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upgrade advice for budget-minded beginner

I was looking for some advice on possible upgrade paths. I'm new to this A'gon community and want to get the most out of my "investments" since I'm a college student with limited funds. Currently, I have B&W 602s with an old Denon DCD1000, Yamaha M-60, and a Kenwood pre that needs to go. My noise floor is just awful, the highs are very forward and bright, and alot of music sounds lifeless and overtly digital.
I was considering the Onix reference 1/SP3/XCD88 combo for $1500, but wasn't sure if the Ref1's would be a huge step up from my 602s thus justifying the purchase. Also, I've never heard a tube amp, and although the characteristic naturalness and soundstage abilities seem to be what I'm looking for the supposed lack of woofer control and low wattage make me a bit nervous.
Another option I was toying with was keeping the Yamaha M-60 and adding an Eastern Electric Minimax preamp and possibly CDP to my setup hoping to take the edge off the highs, open up my soundstage, and eliminate background noise.
Basically, I was wondering what people that have more experience with this hobby think would yield the most "bang for the buck" in my situation. I want a deep and broad soundstage, natural sounding mids, musical highs, and authoritative bass but don't want to spend an arm and a leg to get it (like everyone else, I'm sure!). I'd appreciate any input, and am sorry about the length of the post.
ethanh

Showing 2 responses by rar1

rar1's avatar
rar1
1,811 posts
 
Ethan:

I would focus on replacing your power/pre amps with an integrated amp. There are two that I would recommend with no hesitation:

1. NAD C320BEE (solid state; $400 list)
2. Prima Luna Prologue 1 or Prologue 2 (from $1095 to $1345).

I own both amps and have written reviews about each amp and posted them here on Audiogon (review #'s 1038674345 and 1109673309). Both amps are exceptional performers in their price range and would do fine by your B&W's, which are good speakers.

Depending on your budget, if you decide to upgrade your CD player, the Music Hall CD 25 ($540 list) pairs beautifully with both amps as well. If you would like to go with a CD/DVD player; I have been very impressed with the SONY RDR-GX300, a cd player/dvd recorder that can be had for $350 new. The SONY is not at the Music Hall level, but it is not so far behind either.

Regards, Rich
rar1's avatar
rar1
1,811 posts
 
Ethan:

As a side note, I have been using the Prima Luna Prologue 5 (power amp @ 36 wpc @ 8 ohms) with Acoustic Research 302 speakers. The AR's are a 3 way, 10" woofer; acoustic suspension design speaker and have an sensitivity rating of 85db's @ 8 ohms. In my living room which measures 25 X 15 X 8.5, the Prima Luna drives the AR's pretty loud without distorting. And granted my perception of loud may be different than your perception (comes from living in an apartment house).

I believe that your B&W's check in at 88 or 89db's. Doubling the sound output equates to 3db's, so your B&W's will play louder than my AR's with the same power (give or take). So, you should be OK with a 40 wpc tube amp. You will often hear that tube watts are different than solid state watts (which is not intuitive by any means), but in practice it does seem that a 40 wpc tube amp plays louder than a 40 wpc solid state amp.

Admittedly I am not a big fan of most B&W's, but I always liked the 600 series. If you do go with tubes, perhaps consider pairing them with high efficiency; no crossover speakers. A speaker like the Omega Super 3 , which lists for $540 pairs nicely with tube amps. There is not a lot of bass, but everything else is very musical and dynamic.

Regards, Rich
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