Help me upgrade my beginner system!


So I’ve been an entry-level audiophile for a while - I’ve never spent a large amount of money to put together a truly impressive system. Currently, I have the following gear:

- Elac Discovery Music Server
- Technics SL-1700 Turntable w/Pickering XSV300 cartridge
- Peachtree Nova 300 Integrated Amp
- GoldenEar BRX Bookshelf speakers
- NHT SW2P Subwoofer (w/MA-1 amp)

I also have a bunch of gear I inherited from my brother (all from the 1990s) that I will be trading in to a local stereo shop. That’s where I need help. What should I add/replace to improve on my setup? I’m not sure what I’ll get for the traded-in gear, but I suspect I’ll be able to purchase around $2 - $2.5K in new gear.

I’m personally leaning towards a DAC to improve upon the one built into the Peachtree, and maybe a good power conditioner (although I’m currently using my brother’s old Tice Elite AC Conditioner). I’m very hesitant to replace the Elac Discovery because it comes with Roon and works with both Tidal and Qobuz. Anyway, would love to get your thoughts on this!

dvujovic

A decent surge protector is different from a power conditioner and yes we all need one.  We just had a power outage that tripped the protectors in all 3 of my systems.

Everything survived, thankfully 

Definitely NEED to replace the cartridge. But most importantly you should spend all the rest of the money on new or used better speakers. Power conditioner is a total waste of a plug at your level. 

Very appreciative of all the passionate advice! I'm going to contact my local store and send them my trade-in list and go from there, as well as get their recommendations. At this point, I've not ruled out room treatments, a speaker upgrade, and/or an integrated amp upgrade.

This will probably take a number of weeks to work through but I'll definitely report back on what I got and the results.

There is NOTHING wrong with the DAC in your Peachtree.  It sounds better than you think.  Of course, if you're hell-bent upon spending money, then by all means do so, but you'll be throwing it away.   I run the early model Peachtree DAC-iT.  Your amp will be running the newer iTx version.

I once had a chance to do a serious comparison with the Schiit Yggy and the PS Audio DirectStream.  The consensus that day was that the Schiit was well...  Most there actually preferred the Peachtree over the PS Audio.  I liked them both and felt the PS might be a little better, but only a little.  And certainly not $6000 worth better.

Your Peachtree amp has plenty of muscle.  The rest of your system is really quite good.  Not extreme hi-end, but will work just fine thank-you.  You would have to spend a LOT of money to improve on your turntable.

As for speakers, well the sky's the limit.  If your current speakers are on stands, then a modest floor standing loudspeaker won't take up any more floor space.  What would be a very good match, be a significant upgrade from what you run now, and would be dirt cheap for what you'd be getting are some used SEAS Thor speakers I saw on a Canadian website, or a pair in Arizona.  They would work great with your Peachtree.

At one time I compared the preamp + amp sections of the Peachtree Nova 150. I had this unit for about 3 years. I forgot how I did the separation of the different parts to test, but I know I did do that and came to the following conclusions:

- the preamp section is terrible

- I think I also thought the DAC was terrible

- the amp section was pretty good, though nowhere close to the Peachtree GAN1 that I mentioned above.