I would suggest that you get a Music Hall 15.3 amplifier, which is reasonably priced and quite good-sounding, and abargain at $549.

I also suggest a Marantz CD5005 CD player, which is excellent for its price of $399. Those old CD players, with their primitive low-resolution chips, are pretty bad. You could hurt your ears listening to them. The chips used now are about 4 generations removed, and audible improvements have been made at each generation, so you really do want a new player.

I suggest that you look at PSB and Wharfedale for some speakers that are very good and reasonably priced.

Hey Tempo,

Welcome. I have the Rogue Audio Sphinx's big brother of a power amp, the Hydra. I can't say enough good things about it and have heard the Sphinx which is a strong unit for the price. The built in phono stage is supposed to be pretty good so if you have the budget, it is a great unit.

What you may want to think about is how you are going to get your digital files off of that hard drive. An external DAC or Network Streamer can have a big positive impact either via plugging your PC directly into it or using it via networking.

A Peachtree DAC iTx or Cambridge DAC Magic for $299 are darn nice external units that will work well with the Rogue. Another alternative would be to find a unit that had UPnP/DLNA features. These tend to be a bit more expensive but have the network features and are an external DAC. The Marantz NA8005 is currently $599 at Music Direct and I think the Cambridge Audio CXN is $999. Both are spectacular DACs and it comes down to aesthetics and feature set which is better.

Snell is no longer....D&M discontinued it. I like PSB better than Wharfedale, but both are great speakers and a strong value. MusicDirect also has a bunch of wharfeldale speakers on clearance and you can easily drive any one of them with that Rogue Amp.

First what is debateable is what you define as moderately priced. You can get some truly spectacular speakers for $1000 to $1500. There has been progress in speakers both in the materials used to produce speakers, cabinet design and speaker design. I woud argue that the Kef LS50s, Revel Performa3 M105s, Wharfedale Jade 3s, Monitor Audio Silver 2a and Dynaudio Excite12s are so spectacular in the amount of detail and nuance they produce, that nothing I heard 20 years ago in the $750 to $1000 range (comparable with inflation) could touch them. The issue is each one of them has slightly colored sound and your amp will slightly color the sound.

I have never heard your equipment but and don't know exactly what sound you like but if you pick the right speaker among those five and pair it with a Rogue Audio Sphinx you can get some pretty spectacular sound.

Regarding amps, that is more subtle. I am not sure if class A/B or class A has progressed much since the 90s and there is something to be said for equipment that is well burnt in. Others who are more knowledgable may be able to answer that.

That being said, the Rogue Sphinx is a hybrid class D which is a major technological improvement and not only is energy efficient but runs surprisingly cool. Additionally you have the flexibility to roll in different tubes to tweak your sound profile. However sound profile is highly personal and you may or may not like a class D amp which even with tubes, is a hair forward vs an NAD. I like a slightly forward to neutral sound profile and have a strong preference for Rogue's Class Ds (Sphinx, Hydra, Medusa) and Ayre Acoustics class A stuff which is quite a bit more expensive. Rotel today tends to be a bit forward and I would think would be comparable to the Sphinx. I don't know what the sound profile was a long time ago.

If the sound profile from these brands hasn't changed much, my feeling is you would like a neutral to slightly forward sound profile as well. I would be inclined to try the Sphinx with either the Kef LS50s or Dynaudio Excites (extremely neutral) or the Revel Performa3s (slightly forward) if you can pick them up from a place with a 30 or 60 day return policy like needledoctor (rogue) or crutchfield/music direct. I think you may also be able to order the Kefs from Kef Direct and the Revels directly from Harman.

One other note about Revel. They just came out with a refreshed line called the Concerta2 and I listened to them side by side with the Performa3s and I think they may have sounded better at a dramatically lower price point. The M16s are $799 or $999. I own the Performa3 M105s and I found this slightly annoying since I paid $1500 for them a few years ago.

That is a very longwinded way of saying, yes some thing have progressed. Since you don't have any shops near you, best bet is to research, find what you think you will like and buy it from a place with a liberal return policy if you don't like it or feel it isn't a step forward. Also, the guys at needledoctor and crutchfield sell tons of equipment across lots of brands and know more that most of us about sound profile and how to match it to your tastes. They may be able to help guide you and since they don't want the equipment returned, they have a strong incentive to try and get it right.

I am unaware of counterfeit Kefs but who knows. I know that they ran a sale recently and have seen them for $1200 or $1300 from Kef so I know there are some legitimate
Deals in the market right now.

I have heard great things about the Elacs but have not heard them. There are some great sounding speakers out there at modest prices. There is a pair of Andruw Jones designed Pio wer speakers for $129 that sound amazing for the money. Not overly detailed but not bright or cheap sounding. Alternatively, I can think of several brands that I simply loathe that are popular and sold at Best Buy and other stores. I don't love B&W and I hate DefTech. Personal preference though and lots of people love the B&W CM line.

I love my Dynaudio X12's. Recommended by the editors here, a relatively small package that blends/hides in my very large formal living room yet fills the room no problem, fits your budget - good luck!