rshapiro@uunet.UU.NET (Richard Shapiro) (11/27/90)
In article <7766@uwm.edu> hunter@work.nlm.nih.gov (Larry Hunter) writes: > >I'm ready to spend up to about $3k on a new set of speakers. >... >Background: I have a tremendously varied music collection (thousands >of LPs and many hundred CDs) mostly rock, jazz, R&B. >... >The front end: NAD 1300 pre, NAD 2600A amp (150WPC, low impedence >loads are ok), Denon TT w/Denon 301 cart, modified Magnavox CDB470 cd >player (Jung mods). Might I suggest an alternative? With thousands of LPs, surely it would make more sense to spend at least some of your money instead on a serious turntable and a better phono-preamp. The best speakers in the world can't compensate for an under-achieving front-end. I would also say, somewhat tentatively, that $3K speakers are overkill for a system like this. I would look instead at some of the excellent $1200-$1500 speakers on the market (Thiel, Spica, etc). My suggestion: spend $1200 for, say, a pair of Thiels; $1800 for a SOTA Sapphire + MMT arm (Denon makes nice cartridges, so keep the one you have); and keep your eye out for an inexpensive used preamp with a good phono section (a PS Audio, maybe). This will result in a better overall system (and one that's surprisingly close to my own...) than you would get by tacking $3K speakers onto what you have now. IMHO, of course.