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New Audiophile - Upgrade Amp First or CDP First?

I'm somewhat ashamed to say (at least in this crowd) that I've been living with Technics and Philips for years and years. I always wanted an audiophile system, but never wanted to invest the funds before now. At least I had a pair of Infinity RS-5B speakers.

Anyway, it was recently that I knew I finally had to bite the bullet and upgrade. I started with a great used pair of Paradigm 11se Mk II speakers. Not brand new or anything major in the audiophile world, but a world of difference for me who needs to start at a budget.

My plans next are to upgrade to getting an Outlaw RR2150 receiver and an Ah! Njoe Tjoeb 4000 CDP with the updgrades including the upsampler.

My question is, which one should I get first? I'll only likely be able to afford one at a time. Which would make the biggest impact in improving my system - replacing my Technics amp with the Outlaw or replacing my Philips CDP with the Ah! Njoe Tjoeb?

Also, I'm open to any other advice/suggestions from people who've been doing this longer or a lot longer than me. Thanks!
soulgoober

Showing 1 response by sidssp

sidssp
1,077 posts
 
In your situation, for $1600 budget, here is what I would do if I were you. I would get a new amp and improve the CDP at the same time. I would keep the Philips CDP and buy a Benchmark DAC-1 to improve its sound. The DAC-1 is a hot item but I have seen it for sale here for about $750 used. That leaves you $850 to spend on the amp. Since the DAC-1 has a preamp built-in with volume control, you can just buy a power amp and have much more choices. I have seen quite a lot of great amps for around $850 listed here. For example, right now, there is a Quad 909 listed for $825, a Jeff Rowland 102 for $875, a Bryston 4B-NRB for $875, Classe CA-101 for $850, etc... Any one of them will do and they are all great amps.

This setup will sound considerably better than getting the Ah! Njoe Tjoeb 4000 or the Outlaw RR2150 and it will open up much more possibilities in the future.
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