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First Stereo System Help

Hi all,

This Christmas I received a Pro-ject Debut Carbon but will be building the rest of the system myself. This is my first stereo system so my knowledge is pretty limited and I'm looking for advice on speakers and an amp. Some (hopefully) helpful information and some of my thoughts.

1. Listening area will be an apartment living room, maybe ~350-400 sqft, don't need huge volume.

2. Hoping to spend ~$1000, fine with buying used.

3. I know I need a phono stage, and from what I've read the Rega Fono Mini is one of the best budget phono stages for MM cartridges and will outclass phono stages in integrated amps significantly. This has made me shy away from something like a Marantz PM6004 and lean towards a separate phono stage. Is this true?

Thanks in advance for your help.
priptonite
truemaineiac's avatar
truemaineiac
249 posts
 
Hi, welcome to the forum. If you have $1K to spend on an integrated, speakers, and phono then my advice would be to get an integrated with a phono built in so that you can put more funds towards your speakers. There are a lot of different directions that you could go so it would be helpful if you might tell us about the type of music you like and if you have heard systems that you like. Do you like a warm sound or a more detailed type sound?

You will be better to pick the speakers that you like and then get an integrated that you know can work well with them. On the integrated side NAD are always popular as well as Marantz. Buying used will definitely help stretch the dollar a long ways.
priptonite OP
9 posts
 
Thanks for the response,

I listen to pretty much everything other than country, though I imagine my vinyl collection will end up being rock/blues/indie heavy.

Unfortunately I haven't demo'd any systems yet, I'm a true novice to analog audio :). I love the sound of my Beyerdynamic DT-770s (80 ohms) with a PA2V2 amp but that's about all I can tell you as far as sound preferences go.

There are a few audio stores around me but I just worry that the deals I could find online are significantly better than those in-store and I'd end up getting less bang for my buck. That being said, I could demo in-store gear so perhaps it's worth it.
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