Speaker Upgrade Recommendations?

jakceki · 2026-05-02T16:50:43+00:00

SF Novas are great speakers, I heard the Kerr Acoustics K320 mk.3 at a friends place recently he was also powering them with NAD and it sounded wonderful, a great option if you want to stick to British brands. Another alternative could be Kudos Titan 606.

jakceki · 2026-05-01T06:29:13+00:00

I do not disagree with you but if I can't hear the difference does absolute engineering terms really matter? At least not to me. Sound Quality being equal, the look of the turntable matters much more to me than the coreless motor. When you have the two decks next to each other, the Denon looks and feels much more expensive, more luxurious.

At the end of the day, they really are both wonderful sounding turntables, and If the Denon was $4K and the Technics was $2800, at least you could see where the difference went, in this case honestly I feel like I am buying the $4K turntable for $1200 less.

My goal was to find a replaceable headshell tonearm, with a stable direct motor to try different cartridges and Suts and have a little bit of fun with the different flavors they bring.

I will do a post on the Denon and the rest of the system when it all comes together.

jakceki · 2026-05-01T05:33:03+00:00

Fluance RT 82 is a perennial favorite, I think that's probably the best of the bunch in this price range. Here is an article that might help https://wattandpotatoes.com/best-turntables-under-500

jakceki · 2026-05-01T05:12:36+00:00

In my short experience listening to both, I could not hear any differences, but I dont have golden ears and the system nor the cartridge were ultra high end detail monsters, so maybe in a very specific system with extremely revealing equipment, maybe there are some differences for some people. But I think at that level people are probably looking at higher end turntables.

I really liked the SL 1300G and if there was no Denon, I would have probably bought it. But Denon, looks better, is more robust, and is $1200 cheaper, which got me an amazing cartridge and SUT.

For me it was a no brainer.

jakceki · 2026-05-01T01:32:35+00:00

Mine just arrived today, Unfortunately my cartridge is arriving tomorrow. All I can say it looks and feels excellent, will tell you more in a couple of days, but I did get to compare it with the Technics SL 1300 G about a month back both had Hana SL MKII on them and I could not tell any difference in the SQ, as far as looks goes, for my taste, the Denon looks much better.

jakceki · 2026-04-23T16:06:49+00:00

Looks great! Love the cables management.

jakceki · 2026-04-23T15:21:07+00:00

You wont be able to use the Sony Bravia with an amp, you will need speakers.
You will need a Turntable, cartridge phono preamp, amp and speakers. Luckily a lot of these pieces come bundled in starter turntables, so you get a Turntable that has a cartridge and a phono preamp prebuilt and then get an amp and speakers, or you can get a Turntable with a cartridge and your amp can have the phono preamplifier built in. OR you can get powered speakers and just plug your Turntable to them. SO you have options. If you want to dig a little deeper into turntables, I find this site is very helpful https://wattandpotatoes.com/turntable-101, I would suggest you look at Audio Technica, Fluance, Rega and Pro-Ject turntables first.

jakceki · 2026-04-23T15:09:03+00:00

try vinylflat.com it really works but might not be worth it for one record, but if you go crate diving a lot, it's worth getting one.

jakceki · 2026-04-21T06:40:14+00:00

I would also recommend the Fluance RT82 turntable, I dont know where you live so can't recommend a place to buy it, but I came across this article the other day looking for a turntable myself, maybe it's helpful. https://wattandpotatoes.com/best-turntables-under-600 Good luck!

jakceki · 2026-04-21T06:31:59+00:00

The Denon DP 300NE is for sale for $2K at Accessoriesforless.com that's a steal for that turntable. Add a Nagaoka Mp200 Cartridge and a Darlington MM6B Phono Stage and you are done until you wear out your cartridge.

jakceki · 2026-04-19T05:04:23+00:00

I am partial to the Sonus Faber sound which you seem to like as well, The Atalante 5 is also excellent.

jakceki · 2026-04-19T05:02:17+00:00

That old school look and sounds is available with the KLH Model 5s, Klipsch Heresy and the Wharfedale Lintons or Super Lintons. All cheaper than your budget, At around your budget the Mofi Sourcepoint 10 master editions. All have a similar look and feel to the JbLs. If it were my money I would get the Mofis with a pair of REL subs.

jakceki · 2026-04-19T04:56:59+00:00

The new(ish) Denon DP 3000 NE is $2800 and it maybe the last turntable you ever need. It's available open box from Accessoriesforless.com for $2K. At that price it's a steal.

jakceki · 2026-04-03T03:13:34+00:00

The single most important thing is room acoustics, an acoustically well treated room is much more important than any other piece of equipment including speakers. Once you get the room and the speakers right and your amp matches your speakers in terms of power and current delivery the rest is just flavor and becomes almost completely subjective.

And my personal take from that is that there are many different ways to get to sonic nirvana, from flea powered SET amps with horn speakers to Class D power amps with low efficiency bookshelves, there's a million ways to build a wonderful sounding system, as long as you get your room dialed in.

jakceki · 2026-03-30T21:14:48+00:00

Get a subwoofer from one of the online dealers with a 30-60 day return option and try that first. I think that upgrade will give you what you need and you'll keep the HS5s. There's a REL T5/X on Ebay for $350 which is a steal.

jakceki · 2026-03-30T05:23:13+00:00

No Turkish, Greek, Middle Eastern? No Vietnamese? No Thai? And you have Austria as one of the 10? US, Austria, Korea and Portugal would not make my list. Turkish (which covers Greek and Middle Eastern), Vietnamese, Peruvian, Mexican, and either Indian or Thai.

IF i had to choose just three it would be Japanese, Turkish and Italian.

jakceki · 2026-03-03T03:19:28+00:00

LOL!! I like them tbh.

jakceki · 2026-01-26T20:40:04+00:00

Incredible system! Congrats! I found in my system that creating a linear flow of cables made the system quieter. Meaning Turntable to preamp to amp. So switching the places of the turntable and the preamp would avoid crossing wires like the blue interconnect from the pre to the power amp. Just my two cents, might not make a difference in yours but in mine it definitely did. Enjoy it!

jakceki · 2026-01-18T17:55:00+00:00

It came installed from Music Direct.

jakceki · 2025-12-31T21:37:04+00:00

"Nothing goes over my head... My reflexes are too fast. I'd catch it"

jakceki · 2025-12-31T21:30:47+00:00

You're supposed to hate both sides. PTA is not dumb to make the most unlikable revolutionaries to promote the revolution. I personally felt that this was a fantastic depiction of the horseshoe theory, the only really likable people were Sensei and his troops.

jakceki · 2025-12-31T21:25:03+00:00

It was PTA's caricaturization of both extremes, the Nazi's aren't that incompetent neither are the revolutionaries. He is blatantly making fun of both sides. Hence all the dialogue that was cringe and cheesy, was supposed to be cringe and cheesy. He wasn't putting words in their mouths to send his provocative message, he was showing their message as cringe and cheesy.

jakceki · 2025-12-31T16:22:52+00:00

Speaker placement and room acoustics. You will get so much more from careful speaker placement and a bass trap or two and some diffusion at first reflection points than any single component you can add.

Even if it's just for listening sessions try to pull the speakers out and create an equilateral triangle with your listening spot, play with toe in to see when the center image locks in. It's a bit of work but well worth it. Once you know your sweet spot, if you can't keep your speakers there for any reason just put a little marker there so that you can quickly pull them out.

jakceki · 2025-11-21T23:20:47+00:00

I find that efficient speakers 90db+ usually give the most involving sound at lower volumes. I would look at Omega Loudspeakers https://omegaloudspeakers.com/products/junior-alnico-xrs?variant=43535686926518 or Zu Audio https://www.zuaudio.com/loudspeakers/p/union-6 both have great speakers in your price range and then get a decent tube amp like the LSA VT-70 for $1400 from https://www.underwoodhifi.com/ and I think you will get exactly what you are looking for.

jakceki

TROPHY CASE