I am interested in upgrading my late 80's system?

Well Ray,

I was where you're at, about two years ago, when I decided I wanted to upgrade my late 80s Onyko/Boston Acoustic system. Chances are you won't find many (or any) reviews on a lot of equipment manufactered back then. Anyway, the first questions you ahould be asking yourself, is why do you feel the need to upgrade and what are you looking for in doing an upgrade, and how much are you budgeting for the upgrade, and are you going to do it "piece by piece" or take an "all at once" approach? Also, are you "buying new" or willing to "buy used"? My approach was "piece by piece", and my budget was (still is, for that matter) somewhat limited. So most of what I bought, I bought "used" here on Audiogon.

Basically, I evaluated my old system, and figured out what I liked and didn't like about it. And then started replacing components in order of what I felt was the "weakest link". One of the things that I wanted to accomplish was to go from solid state receiver to a tube base integrated amp, after that it was the replacing the speakers and then the CD player, with components that I felt brought out the best in the amp that I bought. Also, along the way, I upgraded speaker cables/ICs/power cable, replaces tubes, ect. And it took me about a year and half to accomplish my goal. One thing to keep in mind is what you finally want the system to be sounding like. Even though my system was put together "piece by piece", I still had a "good idea" from the beginning the steps I was going to take in getting my system to sound the way I wanted it. IOW, know where you want to go, and have some idea about how to get there.

One thing about taking the "piece by piece" approach is that each time you replace something, you can evaluate it's affect on the other components you have, who's qualities you know well and hopefully, learn what's the best "nest step" to take. btw, I've gotten quite a bit of good information, just be asking people on the Audiogon forums about different audio issues. No doubt, you'll find people here as helpful as I did. Anyway, good luck in your upgrade.

Ray.

You sound a lot like me, little bit different taste in music, but still in the same ballpark (I enjoy bluegrass and acoutic blues) and like you, mostly listen at a low or moderate volume, and yes, I'm a bit past "middle aged". Chances are you might want to keep your speakers, as if you're like me you appreciate a warmer sounding speaker than a more analyical one. Of course, the only way you'll know is go out and listen to some different speakers, and don't be surprised that what you'll hear while sounding different might not necessarily sound better. One question though, what is your source component, CD or vinyl, and are you thinking about changing or upgrading that? I'm the sort of person who feels that the source is the most important component, as nothing down the line can improve upon what is orginally delivered. If you got a good source component , and you like the sound of your speakers, perhaps upgrading your amp, may be all you really need. Remember the most important thing, is that your system satisfied "your ears", and delivers "your music" the way you want to hear it, and the age of it really doesn't matter. I have many friends who's systems would be considered older or "vintage" and they're still getting quite a bit of enjoyment out of them. Nothing wrong with an older system if it sounds good.

Hey Ray,

What kind of CD player do you have? And please feel free to ignore the "buy this, buy that" and "if you don't like it sale it" crowd around here, as I feel you're the kind of guy that wants to do a decent upgrade and then enjoy it for a while, so take your time and find what you want, and that meets your listening expectations.

Anyway, first step if it was me, and since I now know you're a FM listener, is figuring out do you go to a Integrated Amp + Tuner combination, or do you go to another Receiver? Now I guessing you're the type of a person who believes in the K.I.S.S. approach "which is "keep it simple", as long as it sounds good. If that's the case, then I might go with a well taken care of tube based vintage Receiver such as a 60/70s era Receiver such as Fisher, McIntosh or Marantz, especially if the owners has had it serviced recently and it meets orginal specs. You know a lot of those old receivers will still beat "the pants off " of modern day receivers in both sound and overall performance. Btw, I love good vintage gear, and "down the road" I might pick up "am oldie, but goodie" receiver.

If you browse over to the sales pages you can find several examples at a fairly reasonable price. After that I would live with what I got for a while before taking the next step which may be replacing the speakers (although your B&Ws still have a good reputation, of course, if you like B&Ws you might want to check out their new 600 series, lots of good comments about them) or maybe even upgrading your CD player (again applying the "weakest link" principal). After you got that all in plece, you might then want to play around with upgrading your IC's or speakers cables. Once again, don't fall for the over-expensive hype, as there are many quality manufactors who make cables at a ressonable and affordable price. Btw, where are you located? Perhaps some of us, might be able to help you find a dealer somewhere near "your neck of the woods".

Hey Ray,

Your absolutely right there is not a lot of dealers in your neck of the woods. Anyway here's a link to one dealer in the Sioux Falls - a store called Home Audio Architect - http://www.homeaudioarchitects.com/. Looks like he carries Denon, Klipsch, and Boston Acoustic. Which are all decent brands.

Another on-line place you might want to check out is Audio Advisor - http://www.audioadvisor.com/ Audio Advisor as a pretty extensive line of audio equipment at various price points and just as important, a great reputation for customer service. btw, I have no relationship with anybody at Audio Advisor, but do know people who have used them and are pretty happy with the components and service they received from them.