Good Stereo System for Music?

[shenbag63]

Hi,

If you can stretch your budget by about 5 K, I'd suggest a Cambridge Audio 340A amplifier (about 38K) with a Wharfedale EVO2-8 bookshelf speakers (about 16K). One of my friends have this combo and is pretty good.

[filcord]

Originally Posted by Blue_V

16k is great! Does it have A/B, A+B speaker switching?

Yes, it does, and it has quite a lot of good features that you would need from a pure stereo amp. I looked up the reviews on amazon.com and was convinced it is a good buy. One plus, we have just got four new FM stations in Goa, from the existing one we had for many years, so I can enjoy good FM too.

[gmano]

Originally Posted by Torqy

When did you buy it?
From where?
Which model did you buy? RS250?

-- Torqy

I bought it from ProMusicals, chennai. Model Number is RS180. I bought it six months back.

[reignofchaos]

Originally Posted by Flying Bong

I think you should move the speakers further into the room if space permits. I myself have medium-sized bookshelf speakers in a 13'X24' room, kept about 2.5-3 feet away from side and rear walls. I guess the best thing would be trial and error - to keep moving the speakers away from the walls till boominess is reduced/eliminated.

Based on what I've read and in part, experienced, placing speakers closer to the corners/rear wall reinforces bass and leads to boominess, more so with floorstanders.

How big is your listening room? I once heard a a pair of 2-way Cadence floorstanders in a 14' X 18' room, placed 3 feet from the sides and 1.5 feet from the rear, and they were still boomy at moderate to loud levels.

Here is an online guide (may not always be practical to implement though ) to speaker placement on the Cardas Audio website:

Cardas Audio

FB are you talking about the Cadence Avita? When I heard them, they were not boomy at all. Just far too laid back for rock and hence not to my tastes. I guess its got to do with the amp and room. I tested the speakers with the Class A VA-1. That had nice tube bloom but it wasn't powerful enough to tame the bass. Then we switched over to a friend's Plinius 8200. With that amp, it sounded incredible for classical and smooth jazz. It sounded just passable with rock and metal.

Incase you speak about the Diva, I'm not surprised. Its a really bad speaker.

[Flying Bong]

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

FB are you talking about the Cadence Avita? When I heard them, they were not boomy at all. Just far too laid back for rock and hence not to my tastes. I guess its got to do with the amp and room. I tested the speakers with the Class A VA-1. That had nice tube bloom but it wasn't powerful enough to tame the bass. Then we switched over to a friend's Plinius 8200. With that amp, it sounded incredible for classical and smooth jazz. It sounded just passable with rock and metal.

Incase you speak about the Diva, I'm not surprised. Its a really bad speaker.

Yep, it was the Divas. Was unpleasantly surprised myself when I heard them, considering that they are design-wise quite similar to the Arita bookshelf model...

[islandman]

As your source is going to be your PC
The first thing that you should think of is will you have a wired connection from your amp to pc or a wireless one.

If connection = wired then
The best ( combination of value for money and features) in my mind would be Yamaha rx-n600. It connects to your home network via ethernet and has good number of other features thrown in. you could get a number of discounts as this is a older model and has no HDMI. (Remember there is a new range of Onkyo's,Denon and Pio amps are supposedly awesome and hence there are huge discounts on older models in the mkt).

If connection is going to be wireless then
Look for DLNA compatible ethernet input ( as in the Pio VSX-LX series or the newer Denon CE series) to which you can attach a wireless dongle and presto you have access to all music files. Use your tv to get a menu page.


If you can source a good second hand amp then
Go in for a D-Link DSM-520 Wireless HD Media Player DLink DSM 520 wireless music player. its a neat solution , has a ethernet port, a hdmi port too apart from wireless support.

For Speakers in this package:
Based on your preference, I would suggest a pair of floor standers.

a). Consider floor standers Mission 33i or wharfedale diamond 9.5.

b) A little higher in the budget ( 30-40k) would be KEF IQ5 ( I own them they are superb and offer a wider Stereo spectrum), Monitor Audio BR5 series and AE Neo's(This are the best floor standers at this price point IMHO)

[reignofchaos]

Since we are talking of speakers, I'd like inputs on speakers around 200k INR. So far the best I've heard are The Dynaudio Focus 220, Contour 1.3SE and the Thiel CS2.4 (slightly more than 2lacs).

I'm looking for my next pair of speakers and looking for options. I'd be happy with more inputs from folks here .

[filcord]

I have heard Marauder54xs, electrostats from Finland. Awesome! They're about10,000 Euro in France.

[determinus]

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

I'm looking for my next pair of speakers and looking for options. I'd be happy with more inputs from folks here .

What are your existing ones? And what are you going to do to them?

[reignofchaos]

Existing ones will be gotten rid of... Jamo E855. I just dumped my old integrated amp as well for a good power amp. Currently looking for a nice tube preamp and a better pair of speakers.

[gmano]

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

Existing ones will be gotten rid of... Jamo E855. I just dumped my old integrated amp as well for a good power amp. Currently looking for a nice tube preamp and a better pair of speakers.

Yes. he is going to dump his integrated amp on me

[sk456]

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

Since we are talking of speakers, I'd like inputs on speakers around 200k INR. So far the best I've heard are The Dynaudio Focus 220, Contour 1.3SE .

Hi ROC,
I had recenty auditioend the Dynaudio Evidence C2 or c3 ( cnat remebe the exact model - all i remmer that it costs a bomb 300k each--IMO too expensive for what it gives) . Even though the mids and highs were awesome..(The piono and vocals were superb)..the lows were lacking. How were the Focus and contours in this regard. Unfortunatlely, these two were not avialbel for auditioning here in delhi. your inputs would be great.
P.S Dyanudios need a lot of power to bring out there best..A whoosy amp is no good with Dyns.

[Flying Bong]

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

Existing ones will be gotten rid of... Jamo E855. I just dumped my old integrated amp as well for a good power amp. Currently looking for a nice tube preamp and a better pair of speakers.

What power amp have you got? CDP?

[sk456]

Folks am looking for an entry level 2 channel audio set up. My budget is to go for a 30+30+30 K set up. i.e 30 K for cd player,30K for amP,30-40 K for speakers.. what would be the option available in thsi price range. Your inputs would be great.
My primary music would be jazz vocals with soem old school rock and soem hindi OST's thrown in..

[reignofchaos]

My poweramp is a McCormack DNA 225.

Stereophile: McCormack DNA-225 power amplifier

The Focus 220 sounded excellent. Beautiful balance, the sound was lush, airy and very transparent. The contours were even better though lacking in a bit of bass extension as they are bookshelves.

sk456 what amp was the confidence paired with? I think that speaker would need atleast 300-400W high current monoblocks to perform well else there'd be no bass control. FB I don't use a cd player. I use a Burr Brown PCM1796 based chinese built Citypulse DA7.2x external DAC connected to a computer. Its modified heavily. All my CDs are ripped to the hard drive using Exact Audio Copy. I got a few higher end DACs too (Benchmark DAC1, Bel Canto DAC2) but I preferred this one over those.

sk456 I would suggest you get a pair of nice bookshelves based on your tastes, a Marantz PM7001 or Cambridge Audio Azur 640A or a NAD C352 amp and a CA Azur 640C CD Player.

For bookshelves, I'd suggest the Quad 11L, Epos M5, Dynaudio Audience 42, Cadence Arita (if you can up your budget a bit), Monitor Audio Silver RS1, PSB Image B25, KEF iQ1 etc. Just audition as much as you can before deciding.