New preamp & amp?

Nice speakers. The key weakness here is your old adcom amplifier. Your CD player has also been eclipsed by a rash of new and very sophisticated and great sounding models available for near a grand and up.

For mostly Rock music:

Idea 1. Naim Nait 5i integrated and CD 5i. Boogie, boogie, boogie. Not a ton of power, but all good foot taping watts - the latest and best entry level gear Naim has ever made.

Idea 2. Cambridge Audio Azur 840A v2 integrated amp and Azur 840C upsampling CD player. Plenty of power and a smooth CD player. Combination will play everything you throw at it well, but will have some extra fineness when required.

Idea 3. Buy an Odyssey Stratos Extreme stereo amplifier, keep your Adcom preamp and get a Rega Apollo CD player. Best amp listed here with both power and control - musical and defined CD player. This amp and cd player would probably pair well with your existing preamp and speakers.

Idea 3. Intriguing combination - Emotiva XPA-2 TWO CHANNEL AUDIO POWER AMPLIFIER, PrimaLuna ProLogue 3 tube preamplifier, NAD C 565BEE CD Player - or - Cambridge Audio Azur 740C CD player - or - Marantz SA8003 SACD-CD player.

Last combination is a wild card with the new product Emotiva amp pumping out a claimed 250W at 8 ohms that doubles power into 4 ohms. The thing weighs over 80 lbs.(!) and sells for $799(!!), uses decent parts and looks to have a quality build. PrimaLuna is a very high quality and trouble free pre that would add some tube glow to the blue hot muscle provided by the big amp. The trio of CD players listed are at the center of an outright war between English hifi companies to own this niche. They are all very good players and available for audition in most major markets. Who's winning this war? You.

Of course there are great amps and CD players coming available used all the time. If you could get a Musical Fidelity A5 integrated amp and the sister CD player combination in your price range, that would be great. Wadia makes nice CD players and anything from Plinius is worth checking out.

Thanks for the ideas, guys.

Knownothing, do you really think the the NAD CD player is better than the ARCAM? Also, what do you think of using an external DAC instead of replacing the whole CD player?

I actually think the Alpha 9 is better than I had originally thought. My neighbor has the Alpha 7 and it doesn't hold a candle to any of the players I recommend.

I think rather than "better", the new NAD 565 will be "different", perhaps a little more snap and definition. The new NADs are much better as a whole than the last generation, and this higher end model is closer to their top M series player (pressure from Cambridge, Marantz and Rega has forced NAD to raise their game).

Most of the players listed here have upsampling and very good transports. Not sure you get as much out of the Alpha 9 with a greatly improved outboard DAC - but - read this exert from a Stereophile review by Audiogoner Kr4:

"I was also more than happy with the Alpha 9's detail and resolution—until I teamed it with its senior relation, the dCS Elgar. This, of course, is an academic comparison in view of the Alpha 9's genealogy and the substantial difference in price. One major difference when listening to the Alpha 9 as a transport through the Elgar DAC was the reduced prominence of the bass; it was all there, but it didn't call attention to itself. More significant was the greater sense of depth and the improved delicacy of the treble voices. Moreover, these voices and the spaces around them were less forward when heard via the Elgar. As I reveled in Esa-Pekka Salonen's recording of Mahler's Symphony 4 (Sony Classical SK 48380), the Elgar was more successful in distinguishing the placements of orchestral voices, but the Alpha 9 was slightly more palpable and immediate. "

You may want to go for a better amp that you think will bring out the best in your speakers, and then match a source to that combination - perhaps the Alpha 9 will float your boat in that new-and-improved system - perhaps not.

I apologize, think I misread your original post. If you were to keep your CD and Speakers, you have a lot of good new stuff to choose from in this price category. For mostly rock listening, I might recommend your $2-3k investment go to something like this:

1. Odyssey Stratos Mono Extreme amplifiers paired with your Adcom preamp

2. New Cambridge Audio Azur 840W amplifier paired with your Adcom preamp

3. Want tubes? PrimaLuna ProLogue Seven Monoblocs matched with your Adcom preamp.

4. Musical Fidelity A5.5 Integrated amplifier

5. NAD M3 Dual Mono integrated amplifier

6. Vincent Audio SV-236 MKII Hybrid Stereo Integrated Amp

7. Plinius 9100 Integrated Amplifier

8. Naim Nait XS Integrated Amplifier - again, lower power compared to these others, but surprising amount of umph and propulsive sound to die for.

Of course, used is an entirely other world. You could look at higher quality integrated or separates from Bryston, CJ, Mark Levinson, Musical Fidelity, Naim, Plinius or many many other choices.