everything sounded great until the upgrade

grislybutter

just a couple of points of interest,                                                                               

a lot of 70s rock albums were great compositions, but with the exception of a few labels (Eg, 1st pressing Columbia's, some DECA's, Deutsche Grammophon) the actual recordings, and the quality of the vinyl being used by the other labels was crapola. Your A3.2 may be a revealing piece of audio gear, and brutal when exposing sh%$ recordings your 2252B didn't divulge.

As for analog VS digital sources, I have two sets of reference speakers, a pair of 946 Focal Electra's and a pair of Meadowlark Heron hot rod's. To save space, lets just say both the analog & digital sources are snob set-ups with the hat tipping to the analog source. The Meadowlark's sound better on my digital source, and it has a tube pre-amp section. I don't know why, but I'm ascertaining the Meadowlark's were voiced using digital gear. 

In your case (don't take this personally) the A3.2 is pretty well engineered, it may be revealing that your cd player is not of the quality you thought it was.

My last point is ..... some gear just doesn't go with some gear. On top of that, perhaps your ears just don't dig Musical Fidelites sonic signature, and the A3.2 isn't your cup of tea???

I'm just saying.

Hey grislybutter,

Don't avoided the word "SYNERGY", it's really prevalent in audio, & essential for putting together a system/package. For you, the days of having a really good system based on having a good pair of speakers are gone. Finito.

Getting back to synergy, a friend had this KILLER system on paper, but his big buck M/C Benz Micro cartridge was picking up FM signals & nobody had a reason why. (Back to the drawing board).

The main thing Gris is not to get frustrated. You've gone from a 70's receiver, to a nice dual mono Integrated Amp, with separate power supplies & output transformers. You are in a state of metamorphosis & your ears don't know what to do with it.

This is actually a good thing, except it's going to cost you money, LOL. You now have a small Porsche engine (Musical Fidelity A3.2), which you're operating on Wal-Mart tires (your speakers).

Pretty hard to recommend a speaker when I know nothing about your room .... floor standers, book shelves, etc.

But if you're set on warm sounding speakers, you may want to consider vintage speakers, AR's, or Advents. Might want to look into ESS. Problem is they're collectability. They've gone from "get those old things out of here", to being double, triple, of their original price. And who knows what they've been through. IMHO, when you can get a pair of Paradigm monitor 9-v1's for under $500 CDN dollars, it's really hard to justify $1200 dollars for a pair of AR3's that sold for $95 bucks in 1975.

The worm has turned Gris & there's no turning back.

As for recordings, Acoustic Sounds, Inc is a good place to start.

https://store.acousticsounds.com/cat/5/Vinyl_Record

grislybutter,

"Seriously. Isn’t it a reasonable goal to make my existing speakers sound good"?

You are absolutely correct. Speakers are mega, yet they are still only one ingredient in the stew.

My philosophy is different to a lot of philes in two ways. One: - before you spend a penny on gear there are two variables that need your attention. A: The quality of the actual recording that’s being listened to. B: The room you’re playing it in. Two: - The other difference in my equipment philosophy is, it’s my source that I build my system around, not my speakers. Speakers come & go. Without a good source to play a fine recording ya got NADA.

"Isn’t it a reasonable goal to make my existing speakers sound good"? Ya think! Optimize your existing set-up. If you’re table (I wish I knew what it was) bests your Cd player, focus on your turntable 1st. Get some isolation pads (IsoAcoustics) under your turntable, amp & speakers. If your table is a cut above consider rewiring your tonearm with a single run interconnect. (this is the only place I’d consider silver over copper). http://www.smetonearms.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=2

Next, get good interconnects. If you’re handy, save some money & make your own http://www.cardas.com/chassis_wire.php, (I like the GRNO 90 RCA connecters), or buy used. Same goes with speaker wire, & I’m glad to say you can do well here without going nuts. Kimber’s Base PR8 will do ya fine. https://www.kimber.com/products/8PR

As for bookshelf speaker .... take your time, enjoy what you have. When the time comes ProAc D2. https://www.proac-loudspeakers.com/products/response-d2-r-d/

grislybutter,

"that’s my biggest lesson from it: it’s starts with the amp". I never said that Gris, it starts with the source (turntable/cartridge/tonearm, or Cd, etc), and the quality of the actual recording process on the format. It’s quality in, quality out, or, garbage in ...... etc.

Now your narrative implies that you have a good turntable, (get it isolated!!!), and you have the M/F A3.2, so optimize your speaker set-up as I & others in this form have suggested, then enjoy the life long learning curve.

When I was 20 I bought an Oracle Delphi turntable, with a Syrinx LE1 arm & a Grace F9 cartridge. In the subsequent 43 years tonearms, cartridges, pre-amps, amps, speakers, "houses", have all come and gone. But the one reference piece that’s remained, the foundation I could measure all other components against, was my source. That in my experience is where Phile’s with limited resouces should start. The source.

So don’t ignore your room, book cases, curtains, crown molding, pictures & end tables maynot be as effective as dedicated defusers/traps, but hey. This is your home, not a lab. Lets not lose perspective, are you spinning a few tunes, or are you finding a cure for cancer?