What should I do?

Owing to a theft I will be in a position to buy some new Hifi gear in the next week or so! ( Depends on how quick my dealer and churchill insurance talk!!)

The questions that I have is how do I do this? I will have about £9200 and the burglars left my speakers which are Monitor Audio's GR60 and they left the speaket cable which is Audioquest Indigo blue/2 shotgunned. But everything else apart from supports went, so here is my quandry. My main source will be cd's for sure. However I was beginning to listen to more vinyl of late and am intrigued by the sound. I had a project debut II for this use. My amp that was stolen was an A308 Integrated and cd player was MF xray v3. Some meridian amplification was also taken. SO here are my choices as I see them.

choice 1.

Musical Fidelity KW500 amp, Meridian G08, Gyrodec SE + Cartridge + loads of nice accessories.

Choice 2.

Meridian 808, new MF A5 integrated and a Project 4 turntable or similar.

Choice 3.

Meridian 808i, and try to buy a A308 power amp. Save for a gyrodec in a few months.

Choice 4.

Meridian 808 + a £2K pre power combo to suit rest of system.

I hope all you wise guys can help as I know its a nice decision to make but its starting to really get to me. FWIW my dealer reckons choice 1 is good. (but I am afraid the gyrodec will show up the G08 and then I would be sad

Hope you can help.. Thanks

 

With that sort of budget you will get dealers bringing gear to your own home,massively important.Just enjoy having that amount to spend and dem like mad (sorry to hear about the theft though).Spend 6 months really deming,that will be a joy in itself.

 

9,200 is a huge sum of money to be spending on hifi.

Are you restricted to a certain dealer because of insurance money?

It's just that if you had the opportunity to spend that kind of money on a MIXTURE of new, ex-dem and second hand kit from somewhere that does all 3, then you would have some amazing choices -

Im sure you could stretch your 9,200 to a kit value of 20k with careful shopping.

Choices Like..

An Orbe, Hyperspace
A Wadia CDP
A Sim, Audio Research, Belcanto - take your pick!

About the only thing I'd prefer to buy brand spanking new (personally) is the cartridge on the record deck.

Another point of course, should you want to change a bit of kit in the future, the used value of the item will be a lot higher if you dont suffer that initial depreciation.

Also, have you taken into account prices of cartridges, arms and a decent phono stage?

You have some fun ahead!!

Chris

 

interesting position to be in. you didn't say how happy you were with what you had. and by how much more you liked the Meridian over the MF.

you also write as though you woud prefer to spend through your dealer, buying new rather than spending the money on s/h kit - would your insurer allow you to buy s/h goods?

I also think a lot depends on how much time/effort you want to spend on demo'ing rather than playing the music, and whether you are happy to entrust your dealer with so much - presumably s/he has been good advisor in the past, but as indicated there is a lot you can get for the money, especially that amount of money, s/h.

 

Densen CD and amps, and buy that damn £200 remote

 

for nearly 10k you've got an awful lot of choice. if you're not locked into one dealer then take your time and audition at places like MAX, Metropolis, Heatherdale, the emporium and Hazelmere they'll show you a number of ways to listen to your music which you may not have thought of before. it may even be worthwhile selling your MA's just so you have a totally clean slate to play with. certainly i'd be like a kid in a sweetshop trying everything before buying.
cheers


julian.

 

You can now acquire some proper kit, rather than m/f

 

Stratbat

£9,200 may sound a lot but it isn't really.

You need to take a long term view and possibly accept that you may upgrade at a later stage in your Hifi hobby.

You need to purchase a product that sounds good, has a good and proven customer care record and allows you to easily upgrade without getting bogged down in cables etc.

I therefore strongly exhort you to visit your Naim dealer and see what he suggests and listen to it at home.

I think you will like it.

Good luck in what ever you do.

Regards

Mick

 

You've paid all the premiums so now enjoy spending it.

Edward takes Vivian to a high end hi-fi store where he is prepared to spend an obscene amount of money on Vivian.
Store manager: Just how obscene an amount of cash are we talking about here? Profane or really offensive?
Edward: Really offensive.
Store manager: I like him so much.

Remember it is your £9,200 to spend and you are the one in charge of the cash.

 

why not keep the mf synergy with kw500 with the a5 cd player that would be superb

 

Since you seem to like the m/f sound (a difficult position to hold here sometimes), you could also try to find a NuVista M3 - which I did rather prefer to the A308.

(BTW I have an M3 currently surplus to requirements )

 

Ok lets clarify some of the things I said before. I will be locked into using this dealer I think, however I will endeavour to find out for sure early next week. Secondly I do like the MF sound that I had before and I was entirely happy with the hifi. However since I am getting this sum I would rather go on a upgrade path. The meridian cdp IMHO are some of the best in the world. The chap who told me to go and listen to Naim gear has not seen my posts in the Hifi choice forums to see my opinions of Naim. (you are not woody in disguise are you?)

The real question I want to ask is will the gyrodec se and a decent cartridge really show up the meridian g08? If the answer is yes then I will go for the 808 and other power amplification. I know that I can decide myself by me listening but your thoughts of peeps who have far more experience than myself is always appreciated. About the wadia kit.. nice but..hmmm

Interestingly even within my dealer I had had two or three different views. I think I am swinging towards the MF KW500, G08 and Gyrodecse, good headphone amp and some nice headphones. :JPS:

 

strabat,
it looks like you've already decided what you want. personally i think the meridian g08 blows chunks sounding really uninvolving and frankly quite boring even through some pretty serious amps and speakers but horses for courses. not heard the kw500 but it seems to review quite well so you'll probably like it. as to the gyrodec, well the nottingham analogue and kuzma equivalents i've heard are more to MY liking but again go have a listen.
cheers


julian.

 

My advice would be: sell your MA GR60s, spend at least £5K on the best speakers you can find and use the rest on source and amp.

Michael.

 

or build your own
cheers


julian

 

He is of course well into ATC100 Active/£200DVD territory...

Or Quad ESL988/Linn 2250 (amp to taste, but I have a suspicion that the Linn SMPS job would work really well in this application).

Paul

 

Michaelab.. IMHO my MA GR60's are the best speakers that I can find for a budget of up to 6K. Even then they will give others a good run for the money.. perhaps you havent really heard them really sing in a great system..your more than welcome once I have sorted my ideas out, but for sure getting rid of the MA60's is out of the question..forget it.. they rock

 

Don't get me wrong strabat, the GR60s are great speakers, if you think they're the best available upto 6K then stick with them, it's hard to argue with people's speaker preferences, very personal choices .

In which case, I'd blow most of your money on the TT and ancillaries (cart, phono stage etc etc) as that's one area of hifi where diminishing returns kick in a lot later than CDPs and amps (IMO).

Michael.

 

Im sure your insurer will give you the choice of dealers.

At least if you select a dealer with a good second hand stock list, you will be able to mix/match.

A gyro SE is pretty good - there is a lot better. With 9,200 and a view to second hand /ex-dem then that option is open to you. Your dealer would advise against it of course - he wants his commision!!

If I had that kind of money to spend - My choice of dealer would be KJ west one. I'd choose them because they have multiple high end retail outlets with new and ex-dem stock, and also an outlet selling the trade-ins and second hand stock (the trading station - see stock lists in the mags). You'd have real high end options to pick from.

One insurance check with the words ''KJ West One'' on it - I would have real high end kit by the end of it.

One possible system for that money:

Nottingham Analogue Hyperspace, Wave Mechanic Power supply, Morch arm, Ortofohn Kontrapunkt cartridge, Tom Evans Phono Stage, Wadia CDP (used), Belcanto Evo 4.

I really think you need to look wider than sevenoaks with that kind of cash in your back pocket.

PS I am blunt because I have had a few drinks. Sorry !!

Chris

 

FWIW I would have that system above any day over any of the choices in strabat's first post.

Michael.