COOL, THANKS FOR THE ADVICE. I KNOW MY CD AND SPEAKERS NEED SOME WORK. AS FAR AS THE FISHER GOES DO YOU REALLY THINK I WILL NOTICE A DIFFERENCE IF I GET INTO MORE EXPENSIVE MONO BLOCKS? I LISTEN AT LOW LEVELS SO POWER IS NOT A CONCERN IM INTO THE CLARITY AND ROOM ACCOUSTICS. I LIKE TO FIND THE DETAILS IN THE RECORDINGS. I THINK IM MORE INTO THAT THEN THE MUSIC.
I just remembered a pretty darn good source suggestion. I will start with the funny story:
My audio club had a CD Source shoot out that included some REALLY pricy gear. For S***T's & giggles, I brought my $75 circuit city special DVD player. We did a double blind shoot out (30 people) against 8-10 players and the $75 special came in 2nd.(Cary came in first - I forget the model, but it was the non tube one, retail around $3000 I think - the Cary really is a nice player)
You may want to give this one a shot - believe it or not, it's actually pretty good for CD playback.
An excellent cheap vintage CD player is Sony ES. I brought a 707 into a store to try against much more expensive and newer CAL & Rotel. The salesman shook his head and said don't even bother. He was right - the Sony kicked their butts. We had to go to a $4500 EAD to get equal sound. BUT - If you're enjoying your system as is, don't let us audio a**holes tell you otherwise. Good sound can be found in very unlikely combinations. If you haven't been bitten by the upgrade bug, count your blessings (or just wait - if you hang out here long enough, you WILL fall victim!)
Get rid of the sonys and buy some 70's: original Advents, Epicures,AR's or Dynaco speakers. or even a pair of JBL L-110's. Sony never made a good speaker as far as I know of.
I am not sure what you are looking to do but if you are looking for good sound on a budget & like vintage here are a couple of suggestions for some really fine vintage gear. (Disclaimer - everyone has there own oppinions - these are mine based on my ears and experiences)
If you like warm tubey sound there are several vintage Mono blocks to choose from. I really like the sound of Heathkit W5-M's (25W) or Dynaco Mk II or III's (50W -60W. These can be had for around $500 a pair. (may want to upgrade caps and stuff - but just find one that where that has already been done) These WILL provide high quality sound and can be very enjoyable. I have had both along with my more modern VAC tube mono-blocks - different but not better.(IMHO) They have fantastic iron on them and worth checking out.
Here's another neat one, some guys in my Audio Club rave about these. Believe it or not Kenwood made some supposidly very nice high end mono blocks in the late 80's early 90's. I think they were L 07 or LM 07's (not sure on the model #) they go for around $400 a pair and are supposed to be pretty darn good.
For CD - there are TONS of choices - I agree with the above post though regarding the listed equipment. Some suggestions however are: CAL transport with Delta or Sigma dac - can't remember which is the tube one - but go with the tube one. Some of EAD's older stuff is reasonable and supposed to sound great - crappy or zero support from EAD though. You could buy an inexpensive transport and use an MSB Link III to start and then upgrade the DAC later on.
Very nice inexpensive wires are Homegrown audio and they come in Kit form if you want - AWSOME customer service and HONEST guys. I have met them personally and they are great guys. Wires are damn good for the price too.
Most of the other stuff except maybe the Fisher - better off going in a different direction IMHO.
items that are so-so will always be that way, new or old. What you have in your list is other than the amp is, in my opion, just old and not considered vintage. And Best Buy will furnish the same, only new.
