wpines Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 Equipment acquired so far; Source - stereo link usb dac and a pc with itunes playback software Amplifier - Sophia Baby ( tube integated starter set) Speakers - 1 pair '84 Cornwall CTL/cane and 1 pair '86 Heresy II OO/cane (sometimes wired together, sometimes not) I've applied what I've learned here to get started and my little starter system sounds good, but I'm able to do about $1,000 in upgrades or a little more at this point. I've learned a lot at this forum and can use some more advice. What should my next upgrade be in that dollar range or should I just keep saving money towards a bigger/better upgrade in the future? 13x13 room (I'm adding some attenuation), rock jazz and vocal fan, medium to loud Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcmusic Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 wpines, Not to tell you how to setup you gear, but I would run just the corns alone. They should be more than enough speaker with the right source. Decide on CDP or Vinyl, and go in that direction for you next upgrade. One or the other as a stand alone unit should really put a smile on your face. Jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russ69 Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 CD player and cables (both CD to amp and speaker) . Run your best sounding loudspeaker and place them in the room for the best sound. Thanx, Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wpines Posted January 21, 2007 Author Share Posted January 21, 2007 Thanks for the help. I've got monster cable to the speakers, and plain cables as interconnects. I'll get upgrades on those two items. I almost always run the cornwalls alone and have them positioned quite well. I see that you both went right to a source upgrade. Are the sonics that much better than the itunes output to the usb/dac? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audio Flynn Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 CD player and cables (both CD to amp and speaker) . Run your best sounding loudspeaker and place them in the room for the best sound. Thanx, Russ http://hcmaudio.com/comp.asp?compID=498 Coral When this was the normal current line for AQ several years ago I picked up 2 pair of these with diferent narrow diameter RCAs for use with vintage tube integrateds. Never had a thought of upgrading them in 4 years. Home Depot wire for speakers are fine for all but the most tweaked in systems. If you like your amp; $ 500-700 investment in CD source could be the right thing with some nice mid priced interconnects. Good Luck! Rick NOTE: Running 2 pairs of speakers off of the same amp unless in a dedicated HT amp is just asking for bad music reproduction and electrical bad failure mode karma. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhenry Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 You'll notice a HUGE improvement in sound quality with a source upgrade. Your MP3 format compresses the music to take up less space. By doing that your frequency range is greatly reduced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wpines Posted January 21, 2007 Author Share Posted January 21, 2007 Remember, newbie.... What about when the mp3's are downloaded to a disc and played on the cd player. Are they then "uncompressed" or does the mp3 compressed format remain? Are we talking about only purchased cd's have the uncompressed format? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audio Flynn Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 Remember, newbie.... What about when the mp3's are downloaded to a disc and played on the cd player. Are they then "uncompressed" or does the mp3 compressed format remain? Are we talking about only purchased cd's have the uncompressed format? Most kinds of digital have some data optimization 16/44 can be many times downconverted from being 20 or 24 bit resolution and 88 Khz or higher sampling rate. I read too little aobut good compressed data and DACs at that MP3 style compression. Only one I heard was worth being "HIFI" was the one Mark Levinson was working with. Burwen Bobcat http://www.burwenaudio.com/BURWEN_BOBCAT.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcmusic Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 Yes, all itunes music is at 128kbps, if you want to improve the sound quality you must import cd's on to your computer, and do it at a higher bit rate. Such as 256kbps, 320 kbps, or even better CD quality which is 1411kbps; but to do that you will need alot of memory. Any music you get from itunes will be at 128kbps. Jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anarchist Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 Which is why the name should have been "insufferable" tunes; of course that didn't roll off the tongue like "i"Tunes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldbuckster Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 Upgrade..............check out those La Scala's...............Did you get my e-mail ??????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audio Flynn Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 Upgrade..............check out those La Scala's...............Did you get my e-mail ??????? Not sure what you mean Buck. I would keep the cane front Corns and upgrade with DEANG networks and fix the source. THe picture is small but the cane front Corns look cool. Better than most LS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldbuckster Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 Sorry Audio, that was for wpines.......newbee, new to the forum maybe, but he's no newbee to audio gear with Cornwalls and Heresy's, he must know something......................EH !!!! Sorry for the confusion........................ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dp1954 Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 If it hasn't already been done one of your best 'bangs for the bucks' is the crossover upgrade. It really opened up my cornwalls after the upgrade. Night and day difference. And grab the best source equipment you can afford. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaiser SET say Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 Newbie, just some food for thought! http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?cablintr&1174433700 http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?cablintr&1174276605 http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?cablintr&1173821863 http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?cablintr&1173759479 http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?cablintr&1173728910 http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?cablintr&1173706886 http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?dgtlplay&1174674919 http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?dgtlplay&1174665382 http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?dgtlplay&1174599569 If your strechin' http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?dgtlplay&1174516070 http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?dgtlplay&1174487310 http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?dgtlplay&1174409557 http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?dgtlplay&1174405088 Best of luck to you on your quest[] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben. Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 Unless you're seriously addressing the liabilities that a square room presents, you should rethink spending the whole shot on gear. I'd suggest poking around www.realtraps.com Download their modecalc application & run your room dimensions. The frequencies that have a high concentration of modes (the lines at the bottom of the window) will exhibit strong reinforcements and cancellations at various points in the room. Changing the room dimensions and eliminating parallel surfaces with baffles will contibute greatly towards natural sound. Typical 2" foam applied directly to the wall will do nothing to help LF problems, if that's what you intended. Lord help you if the ceiling is 13'. If you're not planning on staying the room for long, don't worry too much about it. Regardless of the above, mp3s are not the route to take if quality sound is your goal. A useful tool for conveniently hearing a lot of new music, but you'll need to change that strategy if you really want to get it right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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