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Room setting: new amp or new speakers?

hello gys,

My Hi-Fi journey is rolling on, and over the past few weeks, I’ve had the chance to dive into some amazing gear—like tube amps and high-efficiency speakers. It’s been super fun, but now I’ve hit a bit of a dilemma.

Here’s my current setup:

  • Amp: Yamaha AX-396, pretty old, low value

  • Speakers: Sonus Faber Venere 1.5 bookshelf speakers, definitely ’better’ than the amp

  • Streamer: Bluesound Node N130

I’m planning a big overhaul of my system, but I can’t decide what to upgrade first

A little more info:

  • Room size: 55m² (so, pretty spacious).

  • Current speaker placement: Sitting on a bookshelf, positioned to the side of the sofa (definitely not ideal) - see pic

  • Ideal setup: Properly placed speakers facing the sofa for proper sound.

My thoughts:

  • If I upgrade the amp first, I might squeeze more out of my current speakers - which are not as bad —but will their awkward placement limit the improvement?

  • Upgrading the speakers with floorstanding will come with new position + higher quality (2x the ROI?) AFAIK they account for big big part of the final sound. then will do the amp.

I’d love to hear what you think! Have you been in a similar spot? Which upgrade made the biggest difference for you?

Let me know your thoughts! thank you so much

albymana

Showing 1 response by ghdprentice

ghdprentice
7,403 posts
 

@soix

+1

Start with speakers. Then orient addition purchases to support them. You want additional component to break in and drive your next purchase decision unless you are wealthy enough and sure enough of what you are doing to purchase the speakers and all the new components at one time.


But everything requires breaking. I am a big fan of Sonus Faber speakers. I am on my third set after exploring the world of planar for many decades. Very natural and musical. It can be really helpful to go listen to some really good systems of different flavors to get a feel for where you want to end up. Natural / musical, highly detailed / flashy imaging system, muscular system that slams you in the chest. Very different end points possible.

 

My endpoint rule of thumb is 35% speakers, 15% amp, 20% preamp (yes you still need one), 15% amp and 15% streamer. Wait to invest in high quality interconnects and wires until later. It’ll take you a year to really know your system. I’d consider DHLabs for interim speaker cables and interconnects.

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