New CD player, Dac or Speakers?

SirDoss

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I'm after some advice on the best route I can take at the moment.

Curently I am using a Cambridge Audio DV86 player, a Rega Brio amp and I've just brought back into service my old Tannoy M1's which are sounding very good.

Now I'm selling my Bose speakers and will have money for an upgrade once I do. I was going to upgrade my speakers but on having a demo in a hi-fi store I was advised to keep my Tannoy's as the guy reckons they are a very good speaker (they do sound good) and what I desperately need to change is my player. He recommended a couple, one I've forgot and the other was the Rega Planet.

Would this seem right? Is my player the weak point or would spending £400 -£500 on new speakers be the better bet at this point?

Now I do have a tight budget and if Rega Planets or more expensive speakers are the answer then I would have to continue saving for a while. Another thing I wondered is, if the player could do with changing, would another option be sticking a DAC converter on the end of my Cambridge be just as good an option? It would be cheaper but I don't want to do that and find that the Planet would have been the better bet in the long run.

Any help is appreciated.
 
Save more and improve the speakers.
 
Your amp is definitely the strongest link in your system. Not heard the speakers, but they are entry level are they not? Also a DVD player for playback? You could do well to try and upgrade both, but speakers would probably make the biggest initial difference.

I have to say though that for £500 you could make your system "all rega" in other words, Rega Brio, Planet and Ela. That WILL sound amazing.
 
Thanks for the replies.

Yeah, I will eventually be upgrading player and speakers. Little one on the way at the moment so it is going to be a case of whatever I get for my Bose and maybe save some more or even look at second hand.

The Tannoy's are entry level speakers, I think paid around the £100 mark in Currys years ago. The funny thing is though that when I went round to the hi-fi store to listen to a pair of Rega bookshelves (can't remember which ones at the moment), the guy said straight away that they wouldn't beat my Tannoy's. I was suprised at this but he was right, infact I did prefer my Tannoy's. This was probably down to my M1's being run in though.

I will follow the advice on here though because it is the biggest initial difference I am after, I just can't afford to buy both speakers and player at the moment (unless I stumble across a second hand bargain).

Cheers guys.
 
Rega Ela's that I suggested arent bookshelf speakers though. I had some £200 Tannoys myself, I cant remember which model exactly, but the Regas (which I picked up for £120) absolutely spank the Tannoys.

Anyway, I stand by my advice, an all Rega system will be virtually as good as it gets before the realms of silly money.

You said you were going to spend £400-£500 on one item, and a Rega Planet and Ela will probably leave you change from that amount so why are you now saying you cant afford to do that? (ps I was talking about second hand ;))
 
Hi pbirkett

Sorry, what the situation is, is that I was using money from a Bose speaker sale (still ongoing) to fund a purchase which I'm hoping for around £250. If I had to spend £500 on speakers or a Planet then I would have to save the rest of the money (little one on the way so I'm not flush at the moment). That was why I mentioned the even cheaper option of the DAC if need be.

Following your advice I will look at speakers and will try to get a decent second hand buy for the money I make on my Bose. I seriously doubt that my Bose sale will fund the player and speakers so I will go for speakers first and then save for the player.

I do think you're right, I'm happy with my Rega amp, have heard people raving about the Planet and so yeah, I'll look into the Ela's, see what I can get away with paying.

Anyway, thanks again for the advice.
 

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