In need of advice. I have been into audio for about 10 yrs and I read all the audio mags(stereophile,audio,what hifi) I just can't make a dicission in reguards to anything. That is why I have such a low budget system plus I couldn't justify spending a lot of money on something I wasn't sure would please me. I , chose to go with Adcom because it's afordable and the audio stores always spoke highly of Adcom and the research I did on Adcom components made me feel confident about them. My complaints are that the music seems closed in ,too bright, and to harsh for my sensitive ears. Any advice on what I should upgrade next would be appreciated. I haven't been to this website in a while but i would like to add a couple of things. I had auditioned a Acurus RL11 pre-amp several years back. I didn't like it because i couldn't handl'e the forwardness it seems to produce.
After reading all the reviews at audio review i thought that it might be to truthful and that either my front end or amp(the piece of crap that it was)was the problem and that if i changed one of these i would be very happy with the Acurus. At that point i got very frustrated because I didn't have the money to buy a new amp or cd player. If anyone has any advice on what i should do next your feedback would be greatly appreciated.
I havent been to this part of audiogon in about 4-5yrs but I just purchased a Rotel Int. amp and I am displeased with the sound. I was reading reviews for it on audioreview and saw one review that said the sound seemed distorted at anything above a fourth of the way up on the volume. This is one thing I noticed too. It also seems to have a slighty to moderately forward presentation.Not as ear fatiguing as the acurus RL-11 but enough to notice.
Enough of me complaining, this is what I do want. I want good tight bass, mabye slighty sweet treble,a noticable midrange without being too noticable. It can't be lean or thin sounding and it can't do what the rotel does when I turn up the volume. Also I'd prefer not to get anything with tubes.
I listen to all sorts of music with rock being primary although I do like some classical.
My budget is $600 and $900. Ive been looking at the Sim i5080 for a few days now. Some people say the MFA3 or 3.2 is a good choice too. Also the Plinius(various different models) but I don't think those are in my budget. Anyways any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
As far as xlr cables, you would be hard pressed to find much better than high quality mic cables. They have a naturalness and detail that is incredable. They must transfer the sutlties of the voice with naturalness. I find they have excellent frequence extentions as well. I can't remember the brand (better than Canare), but they are grey and very thin. I had $950 interconnects that were no match for them. I got mine from a recording studio, so they may be able to know the brand. I'm sure the price can't be beat.
It seems like your cd source is your current weak link. Adcom can be a bit bright. You have a good amp and preamp, so once you get your source sorted out then you pick speakers to match. The newer CDP's have great dac sections.
I currently am using a Cary CD-308 cdp. It has excellent soundstage, dynamics, and resolution. It costs $1500 new, but can be bought used for under $900. It gives you a lot of the Cary 306 or 303 sound at a fraction of the cost. There is a lot of info on the various threads and consumer reviews.
I had tried a fully broken-in Jolida JD-100 with tubes ($900 new). It was nice but lacked resolution, but had big bass and smooth sound. Lot of folks are modifying them but then at the price there are better options.
After your front end is done look for good speakers.
I went through the tweaking thing and just got my system out of whack, so I stepped back and picked good equipment, with decent cabling and I couldn't be happier.