You say this "
Given the age of my system, and basic inability to really shine in
today's digital media (ie thers nothing approaching 24/196 capability) " and to me it just doesn't make any sense. If you want to upgrade your source then upgrade your source. At that point you may decide your amp and speakers need to go, but you may now. Your current source is obviously your weak link, there are tons of great dacs and streaming devices out there many of them pretty affordable. Once you have a source you like evaluate again. Doing everything all at once just looking at stuff on paper and asking advice seems like a recipe for disaster. Take your time and if you can spend your money once and spend it right.
An upgrade a long time overdue
I am thinking its time for some upgrades - like the whole system. But its been so many years, and Boards like this have become so helpful and accessible, I am turning to the Pros as it were to seek some varied and hopefully passionate advice.
Disclaimer - I tend to buy used as I have tastes that appreciate the A/B-class but have a D-class budget, so something that used to be $8,000 new that can be gotten for say $2200 now is right on the mark. Of course it must still be relevant and likely remain so for the next couple of years. But age doesnt matter otherwise....
I am currently running a bryston 2B (which itself was an upgrade from a Myryad T40), with a Cal Audio dac and dynaudio countour 1.8 floor-standing speakers. this is the guts - i use a sony blue-ray player for the occasional movie, but mostly listening to music (which is all over the place, jazz, rock, opera, classical, etc, and more recently, the dreaded Pandora channeled through the phone and a input jack)
What research I have been able to do leads me to consider opening up the sound stage with something more mixed, like a conrad johnson pv14L as pre- and the ayre v5xe, and coming forward in the age of digital, considering something like the oppo 105 but i was also thinking the nad m50 / m52 combo instead of the oppo..........and lastly all this heard through (I'm thinking) vienna accoustics beethoven baby grands
so maybe the whole thing comes in at 8k - 10k? can I achieve 80% - 90% of this for 5k? or less even? Is my mixology fraught with disaster? am I missing something obvious?
i dont know what I dont know here so please weigh in
thanks for your consideration and insights
Disclaimer - I tend to buy used as I have tastes that appreciate the A/B-class but have a D-class budget, so something that used to be $8,000 new that can be gotten for say $2200 now is right on the mark. Of course it must still be relevant and likely remain so for the next couple of years. But age doesnt matter otherwise....
I am currently running a bryston 2B (which itself was an upgrade from a Myryad T40), with a Cal Audio dac and dynaudio countour 1.8 floor-standing speakers. this is the guts - i use a sony blue-ray player for the occasional movie, but mostly listening to music (which is all over the place, jazz, rock, opera, classical, etc, and more recently, the dreaded Pandora channeled through the phone and a input jack)
What research I have been able to do leads me to consider opening up the sound stage with something more mixed, like a conrad johnson pv14L as pre- and the ayre v5xe, and coming forward in the age of digital, considering something like the oppo 105 but i was also thinking the nad m50 / m52 combo instead of the oppo..........and lastly all this heard through (I'm thinking) vienna accoustics beethoven baby grands
so maybe the whole thing comes in at 8k - 10k? can I achieve 80% - 90% of this for 5k? or less even? Is my mixology fraught with disaster? am I missing something obvious?
i dont know what I dont know here so please weigh in
thanks for your consideration and insights