Equipment update question

[busybeingborn]

Hello all,

I'm pondering on updating my Stereo equipment after not investing for 30 years. :-) But listening to hi res audio more and more requires at least some additional hardware.

 

What I've been using for the last decades:

 

- Revox B739 preamp

- Threshold S150 power amp

- Magnepan Magneplanar speakers (the small ones, 160cm high, ±30ys old)

 

What I've got now (new):

- iMac i5

- AppleTV 2

- Bowers & Wilkins MM1

- NAS RAID

 

What would be the most effective and cost-saving update / replacement for this equipment?

 

Thanks a lot!

 

Peter

 

[tomE]

Hi busybeingborn

 

I like this solution, one box with built-in DAC.

 

http://www.magnumdynalab.com/2-channel-audio-receiver-md209.htm

 

Sounded very good too! There is also an integrated without the tuner but morre power for more $.

 

Tom

 

[realhifi]

You've got some nice equipment albeit getting long in the tooth. You must have gone to a hifi shop to purchase all the terific things you have and now it might be time to go to your local hifi shop and give look around at what is out there today. I'm assuming that the little B&W's are simply for an office or small room in your home and you are looking at replacing your old hifi with something more up to date but not lose the performance you have now.

 

Magnepan is still making great speakers and their new ones are superb so you could do a whole lot worse than replacing the ones you have with a newer model. But if you are ready to move on for whatever reason from the Maggie sound and asthetic there is a pretty good array of speakers available that will fit the bill of giving you great sound. Personally I'd look at a nice simple integrated that had sufficiant punch

to replace your preamp power amp combo, if you are serious about cost savings that is. Your budget will determine what you end up with more than anything. Once you set a rough budget THEN you can start thinking specifics. Without a rough roadmap of cost you could be looking and talking for a loooong time about the many combos of this and that with those and these speakers that ultimately only YOU can decide if you actually LIKE.

 

So, the advice is simple, get down to a dealer that can guide you in a direction that not only meets your budget but that can show you how all this new digital technology coupled to the new hifi equipment of today can produce sound that is miles ahead of yesterdays hifi.

 

[James1776]

How much is in your budget? Also...how big is your listening room?

 

[busybeingborn]

What I intended was: ruling out one or the other and seriously thing about what remains. I couldn't replace everything even if I wanted to. The Maggies e.g. sound weak to me after all these years, or maybe my taste has changed. I even get a fuller sound at my computer with the MM1 (they sound incredibly good!!). (The stereo is in a 40m2 room, 4m high.)