Upgrading Hi-Fi

Bunka

Bunka

Bunka

Soldato
Joined
18 Jan 2005
Posts
5,577
Location
West London
Hi,

Basically I want to upgrade my Hi-Fi and make it sound better than it currently does now.

At the moment I have:

  • Amp - Denon DM31 amp/tuner/cd player combo
  • Speakers - Tannoy MX1's
  • Creative Soundblaster external soundcard plugged into the amp
  • £2.50 per metre silver plated speaker cable
  • £8 3.5mm to dual phono between soundcard and amp

Since upgrading the speaker cable from what was 80p a metre stuff, I have noticed a definite increase in clarity from the speakers. However, I still want to upgrade further and improve upon this.

What do you should I be looking at buying next? Should I upgrade to a higher quality external usb DAC? Buy a new amp? Buy new speakers?

Considering nearly all music comes from my laptop, then really there is not much point in me buying a new cd player. Again, the same goes with a tuner; I listen to the radio a fair amount, but not enough to spend a few hundred on something which I believe won't make that much difference due to it just being an fm tuner.

So, in short, what should I look at buying next, and how much should I be spending to get a noticeable increase in quality, for reference the amp and speakers cost about £350 originally.
 
Yeah, I realise the whole lot will eventually need upgrading, but I'd rather do it a step at a time, rather than spending close to a grand in one go. I'm trying to find out what would be the best to upgrade first, giving the best results.
 
Hmm, tricky question.
My personal opinion is that you'd get the most involving improvement from updating the CD player via either replacing what you have with a new dedicated unit, or by adding a good DAC. A good starting point might be something like a s/h Quad CD99. I've heard one a number of times, and am still impressed by them, especially for the dosh. Should be possible to find one for around £500.

Having said the above, you'll get a bigger "change" by updating your speakers, though putting a great pair of speakers on the back end of a cheap CDP will just lead to you showing how bad the source is. IMO, not a good move (been there, seen it, felt miserable afterwards).
In addition, in some ways, it makes sense make the decisions based on speaker choice first. What I mean by that is that there's a whole lot of choices in speaker technology, e.g. ported, transmission line, horn, electrostatic etc. Each of those is a compromise in one way or another, you need to decide what you like. If you fancy say a big ported unit like a B&W, then a low powered valve amp really won't be an option at a later date, so it wouldn't make sense to buy one.

So in my opinion, you should be:
1. DECIDING the prefered speaker type, then the matching amp and finally the CD player
2. BUYING the CD player first, then amp, then speakers

Sounds mad? Yep, but it should work.
 
Bunka said:
So, in short, what should I look at buying next, and how much should I be spending to get a noticeable increase in quality, for reference the amp and speakers cost about £350 originally.
Click to expand...
What are you willing to spend now?
 
We have a DM30 in the house, my daughters, so I know it it's dam good sound for such a small and affordable unit..... when set up well.

Ok you have done the speaker cable upgrade, what about speaker position, where are they, how are they mounted, placed in the room... This an area 90% of people muck up... and can trash the sound big time.... Get the most from what you have to start with.

As you state your music comes from the laptop, which is possible the worst source you could use !! (mines noisy as **** through Head phones).

So yep get an external DAC.....

After that to better a DM31 unit your looking at say a Linn Classik (circ £400-600 on auction) for a one box replacement.... Or into the expensive world of separates.....
Where I would get an decent Integrated amp first, link in above DAC and laptop, and the DM31 via it's Tape Out sockets, for CD and Tuner....Then new speakers... ( I assuming you will hardly ever use an original CD ??? and have ripped at a high quality setting ??)
 
If you're not really using the CD player, I would be inclined to go along the DAC and new amp route for the moment. The Denon unit is decent, but if you're looking for big changes I think moving away from a one box solution for the future is your best option.
 
Some interesting advice here, thanks.


  • Mr_Sukebe: I have half thought about upgrading the DAC, from the current USB one i have now. But frankly, I haven't actually found anything yet which is within a currently sensible price range. Spending £500 just on a DAC, seems quite excessive, considering I would still be running relatively basic kit. However, I would be interested in buying something around the £150 - £200 mark, yet I haven't managed to find anything for this price range.

    Regarding your opinion, that's pretty much the lines I was thinking along aswell. I think buying the amp first is a good idea, as I should notice a decent improvement, and can then add the speakers at a later date.


  • willd58: I'd rather spend more on an amp than i would on speakers. So maybe £500 on the amp and £300 on a pair of reasonably decent standmounts? This is possible to change though.


  • 9designs2: I know it's a great unit, but frankly I want better. :D

    The speakers are set up at the end of a room which is 6m x 3.5m. They are about 1.5m apart from each other, one on a large set of drawers, the other on my desk. Both speakers are about 1.5ft from the wall, and isolated with 4 large balls of blu-tak under them, moving them about 2cm off the desk.

    I do kind of have an external DAC, as mentioned before i have an external USB soundcard, which bypasses the onboard sound and uses the inbuilt DAC in the soundcard. However, this unit was only £45, so i'm presuming I can do a lot better for a least double the initial price, however I am yet to find a unit under £200. From what I have seen they are either ~£40 or ~£500.

    In reference to the Linn Classik, damn that looks nice, but I would rather go into seperates to give me the option of further upgrading at a later date. The suggestion of new amp...dac....using dm31... does sound like the best possible option, as I hardly use the built in CD player, and currently have all my CD's ripped at 192k aac.


  • tom_nieto Yeah after reading through all the above advice, this does seem to be the best option. Do you have any suggestions for a new DAC? preferably USB, to bypass the current onboard sound.


Everyone does seem to be thinking along the lines I was. Buy a new amp/dac, and use the DM31 for its tuner. Rather than buying a decent set of new speakers, and immediately being able to see the flaws in my current amp.

So say I have £300 - £500 to spend on a new amp, and £150 to spend on a DAC, will this be enough for me to notice a decent improvement over what I have now, and is it a good base for later improvements? Also, any suggestions on what I should be looking at in that price range if the budget is deemed suitable?
 
Ok I'm struggling a bit now.... You want better quality, and want to use a laptop with only a USB output for sound.... For me these two issue are in direct conflict.... one of them needs to change !!!....
If you want PC based music, get something with a SP/DIF output, then a DAC, perhaps a Arcam Black box 5, less than £100 S/H... or one of the Non OS DACs you can build yourself, runs out about £120.

How does the laptop/USB card sound compare with putting a disc in the DM31 ??

Also get your speakers on some stands away from furniture, they will be sounding pants at the moment.

£300-500 spent on an amp will get you something very nice, (used again I would suggest) ... BUT you need to sort the source out first....
 
Save the hassle and either:

a) go for seperates.

b) get the new Onkyo CR 715 DAB if you want to sta compact.

An underpowered micro is always going to be just that. Yes, new cables and speakers can help, but it is what it is.
 
9designs2 said:
snip...
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice,

The cd player definitely does sound better than the usb soundcard. There isn't a massive difference but it is pretty noticeable.

I'm currently outputting from the laptop to an external soundcard, which then feeds into the amp. However, as you mentioned, this solution is far from perfect.


Would this be a more suitable method?

The current outputs I have from my laptop are:

sockets1copyqb0.jpg


Would I then be able to use the SP/DIF output from the laptop into this?:

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/FirewireAudiophile-main.html

which would presumably act as a DAC and then using the output into my amp?
 
SpeedFreak said:
Save the hassle and either:

a) go for seperates.

b) get the new Onkyo CR 715 DAB if you want to sta compact.

An underpowered micro is always going to be just that. Yes, new cables and speakers can help, but it is what it is.
Click to expand...

I am aiming to go for seperates, but would rather have most of my music coming from my laptop, and am trying to find the best way to do this.
 
I think that'll be a coaxail SPDIF output. You should be able to find a suitable hi-fi DAC to connect to. You will however need to get a 3.5mm to RCA phono converter cable. These are easy to find though.
 
I guess in the laptop set-up, you assign the socket to be either Headphones or SP/DIF, so this would allow you to connect straight into a HiFi DAC, as listed above, Arcam Black Box, Non OS, Meridian...etc etc. No need for the M-audio item.
Easy enough to buy of make a lead up for 3.5mm to Phono plug... Stage one sorted then ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom