Hey everyone,

I was hoping to get a bit of advice from everyone here. I have a fairly substantial tax return this year (woohoo tuition rebates), and I'm trying to decide what to do with it.

For background the relevant parts of my system consists of a Pioneer Integrated Amplifier (with a built in equilizer- I bought it when I was 15 or so, and thought that the equilizer was cool -ugh), one of the original Pioneer Six Disc cartridge-style changers, and a fairly cheap Leonoxx Sound DVD player. My speakers consist of StudioLab's SL2100 (Studio Lab is a small speaker maker in Toronto, Ontario, Canada). These are three way speakers, with 8 inch woofers, 5 inch midrange, and a 3/4 dome tweeters.

I am trying to get the maximum bang for my buck. It had been suggested to me that one of the best ways to do this was to upgrade my CD Player, as I was told it was abysmal- whicH I can believe. My panasonic Sony SLSX500 sounds better. In terms of a replacement CD Player, I was considering trying to pick up a Rega Planet, a Cambridge 500SE - or something else along those lines. However recent conversations here suggest that the Philips 963SA might be a better place to put my money - cause it would replace my fairly lousy DVD player, as well as give me much better sound than I'm currently getting out of my home stereo system, and I can plug my headphones (Sennhesier HD590, Grado SR80s) into.

An other suggestion that has been made was to upgrade my amplifier, and I was thining of the new Unisom integrated amplifier. This is a fair amount more than the CD Player, but I would be willing to save longer to get it, if people thought that was the way to go.

The last thing I have been thinking about was upgrading my speakers to the StudioLab Reference Series 2 and adding a powered sub.

It has been said to me that upgrading my speakers and amplifier at this point doesn't make much sense, cause my CD player is so bad that I woudln't get a huge improvement out of the other investments. Of course i was told this by a salesman, and I'm never sure whether they're telling me the truth or not.

I'm open to thoughts and suggestions as to the best way to upgrade. i have about $800-$900CDN to spend, but if you think it's worth it to go a lot higher up then I can do that too.



Thanks,
Clutz

The best bang for the buck would probably be upgrading to the Philips 963A DVD/SACD player. As you pointed out it kills two birds with one stone and gives you SACD capability to boot. I haven't heard this player myself but given all of the good reviews here it should at least be a competent component. If you have any money leftover (I don't how much the Philips costs in Canada) save it for a later amp or speaker purchase.

I tend to agree that upgrading your speakers might result in only letting you hear more of the problems in your upstream components.

Can you give a price range? It would hekp us give better suggestions.

For instance, with $1000 I would recommend.........
with $2000 I would recommend.......

If you could only afford one then get the cd player. I cant recommend much here. All I have heard is redbook players so I cany comment on the 963. It is well recommended here though so it is definitely worth considering.

I would say try both amp and cd player together, if you can afford it. This I think would give the most. a NAD C320BEE and the Philips 963 might just be your kettle of fish .

Also dont forget cables. They do make a difference, even though I would nt recommend the real pricey stuff with budget ancillaries.

Check the power cable thread by bcwang and check out the SignalCable that they all seem to be talking about there.

Most of all trust your ears. Audition like crazy and see what you like the most and then buy from there.

D

I would probably recommend the following:

THIS NAD 3020 integrated amp:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...ADME:X:ON:US:2

Personally, I've had pretty good luck with some of the older maratnz integrates like the model 1060.

If you can find one, the Fisher 400 is a great tube reciever. It also makes one of the better amps that can drive the AKG 1000's.

I've been thinking of buying a philips 963, but you might also want to consider a turntable, if you're looking to go in a different direction. A used Music Hall MMF5 is praised as a lower budget source around here.

And if you have any money left over...I hear that you can find yourself a pair of paradigm studio 20's in canada for US$400 - they really have a great soundstage.

I've heard the klipsch rf3-II floorstanders before, and was pretty impressed with their sound (although much different than paradigms). http://store.yahoo.com/crazyeddieonl...prf3iiflo.html They would certainly be good speakers if you're into the blues.

I've also heard good things about the maggie MMG's. http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.p...lan&1055014123

If you go to www.partsexpress.com, you could find good deals on speaker parts, then build yourself a pair of speakers (this is what I'm doing). They feature customer's projects, and if you follow one of those plans, you might get a pretty good deal.

If you go to www.madisound.com and look at their sale page, you can sometimes find some really really good deals. I got a pair of fostex FW227's for a little over $100 there. (they usually run at $180 each)

Adire Audio makes some really really nice DIY kits.
http://www.adireaudio.com

A guy named Underwoodwally on Audiogon sells some fantastic Music Hall CD25 CD players for about $750-950 USD. They are reported as being the best thing you can buy for up to $2000. They modify the stock units and really make it sound much better.

$599 version: http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.p...6020&demo&3&4&

$600 modded version: http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.p...lay&1054050082

$750 version: http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.p...5552&demo&3&4&

$975 version: http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.p...lay&1056770465


Enjoy!!

Does the CD25/S100 have substantially better build quality than the philips 963?

Mr Clutz.... you fraid to tell us your limit or what?? If you like me, you have $300 to spend If you like Vertigo or ecuador you could probably reach $2500 -$3000

Hey dont kill me, I see the big spenders here...... Your cables cost more than my entire system!!!!



D

Quote:



Let's not confuse WORTH with COST. The cables I have may be worth a fortune, but how much, or in this case little, they cost me is another factor indeed.

Also, see the end of his first post, he states $800-900 Canadian in it. That's why I went with the Music Hall CD25. It has an incredible Phillips transpost that can read nearly anything and is way better than anything else at that price point.

Quote:



Hehe,no I'm not afraid to say what my limit is. My limit is right now - I don't know. I want to improve my system, but I want to do it in a way that is building on it with good parts that I can work with for a while, rather than making a short term small improvement. I guess I'd like to put about $1000 into the CD Player, and about $1500 into an amp, and probably about $2000 into speakers.. Right now I'm a grad student, which means I am poor - but I want to upgrade the right way, so if that means saving a bit every week, then I'll do that.

I love music. I listen to 8 or more hours of it per day. I love hearing the detail, the depth - all of it, I get so into it.

So yeah..it's a long term goal.. but that's okay.. so is getting a PhD..

The speakers I spoke about before, that I want are the little brothers of these.

http://www.audiophilia.com/hardware/studiolab.htm

I have auditioned the Reference 1s, Reference 2s, and Reference 3s./. But not their newest ones, Reference Revelations.

The Reference 3s at $4000 CDN sound a LOT better than speakers I have auditioned at other high end shops that cost $10000, at least to my ears.

I shiould caution however, that my ears are damaged. I had a lot of ear surgery done as a kid which may make me a bad judge.. But that's why I posted the review.

The companies website is..

www.speakerdirect.com

The speakers I have of theres now, they no longer sell - SL2100s, sound a lot better than a lot of other speakers I've heard at twice the price I paid for these. They cost me $500 when I was 16 years old. and they still sound pretty good.. they're just lacking some of the clarity and richness of base I now want (although that really could be my upstream components.. cause my CD player doesn't sound very good connected to my Senn HD590s either.. ).
So anyway
I love these speakers..

These reference 3's don't need a sub, but a really good sub improves them a lot.

You can get the Shanling S-100 in canada cheaper than you can get a music hall here in the USA. Also pick up a good integrated like a Rotel RA02 and some B&W DM602s3 and youre set. Check out Aprils What Hi Fi for examples of budget systems.

check out this link from audiogon for good cheap speakers:

http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.p...7075838&2&3&4&

The level 2 upgrade on the music hall(975.00)playing redbook cd's, is far superior to the philips 963, the rega planet, creek cd43, and the planet 2000. It is better than the NAD silver series cdp, and a little better than the rega jupiter 2000. I've owned all of these cdp's over the past few years except the NAD which I had in my system for 3 weeks then mailed back. I now own the jupiter 2000 and the mmf cd25 modified which I got from Walter(underwoodwally).I think you will notice an improvement over the player you have now with any of the above cdp. To tell the differences in the jupiter, NAD, and modified cd25 you might need to upgrade your amp too. If you watch movies the philips is the best dvd player I've ever watched. These are all just my opinions, but I have listened to these on headphones and speaker systems. You mentioned the Cambridge, I would go with the philips over it.

Modified music hall cd25 (975.00) Unison Research Int. amp (1300.00) Audes Blues speakers (2000.00). Or you can pick up a used Krell 300i int. amp for under 1500.00. Or a new rotel pre-amp(500.00) and rotel 130 wpc amp for 700.00 or 200 wpc amp for 1000.00. Any of these combo's would make you happy to get home every night.