Advice for the Budget 'Phile


I recently acquired a Rega Planar 3 turntable and am looking to upgrade my amp and speakers to better take advantage of it. I have $800 to spend. I listen mostly to roots blues on vinyl and modern pop/rock on CD; this system will also be used for watching movies (so I need a flexible, all-around system). Below you will find my current choices. Any advice on them or alternatives to them would be appreciated.

Integrated Amp (puchasing use)
Creek 4330 (with added phono stage)
Rotel RA971
Cambridge Audio A500 (with added phono stage)

Speakers (used):
PSB Image 4t
NHT SuperTwo
Vandersteen 2C
(I'm not very confident about my speaker candidates; I'm tempted by monitor speakers by Paradigm, B&W, etc. but I don't want to lose good, musical bass reproduction).
Thanks.
shersta
You might have a tough time at 800.00 used,the CREEK is the best pcik of what you selected,and the speakers at the used price range will be tough too.But keep searching and you might get blessed somewhere.good luck in your search.
You'll like the Vandys and there's usually several pair to choose from here or on ebay. Very forgiving speaker. NOt the ultimate in detail but always makes music.
The PSB Image 4Ts are very musical, present a good soundstage and have bass down to 40Hz. New, B-Stock can be found here on Audiogon for $399/pair.
I'd go for the PSBs for video: fast, dynamic, open soundstage...For my video system I have Wharfedale Diamonds 7.1...can't stand bright speakers , especially on TV sound.
If you have a powerful amp and a reinforcing wall behind they'll deliver the bass. You can always add a subwoofer later...

Be advised the Cambridges are made in CHINA. It's an ISO 9002 factory, but still made in CHINA. Because of this fact, you will get a lot of audio for your $$$. Durability?
Don't know. I have a Cambridge D300 SE CDP and am extremely happy for what I paid for. Audio Advisor sell both brands, so they should be able to give you a good comparison.

To stretch your budget even more, goto this link:

http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/tweaks.html

Make some of your cables, stand and tweaks.

Good listening
Any chance you can live with one or the other of your existing components for a while? Tough to take advantage of the P3 at $800 for both integrated and speakers. Assume you're using a MM cartidge? If so, you might get by with a used receiver and put more $ in the speakers initially. BTW, I have the S2's in my HT and am pretty pleased with them. As with all NHT's they are revealing/accurate and tend to reward or punish you for your amp selection.