Musical Fidelity

Posted by Shawn Harvey [IP: 206.31.111.18] on October 25, 1999 at 12:19:51
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In Reply to: Musical Fidelity posted by JTD on October 25, 1999 at 10:45:37:

There are too many ways you can go with that system, but there are some general ideas that might work to your advantange:

1. Consider buying used amps/preamps (less than 1 or 2 years old). The equipment ranges from Bose radios to Krell FBP 600's and all are going for pretty good prices. Most amps/preamps don't age much in the first year or so -- more like a break-in period. Try www.audiogon.com, www.ebay.com, rec.audio.marketplace, etc.

2. You might consider skipping the preamp and using the DAC or CD player as the control unit if all you listen to is CD's (assuming they have output controls). I'm using my Lexicon HT DAC as my preamp and running straight into amps. Sure, it would probably sound better to have a dedicated amp and dedicated preamp, but you have to put your money somewhere and I think I'm getting the most bang for my buck by putting it in better amps and upgrading my speakers.

3. There are some very nicely-reviewed integrateds in the latest Stereophile that are very affordable.

4. The CAL 20 has gotten superb reviews and is a DVD/CD combo player so you get two for the price of one. I think Stereophile even rated it Class A for CD playback. It's like $1500 or so, which is very affordable I think.

5. Keep the speakers you have and see how much performance you can squeeze out of them with great upstream equipment before buying new speakers. I think you'll be amazed at how good they can actually sound.

6. If *I* was doing this from scratch I'd probably put my cash into the amps, get the CAL CD/DVD player (I think it has output controls) and maybe upgrade some of my cables. That'll get you to a really nice-sounding system within a decent budget. Then you can start upgrading piece by piece.

7. Amps are a hard one to call because there is so much trade-off between what kind of sound you are looking for and what price you can afford. With your speakers you might look at a used Bryston 4BST (they have a 20 year warranty) for the power. If you want to go for more finesse with lower wattage some of the tubed integrateds might be more to your liking. Depends on the sensitivity of your speakers.

Lastly, go to www.audioclassics.com. They have a pretty good selection of used/demo equipment and are very helpful and friendly. They also have a really slick speaker upgrade deal for when you buy speakers.

As for the speakers, I got a pair of Joseph Audio 22's (www.josephaudio.com) and I love them, although I want a tad more bass *slam* so I'm upgrading to the 25's. I think they are the best deal for the money in their price range (granted, I've not listened to every speaker made so my judegement is biased by my inexperience, although I have heard quite a few).

My best advice, read a lot and remember that no matter how great any of the components are in your system the weakest link will set the standard for how the overall performance sounds. Try to maintain some level of balance between the quality (not price) of the components in your system.

And have fun!

Shawn Harvey

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