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

Hi, Again I appreciate the help. Several questions I wanted to answer: size of room 14w X 30 l X 8h. I mainly listen to cds and FM for NPR. I do not have a record player currently I did have an old AR years ago. I still have a large collecion of LP's so may go back to that as a source. My B&W speakers are on stands at the end of the room away from the electronics.
Again very good suggestions and now on to research where to locate items for listening. As stated before not much in the area.
Ray

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".

My response to Cleaneduphippy on my cd player. It is a Magnavox CD 725 5 disc player my wife bought me for my birthday years ago.
I was curious about the Outlaw receiver. I will take a look at the older units for sale as you suggested.
I live in South Dakota north of Sioux Falls about 60 miles, moving recently from the southwest.
Thanks again

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.

With a 2k (or under) budget, I would seriously consider NAD electronics and Vandersteen 1c speakers.

If you like your speakers (or you want to go piece by piece), start with the CD player first and go down the chain in order from there.

Best,

Will