Budget Integrated or Budget Separates

[CabeAllen]

I've been thinking about upgrading my basic amplification setup but have a limited budget.
If I currently have a Yamaha A-S501, which admittedly sounds very good with my DAC and speakers, would I see a dramatic improvement if I were to spend $1000-$1500 on a new integrated or budget separates? Or do you believe I would need to spend much more to get a appreciable improvement over the decent basic Yamaha I have now?

Here are the candidates:
Integrated
Schiit Ragnarok 2
Cambridge CXA81 or CXA61
Vincent Audio SV 500
Rogue Audio Sphinx v3

or step up over $2000 and look at:
Kinki Studio EX-M1
Yamaha A-S1200 or 2200

Budget Separates (all to be paired with a Schiit Saga+ or Freya+ preamplifier)
Akitika GT-102A amplifier
Schiit Vidar
Schiit Aegir (may need a pair)
Emotiva A-300
Adcom GFA555ii (vintage)

 

[JoeESP9]

What speakers?

 

[jcg1112]

Yes, no, maybe. What speakers and DAC do you currently have? How much of an improvement is considered dramatic? These are all very subjective things. Are you able to demo any of your choices? Higher up the food chain will get you more features and usually more power. Maybe purchase with a return policy if you don’t like the results.

 

[rode2rouen]

Yes, but that would depend on your speakers.


Rex

 

[Old Guy8]

What change would you be looking for?
What do you think is weak about your system?

What speakers do you have or want to use in future? What sensitivity are they?

 

[CabeAllen]

Yes, no, maybe. What speakers and DAC do you currently have? How much of an improvement is considered dramatic? These are all very subjective things. Are you able to demo any of your choices? Higher up the food chain will get you more features and usually more power. Maybe purchase with a return policy if you don’t like the results.

Hello,

I've been thinking about upgrading my basic amplification setup but have a limited budget.
If I currently have a Yamaha A-S501, which admittedly sounds very good with my DAC and speakers, would I see a dramatic improvement if I were to spend $1000-$1500 on a new integrated or budget separates? Or do you believe I would need to spend much more to get a appreciable improvement over the decent basic Yamaha I have now?

Speakers - GR Research X-LS Encore (fully upgraded), terrific sounding speaker for the money. I believe sensitivity is 87dB.
DAC - Schiit Modi Multibit, again a lovely neutral easy to listen to DAC for the money.

Dramatic to me would be: first listen would be smile inducing, lifting yet another veil off the music. Greater sense of air and space around instruments. Neutral and balanced tonality, which the speakers and DAC already give, so basically transparency or have the amplifier "disappear". I like the idea of having tubes in the pre-amp stage to further enhance midrange, air, and body of the music. I really wish the Yamaha had Preamp inputs as I believe they make nice sounding amplifiers.

Demoing would likely be just using the company's return policy. Schiit offers a 2 week "demo" period, not sure on the others.
Big power isn't needed, fairly efficient speakers, and I don't listen at loud volumes but 40+ watts/channel would be sufficient.
Tons of features aren't needed either, I prefer less in the path, don't need tone controls or DSP, and really only need a minimum of 2 analog inputs.
Pre-Outs or a dedicated subwoofer out is required, as I run a powered sub to fill in the bottom-end.

 

[justjed2]

A vote for budget separates. Just because that's the route I took, and I have been pleased with the results. In addition to generally better sound quality, if an individual component dies, or just doesn't work for you, you only change out the one part, instead of losing your amp, preamp, phono-stage, DAC, etc all at once.

 

[GChief]

Most online sources have good return policies. Try them all in your space.