For the music you like, you really need a loudspeaker with 10 inch woofers to get realistic body and volume of music. In todays world of small manufacturers dominated high-end audio such a speaker has a very high price and most likely requires very expensive monster amps. Look for good old loudspeaker of the past, like altec lansing, tannoy, electrovoice, goodmans. You would be surprised how much natural their tonal balance compared to todays flavoured designs competing for small market niches of taste. Likely that your current amp is fine for them. Alternatively, you may give a try to an active speakers. Active speakers, as a general rule, do well the critical harmonisation between speakers and amplification. With passive components, it is just immensely difficult to get that right. As I see, this is one of the reason of the so typical cause of merry go round changes of components. Add to the active loudspeaker an old marantz, sony, tandberg, bryston preamp or a tube design, if you prefer a bit more lush sound. Actually, on many old solid state preamps you may find knobs to adjust treble roll of and bass. In todays design these are sin knobs which are reducing transparency. Thus audiophiles adjusting tonal imbalances with highly expensive cables and special devices. In real world however, if you could adjust treble and bass to your taste and to your room is a useful thing, and likely that below 100.000 USD system you wont really hear sound degraditon because of these knobs are in the signal route.
system choice
Hello everyone.
Many years and a couple scores ago - well, in fact only about 6 years ago - this great community helped me put together my first quality sound system, on a real stingy budget I might add, and I am very grateful for that.
It is time to finally upgrade, so here I am asking this question again.
I am moving up from this: NAD C521i CD player; Marantz PM 7000 Integrated (remember those?); Kef Q1 monitors. For a very modest price this system has given me hours of listening pleasure. I listen to: mostly classical, both chamber and big ensemble music; an eclectic mix of jazz and fusion sounds, from Diana Krall and Brubeck to Niels Peter Molvaer and Thievery Corporation; rock and other genres as well.
The main draw backs of my current system: I have to play very loud to get a nice balance out of the amp, with the sensitive speakers. Does not quite speak to me a low volumes; lacks bass; fatigue - maybe it's the combo of SS with metal tweeter, gets hard to stomach after a few hours.
Here is what I have narrowed it down to: I really feel like giving tubes a chance. I want to spend ~1k per component tops. I have not decided about the source yet. For amp-speaker combo, I am looking at:
1. Primaluna Prologue One and a pair of Triangle Altea ES. I have never heard the Triangle, but I like what I hear about these components.
2. Consonance Cyber 100 Signature EL34 and a pair of Usher X 719's. I know the speakers well, heard them in someone's system.
3. Jolida 302 BRC and a pair of Totem Arro's. Heard the Arro's but never with 40W of tube power in them, so I don't know how they match.
Any thoughts on the above? Does anyone have any experience with any of these combinations? My main concerns are related to the power of the small tube amps being enough to drive the speakers. I don't believe I have seen the impedance curves for any of them, and I don't know if this kind of power is enough. I want to be able to hear the bass notes properly and have the system keep the dynamics. Of course, within the budget limitations it will not sound like perfect, but I want to get the best for my buck.
If you think the combos are way off, point that out. If you like any or something close to it, please do tell. And if you can think of a decent CDP below 1k to go with the whole thing, do let me know.
Thank you very much everyone for your help.
Many years and a couple scores ago - well, in fact only about 6 years ago - this great community helped me put together my first quality sound system, on a real stingy budget I might add, and I am very grateful for that.
It is time to finally upgrade, so here I am asking this question again.
I am moving up from this: NAD C521i CD player; Marantz PM 7000 Integrated (remember those?); Kef Q1 monitors. For a very modest price this system has given me hours of listening pleasure. I listen to: mostly classical, both chamber and big ensemble music; an eclectic mix of jazz and fusion sounds, from Diana Krall and Brubeck to Niels Peter Molvaer and Thievery Corporation; rock and other genres as well.
The main draw backs of my current system: I have to play very loud to get a nice balance out of the amp, with the sensitive speakers. Does not quite speak to me a low volumes; lacks bass; fatigue - maybe it's the combo of SS with metal tweeter, gets hard to stomach after a few hours.
Here is what I have narrowed it down to: I really feel like giving tubes a chance. I want to spend ~1k per component tops. I have not decided about the source yet. For amp-speaker combo, I am looking at:
1. Primaluna Prologue One and a pair of Triangle Altea ES. I have never heard the Triangle, but I like what I hear about these components.
2. Consonance Cyber 100 Signature EL34 and a pair of Usher X 719's. I know the speakers well, heard them in someone's system.
3. Jolida 302 BRC and a pair of Totem Arro's. Heard the Arro's but never with 40W of tube power in them, so I don't know how they match.
Any thoughts on the above? Does anyone have any experience with any of these combinations? My main concerns are related to the power of the small tube amps being enough to drive the speakers. I don't believe I have seen the impedance curves for any of them, and I don't know if this kind of power is enough. I want to be able to hear the bass notes properly and have the system keep the dynamics. Of course, within the budget limitations it will not sound like perfect, but I want to get the best for my buck.
If you think the combos are way off, point that out. If you like any or something close to it, please do tell. And if you can think of a decent CDP below 1k to go with the whole thing, do let me know.
Thank you very much everyone for your help.
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