Help deciding next big audio purchase

Hello all

If I decide to treat myself this year, and spend up to $2000 this year on an upgrade to my system (which given how this year has been, I may very well do), I'm thinking it would be to upgrade my phonomena ii to something like the jc3 Jr. I'm thinking that I would upgrade this, because it is the least expensive part of my system, though it certainly is very good for its price. I went with it because I like that it has easy adjustment of gain and such settings. I have unsteady fingers, so until it starts sounding it's age, I'm not keen on replacing the Delos I have currently, and especially not the Project 2xperience sb it's attached to, so it makes sense to me to get a new pre amp, but I could be persuaded about either if anyone feels it would be a mistake.

To be fair, the sound is currently fine. Cooler than neutral, but I'm less picky about tone than detail/soundstage, as well as representing the essence and soul of the performance. I could be persuaded to go back to tube, but I would want something that would be able to dial in cartridge settings without any mechanical knowledge needed.


Appreciate any help

 

Anyone?

 

I have the phonomena and the JC3 Jr. The JC3 Jr, that's the one that's about $1300, yes?

I prefer the phonomena - when used with their outboard power supply. I'm not a big 'power supply' guy but this one makes a huge improvement.

 

I suggest the musical fidelity Mx Vinyl, about 800€, fantastic Phono pre for the price, fully symmetrical ,changing loads possible on the fly.

 

A used Boulder 508, if you can find one secondhand.

 

I'm sorry i didn't see this. I went with the jc3 jr from parasound. It should arrive tomorrow. Can't wait to hear how it sounds! I may upload a comparison, if i can do that without issue on here.

 

We await with bated breath, whilst we wonder what the rest of your system is...

 

Please do!

 

Good choice. Love my JC3 Jr.

 

Just un packed it. Wow. It's a solid chunk of an amp. Biggest I've owned. But boy, it's real pretty in black! I'll upload some photos, but there isn't much to see. I'm doing rips out of the box. Got it dialed in with 50 db of gain, and 250 ohms on the dial on the back. That may be too low. It's about 6db less than the Phonomena was.
The first thing i noticed is how much wider the Soundstage is. Putting Bruce's Tunnel of Love through its paces, i was struck by how much wider the instrument placement is. Sound is very neutral, which suits me just fine.

More to come!

 

Lyra delos, ruby cantilever 4 times retipped by soundsmith (don't ask)
Project 2xperience sb
Jouda foz xt-r
Creative sound blaster external sound card, for rips
Hifiman sundara headphones
Denon avr-x2400h receiver
Pair of infinity prelude 40th anniversary speakers (got them for half of the original sales price on Amazon like 8 years ago, as Harmon kardon abruptly stopped selling them in the US shortly after they were launched in 2008. No means spectacular, but they are bi amped and get the job done)

 

Oh, those are very funky! (I'm a loudspeaker engineer, so wacky loudspeakers are always of interest. I did research with flat honeycomb cones; some of them had amazing off-axis response).

Have you run the Audyssey calibration and compared? And, while I'm a longtime Denon user, I'm feeling a really good outboard amp would be good for your speakers. Except for the part where your AVR doesn't have preouts. Ever considered a sub? With four 8" cones maybe not too needful but it depends on the room positioning.

 

My b. Along with center and rear channels, I do have a sub. Klipsch r12. The towers have OK bass, but the sub takes it that much further. I wouldn't be comfortable relying on them alone. It's not inaccurate, especially with the Audyssey, but it is not as powerful as it ought to be.

On the Audyssey subject, it has made a tremendous difference. If you like, i can send you a screen grab from the app so you can see the freq response. I needed to do the levels manually but i find the eq to be worth it. Not for speaker deficiencies, but for fixing room problems.

I'm sure a good dedicated amp may make a difference. It's something to look into when i can spend another $1500, lol.

 

Yes, in fact I have started collecting information about room EQ (see below). Why did you need to do the levels manually? I am curious about that.

Effect of Buchardt A700 room EQ-my friend bought the new speakers because the old ones "had no bass" (they were prototypes I gave him, and since they were designed in Japan I was not surprised to have low bass. But lo and behold it was the ROOM!!)

 

I didn't have to, but the levels it gave on its own were not quite right. Where you place the mic, and how many positions you measure can Effect its measurements, so i just had to refine the results. I'll dm or email some screen shots of the app, but for some reason, all of my previous measurements were lost, so i have to do them over

 

Fidelium Speaker Cables.
Hands down.....

 

Parasound JC3 Jr vs Musical Surroundings Phonomena II+...WOW

New Thread On The JC3 Jr

 

I would like to be able to send you the screen shots of the measurements. Send me a message on here and I'll email them to you.