System building -budget $15,000


My friend and I are trying to put together a system with a budget of $15,000 as per request from another friends wife as a 50th birthday gift for her husband. The guy who will eventually own the sytem currently uses run of the mill components and is not really an audiophile. The wife is very keen that something nice should be put together which is simple to use even by her as she also likes to hear music from time to time.

The current list inclues following short listed items but not yet final. We are looking for some pointers in the right direction as far as matching the amp and speakers are concerned. The only other thing we will add is a CD player.

The list includes the choices as follows:

Speakers:

Porac D25 or D38
Kef Reference 203

Amplifiers

Jeff Rowland Conceto Integrated
Mark Levinson 383 Integrated

What do you guys think about the choices and what is a better match in terms of speaker and amp from the list above. Those who are familiar with either speakers or amps listed above should know better, so if you own either equipment please share your own experience about how you went about auditioning any of the above equipment and what sounded better to you in terms of matching.

Any input would be be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.
128x128quadophile
I'm sorry. I thought that you were talking about the best system for the money, not the best new system. I bought my son a 1996 NSX. New would have been $80,000. For what I spent on the used NSX, the best that I could have bought for the same money new, is a Ford Mustang. BTW, my son thought that I was anything but foolish. I've bought alot of gear on Audiogon and I have yet to buy anything that was distinguishable from new (except for the price). Also, with your budget and the gear of which you speak, You don't have much allowance for cables and IC's. Buying cheap there is worst than using a walkman as a transport. I spent years and alot of money to get the system that I now have. It is incredible. I just gave you the answer to a fantastic sounding system in seconds, that took me years to put together. Truely one of the finest sounding systems that I have ever heard. They mesh wonderfully and that is the hard part. Getting all the peices to flow together. I didn't read antone elses post that said, I have that system and it's great.

I apologies if I have wasted your time. I was just trying to be helpful. I guess that I am one of those people where quality is much more important to me than something new. Especially when something new sometimes takes months to break-in and start sounding good.
Tim,

No need to apologise, you were being helpful for sure. Please accept my apology if I offended you in any way, as I just realised going through my own post to you that it was not very politely put.

I respect your opinion and appreciate your taking time to come back and post that message with a nice explanation. I value everyones opinion here, if it does not work in this post it may serve its purpose otherwise. Your suggestion is duly noted.

Thanks again for your input.
One other thing to budget for is a decent rack for the equipment if your friend doesn't have one.
Ausjoe