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$1000 upgrade. Opinions?

What would you do? I am prepared to consider all opinions no matter how strange they may sound.
I listen to different kinds of music; no big orchestras, no opera, no country, no rap. The system should be able to play well both jazz/rock and female vocal and various world beats from Brazil to Middle East by way of Ireland and North Africa.
The only two things that I don't consider upgrading now is speakers and cassette deck.
The room is relatively small and rectangular, about 150sqf. But I may move soon enough so I have no intention to acoustically treat it unless I could use this stuff in another room later.
Here is what I have:
Nottingham Spacedeck/Spacearm with Dynavector 10X5 cartridge.
Acoustech PH-1 phono stage, good for both MM and LOMC.
CEC TL5100Z belt drive cd player.
Nakamichi 682ZX deck.
Audiolab 8000LX integrated, original made in England. Quite powerful for 60 watt/ch/8ohm. Has pre-amp out.
Michael Green Audio Revolution 80i free resonance floorstanding speakers.
Purist Audio Colossus speaker cables, Maximus interconnect.
Custom Power Cord Co. Top Gun power cords for the phono stage and the Audiolab; model Hi Value for the player.
Furman 1215 voltage regulator/conditioner.
Boston Audio, Polycrystal, Audiopoints, Isoblock footers. Polycrystal spikes for speakers.
What would I like to improve? Well, everything. Also, I have no idea how these speakers would sound with tubes.
inna
audiofeil
4,011 posts
 
Dedicated AC lines and/or a phono cartridge.

IMO
jrinkerptdnet
430 posts
 
your speakers may actually be a "weak link" in this set-up ... I have owned the Classic 60's and Studio 5's and they were substantially better than the Revolution Series from MGD. $1000 can buy a lot of speaker on the used market!

Jeff
tubeo
72 posts
 
A Low Output Moving Coil Cartridge is an option for an upgrade . Your Phono Stage will handle the Low Output .

If you buy Used with Low Hours of use you might only spend $250 to $600 depending on Make and Model . You can find a Shelter 501 mk II , Dynavector 20XL , Lyra Lydian Beta Used for about $600 or less . An AudioTechnica ML 09 mkII or Denon 103R can be found for $250.00 or less .

I have bought a number of Used Cartridges on AudiogoN [ at least 25 ] and all but one was as described in the Ad . I was able to get my money back on the one that wasn't .

Eveyone of the Cartriges Listed above is a MAJOR Upgrade to the Dyna 10X5 .

Now if you wanted to spend all $1000 on a Cartridge , well that opens up whole other level of performance .
ska_man
55 posts
 
How about beefing up your power conditioning. I would replace the Furman 1215 with a Furman Elite-15 PFi and also add a PS Audio Quintet. Plug your Audiolab integrated into one of the "Power Factor" outlets on the Elite-15, and plug the Quintet into one of the regular outlets. The rest of your components, would be isolated by the zones in the Quintet. Just one of many options, good luck!
inna OP
7,141 posts
 
I will upgrade the speakers later to Michael Green Chameleons or something else but that's not $1k upgrade.
Dedicated line is not possible in the apartment. I was thinking about big cartridge upgrade or adding power amp. I don't think that low compliance and heavy MC will work well with this arm. The cheapest Lyra, don't remember the model, is light and medium compliance, so it should work. But I have no idea how it will actually sound in this arm and the whole set-up.
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