Cheap upgrade wanted!

[hifistudent]

Hey all,

As I am sure you were all at one stage in your life (skint!) I need your help in cheap upgrades. I use my system for music and is as follows:

Rotel RA 03

Cyrus CD6

Monitor Audio S8

Ruku M1000

Sennheiser HD650

Chord Carnival Silver Plus Bi-wire spk cable

QED 4 interconnects

I have recently used some granite as isolation for my CD player and speakers and now guess I should next try to improve the mains. Looking around there appear to be loads of options. I saw the Russ Andrews Yell0 cable as well as others @ around £30 (also, if i was to buy one at a time which should i do first, amp or CD player?) Is it worth paying a bit extra? or even making my own? Or would sound for pound power not be the best upgrade?

Suggest away.....

 

[cjr]

Depends on how much money you have to spend Student, I’d opt for saving my money up and getting better kit, component by component before fannying around with mains or power cables. I have found much better upgrades in kit than “tweaking†FWIW. The cables you currently have are perfectly up to the job (In fact IMHO you have spent too much on them already). Looking back on money I spent on cables (ICs – Digital & Anlg, Power cables) I would have reached a much better system by saving my money and getting the components I have now a lot earlier.

HTHs

PS there is a blind test of a £30 RA power cord you mention on this site somewhere you should find it rather interesting use the search facility.

 

[andrew1810]

Get a DAC for the Roku, when I had the M1000, I found the in-built DAC to be average at best, I added a cheapo Dac-In-The-Box and it sounded much better.

Better still, sell the Roku and buy a Squeezebox, I did and didn't look back!!

Andrew

 

[mosfet]

As CJ says, save your money and put this toward kit upgrades when you have sufficient funds. If you do wish to try some hi-fi mains cables look for those that have undergone approved testing or carry the CE mark (QED, Chord, Supra).

Avoid the shoddy crap available on eBay.

 

[hifistudent]

Noted.

Any suggestions for a DAC?

Mike

 

[andrew1810]

What budget do you have?

 

[hifistudent]

That i would be prepared to spend for the Roku - £100 max, preferably less...

 

[andrew1810]

These three could be worth watching:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/teac-dac_W0QQitemZ5858789994QQcategoryZ3272QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Cambridge-Audio-Isomagic-DAC_W0QQitemZ5859439181QQcategoryZ81741QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/AUDIO-ALCHEMY-DAC-V1-0_W0QQitemZ5860605228QQcategoryZ81741QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Just keep an eye on eBay really, I managed to get mine for £25 because it was a bit rusty and untested.

A Cambridge DACmagic would also be an option and they are fairly cheap

 

[Uncle Ants]

£100? Buy a second hand turntable and putthe Rotel's nonetoo shabby phono stage to good use I'd say (but then again I would, wouldn't I

).

 

[hifistudent]

I have no records! I think i'm too young to start on that! I know, i know they sound better.......But i'm a kid of the 21st century

Also a cheap one would be crap, if I were to do it i would at least do it properly.

Cheers for the eBay links. I will keep an eye out.

 

[JamPal]

£150.00 would buy my Rega Planar 2, it has a new RB200 arm and a hardly used Rega Super Bias cart. Far from crap but only if you can afford the big black CD's.

 

[Uncle Ants]

hifistudent wrote:

I have no records! I think i'm too young to start on that! I know, i know they sound better.......But i'm a kid of the 21st century

Also a cheap one would be crap, if I were to do it i would at least do it properly.

Rega's are pretty good value second hand as the Boss points out or down a notch a 2nd hand Pro-Ject Debut (a III though not a II) would probably set you back less than 70 notes and put you well on the road to addiction. Besides all your mates'll think you're cool ... which of course you would be :dude:

PS. Uncle Ants subscribes the "Morely Thesis" - In the21st century we will either listen to vinyl or downloads andCDs will be curios

 

[yoda900]

Look at the DIy cheapo tweaks on the thread. Well worth forgoing only a pint or two.

The less favourable position your kit is placed in ie digs/bedroom the more beneficial isolation will be and costs buttons.

 

[icehockeyboy]

In my experience , despite having 2 RA yello's, and a Classik, i dont think its made any difference......and re a turntable, if youve got no vinyl, dont bother!The thing that has made the biggest difference has been the Ic's and speaker cable.

 

[gsrai]

icehockeyboy wrote:

In my experience , despite having 2 RA yello's, and a Classik, i dont think its made any difference......and re a turntable, if youve got no vinyl, dont bother!The thing that has made the biggest difference has been the Ic's and speaker cable.

Unfortunately (for me

) I agree with ICE.

For a £100 I would seek out some better interconnects (you could probably get some decent chord/van den hul's). If you want to match amp with cd player I have seen the cyrus 6 amp and 8 amps at good prices on ex-dem so you could ship the Rotel (don't know how good it is but over time I have come to beleive in the synergies of one brand one world

)

Just a thought but sony6 is selling some Atlas voyagers!