Hey everyone, since you guys have been so helpful thus far I wanted to share with you guys my current wondering of what to upgrade next on my sound system, which, I must say, I started building not too long ago.
I almost wrote a small book, so here is a TLDR
TLDR - currently have KEF Q100 speakers fed by smsl SA-98E amp, I want to upgrade both, where to start and what to get? (tentative budget limits: below 800 usd/eur for the amp and double that for the speakers?) - EU options preferred as I live in Poland.
Let me preface this by mentioning I live in a small flat with thin walls, my wife and a flatmate, so though I'm aiming at upgrading the speaker system, my main use case here is with headphones. Still, I did a few upgrades with the headphones recently so I'll enjoy that a few months before considering an upgrade. But so you know it's mainly my pc and tidal hifi - smsl m500 - loxjie p20 (balanced ins and outs, upgraded soviet tubes, better power supply) - and mostly my audioquest nightowls but sometimes my sennheiser hd6XX.
From my choice of headphones you should be able to guess I'll all for a more laid back sound generally speaking.
As for sources, I also use a Pioneer DV-525 as CD player fed via optical to the m500 and an old Onkyo tape deck (TA-2820), both bought for pennies really, but the pc is still my main source. I listen to everything but mostly prog rock, alternative, some electronic and somehow weird pop. I'd say Ghost is my band of the year for 2020. I register everything for years in lastfm, so here is my profile if that would be relevant: https://www.last.fm/user/angelusignarus
Now, when I can I love to enjoy music on speakers. Both sit on my desk on some yoga blocks to get that tweeter at ear height, on my desk (I have no space for towers, unfortunately - I need them to be good a near-field listening). These are the KEF Q100 which got great reviews and a price I could afford a while back and the affordable but powerful smsl SA-98E amp drives them nicely, but I have some problems with this amp.
Here is a picture of the whole thing:
One of the main reasons I got the KEF Q100 was also that they were front ported. As you can see my desk is right up to the wall and the right speaker is right against a corner of the room. I know that is terrible placing but I really can't move that desk, so not much I can do here other than picking speakers that would play nicely in that setup. I sit in the corner of a medium size room (our shared living room that is).
I like this system, but I really just feel the speakers actually truly singing when the volume is quite loud, which I love, but can only do in short bursts or when the girls leave (which during quarantine is never). The volume pot of the smsl is mega annoying, the channel imbalance is very strong at a low volume which is terrible, and it gets better as I raise the volume. I tried going around this by maxing the volume on the amp and and using the dac as a preamp since it can do that, but it's a bit annoying since I like to change the volume on the loxjie and I feel that, when using headphones, if I max the headphone amp and regulate the volume on the dac I get way less detail at lower volumes, like the signal is not as clear if the dac isn't maxed. Anyway, that is not the problem I'm here to discuss, but let's just say when i use the speakers I'm having to mess with two nobs (lowering a bit the dac and very delicately trying to find a good volume on the amp, then maxing out the dac again when going back to the headphones.
Again, I like the speakers itself, but I still get pretty jelly when I see some reviews about some gorgeous speakers (I must say I'm a sucker for KEF design), so I always had wet dreams about the LS50 or recently saw some reviews for the KEF R300, but otherwise know very little and tried very few speakers, so a recommendation of a decent definitely noticeable upgrade would be helpful. In terms of budget I still find it hard to wrap my head around spending more than 2000 euros or dollars on a speaker, but if the argument would be strong enough I could consider, still, I'd really stay below that for this next step, since even saving that money will take me a while (got no money burning any hole in any pocket).
As for the amp, well, this amp carried me for a while, but I'm really getting tired of it. The sound is ok and neutral, but a bit too sterile for me. The main issue tho is what I said about the volume pot. I also fell I can't be happy in listening to the system at low volumes while being happy with the amount of detail I get - Now here I'm not sure if the problem is the amp or the speakers, but I strongly suspect the former.
The amp I've been dating over the internet for a while now are these: https://www.xtzsound.eu/product/edge-a2-300
Prince seems good enough for me, great reviews, i dig the aesthetics and wanted to try a pure power amp - I'd use the dac as a pre, which I'm hoping will work for the speakers.
With all that said, first, the important question: which do you think I should upgrade first? Note that a cheaper component can be acquired with less time saving, so the cheaper component(I'd suspect the amp) would have a strong advantage in the order.
Second, what you think I should get, looking forward for recommendations for a nice pair of bookshelves that would be, as I said before, a noticeable improvement over the KEF Q100. Ah, I also want it in black or other dark color to match my desk general colors.
And third, in my list of upgrades I also wanted to add a sub, eventually, to which I for now picked these Jamos https://www.jamo.com/products/sub210
because I like the looks, and they'd fit nicely, hopefully under my desk. I like low end, but I picked a small sub because as I said, I have little space to work with here and the neighbors/flatmates issue I described earlier kinda puts this as a defined third in my upgrade order. Or who knows, if I got a speaker that could handle low end well enough for me I'd be willing to give up the sub idea.
If you read all of this, thanks a lot, this went for longer than I imagined. Any input will be highly appreciated. If I forgot to mention anything important, let me know
I almost wrote a small book, so here is a TLDR
TLDR - currently have KEF Q100 speakers fed by smsl SA-98E amp, I want to upgrade both, where to start and what to get? (tentative budget limits: below 800 usd/eur for the amp and double that for the speakers?) - EU options preferred as I live in Poland.
Let me preface this by mentioning I live in a small flat with thin walls, my wife and a flatmate, so though I'm aiming at upgrading the speaker system, my main use case here is with headphones. Still, I did a few upgrades with the headphones recently so I'll enjoy that a few months before considering an upgrade. But so you know it's mainly my pc and tidal hifi - smsl m500 - loxjie p20 (balanced ins and outs, upgraded soviet tubes, better power supply) - and mostly my audioquest nightowls but sometimes my sennheiser hd6XX.
From my choice of headphones you should be able to guess I'll all for a more laid back sound generally speaking.
As for sources, I also use a Pioneer DV-525 as CD player fed via optical to the m500 and an old Onkyo tape deck (TA-2820), both bought for pennies really, but the pc is still my main source. I listen to everything but mostly prog rock, alternative, some electronic and somehow weird pop. I'd say Ghost is my band of the year for 2020. I register everything for years in lastfm, so here is my profile if that would be relevant: https://www.last.fm/user/angelusignarus
Now, when I can I love to enjoy music on speakers. Both sit on my desk on some yoga blocks to get that tweeter at ear height, on my desk (I have no space for towers, unfortunately - I need them to be good a near-field listening). These are the KEF Q100 which got great reviews and a price I could afford a while back and the affordable but powerful smsl SA-98E amp drives them nicely, but I have some problems with this amp.
Here is a picture of the whole thing:
One of the main reasons I got the KEF Q100 was also that they were front ported. As you can see my desk is right up to the wall and the right speaker is right against a corner of the room. I know that is terrible placing but I really can't move that desk, so not much I can do here other than picking speakers that would play nicely in that setup. I sit in the corner of a medium size room (our shared living room that is).
I like this system, but I really just feel the speakers actually truly singing when the volume is quite loud, which I love, but can only do in short bursts or when the girls leave (which during quarantine is never). The volume pot of the smsl is mega annoying, the channel imbalance is very strong at a low volume which is terrible, and it gets better as I raise the volume. I tried going around this by maxing the volume on the amp and and using the dac as a preamp since it can do that, but it's a bit annoying since I like to change the volume on the loxjie and I feel that, when using headphones, if I max the headphone amp and regulate the volume on the dac I get way less detail at lower volumes, like the signal is not as clear if the dac isn't maxed. Anyway, that is not the problem I'm here to discuss, but let's just say when i use the speakers I'm having to mess with two nobs (lowering a bit the dac and very delicately trying to find a good volume on the amp, then maxing out the dac again when going back to the headphones.
Again, I like the speakers itself, but I still get pretty jelly when I see some reviews about some gorgeous speakers (I must say I'm a sucker for KEF design), so I always had wet dreams about the LS50 or recently saw some reviews for the KEF R300, but otherwise know very little and tried very few speakers, so a recommendation of a decent definitely noticeable upgrade would be helpful. In terms of budget I still find it hard to wrap my head around spending more than 2000 euros or dollars on a speaker, but if the argument would be strong enough I could consider, still, I'd really stay below that for this next step, since even saving that money will take me a while (got no money burning any hole in any pocket).
As for the amp, well, this amp carried me for a while, but I'm really getting tired of it. The sound is ok and neutral, but a bit too sterile for me. The main issue tho is what I said about the volume pot. I also fell I can't be happy in listening to the system at low volumes while being happy with the amount of detail I get - Now here I'm not sure if the problem is the amp or the speakers, but I strongly suspect the former.
The amp I've been dating over the internet for a while now are these: https://www.xtzsound.eu/product/edge-a2-300
Prince seems good enough for me, great reviews, i dig the aesthetics and wanted to try a pure power amp - I'd use the dac as a pre, which I'm hoping will work for the speakers.
With all that said, first, the important question: which do you think I should upgrade first? Note that a cheaper component can be acquired with less time saving, so the cheaper component(I'd suspect the amp) would have a strong advantage in the order.
Second, what you think I should get, looking forward for recommendations for a nice pair of bookshelves that would be, as I said before, a noticeable improvement over the KEF Q100. Ah, I also want it in black or other dark color to match my desk general colors.
And third, in my list of upgrades I also wanted to add a sub, eventually, to which I for now picked these Jamos https://www.jamo.com/products/sub210
because I like the looks, and they'd fit nicely, hopefully under my desk. I like low end, but I picked a small sub because as I said, I have little space to work with here and the neighbors/flatmates issue I described earlier kinda puts this as a defined third in my upgrade order. Or who knows, if I got a speaker that could handle low end well enough for me I'd be willing to give up the sub idea.
If you read all of this, thanks a lot, this went for longer than I imagined. Any input will be highly appreciated. If I forgot to mention anything important, let me know
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