Good Audio System for Living Room

To be more general (so you don't think I'm pimping Rega stuff) I think your best approach is to find a local audio dealer with a good reputation (start a separate thread) and go to them and tell them :

1) your budget
2) the size of the room
3) your listening tastes ... take your CDs or LPs with you.
4) Where the speakers must be placed.
5) where you must sit.

And ask for their recommendation of CD, amp, speakers, cables to fit in your budget. Demo it, and if it sounds great get it .. if you're not sure ask for a different combination or try a different dealer until you hear something you could live with.

Mcintosh, Proac, Rega, Arc ..... there are a gazillion manufacturers making great audio equipment, but making suggestions to you on this thread is a crapshoot, since not all components will work well together and not all will suit your room and / or taste in music.

If you want to spend 5-10 years searching for the pinnacle of hifi reproduction within your budget then stay on audigon and buy used equipment. However if you just want a great sounding hifi for reasonable outlays of time and money find a good dealer(s), take their recommendations and be sure to demo the whole system. Good luck.

Look around and see if you can find a Totem dealer. Their Arro speaker may be just what you want-great sound and small footprint. They work in my bedroom just great and the sound (along with their WAF) is VERY high.

I recently put together a system for 500.00 used. After getting all the pieces here, I decided to set it up to see that everything was working and how it sounded. I was amazed at how good it sounded.

I myself am spoiled by a 40k plus system, so I was expecting to be really let down by what I heard. My opinion is that if you can't sit in the sweet spot (or if you would even) you aren't going to notice a termendous diffrence between a budget system and an expensive one. Granted the expensive system will sound better from the other room, but to most would hardly justify the price.

I have really enjoyed having a little system like this available to CDs on for casual listening. No warm up time, no tweeking, no worry of leaving your system on for fear of buring up expensive tubes.

The system I've put together is-

Creek 4330 integrated amp (250.00 used)
NAD 502 CD player (90.00 used)
Mission 731i speakers (100.00 used)
Homegrown Audio Super Silver interconnect kit (50.00 new)
MIT Terminator 2 speaker cable (70.00 used)

I substituted a set of Meadowlark Kestrel speakers and a Rega Planet CD player to the sytem and that improved things quite a bit, but would add about 1000.00 to the price. With speakers and the CD player upgraded the system becomes much more enjoyable for critical listening.

If you were only going to play music and aren't concerned with soundstage and imaging, you would probably be perfectly happy with the 500.00 system.

I believe that any living-room system needs a correction so I would recommend getting products from TACT audio if you can afford.

Ejlif has a good point ... "My opinion is that if you can't sit in the sweet spot (or if you would even) you aren't going to notice a termendous diffrence between a budget system and an expensive one." Couldn't agree more. Good post.