What speakers do you recommend? I'm considering B&W 804 D3 or Sonus Faber Olympica II

Oh, I am also interested to know how much difference there is between B&W 804 D3 and the earlier versions of 804's, especially D1 and D2.

I would think those speakers would sound very different. The 804D3 should have more depth in the bass as you would expect, though from what i’ve heard B&W haven’t been able to fully tame that bright sounding diamond tweeter, so if you were considering that speaker i’d look for a ’forgiving’ amp which will tame them such as a 2nd hand Vitus RI-100, or on more of a budget, the Unison Unico 150 is a very good tube hybrid integrated..

On the speaker front, there are some other options you might not have considered. Wilson Benesh has a warm, smooth, pure, resolving & overall musical sound and has exceptional build quality. They match up well with warm sounding amps like Modwright & Aesthetix. WB are good value & worth an audition if you have a Dealer nearby.

You could also buy 2nd hand Revel Ultima Salon 2’s or Magico S3’s in your budget. Having owned S5’s, the best amps & front end to match with the S3’s is the Vitus Reference or Signature series for my money. Pass Labs XA.8 series & XS series also pair very well. The same should apply with the Salon 2’s.

As far as advice with your system, i’m not a fan of pre-pros to be honest. There are some very good integrated amps you could look at which would provide a good upgrade from what you have now such as the Vitus RI-100 which I mentioned earlier, Dartzeel CTH-8550 & Pass Labs INT-250.

By Denon DP, do you mean the DP-S1 transport? I believe that was a Stereophile Class A transport way back when that rating meant something. However if you’re looking for 2nd hand options in the future, the Reimyo CDP-777 is still an excellent cdp & used the XL-Z900 transport mechanism which is one of the best transports ever made. The Accuphase DP-90/DC91 transport/dac are also still highly sought after & still compete with the latest Accuphase gear. Or if you’re looking at a new player, the Vitus RCD-101 sacd player is very nice & has a plug & play USB board with DSD support.

Izuo, I was thinking another great integrated amp which would pair well with all the above speakers is the Gryphon Diablo 300. I suspect the Gryphon would pip the RI-100 in fact, though it often comes down to what gear you have access to. Cheers.