What would you upgrade?

Yes, Hybrid, I think there is an underlying message in a lot of the responses. While many of us enjoy Spotify and/or MP3 streams (when we have to), you just can't judge components based on them. Trying to buy better components in order to make Spotify sound good is sort of like...wanting to make Filet au Poivre, and all you've got is cheap hamburger meat in the fridge, and deciding that hamburger meat will make a better Filet au Poivre if only you had a better stove :-)

You can buy better components, and I'm sure you'll enjoy them and they'll sound good, but they may still not sound as good as if you fed your current system better material. I see you're set to buy some new speakers, that should be a great start, but you may only end up happy when you finally upgrade your source too - until then you're still trying to make Filet au Poivre from hamburger meat (And it doesn't even have to be HDTracks...just FLAC/AIFF/WAV files fed into a decent DAC can sound superb, that's all I'm doing).

I hear ya. The dealer was giving me crap about it, too. I have plenty of CD rips of long gone disks as well as a plethora of FLAC files on my computer that I fire up on occasion, but I always seem to come back to Spotify. I think I enjoy music discovery more then anything else these days.

Best part was that I brought my girlfriend with me to the demo. She fell more in love with the 1028be's then I did (though I really enjoyed them as well). She was able to easily differentiate between them and the Aria 936, which was kind of cool to hear. She's going to invest in a CD player since we have a shop nearby with a massive selection and she's actually quite adamant about upgrading now. Regardless of where the journey takes us, life is good.

Hey Hybrid81, just a couple of quick notes on Spotify. I noticed tonight that there seems to be a sound quality difference between using the Spotify web player vs. the Spotify PC application - web player doesn't sound as good. The PC app has the setting for "high quality" and I can't find that same setting for the web player, which may be the reason, or one of them.

Also, when using the PC application, make sure you uncheck the box for "set the volume level for all tracks". That also made a nice difference for me - on my setup having that box checked dulled the bass dramatically, and rolled off the highs.

You probably already know both of these, but mentioning them just in case...

Thanks again for the reply, Bcgator. I played around with the volume level setting after your recommendation and I, too, noticed a difference. I guess it's applying some kind of compression to keep all tracks at the same level. Great find for sure.

Additionally, iOS version of spotify finally brought the EQ back. I believe it's a 6 band. Made my day when I saw it.

I went out and bought some CD's the other day as well. I can not argue that they don't sound better then MP3, which I always knew, but needed a refresher. Xbox One will suffice as a transport for now.

Just as an update to the gear quest, heading to the shop tomorrow morning to order the 1028be. I do not expect the Decco65 to floor me when the 2 are combined. It looks like my next focus will be on amplification.

Sorry to bump this again, but now that the speakers have been chosen, I'm looking specifically for an integrated amp.

While the Decco65 has been problamatic at times, the thing that was great about it was it was a DAC, preamp, and amp all in one with a volume control.

Right now I'm leaning towards a refurbished Grand Integrated X-1 for $3000 primarily because I do not know of good competing products in that price range. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Home Theater is not a concern as the speakers will be 90% music 10% video games and movies.

Thank you!