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System for a dorm - how is this?

Well I am back in school, Law School now, and I am looking to get a system set up for my dorm room. The room is about 12ft x 17 ft rectangle. I listen to almost everything from jazz to metal, but usually it is more along the lines of Dylan, Cash, Wilco, Death Cab, Thursday, indie type stuff I guess.
I am looking to spend in the $1200-$1500 range unless the extra $500 would really upgrade the system.
One problem though is that I would like CD and a turntable, so it may hurt with the budget, but lets see what we can do.
Right now these are the things I have been looking into.

-Cambridge Audio Azure 540 or 640 Integrated Amp
-CD - A NAD (which one?) or Rotel 1072 or Cambridge Audio Azure
-Turntable - Simiko Pro-Ject 1.2 or the one below
-Speakers - EPOS - ELS3
AND as a possible alternative or addition: a headphone and and the Grado 80 (something like that)

So what do you think? What would be good speaker cable and interconnect cable to start looking into? Will these pieces gel together well? Thanks for the help for a newbie.
jmurray16
shersta
140 posts
 
I used to own an older Cambridge int. amp (A3i) and cdp (d500se). I thought they were really nice pieces for the money. The phono stage on the amp was particularly good for the price. If you're willing to buy used, your budget could take you a long way. I'm a big fan of Rega gear for a small system. I'd suggest looking into getting your hands on a used rega int. amp (mira or brio--400$), cdp (orig. planet--300$), turntable (a P3--300 w/o cart), and perhaps even speakers. Rega stuff is designed for small rooms, sounds great, and looks funky (in a good way). Have fun.
sfar's avatar
sfar
1,758 posts
 
Some other budget recommendations, in addition to the excellent ones you're already considering

- The Music Hall CD-25 sounds remarkable for the money, I don't know that it's better than the Rotel, though
- B&W DM303 speakers, at the same retail price as the EPOS'
- For a couple hundred dollars more, but in a whole different league, these Soliloquy 5.0 monitors
- If you go with the Rotel 1072 CD player, you could match it with a Rotel 1060 integrated amp for a nice-looking setup that uses just one remote
jmurray16 OP
9 posts
 
Thanks a lot for the help so far guys. I never really thought about going used but I will look into it. And those Soliloquy speakers look nice too. Any information on what type of interconnects and speaker cables to look into?
gmueller
19 posts
 
Don't get bogged down with cables. What people generally regard as "the good stuff" is at a price point that is not in the budget. Used cables can be an excellent value - in general they don't break or wear out. Lots of cables can be found on A'gon or E-bay. Stick with a reasonable brand like Kimber, Audioquest, Alpha-core, etc and you're likely to be satified. A couple hundred bucks max. You may also want to consider a DVD player to do double duty. It may not sound as good as a dedicated Rotel or Rega CD player but some are quite good. I have a Philips 963 SACD that does a nice job on DVD's and CD's (in it's upsampling mode) and plays SACD's as a bonus. You can find these new and used for less than $500. Not as good as my dedicated CD player, but awfully nice for the price.
sfar's avatar
sfar
1,758 posts
 
One of the best bets for inexpensive speaker cable is Canare StarQuad 4s11 or 4s8, available from markertek.com, especially if you want to bi-wire a speaker like the Soliloquy's.
Click here and then click the links on the left

Markertek's pro audio cables with RCA ends make very good inexpensive interconnects at $26 a pair. Click here Order two, one red and one black.

At the next level up you could also consider DH-Labs least expensive speaker cable, the T-14, and their BL-1 interconnects.

Yes, the Soliloquys were a nice speaker at $1,100, at the closeout price of $495 they're an outrageous bargain. They'd be the basis for a system that might last you awhile.
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