How should I upgrade my old hi-fi in a digital world?
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Version 0 of 1. What remains of the stereo system I bought about 20 years ago is a Rotel 820AX amplifier, Mordaunt-Short MS3.3 speakers and a Philips CD player. I own about 20 yards of vinyl – so I need a new turntable – and a somewhat random CD collection. I need to start again. But where? A sub-plot to this sorry tale is that a couple of years ago my wife acquired a Sonos, but one of the speaker units packed up. There are further problems with the Sonos, which I think are due to the inadequacy of our in-house Wi-Fi and my general bafflement over how to make it work. Dave You are not alone: I suspect a lot of Guardian readers have aging hi-fi systems that are not integrated with any newer digital media. The problem isn’t so much doing it as deciding which of the plethora of ways is most appropriate. I took advice on this from two enormously helpful people: Ketan Bharadia, technical editor of What Hi-Fi? magazine, and Andy Moore, product manager at Arcam, the Cambridge-based hi-fi manufacturer. Any errors are, of course, mine. The first step is to buy a new turntable, such as the Rega RP1 (£230), which will plug straight into your Rotel 820AX. You have so much vinyl that ripping all your records is out of the question, and the results probably wouldn’t be very good. Also, it’s unlikely that all of them are available as downloads or from a streaming service. Even if they were, you’d be sacrificing the vinyl sound that many people love. I thought the Rega RP1 would be the obvious choice. “Oh,” said Ketan, “I’d be inclined to get the Rega RP3 with an Elys2 cartridge, if your budget can stretch to it. It’s a really capable product.” What Hi-Fi has given this turntable Product of the Year awards four years running. But it’s more than twice the price, so you will have to think about your budget. Either way, the turntable must be set up so that it’s absolutely level, and insulated from whatever it is standing on. In my case, it’s on a wall-mounted Target turntable shelf. Upgrade and/or replace? It’s tempting to replace everything with a new system, but Ketan counselled against it. The Rotel 820AX is a classic and he reckons you “should keep it, if it’s working properly, and the same with the speakers.” Ketan said: “If he’s kept them this long, he likes them. If he buys new ones, they may be more detailed, but the balance is going to be different.” Rather than spending, say, £1,000 on a new amp and speakers, Ketan suggests you spend it on new items, and preferably on the higher-quality products that will support later upgrades. I imagine the Rega RP1 is more than good enough for your 820AX/MS3.3 system, but might not be the best choice if you decided to upgrade one or both of those. The RP3 would work beautifully with a better amp such as the Rega Brio-R or Arcam A19, and so on. If you’re serious about your vinyl, Ketan suggested buying a Rega phono stage (from £85) to handle the turntable signal. This would sound better than using the phono stage pre-amp built into your old 820AX, and allow you to buy a new amp without phono support. The speakers make a big difference to the sound of a hi-fi system, so it’s important to listen to them before you buy. Either way, your Mordaunt-Short MS3.3 or alternative “bookshelf” speakers should be on spiked stands, and positioned so they are not flat against a wall. Stands, spikes and careful positioning can make a huge difference to the sound. Digital matters One simple way to add digital sources to an analogue hi-fi is to buy an external DAC (digital to analogue converter). That will convert the output from a laptop or media PC, games console, Sonos and other digital sources into signals that your amp can handle. Again, I thought this would be a simple matter: Arcam’s irDAC (around £400). This is also What Hi-Fi’s pick at the price. Again, Ketan suggested moving up to an Audiolab M-DAC (around £600) – another product that has won awards four years in a row. “It has loads of features,” says Ketan, “and in a few years time, you could build a really good system around an M-DAC. But it only makes sense if you want to take the next step up.” A good hi-fi system can highlight flaws in digital sources that are not apparent when they’re used with PCs, smartphones and most MP3 players, and I expected that to be a problem with the Sonos. Arcam’s Andy Moore corrected me. He said the Sonos devices can provide a CD-resolution output, and if you feed that through an external DAC, the results are “wholly acceptable” for hi-fi purposes. Indeed, Arcam makes a dedicated SonLink version of the irDAC for precisely this purpose. Either the irDAC or the M-DAC would improve the sound, and playing music from the Sonos through your Mordaunt-Short speakers would remove any Wi-Fi problems. Otherwise, note that you can plug any current Sonos speaker directly into your router, via a cable, to create a separate, dedicated (and proprietary) Sonos network that won’t impinge on your Wi-Fi. If that’s not convenient, you can create a separate network by plugging a £29 Sonos Bridge into your router instead. You could then use your Sonos speakers in different rooms – or pairs of speakers, if you want stereo. If you already have or want to buy a Sonos Connect (£279), you could plug this straight into your 820AX via the usual pairs of line in/line out RCA sockets, just like a CD player, but then you wouldn’t benefit from the external DAC. CD player? Your references to the Philips CD player and “somewhat random CD collection” suggest this is not a major concern. Without knowing which model it is, I’d expect a modern CD player such as the Marantz CD6005 (£280-£320) to sound much better. I remember getting a dramatic improvement myself, when I upgraded from an early (1980s) Philips CD player to a Rega Planet. The Marantz CD-63II Ki (Ken Ishiwata Signature edition) is another great-sounding CD player that you could pick up cheaply second hand and upgrade later if necessary. However, if your Philips CD player has a digital output, you can connect that to your external DAC as well. It should produce a significant improvement in sound quality, thanks to two decades of advances in DAC design, though you will still be using the original Philips “transport” to spin the disc. The nice thing about hi-fi separates is that you don’t have to buy everything at once. Start with the turntable, and then add whatever else you need one part at a time. I built a very satisfying system by buying a quality component every two-to-four years, with some of the older stuff being repurposed or sold. I’ve lost money, of course, but solid products – mainly from British companies such as Rega, Arcam, Quad, Linn, Naim, Audiolab, Harbeth and so on – have tended to retain at least some value on eBay. They’re not piled high in your local “cash converter” – or if they are, you might pick up a bargain. Have you got a question? Email it to Ask.Jack@theguardian.com |