Looking for a good system for my apartment. Any advise?

Ok, to ammend my last post, I’d buy used. I forgot to mention that...

I saw a pair of Lintons withstands for $850 awhile back. A Belles Aria can be had for $1400, same with an Ayre AX7e. Both are very high quality units and are rated at 60 and 75 watts respectively. You can get a Schiit Bifrost Multibit for $500 or a Schiit Gungir Multibit for $800. I’d pair it with a Bluesound node 2i ($450 refurbed) and a used Cambridge CXC for $400.

Thats $3150, lets round up to $3300. Then I’d spend around $200 on cables from Blue Jeans.
The Belles Aria has a great Headphone Amp and supposedly has a nice phono pre as well. My Aria streaming Amazon HD through my Gungir Multibit into my Periodic Audio BE’s sounds fantastic! Listening to my headphones is no longer a downgrade.

I’d say the Rogue Tube Integrated and the flagship Rega CD player. I helped a friend put together a small system for his apartment and he chose a Rega amp, Rega CD player, Herbies Audio Super Black Hole cd mat, Rega phonostage, Clear Audio turntable, Wireworld cables and I sold him my Monitor Audio GR Gold speakers. It all sounded good except for his vinyl rig for which he purchased an Ortofon Red mm cartridge. I’d really reconsider purchasing a vinyl rig because of the need to spend a lot in order to get acceptable results. A good sounding phono stage and cartridge combination will be costly. Plus, living in an apartment, you’ll at least need a good power conditioner. Consider that most all of those Grateful Dead Rhino remasters are strictly on cd and the MOFI Grateful Dead reissues are available on hybrid SACD. As far as classical is concerned, 98 % of new classical recordings are solely in digital format. I like vinyl as an option but I only play early mono micro groove because all of the stereo options are remastered for digital and a stereo cartridge is a compromise without a great tonearm.

The most important factor is your room/speaker interface. Get a pair of speakers that drive your room and fit in the space you have. Borrow or beg anything that might work. Try everything. Don't overlook used or vintage or unusual, like small Maggies. Once you find speakers, get an amp big enough to drive them (if Maggies, you'll need some power, more efficient speakers will give you more options). Then spend whatever's left on front-end gear. The best cheap turntable available is the $699 Pioneer and the $1,000 MoFi is also a good buy.  The right speakers will make the rest of the gear sound good. A Linn dealer will tell you the opposite, that the front end is more important, but he's trying to sell a turntable ranging from $4k-17k. At your budget level, it works quite the other way.

I have to disagree with purchasing Magnipan or any other electrostatic speaker. I own Quad 2905's and while they sound great, I've had to replace a good number of panels due to a mistake which caused arcing. The best way to own electrostatics is to own two pair so that when one pair is getting repaired, there's another pair as a backup. And while the comment that vinylrestingplace makes is true, that speakers will make the biggest contribution to a system, don't overlook how an amp or cd player will improve the sound and will reduce listening fatigue. Used Harbeth and Spencer speakers come up frequently on the various sights from reputable sellers.

I'm somewhat calculating in my head what this system will cost based on the recommendations in this thread and I don't see how you'll do yourself any favor by investing in a vinyl setup. If I can be candid, for a good vinyl setup, you'll need to spend roughly 2,000.00 for a good mc phono stage, about $ 1,200.00 on a turntable and $800.00 for something like a Hana cartridge. On the other hand, you could do something like buy a running Thorens TD 160 and modify it and then the Rogue amp, I believe, has a phono stage but that will still eat into your other pieces.

goofyfoot587 posts11-28-2020 2:43pm

I have to disagree with purchasing Magnipan or any other electrostatic speaker. I own Quad 2905's and while they sound great, I've had to replace a good number of panels due to a mistake which caused arcing ...

Magnapans are not electrostatic speakers.