2. amps-preamps
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amp upgrade

I have been using CA CXA80 with B&W 604  speakers for about 5 years. I use Sonos streamer hooked up to the amp using optical cable. Also have some CD's and blue rays. overall sound is good but I always feel some punch and dynamic element is missing when I listen to the same titles with other random systems. Also the combo is not that expressive at lower volumes, sound gets a bit lost when volume is low. the other issue is lack of clarity in speech when watching movies. have to crank up the volume to hear the conversations but still a bit mushy.... When I bought the system I also auditioned an Arcam FMJ amp which sounded cleaner than the CXA80, I still remember it. it was not an option back then due to lack of availability. 
Wondering if upgrading the amp would solve this issue. I am looking at the newer stuff, preferably a steaming amp as most of my music is sourced from Tidal. Has anyone  used the Naim unity atom or the NAD m10 V2 ? are these any good? In particular something that can reproduce clean sound at lower volumes. I will at some point upgrade the speakers too but I feel I should be able to squeeze more out of them with a better amp? 

 

thanks 

speedmaster20d

Showing 1 response by audioman58

audioman58's avatar
audioman58
4,341 posts
 

The amp forsure can help but imo theQuality of your Starting point is maybe more important  for good or bad your digital signal starts their and if not good to start with cannot be bettered upstream . Buy a good quality dac .

On a budget I highly recommend the Denafrips Aries 12th anniversary dac,

then for onk6 $540 the very good matching Iris DDC oversampler which not only clears incoming data bet with the I2S connection is the. Best type of connection

but even more so the temp control clock in theIris is better then even the latest 12th  pontus.same clock as in the Venus , and through our audioclub did what other reviewers don’t do put decent power cords ,and upgrade fuses,on the Iris to save cost theHigi tuning Supreme Copper fuse, and the synergistic purple on the dac 

fori2S cable we used a Wireworld star light ,but even their $60 hdmi thepin out matches ,other brands may not. And after roughly 200 hours ,sounds very good in some areas better then the latest 12th pontus more fleshed out detail and still very natural , the latest Aries 12 is just over $1k , and then you can always add the Iris DDC later which is a big plus ,my wife’s loves it in her system.

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