks, some MQA 32bit Daniel Barenboim pieces, along with a few MQA tracks from various female vocalists. Diana Krall being one of them. 

Overall for their MSRP and what i paid for I'm incredibly impressed. The only real basis I have for comparison are inifity r.s. 2.5 tower speakers with the 10" subs and 4 electrostats per tower. Which needless to say, blow the polks out of the water in the mid range and vocal area. 


@mrdecibel Unfortunately the infinity's belong to my father =P. He's had them since the 80s. Until recently however they had just been collecting dust until I connected them up with an older rotel integrated amp and a decent CD player. He didn't realize what he had =)
moskaudio
The only real basis I have for comparison are inifity r.s. 2.5 tower speakers with the 10" subs and 4 electrostats per tower. Which needless to say, blow the polks out of the water in the mid range and vocal area.
That is one sweet speaker system. Watkins woofer and they sound great biamped. Those are magnetic planar drivers, btw, not electrostats.
Those Polk LSiM are actually good speakers and can take you pretty far on your journey - especially for what you paid.  My favorite is the 703.  While its technically not a 'correct' speaker, its a blast to listen to.  I've almost jumped on a pair about a dozen times, but I've managed to stay away.  Honestly, the 707 is my least favorite but your room might be a good place for them. I always felt that line needed a 20-25% reduction in MSRP to really get competitive.  $4,000 for the 707 was just too much money as you start competing with diamond tweeters and the like at that point.

Those adorama packages are impossible to beat for the money, unless you catch a unicorn on the used market.

Make it down to Dallas like someone mentioned above.  Come visit my 'shop' and a few other dealers.  We have a few really good ones down here that I can recommend.  Like I told you in the PM: I'm an enthusiast first and a dealer second.  I want to see you get where you want to go and help you any way I can.
I’ve been where you are. I had a denon 60WPC old 5.1 receiver. One day I splurged $900 on an open box dynaudio center channel and pair of dynaudio audience 50 bookshelfs. I was smitten--THIS is amazing sound, cannot get any better. My all-in stereo was about $1100 and I couldn’t be happier. I’m on a budget, the halo is a dream amp for me I’ve always meddled in mid-high end... now I have a parasound 2125 amp, hareth p3esr speakers, a technics turntable with Pickering cartridge, NAD CD player..the hobby bites you quick. However, my entire setup is only about $5,000 used prices (I only buy used). This setup sounds better than that first one. A dedicated 2 ch amp kills a 60WPC home theater reciever. But I don’t believe I’ve ever experienced as much awe from a single upgrade as those dynaudio speakers on the underpowered HT reciever.

I got more satisfaction experimenting with multiple components in my budget than from spending it all on one piece.
Especially an amp. Amps DO color the sound slightly, but the differences after $400 are slight, from my small A/B tests (paramount, rotel, adcom, NAD). I’m not counting recievers, they color the sound a ton, but a good 2 channel amp will be a great upgrade and doesn’t have to cost as much as a halo.

As others said, speakers are where it counts... playing with different speakers, Maybe subs, Maybe a room mode PEQ like the miniDSP will have more noticible effects.

In my opinion your not stair stepping going from the Yamaha to a halo, your climbing a second story balcony to break in. I’d stick to stair stepping if it were me.

By the way, I had a Yamaha avantage reciever and thought it was bright/harsh. Not a good match with dynaudio. If it were me I would keep the Yamaha for movies and use a passive switch like the schiit sys to bypass the Yamaha (or build a dedicated 2 ch system) when listening to music. For HT you want boom and dsp, for music I only want CD, amp, and speakers. A passive preamp keeps the ’coloring’ of a reciever out and a good used $400-600 amp is plenty. Im a huge fan of using passive preamps, input selectors, and even speaker selectors to have physical control over what a reciever tries to do in DSP.

My point is, having been where you are i wouldn’t jump to a halo yet. But I would find a good, not too old brand name amp for $400-$600 (parasound, emotiva, rotel, NAD)... even more important is to pick speakers first.. some amps mate well with some speakers and horrible with others.