Depends very much on the room, but I would start with about $1,000 of acoustic panels and bass traps from GIK Acoustics, and work my way out from there. :)
Speakers, if I had to buy them instead of make them, Monitor Audio, Gryphon and Marten would be on my short list. Also possible Sanders Sound. I know this covers a lot of ground and price points.
Subwoofers: Sure, Velodyne is good, Hsu is cheaper and since I like to have a lot of control, I'd rather have a pair of Hsu's and do my own EQ with a miniDSP unit. But this is in an ideal situation. In a living room / family room type of setup, a sub at all might be too much.
Amps: Conrad Johnson Premier 8’s, Ayre, Parasound or ICEPower/Hypex based amps. Depends.
Preamp: Ayre, Audio Research Reference, Sonic Frontiers, Conrad Johnson or Parasound. Would have to listen again. :) I"m out of touch. What I miss a lot really are good tone controls.
Source: I’ve heard several DAC’s driven by a Mac Mini that sounded less than stellar, so I would probably avoid a Mac as a source. I’d love to try the Auralic Aries, but it has no Android app, so that’s a no go. For now, I’d stick with a PC and Squeezelite, or even a Rasberry Pi as my source for my music library and streaming. I can spend a lot more, but damned if I can find a product I feel really deserves my cash. I usually just feel insulted.
Right now I’m really loving my Mytek DAC, and given it’s range of compatability I’d probably stick with it. I might try a 3 Mytek stack for 6 channel DSD or movies though. :)
Cables: Solid silver core, silver Neutrik connectors or Cardas. Made in home. For speaker cables, I’m using cheap stranded copper and staying with it. Everything else has to revolve around them. :)
Best,
Erik
