Hi All -

I am about to upgrade my audio system, and I'm looking for guidance.

This post got long, so to summarize:

Are the current speakers available in the $1500-$1700 range better then
my old JBLs by a large margin? ...and if so, what speakers would you
recommend given my needs?

For additional information read on...

This system is exclusively for music. I have a decent home theater
system (Denon AVR-2803, Paradigm Monitor series speakers), but I don't
go in there to listen to my music, I do that in our living room.
Currently the system there is not very good. Its an old Fisher RS-636
amp (about 13 years old, made by Sanyo I believe) with JBL LX-55
speakers (the old style from the 90's that were made in Denmark). The
room is about 14'x24'x8'with hardwood floors and large, thick curtains
behind where the speakers are situated.

I'm aware that I could run speakers in that room using my Denon, but it
really isn't convenient to do so (rooms are quite far apart for one).

Currently I have no proper source in my living room. Basically I've
been getting by using my iPod (I use lossless encoding, not MP3s) and
if I listen to a CD I hook my laptop up to the amp.

Based on all of this, I've been considering the Linn Classik or the
Arcam Solo. I'll be demoing these products tomorrow, although I have
already heard the Classik and quite enjoyed it. I like these units
because I don't want to have massive amounts of equipment in this room,
I want a good source CD player, and they both offer preamp outs if I
want to add a power-amp later. I'll be listening to the CD source most
of the time, and also losslessly encoded music from a computer. I
listen to quite a variety of music, but I am most concerned with the
quality of classical and vocal music (I like rock and pop too, but I'm
not as concerned about the quality when listening to those genres).

I am fairly certain I'll be getting the Classik or the Solo, but what
I'm not sure about is speakers. My JBLs have served me well for many
years, and my particular models sound better to me then other JBLs I've
heard, but if the difference would be substantial I would be willing to
spend up to $1700 on a new pair. I'm not looking to just spend that
money for no reason though, so I have to decide if it is worth it or
not. Certainly when listening to the Classik on my dealer's system it
sounded much better, but that is in an acoustically perfect room, and
its hard to draw any conclusions about what it would sound like in my
living room. I could very well just get the source for now and see how
that goes, but my dealer seems more willing to haggle the price if I
buy the system as a package, so there is some motivation to purchase
them all at once.

You might ask why I haven't just done a direct comparison with my
Paradigm monitors - well, I have, but I don't have the floor standing
monitors, just micro monitors and a CC-370, so it isn't really the same
kind of speaker. ...although, having said that, on the same amp I
think I prefer my Paradigms which were considerably cheaper then the
JBLs, but are about 11 years newer.

Thanks, and sorry for the long post.

j.