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How cheap can you go and still be happy with the sound?

I would think many guys on this forum are spoilt by the gear they have and never listen anymore on cheap rigs.

I was listening recently on my younger daughter’s PC audio rig and got reminded again of how good it sounds. There is a fairly high level of clarity, detail, tonal balance and great bass in this rig.

 

- Yamaha HS8 powered monitors: $700 to $800

- Yamaha WXC-50 MusicCast streamer+dac+preamp: $450, often found on A4L for around $300

- Audioquest Powerquest PQ3 (was around $200 or so)

 

IMO, this would qualify as a high quality (sonically) charity price hifi rig for any younger or older person w.r.t small room nearfield or midfield listening.

 

What is the cheapest rig that has brought you happiness these days?

 

deep_333
g2the2nd
99 posts
 

Got my sone a system:

Schiit Modi - $100

Sony Integrated Amp - $200

Pioneer SP BS22 Denis Murphy (I live near him) modded speakers - $165

Parts Express 10 in sealed sub. - $75 on sale

DIY high pass filter for the Pioneers wired into zip cord speaker cables - $10

The system is amazing for the $$ and really great on vocals.

 

 

stringreen's avatar
stringreen
6,475 posts
 

I just give all the money I have and more

limomangus's avatar
limomangus
1,428 posts
 

There's plenty of cheap stuff out there that's good. You just have to search for it.I love it when a speaker company puts out speakers for thousands of dollars and then you read reviews that they suck and aren't worth the money. I just don't have 100,000 to spend,never did...and I won't buy new movie releases for 140 dollars. I seach and look to find cheap albums and cds...there out there....

megabyte
96 posts
 

I think probably you can get very good, if not top notch sound from a good pair of powered speakers, streaming from your favorite service.  

megabyte
96 posts
 

I think it’s impossible to get 100k, very high end system sound with 5k. But you can get maybe 75-85% of the way there. That last 15% will cost you exponentially more as you near 100%. 
 

I do think however, that  you can get 98% of 100k system sound Q  for around 25k. For example, a preowned Hegel 590/600, and preowned Perlisten S7T or Boressen X6 towers. IMO you’d need to spend a lot more to get significantly better sound. 

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