Equipment Recommendations - The Home For New System and Upgrade Advice

folsom_lives said:
That's what I'm wrestling with. The replacement Gold and 8mz styli are both $150 so that seems kind of moot. So buy the Gold, wait until I need a new stylus and get 8mz... Seems weird that the 8mz wouldn't be more or the Gold less? IDK.
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I’d have expected the gold to be less to be honest. Here I think I’m looking, from the U.K. at £150 for the 8mz next year. If I stick with the gold it’d be £125. I expected a similar difference for you too!

At the same price it’s the 8mz all day long.
 
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folsom_lives said:
That's what I'm wrestling with. The replacement Gold and 8mz styli are both $150 so that seems kind of moot. So buy the Gold, wait until I need a new stylus and get 8mz... Seems weird that the 8mz wouldn't be more or the Gold less? IDK.
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The 8MZ is an upgrade sound quality wise. It used to cost less than the Gold (as it is a legacy item). Grado got wind of what people were doing and increased the price.
 
folsom_lives said:
So I'm not really looking for giant leaps in upgrades for the time being but I'm just try to get a feel for what the weak links in my system are.

I know in the short term I'd like to upgrade my power cables for my NAD and Pho8 and look into a Panamax power conditioner.

I'm also looking at the Grado Gold (but looking at replacement costs of $150 each time I need a new stylus kind of scares me off).

I think my next big jump after these would be a new turntable but I don't really have a budget. Really dig the MoFi Studio/Ultradeck but the price on the Ultradeck is a bit much in the short term.

Overall I'm happy with what I have, just looking at small/cheap tweaks to give a noticeable improvement.
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I'm just going to speak from experience here, but enjoying what you have and spending more time saving towards bigger upgrades is WELL worth it. I know that it's easy to get the itch, but in my experience the jaw drops from big upgrades tend to be much more satisfying than little tweaks.

Having said that, the Grado Gold would be a good investment in my opinion. If you like the Grado sound, moving up the scale generally pays off. Plus if everything is clean and well taken care of, a stylus might last longer than you'd think (based on your frequency uses). Panamax certainly doesn't hurt anything, and it offers great protection, certainly a valuable if you live in a heavy storm area and/or older building.
 
displayname said:
I'm just going to speak from experience here, but enjoying what you have and spending more time saving towards bigger upgrades is WELL worth it. I know that it's easy to get the itch, but in my experience the jaw drops from big upgrades tend to be much more satisfying than little tweaks.

Having said that, the Grado Gold would be a good investment in my opinion. If you like the Grado sound, moving up the scale generally pays off. Plus if everything is clean and well taken care of, a stylus might last longer than you'd think (based on your frequency uses). Panamax certainly doesn't hurt anything, and it offers great protection, certainly a valuable if you live in a heavy storm area and/or older building.
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Sound advice. The Panamax is more an insurance policy since I am currently running all my equipment through a surge protector of unknown quality. I've heard great things about upgrading the power cord to the Pho8 and that's a pretty cheap upgrade considering I'm not really looking to upgrade my pre amp for a while. The Grado Gold is kind of an endstage cart given the praise some of the forum elders have given. I think I'm at least a few years out from upgrading to anything big (read approaching the $1,000 mark).

Don't get me wrong I like where I'm at right know. I just want to know where to take the next few steps so that I'm not wasting money on snake oil.
 
folsom_lives said:
Sound advice. The Panamax is more an insurance policy since I am currently running all my equipment through a surge protector of unknown quality. I've heard great things about upgrading the power cord to the Pho8 and that's a pretty cheap upgrade considering I'm not really looking to upgrade my pre amp for a while. The Grado Gold is kind of an endstage cart given the praise some of the forum elders have given. I think I'm at least a few years out from upgrading to anything big (read approaching the $1,000 mark).

Don't get me wrong I like where I'm at right know. I just want to know where to take the next few steps so that I'm not wasting money on snake oil.
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Your head is in the right place. Protection is worth the price in my opinion. It might improve your sound, it might not. But it's certainly smart overall. And a cartridge/stylus are a significant contributor to the analog chain.

Investing in power cables is arguable. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big proponent of quality cables making a difference, I've been slowly updating mine. But if cables are the main thing holding you back from something like a new TT or another key piece, well then I'm not so sure. Sometimes big differences are more apparent in one system, and not another when it comes to these types of items. But above all they certainly don't hurt, and could open things up you didn't know your system could do.

However, if you keep your stock cables in the gear boxes, your cables can come with you for future upgrades. Really no wrong improvements, but I always like to make sure people keep expectations in check too.
 
folsom_lives said:
So I'm not really looking for giant leaps in upgrades for the time being but I'm just try to get a feel for what the weak links in my system are.

I know in the short term I'd like to upgrade my power cables for my NAD and Pho8 and look into a Panamax power conditioner.

I'm also looking at the Grado Gold (but looking at replacement costs of $150 each time I need a new stylus kind of scares me off).

I think my next big jump after these would be a new turntable but I don't really have a budget. Really dig the MoFi Studio/Ultradeck but the price on the Ultradeck is a bit much in the short term.

Overall I'm happy with what I have, just looking at small/cheap tweaks to give a noticeable improvement.
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I'm going to agree with what others have said, if your good with what you have I would save for the bigger upgrade rather than the "Fine Tuning" of cables and even a cart at this stage. The Grado Gold is a solid cart at a good price and the 8MZ is pretty much "THE" replacement stylus when the time comes. It really depends on you more than anything. I think the Grado will give you a better sound right off the bat if your looking to hear something as soon as you use it, I think cables make a bigger difference as the rest of your system moves up the ladder.

I think the Panamax is a solid investment here and now, I have the Panamax MR4300 and it's already saved my system once. Runs $198 on Amazon ;)

I would maybe grab the Panamax and save for a TT, depending on if that deck comes with a cart or not, you can venture into the Grado. But again, it's all up to you and your wallet ;)
 
AnthonyI said:
I'm going to agree with what others have said, if your good with what you have I would save for the bigger upgrade rather than the "Fine Tuning" of cables and even a cart at this stage. The Grado Gold is a solid cart at a good price and the 8MZ is pretty much "THE" replacement stylus when the time comes. It really depends on you more than anything. I think the Grado will give you a better sound right off the bat if your looking to hear something as soon as you use it, I think cables make a bigger difference as the rest of your system moves up the ladder.

I think the Panamax is a solid investment here and now, I have the Panamax MR4300 and it's already saved my system once. Runs $198 on Amazon ;)

I would maybe grab the Panamax and save for a TT, depending on if that deck comes with a cart or not, you can venture into the Grado. But again, it's all up to you and your wallet ;)
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Thanks all. You've thoroughly convinced me to save for the Ultradeck and Grado Gold. Unless someone can talk me into another stellar table that wouldn't completely blow the rest of my system out of the water...
 
It’s time for a little blasphemy..lol..I have a Panasonic bluray player sitting around which I’m thinking of using as a CD player. If I just connect it to my Nad what can I expect? Will it sound meh? I have a Schitt Modi but it’s tied up by my laptop for streaming and my PS3 for 2 channel home theater. I just don’t like using the PS3 for CD playing cos it’s slow and annoying.Thoughts anybody?
 
Englishbob said:
It’s time for a little blasphemy..lol..I have a Panasonic bluray player sitting around which I’m thinking of using as a CD player. If I just connect it to my Nad what can I expect? Will it sound meh? I have a Schitt Modi but it’s tied up by my laptop for streaming and my PS3 for 2 channel home theater. I just don’t like using the PS3 for CD playing cos it’s slow and annoying.Thoughts anybody?
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It really depends on the blu-Ray player and it’s DAC. A lot of people swear by the Oppo blu-ray players for CD/SACD, they ain’t cheap beasts though...

I’d say the ps3 (or this Panasonic tbf) through your DAC will sound better
 
Joe Mac said:
It really depends on the blu-Ray player and it’s DAC. A lot of people swear by the Oppo blu-ray players for CD/SACD, they ain’t cheap beasts though...

I’d say the ps3 (or this Panasonic tbf) through your DAC will sound better
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Oooh, how about if I was to buy a USB disc drive for my laptop for $25 for Cd’s...right? Am I missing something here since the laptop is already fed into the dac?
 
Englishbob said:
Oooh, how about if I was to buy a USB disc drive for my laptop for $25 for Cd’s...right? Am I missing something here since the laptop is already fed into the dac?
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Depends on the quality of the drive etc. also it’ll be slow like your ps3 because it’ll have a think about things too just because.
 
Englishbob said:
It’s time for a little blasphemy..lol..I have a Panasonic bluray player sitting around which I’m thinking of using as a CD player. If I just connect it to my Nad what can I expect? Will it sound meh? I have a Schitt Modi but it’s tied up by my laptop for streaming and my PS3 for 2 channel home theater. I just don’t like using the PS3 for CD playing cos it’s slow and annoying.Thoughts anybody?
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In the bedroom I have a $10 DVD player from Goodwill hooked up to an old home theater receiver (HDMI inputs crapped out so no longer good for video) and some old EPI speakers. CDs sound great to me. I'd say go for it.

Blu-ray players can be a bit slow to load, though, and the loading/spinning mechanism on DVD/Blu-ray players can be louder than a dedicated CD player, so if the player is sitting right next to you, the motor noise potentially could be irritating.
 
Joe Mac said:
It’s fine, CDs are fine, they’re a nice accompaniment to the vinyl collection. A good way to keep old stuff that isn’t worth the cost to swap to vinyl and new stuff that isn’t worth the extra cost but you’d still like. Haters gunna hate.
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Oh, it’s not cos I’m embarrassed or a vinyl snob. Far from it. I want one for the very reasons you mentioned. I just gotta figure out where to put it and which one to get.
 
CDs sound good and are waaaaay cheaper than vinyl. CDs are now what vinyl was like 15 years ago.

Definitely use a cheapie CD player. Dip your toes in, can't hurt. If it has a digital out and you're enjoying it, grab a better DAC and use the cheap player as a transport. Then upgrade from there. That's what I'd do anyway.
 
I stream from my laptop through my Schitt and it sounds pretty good but I primarily use streaming as a try b4 I buy. I just ordered a dvd drive for my laptop for $10 to see how it sounds. If not I may just get a Yamaha Cd-s300. May just rip CD’s from (the drive)it too I guess.
 
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