Most non-fatiguing 2.0 nearfield setup for $1000
Hello everyone, first-time poster here. This might be a little lengthy, but I won't mind if you skip over it if you just want to recommend some laid-back speakers, a good amp, or a good dac that might be lesser known. Anything is welcome. Like the topic suggests, I'm trying to put together the most non-fatiguing setup (DAC+amp+bookshelves) that I can and my maximum budget is around $1000. My goal is to have something that's less fatiguing than silence. Okay, I'm kidding, but I'm just generally looking for something that's laid-back, warm, perhaps somewhat mushy is not a bad thing in my opinion. I realize that ultimately my own subjective listening will determine what's best for me, but any input would be greatly appreciated.
Right now I'm using an early 90's entry level Harmon Kardon receiver with JBL bookshelves that have gone through hell. I don't think it's bad, and many would probably enjoy it but I find it to be too fatiguing, even with some EQ applied. I find this setup to be too harsh for my liking, not terribly bad, but I'd rather give them to my parents or my sister if I can't enjoy it to its fullest.
Lately I've been considering a Peachtree Decco as my source. Perhaps I could stretch for the Nova but I'd rather not as money is tight. I'm not a tube person but whenever someone mentions "tube" there seems to be an unwritten rule that it's warm (not the tube getting warm, or maybe that's what they meant! ;_;), even if it may not be universally true. If getting a separate DAC, I don't mind USB or digital out, though I understand some (most?) onboard audio doesn't have the best digital out so I may need to get an inexpensive sound card for this purpose. In general, it seems to me that I should just go with whatever DAC is neutral, and I'd probably be pleased with an Emu 0404 USB. Cheaper internal audio cards like the Auzentech Forte and Asus Xonar Essence ST from what I've read may or may not have internal noise and may or may not be bright sounding.
If I had to get a separate integrated stereo amplifier, I might just go for something cheap like the Gizmo t-amp or something vintage off of craigslist. If you have better suggestions I'm all ears.
Speakers. Here's the fun part and probably most important from what I gather. Right now I'm looking at Ascend Acoustics CBM-170 SE, Energy RC-10, PSB Alpha B1, Av123/Onix X-LS and ELT525 (I think I might prefer the X-LS more), Triangle Stella, or whatever cheap Spendor bookshelves I can get my hands on in the US. I might even go for some Paradigm Atoms which seem to be all the rage these days though they're both "bright" and "not-so-bright". It's hard to go by such a subjective descriptor in my opinion, plus I don't know if people sometimes refer to their older Atoms which are supposedly nowhere near the new ones. Well, this is basically a summary of where my one month of research has led me. I hope I did not bore you, though I'm sure it did since I'm so green at this. Any input, criticism, commentary, answers, questions are appreciated. Thank you.
Oh, I almost forgot, but should I bother with tube buffers? I had no idea what the heck one of these things were until recently, so I have not yet been able to do much research but if anyone has anything to say about them, I'm eager to learn. Thanks once again.
