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Hi 

Just wondering whats next to upgrade (if anything )

So current setup is 

Acoustic Research AR90,s 

Musical fidelity M8 Pre and Musical Fidelity M8 700 Mono Blocks

Bluesound Node 2i

and a Pro-ject 2xperience TT with ortofon 2MBlack

Cables from Bill, and awaiting his new speaker cables 

Mainly streaming used say 80/20 

Thanks 

Thoughts 

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I think speaker is the best place to invest, find a very good one. So you can appreciate whatever you change after that, upgrade speaker is painful too, so select a keeper.

when you have more budget to go up in electric , it will take for a while  to bring all to reach certain levels. Dac and streammer life cycle is quite short, so better to get amp/pre amp first as you might get a better Dac/streamer in one/two years later. 
 

 

 

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41 minutes ago, ikhuong said:

I think speaker is the best place to invest, find a very good one. So you can appreciate whatever you change after that, upgrade speaker is painful too, so select a keeper.

when you have more budget to go up in electric , it will take for a while  to bring all to reach certain levels. Dac and streammer life cycle is quite short, so better to get amp/pre amp first as you might get a better Dac/streamer in one/two years later. 
 

 

 

The things I wouldn’t change are my speakers or the MF

the TT  either as I don’t use it that much 

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15 minutes ago, Sean Perth said:

What would you suggest as a DAC ? 

I like my Ayon dac, to pair with a better streamer which I confess may sell one day as I climb up the food chain again. 
 

or this (found from sna discussion)

 

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Luxman-DA-06-USB-High-end-DAC-384kHz-32Bit-DSD-5-64Mhz-Made-in-Japan-4999/303592145500?hash=item46af80825c:g:kGsAAOSw1xZe4G~R&frcectupt=true

 

or a high end CD player which hopefully can take digital in so act as a dac as well.  Accuphase, Luxman, or AR CD player or you will see some other CD player selling here in SNA now and then.  A good source will give you better sound quality. 

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Personally, I would leave it as is, unless you are itching for change and see some real deficiency with  your system and how it sounds to you.

 

My suggestion is to wait for Bill's new premium cable, put that in to the system, listen for a few weeks and decide then, but if you really, definitely want to change something, I would change the speakers, especially since you have superior quality amplifiers which will work with just about any speakers available.

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13 hours ago, TDX said:

I’d get a good dac, you will hear the difference. 
 

Or a HiEnd CD player with dac, that will be good as well. 

This post says a Dac made a very worthwhile upgrade to his bluesound node2i.

 

 

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I would suggest changing the streamer. I would recommend Naim options. If you don't want to change the streamer then an external DAC from Node 2i would be a suggestion.

 

I note that you mentioned that you don't want to change speakers but that would be my second suggestion if you really want to change something. But if changing speakers I would suggest checking out the active speakers path.

Edited by gwurb
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9 minutes ago, rocky500 said:

This post says a Dac made a very worthwhile upgrade to his bluesound node2i.

 

 

Once your other components are correct, then the better the source and dac the better sound you will get. Simply because if you lost information from the top chain, then how can you get better information down the chain?

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Thanks for replies that gives me an idea where to go

the reason for keeping the speakers is that they are just being refurbished at present with new caps ect so want to see what there like after 

they were pretty amazing before I thought and suited the music I play

but will look at an external Dac to see what’s out there

any suggestions on make & models probably looking for used around the 1k to 1.5k mark as a budget 

just waiting for bills speaker cables so will wait till after that to see where to go 

cheers 

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My experience with the node 2i is that you do need to go spend a lot on a DAC to return a significant improvement over the node 2i onboard DAC, but still worth doing If you have the funds available.

 

What about room treatment?  Have you considered treating first reflection points, adding bass traps, and/or adding some diffusion behind speakers and main listening seat?  All room dependant of course...

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Another thought that’s worth considering is spending some money on getting some professional measurements done to assess your room and current set-up.  

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9 hours ago, Sean Perth said:

Thanks for replies that gives me an idea where to go

the reason for keeping the speakers is that they are just being refurbished at present with new caps ect so want to see what there like after 

they were pretty amazing before I thought and suited the music I play

but will look at an external Dac to see what’s out there

any suggestions on make & models probably looking for used around the 1k to 1.5k mark as a budget 

just waiting for bills speaker cables so will wait till after that to see where to go 

cheers 

1-1.5k won’t give you much difference to node2i, they are not bad. 

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I’d upgrade the speakers. Integrate some subs?

 

DAC won’t make much difference unless everything else is at a pretty high level.

 

I tried Bluesound Node 2 into a Chord 2Qute, couldn’t hear a great difference. Switched the Node 2 for an SMS-200 with LPS, decent change (and cheaper than Node 2i). Plenty of streamers sound better than the Node 2, their apps just aren’t as good.
 

I have Roon. I wouldn’t bother with it unless the streamer you need doesn’t let you play Tidal without it. And then you might be best off finding a streamer that does let you. 

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On 10/06/2020 at 10:38 PM, Sean Perth said:

Hi 

Just wondering whats next to upgrade (if anything )

So current setup is 

Acoustic Research AR90,s 

Musical fidelity M8 Pre and Musical Fidelity M8 700 Mono Blocks

Bluesound Node 2i

and a Pro-ject 2xperience TT with ortofon 2MBlack

Cables from Bill, and awaiting his new speaker cables 

Mainly streaming used say 80/20 

Thanks 

Thoughts 

Hello Sean, 

 

I've been on a similar journey and stream mainly from my iPhone and sometimes run USB audio from my iMac. 

 

The biggest gains I achieved was through a Chord Qutest DAC. It was a night / day difference from just using the DAC in my blue sound node2i. The other thing that changed my world was a primaluna prologue preamp. 

 

The things that didn't give me bang for buck were cabling (spent nearly 2k on interconnects and speaker wire and did get a little benefit but feel like it was more snake oil than anything else). Still worth doing I suppose...  

 

My current 2ch signal path is this - Bluesound node 2i (streamer) > Qutest DAC > Primaluna Prologue > ROTEL 1582mk2 power amp > PMC Twenty5.23 / REL T9i. 

 

The sound is immersive and I am really happy with it. It has also opened up a new world listening to high-res DSD tracks from my iMac to the Quetest. 

 

My next 'ambition'  is to get a chord M-scaler but grappling with cost vs reward on that one!

 

The only other thing I might look at is a really good power amp but the ROTEL sounds fantastic and after listening to some of the other more expensive ones I am not in a rush to upgrade the amp just yet.  

 

Cheers,

 

John  

 

Edited by Jhsg
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Never heard your AR speakers and read they are a good legendary vintage speaker, but it may be worth considering a more modern state of the art speaker maybe around $3-6k+ used. For example, a used VAF I-93 for around $3-5k should have as much drive and bass plus better midrange, imaging and detail.

Edited by Al.M
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41 minutes ago, Al.M said:

Never your AR speakers and read they are a good legendary vintage speaker, but it may be worth considering a more modern state of the art speaker maybe around $3-6k+ used. For example, a used VAF I-93 for around $3-5k should have as much drive and bass plus better midrange, imaging and detail.

Hi

i would have to disagree 

spent a fair bit of time testing speakers in the 5k-10k range and AR90 are far superior the bass is really tight and really good mid, clarity and soundstage were very good

they are just being updated with new caps resistors and internal wiring so am expecting them to be outstanding 

I had recently updated a set of B&W 683 with new caps ect and the difference before and after was outstanding ?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Question to Sean ,  I've got a pair of AR90's but don't know how to check whether they're working to original specs. I've had them since 1982 and want to make the decision on whether they can have anew life in the home theatre system. Did you find it easy to find a speaker doctor ?

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On 12/06/2020 at 12:57 PM, Sean Perth said:

Hi

i would have to disagree 

spent a fair bit of time testing speakers in the 5k-10k range and AR90 are far superior the bass is really tight and really good mid, clarity and soundstage were very good

they are just being updated with new caps resistors and internal wiring so am expecting them to be outstanding 

I had recently updated a set of B&W 683 with new caps ect and the difference before and after was outstanding ?

You got it in one Sean................suck it and see...........

+1 @rantan

Edited by Smp
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I’ve now got my AR90 back last week after having new crossovers built and all new wiring and two new tweeters 

all I can say is WOW they knew how to make speakers back then

they need running in but they are every bit as good as I was hoping for?

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