Best $8000 stereo system- used

Dynaudio Special 25 (3500), Sony SCD-1 (2500) , Pathos Classic One Integrated (1700 used) Nordost Blue Heaven Rev. ll (300). You can find a scd-1 for 2200 and then you can get a Dynaudio Masterstand to go with the speakers. The sound will be accurate and very musical, listening to full orchestra classical music (Bruckner, Mahler, etc) you can get the sound of the different string instruments and the whole orchestra sounds very detailed and an image that floats in front of you. This is my system and it`s just an example of what you could do with that kind of money. Good luck.

$1400 McCormack DNA 0.5 Revision A amplifier.
$2000 Sony SCD-1 SACD/CD player.
$2000 Pass Labs X 2.5 pre-amp.
$2200 Vandersteen 3A signatures.
$ 600 Pure Note or Music Timbre 2 pair XLR 1m ic's.
$ 500 Audience Au24 or Audio Tekne 2m speaker cables.
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$8700 Total

The only thing missing would be dedicated AC lines and proper power conditioning.

The above components with the right room, speaker placement, and music should provide you near enough to an almost flawless musical presentation.

-IMO

Great integrated amps are available on the used market for under $2,000. Various models from Musical Fidelity, Plinius, YBA, Classe, Conrad Johnson and Manley are all readily available. If you stretch your budget to $2,500 you might be able to find an original model Rowland Concentra.

The choice for loudspeakers really depends on your listening preferences and your room. If you have the space and aren't into "power" music, than the Quad 63s are outstanding. They will also mate very well with any of the above integrated amps. They're readily available for under $2,000. The Quads will provide state of the art midrange and imaging with excellent tonality. If space is an issue then go with the Proac Response 2s. If you taste tend more towards loud music with lots of bass, then the NHT 3.3s are a good choice. They can be had for $1,500. The NHTs have terrific bass, excellent imaging and strong dynamics.

An Esoteric (Teac) DV50 universal player can be had used for $4,000. Alternatively, you could go the hard disk playback route. An Apple G4 laptop ($1,100), an Apogee Mini-DAC w/ USB and an external firewire 180 Gb hard drive ($300) would make an excellent sounding digital playback system when using Apple's iTunes software. Add and iPod ($300) and you'll have portability. The Esoteric would provide the better sound quality, but the Apple hard disk system, while still excellent sounding, provides far greater listening flexibility.

Used cables are an excellent bargain. I prefer neutral type (Cardas, Discovery, etc.). At this system price level I wouldn't recommend spending more than $500 on all cables.

Good luck!

I would suggest a few integrated amplifiers: Gryphon Tabu Century;Rowland Concentra;YBA Passion Integre;Yakov Aronov(tube).Which one you will like most-I have no idea.This will cost you from $2000 to $3000. For the speakers,digital players and cables there are too many choices.You could try and find CEC belt drive player($500-$700) and Purist Audio original Aqueous or Maximus cables(say,$300-$600 for interconnects and speaker cables).Spend the rest on speakers.Couple of $100 good power cords wouldn't hurt.

Wadia 850 CD Player for about $2500 PROAC D15 Speaker for about $1700 - $2200. Audio Research VT100 MKIII for about $2700 you could also do the VT100MKII for about $2200 Don't get the VT100MKI. Nordost Blue Heaven Interconnect for about $250. Hospital grade outlets with independent lines for about $50 if you do it yourself. Isolation cones for CD player and Amp for about $300. This system will sound awesome. You don't have to use a preamp and you can have Steve Huntley at Great Northern Sound do a upgrade on the cd player later if you want. Trust me get the isolation cones for the player and the amp you will be amazed at the bottom end difference. Proac's are senstive to room placement so if mama doesn't want you putting your stuff in the middle of the room pick something else.

Craig

rankinecraig@hotmail.com