I am not interested in debating any of my recommendations.Nothing to debate brother. You're post is pretty much a mirror image of mine and tls47. I couldn't agree more.
Looking to build a system for under $5k
Hello,
I am brand new to audio and looking to put a system together for around/under $5k all in. Any recommendations?
This would be mainly for CD audio but expandable for phono in the future. I have a small bedroom that I am dedicating as a music room upstairs in a cape cod style home. So it has angled walls that follow the roof line.
Looking for components that offer the biggest bang for the buck. I've done some research over the last couple of months and it seems like the Vandersteen 1Ci might be a good cornerstone to design a system around.
Thanks,
Joe
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- 99 posts total
+1 for @charles1dad +1 for @strateahed entry level Pro Dynamics could be an optional choice to combine with the above reference Coincident Dynamo MK II amplifier. http://tyleracoustics.com/pro_dynamics.html Magnepan .7 or 1.7 could be an optional choice for the Odyssey Khartago http://www.odysseyaudio.com/ |
Clearday cable may be the way to go, but I wouldn't make cable choices until I determined what components you are getting and funds remaining for cables. http://cleardaycables.com/ |
Begin with the speakers. As several posts have commented, approximately 50% of the money for speakers would not be unusual. Audio shows are a good place to hear many possibilities; but personally, I find audio shows to be fatiguing. And I think that it is important to listen to speakers more than once. Ultimately you will have to either buy on-line or from a brick and mortar store. If at all possible, try to negotiate an in-home audition; in my experience, speakers often sound very different at home than in a store or show - sometimes better and sometimes worse. |
There is a lot of good advice here. I didn't read anything that would be really bad advice. However, there are a couple of key considerations in your case. This is your first serious system, and you are working with a fairly low budget. Therefore, I suggest that you look to the future. In other words, this won't be your final, maybe not even a long term, system. I would try to get one or two components out of this that will serve you well for years to come. The other thing I have noted is that you are going to be using a small bedroom. In view of that later consideration, I would avoid speakers that go much below about 40Hz. Speakers that go low can be very difficult to integrate into a small room. You can have really good speakers sound really bad in a room like yours because of too much ringing in the low frequencies. You may also want to eliminate speakers that need a lot of space between them and room boundaries. Given this, I would probably forget about panel (dipole) speakers. There are some good relatively inexpensive monitors that might work very nicely in your room. It is important to hear speakers before buying. If there are some good salons within driving distance, spend some time finding a speaker that you like that will work well in your room. Try to negotiate an in home audition. Your speaker decision will dictate where you need to be looking with respect to an integrated amp. Some speakers like tubes, some almost demand solid state. The Coincident Dynamo mentioned by Charles is a superb value and can take you years down the road. But, you really are going to need a high efficiency (~92 to 94 dB) high impedance (8 Ohm) speaker. I use a dynamo in my second system. It is a really nice little amp. Both the Marantz 8005 and Sony HAPZ1 have been mentioned earlier. I haven't heard the Marantz, but I can tell you the Sony is superb. I had my Sony modded by Dan Wright, but it was a superb value at 2K before modification. Both the Sony and Marantz offer a serious upgrade path by sending them to ModWright down the road. There is no doubt, you can get a very nice little system for 5K. Just be mindful of the limitations imposed by your room, and you should be fine. |
- 99 posts total