What should I upgrade?

L

lukejr

Enthusiast
I've got a pretty good 2.1 system which consists of:
- Energy RC-10 speakers
- HSU STF-1 subwoofer
- NAD C320 BEE integrated amp
- Panasonic DVD player
- one pair Qed speaker wires, one pair regular copper speaker cable
- one pair BJ stereo cable, one pair radio shack stereo cable
- Little Dot MK III tube amp.

I like the sound, but I want to make small improvements like increased clarity and imaging, tighter bass, greater transparency and detail.

My question is what should my next upgrade path be? Some ideas I've been pondering are a power conditioner, power cable, better interconnects, better speaker cables.
 
WmAx

WmAx

Audioholic Samurai
Cables/interconnects do not make a difference unless you want to depend on your imagination, or have bad cables/interconnects in the first place with poor connections/joints, or have cables/interconnects with filter boxes on them that create a response difference that deviates from flat response.

Speakers and room acoustics make the biggest difference, BY FAR. Replace the speakers with something better and manage your room acoustics if you want a large upgrade in sound.

-Chris
 
G

gus6464

Audioholic Samurai
I've got a pretty good 2.1 system which consists of:
- Energy RC-10 speakers
- HSU STF-1 subwoofer
- NAD C320 BEE integrated amp
- Panasonic DVD player
- one pair Qed speaker wires, one pair regular copper speaker cable
- one pair BJ stereo cable, one pair radio shack stereo cable
- Little Dot MK III tube amp.

I like the sound, but I want to make small improvements like increased clarity and imaging, tighter bass, greater transparency and detail.

My question is what should my next upgrade path be? Some ideas I've been pondering are a power conditioner, power cable, better interconnects, better speaker cables.
If you want to upgrade your speakers and like the Energy sound Audio Advisor has the Veritas 2.2i for $899/pair. That would be a very good upgrade on a pair of speakers that normally retail for $2k.

http://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=ENVEV2.2I
 
Jack Hammer

Jack Hammer

Audioholic Field Marshall
I'd keep what you have, assuming (I know;) your happy with them, and add some room treatments and maybe a BD player for hi-res sound. Room treatments really have to be experienced to be fully appreciated. They can make a poor system better and a great system amazing when properly done.

Jack
 
L

lukejr

Enthusiast
I keep hearing about room treatments. To me I feel that they don't apply as "system upgrades" but rather "environmental upgrades". I realize that treatments would help in many cases, but for me the idea of putting up panels on the wall doesn't appeal to me at all. A system should have it in itself to sound good rather than be dependent upon environmental factors.... although I agree that environment plays a part in how it sounds. My system is situated in a decent listening area and there's plenty of objects in the room to minimize reflection. It's not ideal however I'm comfortable with how it looks and would rather not change it.

Therefore, what would you recommend for system upgrade? Two things I would not change at this time is the amp, and the speakers. I'm fairly happy with both for their price point. In fact they sound remarkable for their price. Anyways, I'm looking for small changes. Do you think a better DVD player would give me better detail and clarity? What do you think about power cables or wires? How much impact would they give?

Like I mention, I'm not looking for large improvements at this point... more like minor tweaks. My system gives me about 90% of what I want to hear. At this point I'm looking for the next five percent improvement. :)
 
Jack Hammer

Jack Hammer

Audioholic Field Marshall
I'm not a believer in power cable "upgrades" unless it's for cosmetic reasons or there is physically something wrong with the cable being used. Most houses are wired for power with 14ga solid copper wires availbable and inexpensive at any Home Depot. Those are fed by miles of cable running all over town to your house. A 3-6' power cord isn't going to somehow improve the "quality" of elecricity feeding your system.

It sounds like the interconnects you have are fine. I really like the Blue Jeans cables, they look great and work.

A power conditioner can help in some cases, but only if power you're getting is dirty. This has been reported as visible on some tv's. If your power isn't dirty it won't really make a difference.

You only posted the brand of your dvd player, not the model. That makes it difficult for anyone familiar with that brand to know what features it has or if any benefits can be had by changing it. I like hi-res audio, like sacd, dvd-a, or blu-ray. If you haven't tried listening to any of those, you might want to give it a try.

Room treatments do come in many sizes, shapes, colors, thicknesses, & esp prices. Some can be ordered with custom prints on them to make them look more like art and less like a futon mounted on your wall. They can make a dramatic improvement in the quality of your sound. Just something to consider for down the road.

One last thing that can a difference. Tweaking the positions of the speakers or seating position just a tad. Maybe try something like the Rives test tones cd to help tweak your sound a bit.

Jack
 

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