lardog wrote:

Hi all. Very interesting forum. I joined about 5 min ago, but have been looking around in it prior.

I bought a pair of BA T930 speakers new in the previous century (1989?). They cost $650 for the pair. Specs are below. I run them now with a cheap Denon AV receiver (that I hate). I want an entirely new system considering my CD player and power source (Denon) are old and low quality. I don't mind spending $6-8k as long as the sound quality improves very significantly.

My question is this, what is the fidelity of the BA T930 speaker compared to today's speakers? What would an equivalent quality speaker cost today (I know this is a subjective question)? I'm just wondering if I should keep them and put my $ in the other components, or get new speakers (and thus less money into the other components).

In their day, they were fairly good but not great speakers. You would probably spend around $700-1000 to get a comparable pair today.

You won't have much trouble getting better speakers and a better amplifier, and the improvement in sound quality will be impressive and enjoyable.

I would suggest that you get a pair of the KEF Q700 speakers, which are far better speakers than the ones you have; they are excellent. They run around $1500 per pair in the USA (KEF Direct.com) and can be ordered in black, rosewood or walnut finish. They are rated to go down to 36 Hz, and the bass is very clean and extended.

For an excellent amplifier, I suggest the Musical Fidelity M3i Integrated amplifier, which also goes for $1500, and is a very nice one. The Cambridge Audio CXA80 is also very good. Either one will work very well with those speakers and give you some Class A sound.

For a Disc Player with excellent sound quality, incorporating some new highly accurate DAC chips, I suggest the Marantz UD5007; only $599 US.

This system will give you some very good sound, and for only $3600.

I could tell you how to build an even better system, but a significant upgrade in sound quality will cost close to $20K IMO. It would be a lot more money for the next step up (that's where I am now, so I know from personal experience...lol).