Buying equipment

Swarthy, if you wanted to wait until October, you could hear tons of stuff at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in Denver.

That said, I'd not be too worried about buying ear unheard online. Lots of us do that. There may be some misses, but that's true in any event: the speakers that lasted the shortest in my room are the only ones I auditioned carefully in advance (I did so twice).

Peter Makes excellent speakers and supports his product; his Liberty venture looks very interesting.

All this said, I don't quite understand your notion of a "tight little system": your room, at 20x25 is on the large side, and you will want to look at some larger speakers (like Peter's obelisks) to fill it up.

Hard to give more guidance without a clearer notion of pricepoint; you could certainly do something very nice for the low 5 figures people are mentioning, but with some care, and a willingness to take chances used, half that would be possible (perhaps not easy, with your room).

Finally, don't mind Roxy54's snark on Wyoming: it's just that he prefers traffic to Mountains! ;)

John

Actually, I have never even ben to Wyoming, although, like everywhere else on earth it has great natural beauty. My thought was the cold winters, and I hate being cold.
The best advice here, was I think, from Timrhu.

All good stuff thanks for the websites. Ya'll have researched for hours,days, years...I was coming from the perspective of someone new trying to buy a piece of good equipment. As I traverse the net- going on a week now, Yes, many companies have their stuff offered online I am finding out. But, you cant just type 'Rega Brio for sale' into the omnibox and get a list of these online audio distributors with prices.

I hadn't really navigated this site extensively (its kindof cumbersome, like the old usenet system:)

I am filling a large space but, it is sparse. The reason for a tight little system is that I hate crawling behind components are trying to thread coaxial cables, place bare speaker wires into the clips on the back of a speaker. And I didn't want to be overburdened with components and flipping switches and twiddling knobs, inputs on and on ad infinitum before I could listen to a CD or record (I know its blasphemy but I like automatic turntables)

This also isn't a final system I'm setting up and needs to be as cableless as possible. its a traveller. I am getting out of 'Dodge' and moving to Arizona this summer. That is why I am looking for a small system.

I am looking at the B&W wireless speakers, the Dali Kubik pack and cocktail audio X40. But it doesn't seem to play US formates such as spotify, pandora. But it does rip from CDs and you install your own hard drive which is pretty cool.

Besides the cold in wyoming (although its 54f out right now) the fact that there are more antelope than people here makes for a seriously conservative and isolated milieu.

I am trying to learn my DAC's from my "Whodat's" and is is maddening because there is also PnP, Lossless, gapless, 'only plays 2 channel', 'only accepts file formats X, X, X, and X. Not Y, Y, Y." egads!

I mean when did Headphones start needing their own Amps and you have to strap one to your DAP which saves files at XXXbps and XXX MHz...:)

Why is a CD player that plays one CD so big! with its own power supply, power conditioner

These 'complaints' are all in jest- I love technology- I am just way behind the tiimes.

as some like to say here in Wyoming, "It is what it is"

S

Swarthy, I love Wyoming! Bear Tooth range, Tetons, Wind River all great!

I did not find where you state your budget. However Music Direct is a good choice. Also Audio Advisor.

I would buy an integrated amplifier with built in phonostage, a quality CD player, and a set of monitor speakers. Without knowing your budget it is difficult to allocate funds to these components. What is budget? Are you willing to buy used?

Swarthy, based upon what you've told us, I would recommend the following:

1) Emotiva Fusion 8100 receiver: excellent sound quality, plenty of power, very easy for you to setup. And it also has multi-channel capability so that you could use it to drive a full surround sound system later when you move to AZ. Comes with 30 day in-home trial and 5 year warranty.

https://emotiva.com/products/receivers/fusion-8100

2) Oppo BDP-103 Universal player: this is a very well-regarded unit that will play *any* shiny disc available incl. CD, SACD, DVD-Audio, and Bluray. Oppo has the *best* customer service in the industry and they offer a 30 day in-home trial. Don't even think twice about this one.

http://oppodigital.com/

3) Tekton Designs speakers: very well regarded speakers at very reasonable prices. 60 day in-home trial. Look at the Lores and Pendragons. These speakers are very efficient, the receiver I recommended will play at concert levels with these speakers. http://www.tektondesign.com/index.html

Second choice: Gallo Classico speakers, particularly CL-4 or CL-3. These speakers have astonishingly good sound (their CDT3 tweeter is *marvelous*!!) and come with a 60 day in-home trial and Gallo will pay ALL of the costs - you risk $0.00!!
http://www.roundsound.com/classico/

4) Pro-Ject or Rega turntable: if you're considering a turntable, go with Pro-Ject or Rega. They both make excellent turntables for very reasonable money. Be sure to have a cartridge pre-installed so you don't have to fiddle with that (major PITA!!). I like the Ortofon cartridges - good sounding, excellent tracking carts that don't cost an arm and a leg.

http://www.project-audio.com/main.php?info=turntables
http://www.rega.co.uk/

That's about it. If you assemble a system using the components I recommended, I think you will be very happy indeed...