ADVICE PLEASE


Novice guy here so be Nice.

I recently came across a brand new in a box Yamaha Rx-V861 that my brother purchased some time ago. He never got around to even opening the box and now its mine.  I purchased a pair of B&W tower speakers 600 series and I need advice on speaker cable and anything else that you feel I should add?  My original plan was a budget of $3000, I got the receiver for free and spent $1800.00 on the speakers.  Thoughts?  Used amp? Cd player?  What say you?


kdogone
Hook it up right now with lamp cord or whatever you got and start listening. Leave the receiver turned on 24/7 and pay attention, you should be able to hear improvement in smoothness and detail over the first week or so. You want to do this because if you want a system that sounds really good then from here on in you need to no longer buy whatever you think might be good and only buy what you have tried in your system and found to sound the best. Play whatever you have, play the radio if you have to, and leave it turned on even if nothing is playing. Just never turn it off.

What you need in terms of components: the Yamaha doesn't have a detachable power cord or you would want to budget for that. It does have a phono input, which means it has a phono stage, which means you have to decide whether you want a turntable or not. Plenty of budget turntables that will kill a lot more expensive CD players so might want to consider that. Either way you will probably want a CD player. Interconnect. And speaker cables.

With $1200 that would be in very round numbers something like:
$300 turntable
$300 CDP
$300 interconnect
$300 speaker cable

This isn't what you spend, this is just so when you go shopping you have some guidelines to keep you looking at the right stuff. You've already gone and bought speakers that are way out of line with the Yamaha but that's fine they'll be your "anchor" component and plenty good enough to easily hear and know when you bring home something good to try out. 

That's the most important thing from here on in: try it out. Never buy what you have not heard. Never! Make it your rule. If not in your own system (preferred) then compare as much as you can in the store. Cables and interconnects can make all the difference, but they get a bad rap because so many of them are crap and the only way to know is bring it home and that's a lot of work so nobody does it and then instead of blaming their own laziness they blame the crappy cables. Just know up front they are mostly crap and make up your mind to search out the good ones.The minute you do you will know it was worth the trouble.

WHAT you buy matters not at all. HOW you buy is everything.

Speaker cables: Could be dirt cheap from Walmart, or super expensive. I don’t believe in sonic differences, so I just buy for aesthetics. For less than $40/pair, I own these:
https://www.amazon.com/GearIT-Premium-Braided-Speaker-Plated/dp/B07195V25F?th=1

Are you the type that would use a CD player? I’m the type to rip my CD’s and then just stream it over Wi-Fi to my system.

If you want a CD player, since you’d want to use digital out anyway, it’d be hard to beat this for the price:
https://www.amazon.com/Onkyo-C-7030-Compact-Player-Black/dp/B004UR487A/

As for a Toslink cable, and again just for aesthetics, maybe this:
https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Optical-Audio-Cable-Toslink/dp/B0789K2MKL/


Please don’t listen to the other guy, spending the same amount on RCA cables as on the turntable and the CD player, that’s just silly.

Future purchase should be a subwoofer (or two), I recommend looking at Rythmik, HSU, SVS, and PowerSoundAudio. 
 
Oh, and if you want a universal remote (and have a computer to set it up), the Logitech Harmony line is great, I have the 650 and love it for being <$50.
On my lower end system I made my own speaker cable with 12 AWG pure copper low oxygen "lamp cord' as @millercarbon calls it. Put decent banana plugs on it and I'm happy with it. Can be done with little skill and no tools. Its a step up from the 18 awg stuff from Walmart anyway.

I think for immediate, low complexity, low expense enjoyment with good SQ, CDs and a decent CD player are very hard to beat. And there is a nearly endless supply of cheap used CDs out there. That is where I would start.

Then I'd look into ripping them. But that gets complicated really fast unless you drop some cash for an all-in-one ripping, storing, playing solution like the Blue Sound Vault 2i. About $1200. Many here will tell you that its DAC is no good though.

I currently use an old iMac with iTunes (free), XLD ripping software app (free), a $30 USB cable and a used Schiit Modi 2 Uber ($110). I'm listening to Steely Dan - Two Against Nature ripped CD right now through this set up and it sounds great to me.
Don't spend any money on cables right now.

I'd focus on speaker placement, and room acoustics. See GIK Acousutics website.

Find the manual to your speakers  and follow the instructions carefully about ideal placement.

Listen for the instruments being able to transition smoothly from L to R without gaps. Leave enough space to the outside of the speakers so you don't have early reflections. Throw carpets/throw rugs around the floor between and behind them and listen again.


That's where you should start.
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