Advice on Budget System for newbie

I know this thread is sounding like an ad for the CD-25 but I did want to chime in one more time to reinforce what Tobias is saying. My experience is that, with a limited budget, a dollar spent on the source gets you more improvement than a dollar spent on the amp, cable or speakers. It's not that the others aren't important and you certainly have to find a balance, both sonically and financially, among all of them.

One of the advantages of the CD-25 is that, while it's an exceptional player at its price in stock form, it's easy to make it much better with commonly available ugrades. Spending $50 on a pair of better op-amps that you can easily install yourself takes it to another level of quality entirely. I haven't found any upgrade to the other components that will even come close to matching the improvement for anything like that amount of money.

Again, from my experience in swapping out a lot of moderately-priced components, If you had $800 to spend on a source and amp you'd be much, much better off with, for example, a $600 CD-25 and a $200 entry-level used Rotel integrated amp than with a $600 integrated of any brand and a $200 player.

Cable differences are important but more subtle. It's easy to start with any of the moderately prices ones like Audioquest or DH Labs and experiment as you go.

Sfar what about high end systems? Just Curious what your thoughts are in this area.

Reason I ask is I have a very good class A amp, $3000 monitors but am running this with a $350 CD player.

I have a very good Eastsound player (compares well with $2500+ players) that I should be receiving in the next week.

Upgraded the speakers first and big improvement. Next upgraded the cables then amp both big improvements.

Now curious how much difference a good CDP will make as the final upgrade?

Thanks for your input.

You didn't ask me, Maxxc, but I think the rule is pretty much the same for all systems. The difference is that at the high end, you are not going to have to put up with sound that is actually toxic. Even if you upgrade starting downstream, a true high end source should already be pretty easy to take.

Upgrading is so expensive ( cost of new component plus loss on resale of the old component, minus resale value of the old one ) that it makes sense to plan for the best sound possible at every step. Unfortunately that can mean passing on speakers, for example, while you save for a source. It can be hard to do.

I think you will be delighted with your coming source upgrade, and you will be able to hear it at its best. Imagine if you had upgraded your source first, though. Your amp upgrade would have been double fun!

Maxxc

I'm afraid I don't have the same level of experience with high-end components, though my current set-up replaced a much more expensive system of all McCormack electronics, including an SST transport and separate DAC as a source.

As Tobias said, at the high end the compromises you make just don't have as much impact. You should be able to simply tune the system to your preferences by choosing different components rather than spend time and money trying to avoid what irritates you.

I expect the same principles apply, you're just making much smaller incremental changes as you spend much larger sums of money. It argues even more strongly for really taking your time and auditioning equipment in your own system, comparing it carefully with what you already have before you make a decision.

Tobias and Sfar thanks for your input. Yes, I'm expecting a real good improvement no doubt the CDP is holding back the amp and speakers.

I may have the unit tomorrow as it has been shipped. A good weekend of burn in and I should really have an idea how much the budget CDP was holding the system back.

BW Maxx