The great £500 system thread

Just had an idea for a bit of fun.

You get to take a mythical £500, and go forth and spend it on the following

1) source
2) amplifier
3) speakers (with stands if standmounts)
4) any necessary cables

You can buy new, second hand, ex-dem, kit, whatever. You can't tweak internally though - sorry.

The mods then choose the best system - with a fun prize for the winner. Nothing valuable, just a laugh.

Up for it? - Rules are as follows.

1) Mods cant enter. Sorry mods. Cant be judge and participant
2) If you import an item from abroad all costs must be accounted for, including shipping, tax, voltage conversions etc
3) You cant ignore cables and the like. Thats just cheating.
4) You can pretend you have a rack already. Mana if it makes you happy.
5) you must have one source. you can choose LP or CD or a tuner, or tape if you want. whatever.
6) you can go source-direct if you want - like a quad 99 with variable volume straight into an amp.
7) Judges decision is final and and purely a matter of our collective opinions!
8) no mods on internal bits means that. you can have fancy power cords etc if they fit in budget.

Thats about it - have fun!!!

 

Source: Rotel RCD 965 BX £50
Amp: Nytech CTA 252 XD £60
Speakers: Rega Kytes £75
Sound Organisation wall brackets: £20
Stand: Sound organisation 2 tier original: £20
Speaker cable: QED original: £10
signal lead: Chord 2 phono - 5 pin din:£20

Total £255
Leaving £245 to spend on CDs.

This is my second system and how much it cost me, all s/h.

bob

 

Thoughts:
- NOS DAC and s/h CD player as transport. Should be possible for £200.
- Couple of Sonic Ts with decent power supply. £100
- Some decent cables knocked up by Zanash. Say £60
- Leaves £140 for speakers. Definitely s/h. I sold a pair of Musical Fidelity MC4s for less than that (including the stands). Despite their brand, they were seriously good (despite being pig ugly).

So, just under £500 notes, DAC with mono-blocked speakers. Sorted.

 

hehe I love doing this kind of thing now please remember I am slightly out of the HIFI loop but I reckon you would be hard pushed to get a better sound from a £500 new system than this.

Source: Goldring GR2 - Very similier to the Rega P2 with a Goldring 1012GX with Gyger 2 diamond stylus fitted. £240

Amplifer - Cambridge Audio A5 with Phono Stage - £140 http://ws4.richersounds.com/showproduct.php?cda=showproduct&pid=CAMB-A5BLK

Speakers - Mission M71's £80 http://ws4.richersounds.com/showproduct.php?cda=showproduct&pid=MISS-M71I-BCH

That leaves £40 change for some speaker cable and some records

My own system by the way would be (all new but no longer for sale new)

Marantz PM6010 £150
Marantz CD6000 OSE LE £150
Eltax Monitor III speakers £70
IXOS gamma speaker cable £10
Ixos gamma interconnect £20

Which is £390 in total.

 

Can we have multiple (new and SH) entries?

My 2nd hand £500 worth (ebay??)

DPA Renaissance CD player and amp - £120 each
2 xYello Mains cable for CD player/amp - £20
Kimber PBJ phono - phono - £30
Kimber 8VS speaker cable (or maybe 4TC, yep 4TC) - £80
Leaves about £160 for a decent 2nd hand pair of speakers - too tricky after a bottle of Rioja - too much of a personal taste thing.....Ok then - Rega ELAs.

Well balanced, good with a variety of music if you don't push the volume to 11 - bloody hell, I think I'll go out and buy it!

 

Source: Rega Planar 3 / AT95E (second hand 200 quid)
Amp: A&R A60 (second hand 60 quid)
Speakers: Spendor BC1 (second hand 200 quid, hopefully with stands)
Speaker cables: 1.5mm twin and earth mains cable (about £5-10 dependent on length reqired).

Tony.

(PS I've won!)

 

Dont get too excited, you dont know what the prizes will be yet!!

Keep em coming!

 

Sony CDP XA20ES with variable output, cost me £192


Silver + Silver Bullet IC of eBay for £30 (needed a bit of work)

A pair of mono block KT66 pushpull valve amps I bout off of eBay for £100 (needed a bit of work)

Speaker cable probably DNM Reson for about £50


On eBay and will go for about £125 (I would have gone for Spendor BC1 but TonyL beat me to it)

So that's £497 well spent I'd say.

 

Systemdek IIX900 RB250 + new belt £150

Was a rave at the time and is a decent deck easily as good as a rega IMHO.

Rotel RC850 £30
Rotel RB850 Power Amp £80

Cheap, phono staged and powerful. Sounds surprisingly decent.

Ruark Talismans £120

I always liked them high WAF and can easily be found, a lot of speaker for £130 for 2's add another 50

AT95E £25

VDH CS122 £25

Big sound for very little money. 12pm Friday night I must be bored!

 

Musical Fidelity B200 amp - 2nd hand £100
Ariston RD80 deck - 2nd hand £80 (witha bit of luck with a half-decent arm)
Arcam Alpha 6 CD - 2nd hand £120
Pair Rogers Studio 1 speakers - 2nd hand £180 (better than Spendor BC1 imho, similar design)
£20 for DIY interconnect and speaker cable - tight but do-able and probably better than spending £50 at Richer sounds!

Only other alternative I'd consider......Sugden A21 instead of the B200, similar price giving 12wpc class A instead of 60wpc AB

P.S. I know the rules said one source, but I can do 2 for less than £500 anf flexibility is the name of the game!

 

A little hunt on eBay throws up:

Linn LP12 + Akito + K9 Source = £346.11



NAD 3020 amp = £31



Rogers LS4a Speakers = £101



Stands = £14.99



Speaker Cable Linn K20 = £3.99

Total £497.09!!!

Very tempted....

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3283&item=5777209130&rd=1
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3280&item=5776739885&rd=1
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=14991&item=5775158631&rd=1
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=96957&item=5778169242&rd=1
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=52473&item=4733436840&rd=1

 

Source: Bargain basement DVD player as transport + spdif interconnect - £60?

Amp: Panasonic SA-XR70 Digital amplifier - £298. I have one of these and it sounds superb. I've reviewed it here.

Speaker Cable: Vandamme 1.5mm OFC cable - £1.49/stereo metre

Dunno about the speakers, but I'm sure some good, not-agressive sounding mini monitors could be had for ~£150.

 

Woah, that's good value! Of course, my LP12 only cost me £150 - the value of scouring hifi small-ads (no Akito tho').

 

Yes, someone got a bargain if it's clean..
Mine was £260 (from eBay, & a beauty too!) with an R200 + K9

 

Mr S you beat me to this thread .....

So
Amp -pair of sonic T-amps plus psu £100 [new]*
speakers- Chartwell PM110 MKII £10 [boot sale]*
source - Denon dcd 960 £25 [Cash converters]*
tt pioneer pl120d £15 to get it working [ebay 5777524050]
DVD toshiba 100se £20 [cash converters]*
spk cables - 800m plus of gale off cut £30 [ebay]*
Ic's zero cost's £12 [new] *
TV sony 32inch £50 [ebay 4385123840]

and £200 worth of cd's dvd and records to play on it !
anything with a * I have bought !

 

I'll go for:

Systemdeck 2x with SME 3009 and Denon 103 cart (2nd hand, £300max)
MF B200 amp (2nd hand £100)
Kef Cadenza speakers (the ones with the brown 70s stand and base, rather than the identical otherwise except in price chrome one, £60 2nd hand)
Cables from Maplin ("shielded high quality" interconnect and "audiophile speaker cable" £40)

Lovely warm listen-to-anything-and-it'll-sound-good sytem...

 

Robs Linn through a Nad?

I am all for source first but a bit of balance please, nad!

 

Weeellll.....source first!! After the LP12, there was £150 left for speakers, stands, amp & cables... I would say the majority of that should go on speakers (I had a pair of Rogers LS4a some time ago, & they were very nice..only traded them because I wanted some floorstanders)...
The 3020 was a good amp (with a phono stage)...supposedly the giant killer of its time

Can't say I've heard the combination, though I have had all of them at one time or another...

 

I'd go for this little lot...

Manticore Mantra TT with Linn LVX or Basik Plus (probably approx 250 quid) and AT95E: Probably the finest turntable you'll get, without going to the LP12/Gyro/NAS blah blah level.
Creek 4040 for approx 50 quid
JPW P1's or Boston A40's if you can find some in decent nick.

 

You could pick up a pair of old bookshelf Kefs, original Chorales for instance, I bought a pair for £20, and they're pretty good at least a match for the Rogers ls4a, probably better, then you could shell out for a lovely old Sugden A21 (pure class A) instead of the Nad - still a classic setup and more evenly matched all round!