the cart or the horse?


I currently own a Parasound ZAMP, Denon PRA-1500 preamp, and Omega 7's speakers. I stream through a Bluesound Node 2i.  All this resides in a home office of approx 15x10. 

I am not happy with the sound and do not know which component to attack first. There is a lack of presence and body and the sound is well.......boring. I listen to jazz at low volumes and would like your opinion on what to work on first. 

Replace amp,preamp, or speakers? The cart or the horse? My budget is very modest but am willing to go step by step. 

All my best,

Andy

wavendon

Showing 2 responses by jonwatches1

I would keep the speakers and simplify everything else. One voicing

Personally, I’d buy a used integrated - ideally something with DAC on plug-in card

With those speakers, you can be flexible on power specs

+ Used PrimaLuna (Prologue 1?)

+ Budget is almost at the very best Marantz integrated (used)

+ Used NAD, and one simplifies things even further (you aren’t far from an M33, certainly an M10) - they all act as streamers. DIRAC might contribute to listening experience in a room that size

+ With your speakers, I think the suggestion of the Luxman SQ-N150 is a lot of fun, albeit you’ll need an external DAC

+ I like the Hegel 95 suggestion above

That gives you a range of tube & ss to consider, and all of those components will last for a long time (and can be resold)

All the above subject to listening preference, but s/b easy to audition because brands are widespread

Save a little more & think about some inexpensive room treatments, if anything obvious jumps out to you

Let us know what you decide to do!

Have a great day

@onebean  - the old stuff is always fun.  I am actually running a factory refurbished ‘93 Mc pre on my main rig, in part because its so simple I figure they couldn’t have messed it up. Still have my father’s 40 year old Luxman gear and it works just fine (would of course benefit from a refurbishing)

Are there specific vintage dealers you could recommend for @wavendon , and all of us? Would be good to know dealers who do a good job with vintage

I have worked with Audio Classics and had good experiences, but that’s mostly Mc focused

There is SkyFi, but I’ve never worked with them - just note that they do vintage and refurbishing/restoration