GF needs an amp (with iPod connection), cd player and speakers with a budget of around £500 (for the lot!). Is the Richer Sound’s Cambridge Audio package the best deal or can anyone suggest a better alternative. Any informed opinion would be most gratefully received.

Second hand?

I’d buy the largest, most sensitive speakers possible and a used Rotel integrated. Has she got a DVD player she can use for a CDP? Surely everything is on the Pod eh?

Have a look at the Marantz M-CR502. It’s an ‘all-in-one’ so the buffs will flame me for suggesting it, but it’s worth a look as a) it sounds great (I don’t miss my separates) b) it’s compact and c) it’s got everything she’ll need on her wanted list, if she adds a dock onto it. Works for me and seen it on eBay for £450 incl speakers (though I don’t know what those are like).

At that sort of budget, and especially if the iPod is a key source component and important to her, IMHO, there’s not going to be yards of appreciable ‘hi fidelity’difference between this and separates.

cambridge-audio one+

wharfedale diamond-9.0

above for £350.00 from Richer sounds, a bargin

Onkyo and Yamaha make nice shoebox-sized systems now with the ipod dock integrated into the top which is a bit neater than a separate unit. Around the £250 mark.

http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/Product_ID/7085

http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/Product_ID/7028

Leaves plenty for a set of speakers with some change left over.

I’ve got an older Onyko system like that (after many years on separates) and it’s been great – they produce really good sound and leave you wondering just how much empty space there is in full-size separates.

Thanks for that everyone, that gives me plenty to go away and research.

Montylikesbeer, the missis set up a shop and had that combo. It’s great value but I wasn’t a fan of the speakers. I’ve prefered simular priced gale items. It’s not too big either and sounds great for the money. Good choice.

Montylikesbeer’s suggestion would be great with Mordaunt-Short speakers. Or you can go to Sevenoaks and talk to them. The lads in Kingston, Surrey have always been helpful beyond belief.

A budget system is £500…! Whats an expensive one.?

Mordaunt-Short are tidy as well

Denon DM38 and Wharefedale 9.1’s….

edit – Denon is this years award winner (if that is important?) £280 all in, against £410rrp
Had no probs with Spuerfi when I got my DM37 off them.

One more thing, I bought a Marantz PM-66SE, of which I am a big fan, but it played poorly. Turned out it was all due to the CD-player being poor. I treated myself to a Marantz unit (2nd hand for under £20) and it transformed the system.
500 quid is a lot of cash, get a few CD’s and an iPod and have a demo. I did it with …And Justice for All, Krzysztof Komeda’s Live (jazz) and Maria Callas The Best of. Anything that could cope with it was bound to be fine.

neil’s-on-wheels – Member

A budget system is £500…! Whats an expensive one.?

It is possible to buy CD players ONLY at upwards of £12,000 pounds.

Mordaunt Short and Cambridge Audio make excellent budget HiFi. Your only problem is that, buying from Richer Sounds or sourced second-hand, you’re not going to be able to listen before you buy – the only real method of getting the setup that suits YOU.

Happy hunting. 8)

What format are the tunes stored on the ipod in? That will make a difference

PS: At this level, you will not have to worry about spending a lot on speaker cable, which otherwise should be made out of pure silver and suspended in a cryogenic, nuclear-generated vacuum at exactly 5.334 centimetres away from the ceiling/wall interface.

And pointing in the right direction, of course…

Someone I know paid around £200 for 2 speakers cables. Gold apparently, or likely a gold thread running through it.
He swore he could tell the difference in the sound. Someone else pointed out a bit of research into cables, and various electrical tests on them, and apart from the very cheapest cables, all did exactly the same thing, and passed through all of the relevant signals without losing anything between the terminals.
He didn’t believe it. At £200 for 10 metres of cable, it must be as good as homeopathic medicine – a real cure-all!
Alan.

Another vote for the Denon DM-38. Mine drives some large, sand-filled floor standing KEF speakers that cost more than the Denon itself – and it’s superb. At one time I used to spend £400 or so on CD, amp, etc., individually.

It is possible to buy CD players ONLY at upwards of £12,000 pounds.

Pfft. Pocket change. How about an Audio Note Gaku-On amp @ $250,000. The makers suggest for optimum performance you should buy two. 😆

Why are they so expensive?
Alan Sugar was on TV last week. He said they looked at the 1st IBM PC, at £2000, took it apart, and found they could make and sell a clone at £400 and make a good profit.
I’m sure some of these expensive hifi products are the same – pay extra for the name on the box, with pretty much standard components inside.
Alan.

http://whathifi.com/Review/Denon-D-M38DAB/

Here we go…

Kettle’s just boiled. Dark choccy digestives or choc chip cookies.

Why are they so expensive?
Alan Sugar was on TV last week. He said they looked at the 1st IBM PC, at £2000, took it apart, and found they could make and sell a clone at £400 and make a good profit.
I’m sure some of these expensive hifi products are the same – pay extra for the name on the box, with pretty much standard components inside.
Alan.

The cost of R&D per unit is very high with small production runs. Cloning an already successful product has almost zero R&D cost and there is little financial risk.

yes that and the fact they rip you off. £2000 for a FS frame what do you think that costs to make? Anywhere where there is a leisure market there is a niche and peope will pay silly prices for the “perfect” kit.

Any amp can have an iPod (or phone) connection – just get a 3.5mm jack to twin phono connection… Works a treat.

(cough) i’m selling an Arcam ‘One’ CD player for £50 on ebay tonight…

Spensive hi-fi is bought mainly by middle-aged men who like to brag about how they can hear the difference in bits of cable and other such nonsense.

I can understand the point of having a nice stereo, and if you can afford it, spending a couple of grand on a set-up. But most of the ‘benefits’ promoted by the manufacturers aren’t anything that is scientifically measurable. And even if it were; the human ear has a relatively limited range of sensitivity, which diminishes with age. So, most of the middle aged men buying the stuff can’t hear the ‘difference’ anyway!

I’ve heard stuff from budget cheapo gear, to set-ups costing a few grand. Of course there’s a difference. But for the average family home, a thousand pounds or so is more than enough for a decent set-up to enable you to enjoy your favourite choons dem. If you have a room or larger space to use as an auditorium, then spending a bit more might be valid. But beyond a few grand, the law of diminishing returns kicks in. Then, we’re getting into the territory of ‘if you can’t hear the difference then you’re not worthy of owning it and therefore an inferior person’. It’s that need to feel superior to the common herd, that drives the market for such esoteric stuff.

Funny, that teenage girls will have vastly superior hearing to a middle-aged man, but seem to be quite content to enjoy their favourite songs from the hit-parade on a tinny mobile ‘phone speaker! 😀

Typical download MP3s are very poor quality. Seeing as turds can’t be polished, there’s little point in spending much money amplifying an iPod’s output. You might as well just buy one of the cheap docks with built-in speakers. To overcome the typically poor bass response, put it in a corner and turn the speakers in towards the right-angle.

I’m liking the look of that Cambridge Audio unit, might be getting myself one of them soon.

About 12 years ago I managed to get a tour of the Naim Audio factory – was absolutely amazed at the lengths they went to in order to get the best possible sound quality, every single wire was tested and matched with another that had the same properties so that both of the stereo channels worked exactly the same, but boy do they cost a lot of money!

There demo system was absolutely stunning, and was worth as much as my house at the time! Shame it only ever got used for classical music though 🙄

Something like the Denon with a pair of small-ish B&W, Wharfdale, KEF or Mordant-Shorts should be more than good enough for anyone. Downloads at 256kb are pretty good, ripped cd’s at 320k are plenty good enough, certainly through a pair of £250 UltimateEars studio ‘phones, anyway. The limitations consistently come down to the recorded media, and I would recommend this book: http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/greg+milner/perfecting+sound+forever/7385997/
to anyone with a passing interest in recorded music. It goes into minute detail about how compromised recorded music is, and as a result, all the phaffing around with fancy equipment and wires won’t make the slightest bit of difference to the great majority of people who just want to listen to some choons.

Funny, that teenage girls will have vastly superior hearing to a middle-aged man, but seem to be quite content to enjoy their favourite songs from the hit-parade on a tinny mobile ‘phone speaker!

That’s because they don’t know any better. Audio reproduction has degraded significantly since the onset of digital media and kids these days don’t know any better. When kids hear the music they like on my system (or I’m sure any good hi-fi) they go nuts.

Human ears and significantly more sensitive than the human eye. If you can see a difference between a 480i and 1080p display then you can hear the difference between a bookshelf speaker with a 4″ driver and a 5ft high floorstander with a 12″ driver.

Blimey O’Reilly. She’s now read all this with great interest and decided that perhaps she ought to shell out a grand.

That’s because they don’t know any better.

I think you may possibly have missed the point I was trying to make, somewhat….

BillMC; a thousand pounds wil get a really nice system for yer average home, I’d say. Considering the fact hardly any homes will have anywhere near really decent acoustics, and all the other detritus (soft furnishings, carpet, furniture, ornaments etc) will further degrade the sound, I really can’t see that spending a whole lot more than that will be a particularly sound (!) investment really.

A thousand pounds buys you some really nice bits. £250 each for CD player and amp, £400 for a pair of speakers and the rest on some decent cables and interconnects and you’re laughing.

Of course, decent s/h components could net you similar quality gear, for about a third of that amount. I got given some bits of that sort of quality for nowt a couple of years ago. 😀

If you can see a difference between a 480i and 1080p display then you can hear the difference between a bookshelf speaker with a 4″ driver and a 5ft high floorstander with a 12″ driver.

I’m damned sure I could, but the reality is very, very few people have the luxury of a living space that can accommodate such a system. Mine is severely compromised by being long and narrow with a tv in one corner and the need to have a surround system that can fit. It uses a Yamaha a/v amp with a set of Sony Chorus speakers. I would love a system with bigger speakers, but I have to live with what I can fit on a windowsill and a small shelf on an alcove between the chimney and a bookcase. The rears are behind furniture and the sub’s behind the couch I lay on to watch tv and listen to music. With a Cambridge Audio SACD/DVD-A player I get huge enjoyment from the hundreds of cd’s I own, but I’ll bet the golden-eared on here would piss themselves laughing at it. It’s what I have to live with, and the original amp/speaker system cost £750; half price. I could and would live with the little Denon and a pair of B&W’s wired with QED cable. I would stick with the £500 budget. Double that for the basic system won’t bring any appreciable benefit, use the money to buy loads more music, you’ll get a hell of a lot more out of it.

Considering the fact hardly any homes will have anywhere near really decent acoustics, and all the other detritus (soft furnishings, carpet, furniture, ornaments etc) will further degrade the sound

Actually soft furnishings and carpet will help break-up room modes so that’s not exactly accurate.

Plus all this not spending more than a grand stuff is pure BS. It’s completely up to what level of reproduction the owner expects. If they hear and can afford some front loaded horns and driver/cabs that go down to 30hrtz they’re hardly going to be satisfied with a grands worth of Arcam crap are they?