I am looking to upgrade - looking for advice


So I am the guy who recently asked if a Rotel 1572 preamp would work with a Parasound A21+ amp. So I was asking because I was thinking of upgrading my current amp which is a Rotel 1552. The rest of my system is Yamaha CD player and project turntable (both approx $400 each), Bluesound Node, and B&W 705 S2 speakers. Right now I primarily stream my music through the node. So I was interested in the next step to improvement and I thought it would be what the amplifier. After reading some of the posts on my original question (would the A21 work well with my Rotel preamp I am now thinking that I need to look at both the preamp and amp. Of course that is you agree with my assessment. Here are a few of the amps I was looking at: A21, Vincent  SP-332, and Bryson 3b3. The preamps that were suggested all look outstanding: Benchmark LA4, Backert Labs Rhumba 1.3 and the Audionet Pre 1 G3. It looks like with these I would need to also get a DAC, not sure about the phono stage. Any advice is appreciated. I am knee to this.

tjraubacher

Showing 8 responses by tjraubacher

Well that was a pretty depressing post. I definitely will not show it to the wife since she is  already going to kill me. 
I guess I am surprised the preamp and amp make that little of a difference. I guess everyone should only spend a &1k on their amp until they are spending big on their speakers. Where is the break point for that.

i guess I have overrated the B&W 705s. I am able to return the H390 if it makes no difference and I know that is a possibility. That is why I got it with that potential. As far as the node is concerned I do believe that is a good product. But since I primarily stream and after I heard Hoffman’s review of the EverSolo I thought the Eversolo would be an improvement on the sound quality. Granted that might have been a mistake and If necessary I could turn around and resell it. It is a hot item so I believe I would be able to sell it. Maybe I take a hit but I don’t think it would be large since I bought it used.

Still kind of surprised that I will not notice an improvement with the Hegel.  Are the 705s that bad. I thought they were pretty good bookshelf speakers. So it sounds like I overrated them and underrated the Rotel pieces. I am at least 45 minutes west of St Louis and there are no stores out my way to be able to listen to different equipment. Maybe there is in St Louis. 
So I will need to determine if the H390 makes a significant enough of a difference to keep. Otherwise I will box it back up and return it. That was 75% of the money I spent.  

Thanks everyone for all the good advice. Here is what I am doing:

I have bought upgraded cables ( went from cheap to expensive end of cheap). I am upgrading my streamer to the eversolo dmp a6. I am getting rid of my Rotel preamp and amp (1572/1552). I bought a used Hegel h390. Can’t wait till it all gets here and I can connect it all up. By the way when I was researching connectors to buy I ran across RCA cables for $28K. OMG

So I got the H390 and the EverSolo streamer and I have been listening for 2 days. First the EverSolo: it has a nice display and a lot of options. However from a Bluetooth perspective its connectivity to my phone is inferior to my node. The EverSolo might be better through connectivity directly to internet. I don’t know yet since I have not done it. Right now I will continue to use the node. Now to the Hegel H390. Oh boy it is a jewel. At lower volumes, which I have mostly listened to since the wife is home, I can hear more detail and it is really clean. Have mostly been listening to classic because I am working. The sound is warmer than the Rotel which with the B&Ws is a good thing. I finally put on a blues song with a female vocalist and played it a little louder (probably 4 out of 10) and it was sublime. Just a beautiful thing. So much detail and a greater soundstage and so clean.

Another question: for my turntable can I connect the TT to my Rotel preamp (for the phono stage) and then connect my preamp into the H390. That way I can still play my turntable without purchasing a separate phono stage.

So If I buy a phono stage piece of equipment can that plug in directly to Hegel analog input

I know my Project turntable is a weak link. What turntables would you recommend in the $500 - $1000 range

So If I buy a phono stage piece of equipment can that plug in directly to Hegel analog input