Upgrade entire system, speakers first

Artch,

Welcome to AudiogoN! It appears that this is your first post. All I can say is "you came to the right place!" Over time you should be able to get lots of good advice on upgrading your system. And this is a great place to buy/try different components for your system.

The Arcam stuff is pretty good, but you're down a couple of notches from the top of their line. The PSB are also pretty good. Personally, I think you can get a better sounding system that will also do a good job on large scale pieces for a lot less than your $10K proposed budget. You have a small room, so you won't need huge speakers or high power. Also, if you intend to have CD as the only source, it opens up more possibilities as some higher end CD players have built-in volume control, so you might choose to go CD direct to a power amp, thus saving money over an integrated or seperates.

OK, now on to a recommendation: First, I would always suggest getting out to hear as many different speakers as possible. You can go to dealers or maybe look here in the forums for a club that is near where you live. If you can't actually audition speakers because you live in a remote area or small town, I would suggest making a short list and waiting for a pair to show up here on AudiogoN. If you can buy them at a good price, you can try them in your system, then re-sell them at little/no loss if you don't love them. You might spend a hundred or so on shipping or depreciation while you have them, but it's better than blowing $4k on a new pair and then reselling them for $2K-$3K.

My last bit of advice is purely person preference. I would highly recommend buying speakers that are fairly high efficiency and easy to drive. Low powered amps cost a lot less than high powed amps in general. Why commit to needing expensive high powered amps if you have a choice of lots of higher efficiency models.

My room is somewhat larger than yours and I'm using this DIY single driver speaker:

http://www.hempacoustics.com/Review.pdf

They sound great and are cheap and easy to assemble. And, in a room your size they can be powered by almost any amp. I'm currently using a 6 watt/channel digital amp or a 3.5 watt/channel tube amp. And they play plenty loud and have plenty of bass.

Anyway, I've rambled too long! Welcome and Enjoy,

TIC

Artch,

You are now at a critical phase of your upgrade journey. This is where you will make the most sweeping decisions as to which direction to go in, and it is also where your experience is the least (not to say that you're inexperienced, but as time goes on you will inevitably become more experienced). The more you can learn now, the better.

One of the most important things to know here is yourself. What do you really want your audio system to do, and what compromises are you willing to make (if necessary) to get there? Also the more you know about acoustics and psychoacoustics, the better off you will be. You'll start to see the tradeoffs involved in various speaker designs (and sonic tradeoffs are inevitable everywhere in audio except in the marketing department).

May I suggest a book: "Premium Home Theater - Design and Construction", by Earl Geddes. Don't be put off by the name. The chapters on psychoacoustics, sound reproduction, and small room acoustics are superb. The author (and his wife who wrote the chapter on psychoacoustics) are among the leading researchers in audio today, and have published numerous papers and an advanced text on loudspeakers. Earl is among the world's foremost experts on small room acoustics. Here's a link:

http://www.gedlee.com/Home_theatre.htm

I echo Reubent's suggestion of easy-to-drive speakers if possible, as you may want to try tube amps. Tubes have a more ear-friendly distortion characteristic than solid state typically does. One of the things you'll learn (if you haven't already) is that industry-standard measurements don't always correlate well with subjective perception.

Take your room situation into account, too. You don't need speakers that will fill an auditorium - you need speakers that will sound good from fairly close up at fairly low power levels. Some do and some don't. Reubent's suggestion of single-drivers speakers makes sense to me, though they do have their limitations. But their limitations are less likely to be an issue in your situation - and they do like tube amps!

Well there's a huge world of speakers out there in your price range, and then beyond that amplifiers, and then beyond that... The journey you're setting out on can and probably will be immensely enjoyable.

Best of luck to you,

Duke

My first suggestion, buy preowned here on audiogon from proven sellers and save huge money. I've been doing this for 8-10 years now and wish someone would have advised me similarly. The markup on audio equipment is crazy and most audio nuts take great care of thier components. So, find what you like then look it up here. Make sure it has original packing for safety save a few grand. If you can spend $10K new on equip. why not spend either $5K used for the same equipment OR $10K for a $30K system??? BTW, look at Merlin speakers very carefully, I couldn't be happier!