How much should I spend?

In a recent thread somone commented that i was only williing to spend £250 on speakers for my Rotel RB-991; a six hundred pound amplifier.

It got me thinking, what ratios does everyone else have in their kit?

I have an Arcam Alpha 5+ CD player (£150 second hand), RC-970 (£200), £600 amps, Rotel Black rhodium wiring (£400) and £400 speakers.

Which gives me ratios of:
150/200/600/400/400
What ratios do other people have.

Please keep the same format.

Source/Preamp/amp/wiring (total)/speakers.

If you have an intergrated amp divide by two and write twice.

 

CD/Turntable/AMP (INT.)/AMP (INT.)/CABLES/SPEAKERS (INCL. STANDS)/SUB (TWO CHANNEL USE ONLY)

1000/1000/300/300/1000/1350/2795

I love my little Musical Fidelity X-A2 amp, but I am not foolish to believe that I could have better, but then I can not afford the KR Audio amps I want

 

we played this game in slightly different form a while ago here: Percentages

Roku+server/Tact 2.2X/no amps/cables/ATC 50's, servo 15, DD15

1000/3000/0/120/12,000 (all US$)

 

Light in the middle here: source (Spacedeck / Spacearm / DL-103) £1650, phono stage (TE Microgroove) £500, amp (Densen B100) £750, speakers (Harbeth C7) £1500. Stands / leads etc comes in at about 1200 quid.

I can't make my mind up whether the phono stage should logically be counted as part of the source or part of the amp. I've actually just landed a much more expensive one which is waiting to be tried out when the system gets set up again after decorating the house (it's a Dynavector P100) which would tip the balance in quite an odd way price wise as it originally retailed for about £1500 (I paid less than a third).

For many years I was a very firm believer in purist source first, but lately I've come to the conclusion that the demand different speakers place on amplifiers can be very different – a good little amplifier into better but easy to drive speakers can arguably be a far better use of resources than paying a fortune on a amp to drive some real amp-suckers. I still don't think you can compromise on the front end. Synergy is much more important than worrying about price tags.

Tony.

 

1500/750/750/1300/2100
cdp/ int. amp/ wires (mains/i.c/spkr)/ jm lab + sub

 

are these new prices or what people paid? for me new prices are / were

squeezebox/server/dax-2 (3500) - nac82/hicap/hicap/nap250 (5800) - leads, stands, conditioners and guff (1900 ish) - IPL s5tl's (550 + a load of labour ). so...

3500/5800/1900/550+labour
cheers


julian

 

I have checked the percentages thread (thanks Oedipus).
I've come to the conclusion that I will exchange my £400 *** speakers (what hifi) To £750 **** speakers; also I am going to Audition that new shiny CDP.

Does anyone know how much the Arcam Alpha 5 plus cost when new?

 

CD+Pre amp/Power amp/Speakers + Stands/Cabling +connectors =
2000/1750/1500/1000.

Also available:
tuner/cd-recorder/cabling = 1000/1500/360.

All at prices paid in Euro's.

 

In my post they are new prices. I buy everything second hand - I have bought and sold a fair bit of hi-fi over the years so my system has actually paid for itself. I did the math a while back and assuming I count cartridges as 'running costs' I'm actually in profit on this addictive hobby!

Tony.

 

tony,
nice one. i'm not quite in the black on my system but i didn;t pay anywhere near new prices for any of my kit except the squeezebox, server pc (but that lived, unloved, in the garage for 2 years until i ressurected it) and technically the speakers but they arrived as bits of flatback and some drivers.
i guess if i ever came to sell my kit i'd probably be able to make a profit on what i paid although the speakers would count against me as who wants 2nd hand diy speakers - still i'm not going to sell them - or anything else for a while.
cheers


julian

 

tt/phonostage/cdp/dac/pre/power/speakers

2.5K/1K/.4K/1.5k/2K/3.8K/2.5K - new

1.8k/1K/.4K/.4k/1k/2.5k/1K - paid

 

How are the new self build speakers sounding now they've had a chance to bed in?

Tony.

 

The magic ratio 3/2/1

• CDP/preamp/active speakers = 3:2:1

• Turntable (inc. psu/arm/cart/phono stage)/preamp/active speakers = 5:2:1

(new prices in K euros)

 

tony,
i love them. there is a slight harshness if you turn the wick up on some older tracks but this seems to be recording dependant. i'm hoping this will be cured by the next round of developments (new crossovers and internal wiring to a better standard).
they certainly beat the b&w's i had before 6 ways from sunday and for less than 1/2 the price. if ever you're 'dahn saaaf' with a few hours spare feel free to arrange a visit if you're interested.
cheers


julian

 

CD player & DAC / Amplifier (integrated, so its halved and written twice) / Cables / Speakers

£330 / £150:£150 / £260 / £300

3.3 / 3 / 2.6 / 3 then really...

Approximately, based on new prices...I got the speakers and cables much cheaper than new prices though

 

- who knows...maybe Bub will renounce Mana aswell now

I would agree that you can't compromise on the source, especially if it's a TT, but speakers make the biggest difference IMO (and IME).

Michael.

 

I still can't believe you beat me down so far

 

I'm going to quote the RRP figures as this probably gives a more accurate ratio:

3000/1400/1400/1020/4750

paid:
3000/470/470/590/1600

 

again retail and in US$ (as most paid for in $'s...)

3600/1200/2800/3000/2600

 

RRP's of my stuff - or its modern equivalent:

TT/arm/cart: 900/400/120
Phono stage: 500
Amp: 1000
Speakers: 900