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Manson, let me know where did you source the Marantz Slimline AVR from?

I purchased the Marantz AVR from MZ Audio, the Marantz distributors / dealers for India. It was the last sealed piece of the NR 1402 the store had in stock and they offered it to me for a stellar price.

Many thanks guys!

Can you please recommend any particular models or combos?

That's reassuring - thanks!

Way too complicated, man! Can you please suggest specific models or build one for me?

Will do :thumbs up.

You can just get a pair of powered speakers, and either stream or hard wire within your budget. My cousin has a pair of the A5+ and they are really audiophile quality. I still think they have a dealer in New Mumbai

http://audioengineusa.com/Store/Powered-Speaker-Systems

If you really want to get funky, and can spend a lot more + a decent amp you can get the "The World's Best Desktop Speaker System" according to some reviews. Cousin above has the bigger brothers in his main system and it has highs and mids to die for.

http://www.magnepan.com/model_mini_maggie

For a 160 Sq. ft office, how about the Harmon Kardon Soundsticks III (which come with wireless connectivity). Heard good reviews about them and they look absolutely amazing in that all glass body shell.

Experts can comment on how good the SQ will be.

Everything revolves around this key point. If your primary usage is music, you should realize that almost all studio recordings are 2-channel stereo. (https://www.quora.com/Why-is-music-a...nnel-or-more-1)

After that, it depends on how you like your music. Do you want the original reproduction or do you want color (emebellishments like slightly more bass more treble, etc.) in your music? I prefer the former and that is why I use studio monitors.

The sky is your limit, my friend.

Just the bookshelf speaker range starts from relatively inexpensive speakers such as Sonodyne (India), Wharfedale (China), etc. to those costing lakhs from Bowers & Wilkins (UK), Harbeth (UK), etc. which are actually used by sound engineers in studios for recording when the artistes are performing live.

Bowers & Wilkins' older Matrix series was used extensively for most Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Alan Parsons recordings, so through those speakers you get the exact same reproduction the sound engineer intended.

The Yamaha seems to be an overkill as you don't seem to need 4K switching and a host of other features that a typical home theater needs.

In your place, I would choose active studio monitors primarily for their simplicity. My current setup has Bowers & Wilkins Matrix 805 studio monitors powered by 2 amplifiers, etc. and it took me a couple of years to build, I wouldn't suggest the same route to anyone given how complicated it was.

Something from the entry range of active speakers from Q Acoustics (UK) or Sonodyne will fit right in your original budget, perhaps even Genelec (Finland). With the speakers out of the way, all you would need is a good quality audio splitter that will connect to your laptop's 3.5 mm jack to split into two channel RCA. Later on if you feel the need, you can buy an external 24/96 or 24/192 DAC to take in asynchronous input from your laptop's USB to play high resolution FLAC, DSD, etc. files with better quality. Subwoofer may not be required if your monitors can dip down below say around 70 Hz.

Whatever you decide to buy, I strongly recommend you hear it first preferably with your own laptop. Please also bear in mind that sound quality has no relation to loudness, unscrupulous dealers will increase loudness to coax you into buying something they want to sell.

Luckily for you, both hifimart.com and bajaao.com are located in your city. I would contact them for an audition.

Okay, putting links of few of the models to make things easier for you:

Boston Acoustics A 26.
You can consider A25 also.

Wharfedale Diamond 220.
Diamond 250 is higher model.

Q Acoustics 2020i.
There are more models like 2010i, 3010 etc which can be considered.

Cambridge Audio also has couple of models in the same budget, not able to recall the name now but another very good brand to consider. They also have some amps which you can consider to power the whichever speakers you buy. Just note that if you plan to add sub at alter stage, then make sure there is provision to add the sub in the amp. Denon and Marantaz also make nice amps and AVRs.

All of the above brands offer subwoofer also for to best match their speakers. You can hold the sub for now and can add it later. There are few other brands also like Polk, Taga, Tannoy, Sonodyne etc. All of them offer good pairs under or around 20K.

Spending time and money on home audio is far more rewarding than car, you can have heavenly experience in much lesser money than expensive yet unsatisfactory car audio.

The relatively new Aptx bluetooth standard does permit quality audio from a wireless source.

Its not the best there is but from what i make of it, ease of operation is also a priority for you. Keeping this in mind, the Bose SoundTouch 30 (Aptx supported) comes highly recommended. You will be surprised by the amount of bass this little box can do.

Check out the Marshall Woburn too.

Absolutely agree with this statement. I would go one step further and say try and hear the speakers in your room if possible.

Are you bi-amping your B&W's or is it one amp/channel?

Vertically bi-amped with one amp/channel driving tweeter/woofer separately because those speakers go down to low impedance on certain frequencies.

Somehow I feel the need to add a PS to my earlier posts.

Given a choice, the one brand I might buy today in the "value-range" is Sonodyne from India. Unfortunately I have never been able to experience it due to the city-constraint I am in.

I was gobsmacked when someone from the US sent me a review of Sonodyne active monitors from a HiFi magazine and while I am unable to access the original review nor able to audition it here in Bangalore, I am nevertheless very keen to check it out.

It sort of reminds me of the time I was looking for razors on Amazon US before I realized that one of the *THREE* best razors in the world is made right here in India, but unfortunately the owner exports all of it because no one appreciates his products here in India.

They may still have an outlet here:

2nd Floor, Prestige Eva, Brigade Road
Bangalore,KA 560001
India
Tel: +91 80 41246999
mail@qubixtechnologies.com

Sorry GTO for chiming in so late. I busted my right shoulder (Wed) and lost my aunt (Thu) so I was offline.

Anyway I know you like bass and plenty of it. So I am going to suggest a model that NO audiophile worth his salt with recommend - the Pioneer RS49. https://pioneer-india.in/product/htp...specifications
Street price 45-50K.

It is pretty similar to this (The RS49 has 4K pass through, the RS33 does not but you don't care about that as it is a video function)
http://www.reliancedigital.in/tvs-au...tem-200-w.html

If you don't need floorstanding front speakers look at this package.
http://www.hifimart.com/package-deal...le-dx-1se.html

Your source is the EP out on your laptop which is what we would call 2.0 channels of sound. The AVR will have to be able to matrix pseudo 5.1 channels of sound from this 2.0 input.

Sure you can get a Yamaha or Onkyo AVR for 25k, a pair of bookshelves for about 20K (Wharfdale, Polk, Jamo, Boston etc ) and a subwoofer for 20K (Sonodyne is the cheapest here) but this will cost 65K if not more. If you are ok with a budget in the 60-80K range then this will be a more "audiophile" option. What do you get for the 20K difference? Usually better built speakers.

I am not going to reiterate all the "audiophile" options listed above. They all provide similar value for money but I give a slight edge to Onkyo and Yamaha AVR as far as VFM is concerned. For the speakers Q Acoustics, Wharfdale, and Polk will fit your budget the rest will push the budget to 25K+/pair for the bookshelves. For the subwoofer Sonodyne makes the cheapest sub at around 20K and then you have the Velodyne impact 10 or KEF T2 at around 30K.

I am looking to buy a stereo amplifier in the range of 10 to 12 Thousand rupees to drive a pair of polk audio tsi300 speakers. Would love to have an update on the options.

Pioneer VSX 329 AVR is just over 20K odd in Mumbai. If you want to restrict yourself to the 10-12K range, you could look at the Indian made amplifiers or probably get something used from a known source.