Hi,
I recently went through a major overhaul of gear after living with the same stuff for years. I don't have the time to hang out in stereo stores and endlessly audition, so I did my upgrade by looking at various Stereophile reviews and then picking my spots. My tastes in music are similar to yours.
I wound up with an old Threshold FET 2 preamp that I got for around $300. Very nice unit that includes a phono section. Rumor has it the later model might be even better and has more adjustments for cartridge loading etc. Threshold is built like a tank and should last for some years.
The speakers wound up being Proac Response 1.5's. I'd only heard good things about Proac's and I wasn't disappointed. In truth I'd probably like the 2.5's more as the 1.5's can be a bit shy in the bass, but they sound great and I got them for about half price here on A'gon and they look great too.
I did audition several amps. Mostly as loaners from friends. I thought that the Threshold S/150 was too polite. My old Adcom GFA 555 was too bright. Some Audio Research tube stuff was pretty neat but too expensive so I settled on a CJ/Sonographe SA 250. If you like to really rock out at high volumes you may want to go for more watts, but the sound is very nice.
Good luck.
Phil
I recently went through a major overhaul of gear after living with the same stuff for years. I don't have the time to hang out in stereo stores and endlessly audition, so I did my upgrade by looking at various Stereophile reviews and then picking my spots. My tastes in music are similar to yours.
I wound up with an old Threshold FET 2 preamp that I got for around $300. Very nice unit that includes a phono section. Rumor has it the later model might be even better and has more adjustments for cartridge loading etc. Threshold is built like a tank and should last for some years.
The speakers wound up being Proac Response 1.5's. I'd only heard good things about Proac's and I wasn't disappointed. In truth I'd probably like the 2.5's more as the 1.5's can be a bit shy in the bass, but they sound great and I got them for about half price here on A'gon and they look great too.
I did audition several amps. Mostly as loaners from friends. I thought that the Threshold S/150 was too polite. My old Adcom GFA 555 was too bright. Some Audio Research tube stuff was pretty neat but too expensive so I settled on a CJ/Sonographe SA 250. If you like to really rock out at high volumes you may want to go for more watts, but the sound is very nice.
Good luck.
Phil