Upgrade question - speakers or integrated?

Why would you change if nothing is wrong?

Seems like good pairing.

Are speakers maybe undersized for your room? Are you looking for deeper bass or bass with more authority maybe?

"05-17-13: Mapman
Why would you change if nothing is wrong?"

If only audiophiles had a good answer for that. In essence, because I know it can be better.

The Focals aren't undersized at all; they just seem a bit too dry to my ears. They have plenty of bass and projection, but they're no as warm as, say, my Triangles were.

Which Triangles did you have?

I had the Triangle Titus 202 ES; had them for about ten years. It was time for a change, though.

So it appears as if the consensus is to keep the YBA and upgrade the speakers?

I have Titus XS for about 15 years among other speakers (Dynaudio, OHM).

Have also owned Magnepan and B&W.

Have heard various Focals on several good dealer systems.

In order of inherent "warmness" of sound, from most to least:

1) B&W
2)Dynaudio
3) OHM
4) Triangle
5) Focal
6) Magnepan

Focal Triangle and Magnepan are all well towards the neutral to less warm side of things.

Have not heard Ref 3A, but I would expect similarities but a noticably different kind of sound there from Focal.

A tube amp with current Focals might be an option to get to a less "dry" sound than with a typical good SS amp with small Focal monitors.

Focal, Triangle and Magnepan all might tends towards the dry side of things running off good SS amp rather than tube amp.

Also often a good tube pre-amp matched well to SS amp can be the ticket to a less "dry" sound.

Many NAD amplifiers also tend to lean towards the warmer side of things, as SS amps go.