Best Bang for the Buck Upgrade


So I have an unexpected bonus coming my way and may want to dedicate a portion of it to a system upgrade. Let's say 5-7k. Current system is Pioneer S-1ex speakers, Cambridge CXC transport, Musical Fidelity A1008 integrated, Burson Composer 3xp dac. Cables are mid grade nothing fancy but better than stock. Not really interested in streaming at the moment.

So for a descent chunk of change what should I be looking at? If I sold the speakers I could probably go up to 10k for another pair (used always) but I really don't think I have come close yet to maxing out the potential of these Pioneers (tad). 

mofojo

Nice system!  Assuming your room is not an acoustic disaster in need of major treatments, I would look at replacing your transport/DAC with something like the Luxman D-03x CD player.  You also might consider a power conditioner.

Really nice speakers and amp. Maybe invest in a Umik 1 and download REW, do some measurements and see if you could improve your room with treatments or  DSP. If you want to try streaming a network player.

as usual i support the wisdom of @soix asking the key question... what are the specific improvements sought?

hard to travel with purpose without specifying the destination...

OP here. 
 

@soix ,

improvements sought are I guess more articulation of mid bass although I think a lot of that is my room. Cymbals sounding “better” although I think a lot of that is the recordings.

@sgordon1 ,

yeah that looks like a cool little device. Would definitely consider something like that. I have always liked Jolida products especially for the money. They just don’t put out bad sounding products IME. 
 

I have a JL F113 that I have been procrastinating to send in to get fixed. Will do that soon. So will eventually have the bass taken care of although a 2nd 3rd sub would be fun but this is in the main living room now and I don’t think I could get away with that. 
 

Yeah just brainstorming really. Not unhappy with what I have , I just think like a lot of you looking for better. 
 

Used pair of Focal Sopra 2s sound pretty nice but sometimes you just don’t know what you got and are disappointed. 
 

new dac? Yeah the Denefrips are interesting. I have not heard a ladder dac yet but am really keen to. 
 

as far streaming right now I am happy with cd as I probably listen to 50 cds most of the time. To get streaming right and the internet right I’m convinced it takes a lot of cash for a small improvement. My Cambridge transport brought a descent noticeable improvement over my Bluesound to the same Dac. 

Your speakers and amp are a pretty good match. If you decide to replace one of them you may end up having to replace the other as well if you don't obtain another good match.