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.
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
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. |
Here's a good speaker match for your small size room. It is also a component you can hang on to for years to come and upgrade around. It is a little more then you probably want to spend but I think there is some price negotiation to be had here, since I feel the asking price is a little high. They have a sensitivity of 92dB, and a Impedance of 8 ohms, . That's much higher then almost all stand mounts and will match with the single ended and low power push pull amps mentioned above, although I would consider a Primaluna Prologue Premium integrated. I have listed a link to one for sale, where I think there is some room for negotiation. Down the road you can upgrade the sound quality of the PL with upgrades in tubes / fuses and a PC. It's obvious that you would have to spend probably another 1K above your budget, but since these components are available used, your getting a lot of value and sound quality for your money. Both the speaker and integrated are very well built. The Primaluna is all point to point wiring, ececpt for a board or two for auto bias and protection circuits. There are many reviews on both the components listed below; I would highly encourage you to read them. https://www.audiogon.com/listings/monitors-reference-3a-mm-de-capo-i-beryllium-2017-01-22-speakers-3... Note: you can get spikes for the Sound Anchor Stands through Sound Anchor (husband and wife team) Note: They employ beryllium tweeters. http://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649291245-prologue-premium-integrated-amplifier-dealer-demo-unit/ As far as sources, the Marantz and Oppo players outlined in above post would be very good choices for around 1k Reference 3A MM Decapo BE (with sound Anchor Stands) = $2,400.00 Primaluna Prologue Premium Integrated = $1,850.00 Clearday silver biwire cables (new) = $350.00 Reasonably good interconnect on used market used = $300.00 New Marantz SA 8004/8005 or New Oppo 105 Multi CD player = approx. $1,100.00 Total $6,000.00 |
- 99 posts total