MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
The amp, turntable and speakers have all died on my old 1980's/early '90's hifi, so I'm looking for a new system. It's been so many years since I took a serious interest in hifi/audio gear that I'm completely out of the loop with the latest gear. Can anyone on here offer me some sensible advice on choosing a system please?
Sadly, because of ongoing house renovations, my budget is limited to £1000 for amp, CD player, speakers, cables & stands.
The room that the system is going in measures about 15'x11', and I do quite like to crank the volume up (main reason for buying a detached house!). The type of music that's played is mainly punk, rock, metal and other 'noisy stuff'.
My default was to look at Marantz stuff, 'cos FWIR, for the money, it used to deal well with rock and heavy music genres. Also seem to recall NAD being a good option(?).
As far as speakers go, does the old adage that floor standers are better than bookshelf speakers on stands for bass-ey and 'heavy' music?
Any sensible advice & suggestions would be appreciated.
TIA
A mate recently put a system together that sounds bloody good for around half your budget. He did go 2nd hand route and bought NAD amp, NAD CD player and B&W speakers. He is a STWer so I will let him know and he can tell more.
Some things like mission speakers and Rotel amps never change.
I guess it's about where and how you want your music around the house.
[url= http://www.richersounds.com/package/system-savers/multi-room-components/pah01879 ]Sonos multiple room from richer sounds[/url]
A mate recently put a system together that sounds bloody good for around half your budget. He did go 2nd hand route and bought NAD amp, NAD CD player and B&W speakers. He is a STWer so I will let him know and he can tell more.
Cheers 🙂
I did a similar thing last year, bought a new set up. Decided CD's are on their way out thus went streaming route.
Marantz do a well respected streamer and amp set up. Just add speakers of your choice.
eBay or ex demo will obviously get you more for your money. Enjoy
You can have my Wharfdale Diamond V speakers and Atacama speaker stands if you want (for cash, obviously!) C 1992 vintage but still working fine, as quality old hi-fi does.
Email in profile if you're interested and I can send you pics.
If you're anywhere near London I can drop them off. If not then please bear in mind postage costs won't be cheap!
Rather than a CD player, get a DVD or BlueRay player. The Cambridge Audio ones are very highly regarded, and are inexpensive. Plus you get all the advantages of multiformat capability in one box. You might consider an A/V amp as well, something like the Onkyo TX-NR515, for around £275: http://www.superfi.co.uk/p-10102-onkyo-txnr515-networked-3d-ready-home-cinema-receiver-with-4k-upscaling.aspx?gclid=CKHVntLA17QCFSbMtAodDE8A1g
Just had a look for the CA DVD99, which was excellent, but they don't seem to do disc players now, but I'm sure there must be equivalent players around.
Hey.
I use the following, and would say it's eminently suitable for your tastes.
Cambridge Azur 540r V1 Amp (£80 secondhand) - Powerful, controlled and versatile
Sony DVP-NS900V - Plays CD's brilliantly, also DVD's and (if you see 'em) SACD's - £140 secondhand
Rega Planar 3, RB300 arm, Ortofon M2 Red (a present, new to me, sound tuneful and cleaner than the Sansui they replaced)
Oops! Using mobile...
Acoustic Energy 109 - rebuilt with new surrounds on all cone drivers. 1m from rear wall, listening spot 30cm from opposite wall, lead filled, mounted on 20kg paving slabs with bluetac. Other slight tweaks, single wired (planning to build external xover and use all 6 channel s of the amp someday) - Very muscular, deep deep bass (yes I have known a REL, but this is damn close!), acceptable neutral mids, clean highs. Only sound coloured with female voice (most things do). Slightly peaky across the xover points. Sound great with rock, electronic etc, not quite so brill with classical, but 99% good enough! - £40 inc surounds (took ages to repair though)
Musical Fidelity X-LPS V3 phonostage - clean, clear and neutral. Rythmic and controlled.
Cable Talk 3 speaker wire
Monster interconnects 400 Mk2 - Likely crap but £5 a 1m pair in a closeout, solid and with good phono ends.
I listen to everything (really!), and it's always good fun with this gear. As a bonus I hook up a projector and watch films on the gear too!
As an aside I have a Rotel RCD 965bx for sale (no remote). This basically sounds just as good as the Sony, the only reason I don't use it is because it doesn't play other formats. Both these transports are so good you will be hearing the limits of the discs. £40 plus postage or collect from Wellingborough or Kettering.
Sorry, I should make clear the prices are what I paid, and are given as a guide for those products. Only the Rotel 965 mentioned at the end is for sale.
Cheers for the feedback and info. Afraid I'm a bit out of touch when it comes to current tech (haven't got an Ipod/MP3 player yet!), so streaming etc is a bit 'Eh?!'.
Most of my music library is on Vinyl, CD and 😳 cassettes (the latter don't get used much!). However, I now listen to loads of stuff online - Youtube & Napster. I used to play (or try to play!) drums, so enjoy watching & listening to some of the better drum covers that are on Youtube. I'd love to be able to either record or pipe (stream?) these Youtube covers through an amp & speakers - but dunno if this is possible(?).
I'm currently burning stuff to CD's, but guess I could do with kicking myself into the modern age and get a second hand Ipod.
Speakers that I'm wondering about are floorstanding versions of Dali Zensor, Mission MX and Kef Q series - as I'm assuming that the floorstanders will be more suited to the music that I'll be playing.
I'm quite intruiged by the idea of housing the hifi/music system kit in a cabinet under the TV - I guess this is where having a CD/DVD/Blu-ray player connected to an amp comes in? (as long as the wife & kids can connect their Wii and games to the TV, it'll be fine 😉 )
If anyone can answer my random questions, or offer sensible advice, that'd be much appreciated.
Yours confusedly.
I'm watching this with interest. My Arcam and Quad kit is gathering dust upstairs in the spare room. I have a boxed LP12, which is never used (doesn't belong to me, before you all ask for me to sell it..!). I have concluded the rest of it is going to be sold 🙁
Times have definitely changed and the thousand or so CDs we have are sitting, gathering dust - it's all low-fi listening at home at the moment. I'm not sure I'm ready to give up on CDs just yet, but I am happy to embrace streaming.
I'd seriously consider that. and if you want lots of useful tips and pointers, get yourself over to [url= http://www.pinkfishmedia.net/forum/ ]pinkfishmedia[/url], where plenty there seem to have embraced it in all its forms.
We're going to buy a new computer, and I intend to build out from there the ability to stream my content to a scaled down hi-fi/AV set-up in the sitting room.
Are you selling the Arcam/Quad kit?
Might be interested if so.
E-mail in profile, thanks.
As a very left field option I'd look at some Adam A5X active speakers at around £500 a pair + stands, these coupled with a simple low cost pre amp like a Rotel RC06 from ebay for around £200 and your choice of CD player. Prolly better than budget floorstanders & amp TBH. Active is a much better way of doing things IMHO however the WAF on Adam speakers is low. You'll be able to connect 6 sources to the Rotel including a record player IIRC so with a few cables you'll be all set.
iPod Touch + Spotify Premium + iPod dock(s).
Job done 🙂
Cheers for the pinkfishmedia link ourmaininthenorth.
Ah, someone else with an Arcam dust gatherer 🙂 My Arcam amp has been repaired a couple of times already, and now one of the speakers has packed up, it's got the point that it's cheaper to replace both.
That sounds an interesting option, I might look into that myself. Cheers.We're going to buy a new computer, and I intend to build out from there the ability to stream my content to a scaled down hi-fi/AV set-up in the sitting room.
Woah, I'm drawn like a moth to the Adam active speakers - I can see what you mean about the low WAF though. Another interesting option though, as I hadn't thought of active & pre-amp. Hmmm...
We have no TV and instead an iMAC connected to a Marrantz amp and MS speakers - everything is streamed from Spotify / iPlayer / iTunes etc.
My default was to look at Marantz stuff, 'cos FWIR, for the money, it used to deal well with rock and heavy music genres.
I would expect a Marantz CD player together with a Marantz amp to be somewhat "toppy". I auditioned a ton of stuff when I set up my AV kit a few years ago and found that both Marantz and Technics gear gave a particularly bright sound; having them as both the source and amp stages was just too much and it sounded dreadful (to me).
I ended up with a Yamaha amp; it was relatively warm sounding, which (again IMHO) worked well when coupled up to a crisp source.
footflaps - do you use airport express or apple TV? I've read the latter sounds better.
Actives have a world of benefits over an amp and passive speakers, loads of headroom, uber dynamics etc etc. Bearing in mind the Adam home speakers are £££££ those studio ones are a bargain especially the 7's. Those and a decent digital source is all I reckon most people would ever need.
Rusty - I'll mail you.
footflaps - do you use airport express or apple TV? I've read the latter sounds better.
Neither, the Amp is connected direct to the iMac headphones socket, we just stream TV on the iMac and use that as the screen. You only need an Apple TV if you want to use a normal TV.
OK. Cheers.
Neither, the Amp is connected direct to the iMac headphones socket
not worried about sound quality then?
not worried about sound quality then?
It sounds superb as far as I'm concerned. From what I've seen of audio tests on Apple HW, their frequency response is very good.
2x Sonos S3 or S5 as a stereo pair and a Sonos Sub? Mate got that is its pretty good!
Rip CDs to FLAC, buy Sonos connect, an AV amp or stereo one with a decent digital connection, 2nd hand speakers and you're done!
Right, at the risk of getting seriously flamed..
In my opinion (having studied a BSc in audio tech and acoustics) most domestic hifi is fundamentally flawed in that it utilises passive control of the speakers. For a huge amount of reasons that someone else can explain on the forum I'm about to mention I would seriously recommend looking at active speakers.
Take a look at the AVI forum and also their website. Their active speakers start at about £1k and need only a digital source to feed them ( which could be sonos, a DVD player or a cheap CD player). The digital source will ( despite an entire industry claiming otherwise) make no difference at all to the sound quality.
Anyway, check out the forum - Ash (one of AVI's owners) often pops up to offer advice etc.
Active speakers are the way forward and have been used in studios for decades. It's only recently that they've started to become "discovered" in a hifi world of snake oil and magazine reviews driven by selling advertising space.
If you have any specific queries feel free to drop me an email and I'll bore you to tears about why active speakers are (in general) so good.
Thanks for all the feedback & suggestions. I've now had chance to do a little more research based on suggestions. WOW, there's a whole new universe of tech out there that I didn't realise (getting quite fired up with some of the potential options now 😀 )
Wireless tech - I'm just imagining filling the whole house with sound - blasting out 'Change' by Deftones (the wife'll love it 😆 )
I can see I'm gonna have to sell a bike to fund this project!
.,..I've just realised others have mentioned actives too... Adam's are supposed to be very good too..
Something else to throw into the mix: logitech's squeezebox touch. If you can find one. I think they are now discontinued.
Cheers RopeyReignRider - I may well be in touch!
The active speakers really appeal, I just need to sell the idea to the OH - we share the same dodgy music taste, so she's pretty cool about compromising on asthetics to get a better sound - however, she hates seeing cabling and speaker wires trailing about (trip hazards y'see 🙄 ) So, as long as I can get around that somehow, I've free reign.
Woah, I'm drawn like a moth to the Adam active speakers - I can see what you mean about the low WAF though. Another interesting option though, as I hadn't thought of active & pre-amp. Hmmm...
If you want VFM this is the way to go by miles. Look at Dynaudio BM5A's also. I'd pair the lot with a combined CDP/DAC/Pre. Done.
.. The AVI actives have a very high quality DAC built in by the way and have I think 2 digital inputs and either one or two analogue inputs I think..
The digital source will ( despite an entire industry claiming otherwise) make no difference at all to the sound quality.
Too sweeping a statement - some digital sources chuck out loads of jitter which affects the DAC, and there are not many totally jitter-immune DACs out there for reasonable money.
Most modern DAC's have sufficient buffering to cope with jitter very well. There's been some interesting studies on jitter of late - somewhere (I can't remember where) on the AVI forum there's a very good article on it and to what degree it can be detected.
To clarify I meant that the digital source doesn't make a difference to most good DAC's , specifically that used in the AVI's.
When I was a test engineer at Arcam it was quite an eye opener - we hand tested the CD transports for jitter and they varied hugely yet were all deemed acceptable!
Diy your own cables. I did with this site and would recommend it.
[url= http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/diycables.html ][/url]
I used this
[url= http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/triple_t_e.html ][/url]
.. Don't get me started on cables 😀
My local dealer has a bunch of Arcam Solo Mini deals that would tempt me if I was looking for something. Don't know if it lights your fire...
http://www.creative-audio.co.uk/
I'd second a lot of the opinons expressed above. I have a pair of Adam A7's I use in the studio, they are really nice if you don't need loads of level / low end. There are tons of nice active speakers about, some of which look a fair bit more domestically acceptable than the Adam's. Klien and Hummel, PMC, ATC, Focal, AVI, Acoustic Energy (AE22 Active's)...there are loads of nice speakers which offer far better value for money than 'hifi' speakers.
Sound on Sound classifieds, pink fish media or ebay are good places to find s/h gear. If you buy s/h, it's well within your budget to get something which will sound really good, and will retain a lot (if not all) of it's value after many years of making music.
+1 for active speakers,just plug them into your source.
if you got an old half decent PC you can make it a media player and have all your music movies and streaming stuff in one place, no need for fancy kit!
http://www.mythbuntu.org - or similar like VLC player for Mac/PC etc.
I still think the old LPs kill any digital format, even 24 bit 192k...I have installled hi spec pro kit in loads of recording facilites and still prefer to listen to a scratchy LPs for pure "vibe"
rega make some nice TTs http://www.rega.co.uk/
Jitter shows up as frequency deviation - easy to detect using a test signal and a spectrum analyser. Biggest problem with DACs is normally inter-modulation products which limit spurious free dynamic range (the actual real dynamic range you can use). Again, easy to measure, just use a two tone test signal and a spectrum analyser. Quantifying DACs / digital sources isn't that hard to do - loads of off the shelf test kit for it. All the problems are the same as with any broadcast equipment eg TV transmitters, Mobile phone base stations etc.
I have a pair of PMC TB2 sat here doing nothing (in oak) I'll let them go for £400 if any of you audio nuts want a high quality transmission line standmount to listen to MP3's with 🙄
I would look at some of the cheap dacs instead of a cd player. I use a beresford and can't fault it for the money.
I like the look of the naim unitiqu (sp?) shoebox thingy for fuss free digital audio, bit pricy though.
I'm not getting this preference for active over passive speaker thing at all ok maybe they could be more convenient but essentially both are speakers driven by amps.. How does having the amp in the same box as the speaker make it better? Both components Amp and Speaker are still rated individually.
If anything I'd have thought keeping the transformers and electronics away from the speaker to be preferable.
I'm not getting this preference for active over passive speaker thing at all ok maybe they could be more convenient but essentially both are speakers driven by amps.. How does having the amp in the same box as the speaker make it better? Both components Amp and Speaker are still rated individually.
If anything I'd have thought keeping the transformers and electronics away from the speaker to be preferable.
I started writing this lot out then thought someone else must have already? And they had...
The main difference is that the crossover is at line level rather than speaker level.
The crossover is less compromised and can perform much better.
The crossover can be active rather than passive, and can apply equalisation where necessary.
The amplifier is directly connected to the driver, with no crossover getting in the way and corrupting the control.
The sensitivity and impedance of the drive units can be chosen to meet the speaker's own requirements.
The designer can trade power and efficiency.
The drive units don't need the same efficiency - they can use what works best.
A single drive unit generally presents an easier and less reactive load to the amplifier.
Distortion from one amplifier doesn't impact the other drive unit.
Drive units can be time-aligned by delay-lines.
Interesting stuff. I was thinking of using the 6 channels of my Amp to drive my speaker's drivers separately - sort of convert them to active if you will. Would any inveterate tweakers be happy to help me with this project. Basically I need to build a line-level crossover to match the ones in the speakers, and if possible add level matching.... Any takers? My electronics is OK, but I don't have a degree in audio design!
TIA
I was thinking of using the 6 channels of my Amp to drive my speaker's drivers separately - sort of convert them to active if you will. Would any inveterate tweakers be happy to help me with this project. Basically I need to build a line-level crossover to match the ones in the speakers, and if possible add level matching.
Look at something like Audiolense and Audiolense XO for using a computer and software to do both room correction and crossover generation:
http://www.juicehifi.com/index.html
or acourate:
IMO these near field studio monitors a few are recommending may really not the best choice. They are designed for exactly that. Sitting close by and analysing recordings.
You will notice Adam also do a home range designed for home listening you will also notice that the price is significantly more say £2500 for an active set .there is a reason for this and it's not just marketing...
I've experienced similar actives before in studio installations and in the builds in the workshop in my previous job in the broadcast industry. They generally had a harsh sound and listening out of the sweet spot sounded weird really.
Also depending on your layout cabling could be an issue in the home depending on what sources you want to connect especially if one also needs a screen connected.
Thanks for the help people...I'll be looking into that.
IMO these near field studio monitors a few are recommending may really not the best choice. They are designed for exactly that. Sitting close by and analysing recordings.
You will notice Adam also do a home range designed for home listening you will also notice that the price is significantly more say £2500 for an active set .there is a reason for this and it's not just marketing...I've experienced similar actives before in studio installations and in the builds in the workshop in my previous job in the broadcast industry. They generally had a harsh sound and listening out of the sweet spot sounded weird really.
Also depending on your layout cabling could be an issue in the home depending on what sources you want to connect especially if one also needs a screen connected.
Total garbage.
You know why the Adam home range are more expensive than the pro's? The finish of the speakers and the labour time associated with it. Go to Musikmesse or any ****y hi-fi show and you'll see the same ATC speakers at both and they are amongst the best in the world.
Active pro's almost always have a flatter frequency response than hi-fi guff so you're definitely getting a truer version of the recording and sound that's most likely going to be less fatiguing than hi-fi models that are almost always tweaked to sound exciting. Recording engineers spend countless hours in front of pro monitors, way more than the average hi-fi geek. If any true pro speaker was "harsh" it wouldn't be very well received would it?
Regarding sounding odd off axis, I'd say most pro speakers I've heard do a far better job than thin baffled hi-fi fashion models. The tweeters are normally higher quality (especially at similar prices) and usually have wider dispersion.
It's all a myth, just like cables. The hi-fi industry wants people to believe that exotically veneered boxes with crappy speaker level inputs will sound better than what the guys use who master the music we listen too. it's such a obvious con but it just keeps rolling on....
My streaming solution is:
Macbook Pro, AudioEngine D1 DAC Connected to Apple TV (also connected to 42" TV) and AudioEngine 2 Active Speakers.
I can stream music from itunes to the speakers, stream internet tv through the tv and speakers, it sounds great, i'm very happy with it.
.. Definitely worth checking out AVI's active solutions. Their original ADM 9's were well received by both hifi and pro audio worlds which is quite unusual... The AVI forum has lots of interesting articles on snake oil type guff surrounding "hifi" obsessions with cables and the like too..
.. Oh and the AVI's have cables included, which by the designers own admission are pretty cheap but as good as anything out there 🙂
is a reason for this and it's not just marketing...
No, it's profitering, from gullible middle aged men.
I couldn't agree less with anything you've posted. Decent monitors are not harsh, quite the opposite. I've done the full bullshit hifi thing and heard some Linn/Naim systems which are so bright they are unlistenable.
The worst part of it is that the hifi companies will sell an upgraded CD player / amp / PSU to help cure the harshness, in what basically something designed badly 🙁
I'm lucky to have a friend with a very good PMC active system, when he moved from passive PMC speakers to the same units but active the difference was significant. There is no reason to assume that studio speakers will be bright they are all as different as passives. Technically active is always going to be better and if well implemented should sound better too.
I have passives in the lounge but direct coupled (no bass/mid crossover) and small low cost studio actives elsewhere and I'm amazed at just how well they sound compared to the pretty expensive passives.
lodious - MemberI've done the full bullshit hifi thing and heard some Linn/Naim systems which are so bright they are unlistenable.
😯 😯 😯
Worst system I've heard was a full Linn / Naim setup, Isobariks etc, at a Bolton HiFi show some time ago.
The tech guys apologised and said they had absolutely no idea why it was basically unlistenable.
Conversely, the little Pink Triangle/Creek/Epos system in the same room a day later was wonderful.
Lot's of similarities between hi-fi and religion. With both, you have to make your own mind up before you sign up and hand over the cash.
Tom, thanks for the email, will get back to you later today.
To the OP, I say follow your instincts keep it simple and stick with the Marantz stuff. A CD6004 cd player and a PM6004 amp, with your budget you can add a Project debut turntable and have a look at Q Acoustics floor standers. All quite mainstream stuff and highly regarded in the press(take from that what you will). Because of its relative popularity you should get some good package deals and of course audition the stuff first. I've been using Marantz stuff for years and have always been happy, I also have a project debut and it works really really well.
The [b]tech guys[/b] apologised and said they had [b]absolutely no idea[/b] why it was basically unlistenable
Uh-huh...
Had the system not had at least three day's warm-up before demonstration, perchance?
You can't get much simpler than a pair of AVI ADM9 RSS's - 4 amps and a very high quality DAC inside them! Plug in a digital or analogue source and off you go 🙂
Er, yes Woppit, they did.
Apologise, that is.
No idea how long it had been set up.
I do like Naim stuff, have heard some lovely home setups but this just sounded awful.
The evangelical attitude of some of the dealers and the unquestioning devotion of their accolytes never ceases to amuse.
It was a ticket only demo at the Last Drop in Bolton, btw.
I couldn't agree less with anything you've posted. Decent monitors are not harsh, quite the opposite. I've done the full bullshit hifi thing and heard some Linn/Naim systems which are so bright they are unlistenable.
Conversely, the little Pink Triangle/Creek/Epos system in the same room a day later was wonderful.
Same here, I used to work Saturdays in an independent family hifi business, so I used to go to the big London hifi shows, and the Bristol one as well, and I clearly remember sitting down in front of a really nice set-up, Pink Triangle deck, I think Monitor Audio speakers, can't remember the amp now, and I left after ten minutes, it sounded horrible, really harsh with too much bass, but I could have sat all afternoon in front of a system costing half the price in the next room. Can't remember what it was, it's twenty-odd years ago now. 😀
Total garbage.
indeed, the PMC/ATC ranges are the same speaker, wood veneer= home. black finish=studio
and dont forget the BBC Ls3/5A one of the most famous nearfields that was used by many as a hifi speaker (in various exotic wood veneer finishes)
No idea how long it had been set up
My point.
Having said that, when I wanted to upgrade my speakers after investing in NAIM CD/PREAMP/POWERAMP/PSU's, I auditioned three different makes. Despite the ProAcs sounding far superior in all areas, the salesman insisted on trying to push a pair of NAIM SBL's on me because they were "musical" and he had them at home.
I thought they sounded like dull disco speakers and couldn't understand why he was being so enthusiastic...
I wanted to upgrade my speakers after investing in NAIM CD/PREAMP/POWERAMP/PSU's
Hook, line and sinker 😉
youlot spend far too much money on HiFI - get some Microlab stuff http://www.microlab.cn/main.asp tis brilliantly cheap, but sounds wonderful (to my completely untrained ear) 🙂 I've got me some Solo 6C's which are active and plug straight into my laptop, tablet, phone etc - i was going to plug them into the front room AV unit, but they sit nice an happily in my offce.
Yup, that's what I mean.
Seen all the tricks - salesmen turning the volume up, enthusiastic foot-tapping, anything to try and persuade you that the evidence of your own ears is wrong.
Put me right off.
A flat frequency response is not the be all and end all for a monitor/speaker - the BBC monitors used to have a dip in their response in the midrange and they were pretty famed for their natural sound and accuracy for reproducing voices. Plus stick it in a room and that flat frequency response is out of the window.
Plus some studio monitors are designed to be mounted up high, and so have an emphasis on the bass to compensate. Put them in a home environment and they will need correction in the bass.
It might be important to have the amplifiers that the speaker designer used to 'voice' the speaker - which is an area where actives really score as you are using the same amps.
How about building your own speakers. I built a a set of Transmission line and a sub of here http://www.iplacoustics.co.uk/index.htm
They sound very good. Awesome detail. Ivan the owner is passionate about sound quality.
I also may my own cables from crc.
They are being powered with a pair of Rotel mono blocks/pre amp which i won off Ebay.
audio engineers become familiar with not only the charecteristics of individual monitors but also rooms and how the sound they hear will translate to other enviroments/playback equipment and be altered by broadcast processing etc. nothing to do with HiFi
its why they use NS10s, they crap !
spend time and a little thought on room layout to get the most out of your kit
as unless you are "nearfield monitoring" the room is responsible for a very large part of the sound.
Even with nearfield monitoring, the room has a massive impact, and that's another reason for my distain at the UK hifi industry. The dealers have very little (or no) knowledge of acoustic room treatment. They are happy to sell a stand or interconnects for £2k which make next to no difference, but they have no idea how to treat a room.
but they have no idea how to treat a room.
because their is not much point - most people wouldn't buy the stuff anyway as they don't have a dedicated room.
However you can arrange furniture/rugs/curtains sympathetically - maybe the sofa opposite the speakers and then put the armchairs, with substantial cushions, to the outside of the main speakers - soaks up side reflections without looking geeky - and maybe the wife won't notice...
Just make sure your music doesn't sound artificial:
😉 Tome to be flamed.
Due to nagging from her indoors, i had to de-clutter the living room. B&W CDM1se's, Myryad Amp, Atacama speaker stands, Project Debut, QED cable etc all were sent to the gagage or loft.
Bought a Ruark r4i as it was compact with no cables, easy to fit underneath the telly etc. For a small box it is surprisingly capable.
Might be worth going to a local retailer and listening to one. Comes with FM, DAB,DABPlus,CD,USB, I Pod dock and Auxiliary inputs.
I know it is not going to be as good as a seperates set-up, but it now does for me.
lodious - MemberI wanted to upgrade my speakers after investing in NAIM CD/PREAMP/POWERAMP/PSU's
Hook, line and sinker
I'm not sure why you think that's particularly meaningful. I used the same method to decide on the NAIM equipment that I used to pick the non-NAIM speakers.
Your comment is irrelevant.
Woppit - you're going to have to get a sense of humour over this, or you'll end up like all the other [s]sheep[/s] naimees....
Rusty - will look out for it.
FWIW the worst mega system was at a show in Manchester around 10 years ago. Some mahoosive Chord set-up with (I think) enormous Wilson speakers. Never has Rage Against the Machine's Killing in the Name been so soulless. Best system at that show was a Creek one with some standmounts.
Anyone fancy buying my Audiolab 8000 CDM and DAX
Its still sits pride of place on top of my Hi-Fi stand but I unplugged it a couple of years ago when moving stuff and never bothered plugging it back in.
I just use the rest of the hi-fi with streamed music and blu-rays.
If I was buying a new system I would even consider a CD player