Greeting again Gentlemen,
On 'house recommendation' I thought I'd list my little starter rig.
NAD 304 Integrated Amp
Music Hall 2.2LE, Tracker cart.
NAD 502 CD player, modded
Pioneer DV-563 CD player
Klipsch KG 5.2
All but the Pioneer is new to me in the last month and a half as I've been trying to take a few giant leaps forward in home sonic fun... and things do sound quite a bit better now.
I ran an Adcom GFA 5300 through an Adcom GTP 450 pre-amp/tuner, with the Pioneer (and an old 5-disc Technics) through Boston Acoustic A100iis for quite a few years. (In fact I may try the amp with the NAD as pre only here in the near future) I was happy enough with that system, especially as I moved something like 15 times in the last 20 years, lol.
The turntable was the first purchase, picked up to take advantage of a cache of vinyl I received. The NAD came about when I decided the phono pre-amp I bought evidently sucked, and it did. The 502 came up when I was searching for other stuff... for a hundred bucks with new laser, new tray motor, sound dampening and other things I didn't even understand, lol, I figured why not? The Klipsch came from 8WoF on Sunday, so I'm still definitely grooving on their vibe.
Not by any means a high end affair, but SOOOOOOOO much better than before! I don't have any new plans in the near future (beyond the Crites' Ti diaphragms I ordered to install next week) except to get my but up to Pittsburgh and grab a bunch of music. That being said, if anyone has good constructive ideas for next rounds of upgrades, do tell.
Happy New Year!