Incremental System Upgrade

[audioguy3107]

Amadave - It may be difficult to quantify the upgrades you are considering since they could potentially impact your entire system. Obviously the cable upgrades could have a significant impact on what you already have, but then if you take a look at your amplifiction idea, Changing from McIntosh amplification to either CH Precision or the Ayre combo will have a sonic impact far greater than messing with your power cables.

My advice here would be to start from square one and take a look at your speakers...upgrade, yes or no. Then move to your amplification and think about long term......would you be happy with the McIntosh you already have or would you down the road think you'd be happier with, say, a CH Precision based system?

My thinking here is to try and get off a constant upgrade train....even if you may spend a bit more up front now doing a CH Precision stack for example, it may save you upgrade money over the long term in case you change your mind again. To sum up, you can upgrade any of the paths you mention, but I would go for the more substantial upgrade now assuming you'll be happy with it long term and then build up the other pieces. IMO, going from the McIntosh components you have now to CH Precision would be a fairly substantial upgrade that would benefit your entire system, especially if you can do a matching preamplifier and amp.

- Buck