Jazz for aficionados

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u37RF5xKNq8

Rok, honest question:  what exactly are you trying to accomplish with a possible foray into audiophilia; or, at least, some new gear?  Functionality or sound concerns, or curiosity?  
Btw, I bought the current $500 model Oppo everything-player for a HT setup and I must say it sounds amazingly good for the money...for a cd (everything) player ☺️

Rok, it's time you upped the quality of your sound; that CJ-PV 10 is known the world over, and has been for some time.

That Blue Ray sounds like a winner; there have been advances in chips that allow you to have better quality digital at a cheaper price.

Amps and preamps are slightly different; the preamp especially. The amp produces whatever sound the Pre feeds it. If the Pre feeds it a high quality "Tube" sound, that's what it will try to send to your speakers.

Differences in SS amps are subtle, but each positive upgrade is quite expensive because it comes at the cost of more expensive parts which the manufacture has to pass on. Like it or not, electrolytic capacitors go downhill in such a way that you don't realize it until the quality of audio is really bad. In other words, if you compared your amps with identical amps that had new capacitors, you would hear a big difference.

The most unfortunate thing about this time, is the fact that high end salons no longer exist. (good thing)  If they did, I might sell the baby's high chair to get new speakers, after hearing how much better theirs sounded.

You bought your stuff when we were in the "Lo-Fi" game, it's time to move up a notch. I gave you the cheapest option available for that move.

"electrolytic capacitors go downhill in such a way that you don’t realize it until the quality of audio is really bad."

Very true o10. But that condition applies to several parts of an audio system; vacuum tubes weaken as they age (and sometimes get noisy), styli (needles) wear and lose detail, speaker cone surrounds can disintegrate (particularly foam types), and electrolytic caps (in particular) and other electronic parts can drift out of their specified values. So does this mean we all need to buy new systems every 10 years or so? Absolutely not. But we must be aware of the limitations of each part in our audio systems. Even CD players can fail if the laser burns out.  But then it won't play so you know it's time to change. ;^)

In fact there are many older components which can still offer very good performance, and not just the expensive ones like McIntosh or Audio Research. But the owner must expect to perform, or have a tech perform, certain parts upgrades to renew performance. In some cases, like certain capacitors, resistors, or transistors, performance can be improved over what was available when the component was new 10, 20, 30 years ago.

It is no different than our cars, or other appliance. Some maintenance must be expected. The real question is are we better off having the older component restored, or recycling it and buying something new?

***** honest question:  what exactly are you trying to accomplish with a possible foray into audiophilia; or, at least, some new gear?  Functionality or sound concerns, or curiosity?  *****

Honest Answer:  Probably Curiosity.  Can all these 'audiophiles' be wrong??  I suspect they can be.  I just have the itch to get something new.  If the prices weren't so ridiculous,  I would have a long time ago.  Also, basic 2-channel amps without all the digital, wi-fi, streaming, video etc.... stuff, I will never use, are becoming harder to find.   

I was taught that Tubes  are high in distortion and start to degrade the moment you fire them up for the first time.  I know that LPs mean clicks and pops and are slowly destroyed the more you play them.  But these two things are what the high end goes ga-ga over.   Go Figure.

Another option I have is to use the HKs as pre-amps with some monster from Emotiva.  That might make the most sense.

Cheers