Having purchased a new house, and proceeded to rip the ceiling and coving from the living room to have it re-plastered, I have decided that it would be sensible to think about running some speaker cable around the room behind the new coving, installing some wall mounted speakers (there won’t be any furniture to stand speakers on).

At the moment I have a Sony micro unit (which is fine but will be a pain to extend the speaker cable on as it uses a custom plastic plug, not a banana plug at the back of the unit) but have been looking for a turntable for some vinyl for some time.

Does anyone have any recommendations on makes of hi-fi unit (Denon, Pioneer, etc) or speakers (wharfdale etc).
Also, what kind of budget should I set aside for this?

Finally, is it worth it, or is hifi dead now that wireless speakers have turned up!?

This is the rough (I am NOT an architect and it was done in Paint!) layout of how the room will look. Tv to left of fireplace, stereo unit will be on shelving to the right.
Dimensions are approx 20ft length x 10ft width.
[/url]House Plan

Put the TV on the coffe table leaving space for:

I have just sold my Arcam system and I’m now on the way to solely using SONOS gear to stream my music.

No wires, the wife is happy and everyone in the family can use it without touching it.

Not cheap but very good.

If you want to use a turntable then very few, if any, micro systems will have a phono stage.

You can get turntables with built in phono stages or you can get separate phono stages to allow you plug in to normal line level inputs.

Sonos would be a good solution if you can afford it and are you are not looking for directional interconnect and £500 power cable sound quality.

If I could afford and justify it I would go over to a wireless system, at the moment make do with a USB DAC, a laptop and a NAS drive.

and are you are not looking for directional interconnect and £500 power cable sound quality.

HEY! 😀

I just got one of these and pretty happy with it

http://www.richersounds.com/product/mini-hi-fi/teac/np-h750-cd-h750-blk/teac-np-cd-h750-blk

specifically cos I wanted a small (it’s maybe not micro) system with a phono stage. It has everything I need (phono, airplay, digital in) plus the internet radio stuff which was a nice addition. The airplay plus my NAS means I have wireless digital plus turntable in one box. Only unit I found that could do all this.

I didn’t need or want the CD but couldn’t find just the streaming unit for less than the combo.

J.

jwray – I am very tempted by that TEAC.

How is it searching a NAS drive with just the small digital display?

Mr Woppit – Whoever set that up needs help.

Edit – On Amazon for £230

@ Mr Woppit

Yep that’s the way, you want gentle bends as the most musicky electrons are scared of corners

@ OP

I’ve got a load of older hi-fi kit and while it sounds great its bulky and not flexible – no USB input etc.

If I was starting from scratch I’d probably investigate the wireless route

Yeah, I wanted a black one. Forgot silver’s were available on their own.

NAS searching could be a pain, but I don’t do it that way (I presume you mean the DLNA interface I think it has). I have a Synology and use their audio server and associated apps. Web interface from the computer and phone apps around the house. Work’s a treat.

The internet radio is configured via a web site. That’s how they get around the small display there.

But, I’ve been looking for 2/3 years for one device with a built in phono stage and airplay. Mainly to get rid of extra boxes and associated leads. Was well happy when I found this and it’s ideal for how I listen to music.

J.

Here’s my simple little solution.

That little black box is a WDTV live only costs 50quid connects to your network via Wifi or Wired compatible with plenty of formats Flac being the reason I chose it. It has both analogue and digital outputs.
Connect it to an amp of your choice.
My Amp is a Cyrus 8dac (not so cheap) it has an onboard DAC so I can bypass the WD ‘s DAC and therefore sound quality not effected by the cheap device.

The OS of the WD unit is a bit clunky if using the remote tbf but it’s better with its smartphone app and near enough faultless using the BubbleUPNP app.

Basically pick any Amp you like, old or new and give it network capability for 50quid If spending a fair bit consider a DAC either built in or external as the one in the WD is likely to be the weak link.

On another note I’m not sure if these new breed micro jobbies would have a phono stage for your possible record deck.

Oh the irony of someone asking for help with a decent hi-fi and being recommended a Sonos. :-/

Yep that’s the way, you want gentle bends as the most musicky electrons are scared of corners

😆 😆 😆 😆

Just bought and set up today a Naim UnitiQute system.
Was looking at a Naim MuSo but with buying the Qute it enabled me to utilise my existing Quad speakers.
Awesome sound.

Oh the irony of someone asking for help with a decent hi-fi and being recommended a Sonos. :-/

Presumably you’ve never heard a Sonos ZP90/Connect hooked into a decent DAC/amp and speakers.

I’ve never heard a Sonos work for more than 20 mins without someone having to faff with it or constantly fiddling with a tablet to change some pointless setting.

The above comments are what make me laugh about forums in general.

I have had pretty expensive hifi in the past but being very busy with a family the one thing I struggle with is having the free time to actually sit down and listen to music anymore hence the reason for going over to SONOS.

It works, sounds good for what it is and everybody in the house can use it without me being scared of little people braking cartridges or cd drawers.

I’ve only just bought a Play 5 but my youngest had now ordered a Play 1 from Amazon Spain and saved £35, from my point of view this will let him explore all of music collection and I own that he can’t break it, scratch it or mislay it.