@chungjh , You should consider this an evolutionary process. Your speakers can make use of the highest quality (not price) equipment and you have many weak links or links that could be stronger. I think first is your amps. If you like Pass you need to go to the XA200.8 but it is well known in the Sound Lab community that the best amps for driving them are the Parasound JC1+ and the Atma-Sphere MA2. Either amp will wake up the Sound Labs to an amazing degree like a breath of fresh air and they will be "final" amps. Then you can work on your front end. I would start by replacing the Technics. It's tonearm is not worthy of better cartridges and for the Sound Labs you are looking at at least $5000 for a moving coil cartridge and there are many that will sound fine. Finally the preamp and I would get one with bass management capabilities so you can add subwoofers down the line.
I am enjoying my analog system, but what can I do to improve?
I currently have Technics 1200G turntable with Dynavector 17XD cartridge playing through Kitsune LCR 1 MK5 phono pre and Allnic L7000 preamp. My amps are Pass X350.5 and Benchmark AHB2 driving Sound Lab ESL speakers. My system sounds great, but I am wondering how I can take my system to another level. What do you think?
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I suspect that if you upgraded your turntable/tonearm and cartridge it could give you a pretty good boost. I personally like the Clearaudio products. Check out the Performance DC turntable, the Satisfy carbon tonearm, and Stradivari II cartridge. It’s a pretty expensive cartridge but I like to “overspend” a bit on cartridges - it’s where the sound starts after all. |
This is something that every audiophile wants and looks for. If you enjoy what you're hearing - then enjoy your system. If you want to improve your enjoyed equipment, then you will always live with wanting to improve. I have been in that state of mind for years and now found my sounding good audio equipment and here is where I stop. My humble opinion is to enjoy what you have and save your money. |
Thanks to everyone for their comments. Right now, there is nothing more I can do about the room size. So, it looks like the consensus is to get better analog components. @stereo_gen also makes a good point. My system current sounds good and could live with it. |
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