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$800 to spend on speakers, $1500 on whole system

I am new to community and am seeking advice on my first good sound system. I am looking to spend $500-800 on a used set of two speakers for my living room, which is not very large. I cannot decide between bookshelf speakers or a floor speaker. I will be listening mostly to digital music, and I could use recommendations on a DAC and receiver. I would like the receiver to be bluetooth if high quality receivers come with this feature, but that's not a deal breaker for me.

My Ideal system would have two speakers at $500-800 and with receiver, DAC, cables, and anything else I would need totaling around $1200, but $1500 maximum. I figured I would start with speakers and go from there.

I like to listen to most music, except rap. Heavy metal, funk, jazz. Any advice is much appreciated. Thanks

pawadalla
dekay's avatar
dekay
5,544 posts
 
Research the Gallo CL-2 speakers (being closed out here on A'Gon for <$400/pair) and the PS Audio Sprout integrated amplifier (sold direct for $500).

You would need 20"-24" speaker stands for the Gallo's, but they should be fine without a sub.

The Sprout has both Bluetooth function and a DAC.

johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 
There are a couple of overachieving floorstanding speakers that have hit the market recently, which could leave you more money for the amp, DAC (or amp/DAC) and cabling. 

The two speakers are the new Elac Debut F5, available for $560/pair (also available at Amazon) and the Infinity Primus P363, currently available for $300/pair. 

The Elac Debut F5 review here.
Infinity Primus P363 review here.

You'd have $940 to $1200 left over for electronics and cabling. This would translate into better D/A conversion, more musical electronics, dynamic range, and more complete signal transfer.

There are several integrated amps these days with a built-in DAC. I nominate the Peachtree Nova 65SE. Peachtree has been making DAC-based integrated amps longer than just about anybody. I have heard their products and they are clean, fast, and musical. The Nova puts out 65 wpc into 8 ohms and 95 watts into 4 ohms. The unit weighs over 20 lbs., indicating a heftier power supply which generally translates into a fuller, more robust sound. List price is $999, but Amazon currently has it for $799.

The integrated DAC/amp also saves you cabling money. You can get a Belkin Gold USB cable, which is a value leader at a very low price, and then treat yourself to some nicer speaker cables, making sure more of that upstream goodness makes its way to the speakers.
chrshanl37
835 posts
 
The peachtree gear sounds pretty good I had the original Nova and liked it better than some other entry level integrateds. Having the on board dac is a nice feature as well. If I were going to build a system in that price range I would look into a used Nova pre and pair it with some active monitors from Adam.

pawadalla OP
10 posts
 
Great suggestions. Thank you. 
johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 
Those are some good suggestions too. Personally I favor new DACs because USB DAC technology continues to develop rapidly along with decoding of higher sampling rates available at lower prices.
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