Upgrading the receiver with a pre/processor and separate amp would be a costly but worthy upgrade. You could even select a good stereo amp just for the front speakers and multichannel amp for surround sound. If you are comfortable with the used market, you can do it with a little over 5k. Later, you can even add a separate DAC. Good luck.
Ideas to improve my system
In short, I’m looking for ideas to improve to my system.
What do I want out of a system?
I would like to have a system that sounds great during both 2ch music and movies (think criterion not marvel).
I live in NYC and my living room does double duty as a listening area + home theatre. I am unlikely to be able to have a separate listening and watching space anytime soon. I primarily listen to music from records, Apple Music and Spotify and watch movies from an Apple TV 4K.
What do I currently use?
A bit of a hodgepodge/mess bought over the past 10+ years
Rega Planar 1 with Ortofon Blue (and a few other minor upgrades)
Musical Fidelity phono pre-amp
Sony DN1080 Receiver
B&W HTM6 S2 Center channel
Klipsch Hersey IV
4 Mirage Omnisat v2 speakers
The system also has a dedicated line
At my desk
Sony IER-M9 powered by a RME ADI-2 DAC with corrections from AutoEQ (I love this setup)
What do I not want?
I tried height speakers and they didn’t give me much.
What do I like?
I want my living room sound to feel exciting, visceral and something special. My desk setup is pretty perfect for me reference wise but I want the living room to be a bit different. I like the Hersey much more than expected and I want to generally build a cohesive system around them. They perform great in my apartment for music. For movies, they are actually great left/right speakers! They make string or brass soundtracks come alive. The B&W center channel isolates dialog pretty well and transitions between the Heresy and B&W rarely bother me or other listeners I’ve had in the space.
What isn’t going to fly
- Going 2 channel. My girlfriend objects and likes the surround speakers (as do I).
- Wall treatments. Not a lot I can do here unfortunately - I have thick rugs and a fair amount of furniture + books on walls.
Options considered
- Add a sub like KEF KC62 (I can’t do 2 tho)
- Match the center channel to the Hersey’s via Klipsch center
- Upgrade the receiver (thinking something like the NAD t 778 or upcoming Yamaha RX-A6A)
- Switch to separates (I’m very fond of the Anthem’s room correction but would need the AVM70 + a 5 channel amp)
Are there other things folks would recommend? If you had 3-5k to spend, where would you put it?