What to buy

Hi, All

Talking to my brother the other day, he has £3000 to spend on his first HiFi (lucky him). After looking in the usual mags, and going to a couple of HiFi shops he is totally lost on what to buy. I suggested 2nd hand; his other half wasn't to please at. In the end he now is after: -
New or exdem cd player
Exdem or 2nd hand amp
Exdem or 2nd hand speakers

His room is 5m by 4m with chimneybreast the speakers will have to go either side of with the seating being 3m away. So what do you guys think?

GAZZ

 

Hi Gazz

Thats such a wide open question, and I wish it was as simple as What Hifi would make you believe, with five star ***** top trumps products to reccomend.

I suppose the following would help people give him a few boxes to reccomend..

Questions 1-3 removed! (sorry)

4) Would he consider valves, does he have small children about the place?
5) Music he likes
6) Has he heard anything already he likes?
7) Does he need a TT as well as a CDP? how about a tuner?
8) Is he interested in AV, or just music?
9) Would he consider making Kits? What about if the kits were proffessionally made?
10) Does he have ANYTHING already? - hifi rack, cables, anything?
11) Where does he live, for reccomending shops?
12) does he have to get 'domestic approval'? Would he buy nice sounding ugly kit?
13) Is 3K a fixed budget?

 

Arcam FMJ CD33T
Arcam FMJ A32

Speakers to taste. He'll have to listen to some.

Castle Conway 3 would blow the budget (although he could get Arcam DiVA A90 and CD93 instead of FMJ).

If buying second hand a CD32 or CD92 would be equally recommendable.

Buying an A90 and CD93 would leave enough budget for a really nice pair of floorstanders (like the Castles) and some left over for cables. A rack might be pushing it.

 

Of course, said friend might want to play those funny black plastic things...what are they called...records! That's it!

In which case ignore my recommendations. The budget would be well shot with the addition of a half decent record deck.

Does your friend have any AV pretentions?

If I was looking further downmarket for the electronics, the Marantz PM7200 would be in the frame along with Rotel and Arcam and possibly a NAD C372. Roksan Kandy is an option too. The choice is wide at the lower levels.

I used to own a Marantz PM80 which is an ancestor of the PM7200 complete with Class A operation. It was a very nice amplifier. Marantz CD players are less good in my opinion but plenty of others like them.

I keep thinking of more to add here. Exposure is another brand I would look at for the electronics.

For the speakers, KEF Q7, Monitor Audio S8i, Castle Conway 3 or their similar sibling the Stirling 3, B&W CDM1NT, Mission 782SE.

 

the latest and short lived!! Musical Fidelity kit?

 

Yeah, MF X-Series stuff is a bargain second hand. The X-Ray is a nice CD player.

 

How about this setup for something different...

1) Wadia 830 used (1,200 ish). No pre. Just straight into the monos


2) DIY hifi supply 300b monoblocks (1,200 built, approx)



http://www.diyhifisupply.com/diyhs_ladyday.htm

3) Living Voice Auditorium, used (800 ish)



http://www.livingvoice.co.uk/auditorium.htm


NB sorry the images arent working, click if you're interested.

 

I think one can go more upmarket on chris's suggestions, and just as an alternative to bottleneck's...

CDP: Wide choice. Or you can get a nice CD/DAC combo at this sort of money. Get something punchy and musical to match with...

Amp: Well, could give the NAD S300 a spin. I got mine for £800, michaelab secured one for his friend for £650.

Speakers: Seen a pair of Meadowlark Shearwaters go for silly money recently (you know who you are robert_cyrus!). Kestrels and Swifts are also good bets. £600-£800 will secure a decent pair of any of these three if you can find them.

Leaves plenty of money for a rack, a seismic sink (or substitute) for the cd player and some half-decent cabling.

 

Speaker-wise, in the region of £750 you could be looking at PMC FB1s or Monitor Audio GR20s; standmount-wise, for similar money or maybe a little more you could think about Nautilus 805s or Contour 1.x.

 

The GR20s can be very good with the right electronics. I was less impressed with the FB1 and actually prefer my Castles to them.

 

Heres a nice system ive heard for around 3K

Cyrus cd8 cd player £1000
Cyrus8 amp £800
Quad 22L

This system had a very fast detailed sound and i was particularly impressed with the impact and solidness of the sound. Timing was top notch too. Could have been "airier" though. Theres also the potential of adding PSX-R power supplies to the electronics which is meant to bring substantial improvements.


Ultra

 

Thanks you guys, Bottleneck,

Sorry I haven't been back in touch. As you know I post hear sometimes and have my own opinions, but I have my own tastes and only have LoFi equipment. I asked my brother the questions you posted and here are his answers.

4) Would he consider valves, does he have small children about the place?
He has young children so no

5) Music he likes
He mainly listens to Indie, Rock, Electronic and classical, oh and his wife likes pop and choir. What he doesn't like R&B, most Jazz.

6) Has he heard anything already he likes?
He listened to Meridian system and a Naim system which he preferred the Meridian. He cannot remember the speakers that were used.

7) Does he need a TT as well as a CDP? how about a tuner?
A TT will be an after thought as he only has a few LP's. As far as a tuner a Denon 260l will do.

8) Is he interested in AV, or just music?
Primary will be music as the HiFi will be in a different room (lucky him).

9) Would he consider making Kits? What about if the kits were professionally made?
Professionally made kits would be an option.

10) Does he have ANYTHING already? - hifi rack, cables, anything?
No, I will make him some TNT twisted snake mains cable. We will look for 2nd hand interconnects and speaker cable I can lend him cord rumour cable for now. Racks 2nd hand again not sure maybe sound organisation rack new £160?

11) Where does he live, for recommending shops?
Cheshire/Welsh border

12) Does he have to get 'domestic approval'? Would he buy nice sounding ugly kit?
He said not but his missus is a keep up with the Jones's

13) Is 3K a fixed budget?
Maybe £200 more at a push

So any ideas Bottleneck/ anyone

GAZZ

 

I'd stick with my reccomendation ! - but there are other quality valve amps/cd players I would also consider.

These include WAD 300B monoblocks, or www.hificollective.com's integrated amp. With the hificollective 300B amp, its got a source selector and volume, so you could go for a CDP without a digital volume - like a second hand meridian 508 for example.

Also worth mentioning is the E.A.R. V20 that emporium have in for 1,400 which is cheaper than they usually go for second hand. This one's not a kit. More power which will work with more speakers, but not as sweet/clear sounding as a good 300b set imho.

The choices are endless really.

If he wants solid state, I would go for a second hand Belcanto imported from www.audiogon.co.uk, or a big class 'A' beast, second hand again from a shop like emporium or of course classifieds. I dont think the sound competes with a good valve amp (to these ears) but the extra power makes a more versatile amp that can work with a wide variety of speakers, not just the efficient ones.

i'd stick with second hand Living Voice auditoriums for efficient speakers for valve amps personally, unless I went high watt solid state. Best place to find these are at www.definitiveaudio.co.uk. For speakers for solid state, there have been plenty of good ones mentioned already.

Choice/Preferences will vary according to taste of course!.

If he liked the studio monitor type sound (not my preference) he could try some second hand ATC actives, and again a CDP with balanced out and a digital volume control. Only 2 pieces of kit, but very high quality. The aforementioned Wadia should do that I think.


NB
Nick at www.hificollective.co.uk will build any amp kit for you (even not his own) for a couple of hundred quid). He built one of mine to an excellent standard.

Cheers
Chris

 

Hmm - interesting; he likes music with rhythmic drive, and then goes for the (relative!) pipe and slippers option... I guess the Arcam FMJ stuff'd give a nice halfway house.

Has he considered Rega though? They do the flat and round things fairly well and are ridiculously good VFM - he could get a P3/Mira 3/Jupiter/Radio/Elas and a Quadraspire rack for the £3k if he did some bargaining - a nice matching system with good service and support - all controllable by one remote - turntable excepted of course

 

I have young children (nearly 2 and 3.5 yrs) and we don't have a problem with valve amps.

Modern valve amps are quite safe. A child isn't going to get electrocuted if she touches them. Many valve preamps are indistinguishable from solid state in appearance (my preamp for example). If the child touches the exposed valves on a power amp she will generally approach tentatively, immediately feel that the things are hot, cry and then not touch it again. No damage done. Power amps can also be placed on shelves out of the reach of small children.

£3,000 is a fair investment. Your brother could start by listening to a few systems to further decide the type of sound he likes. I agree that listening to an all Rega system would be interesting for him as would a 300B or push-pull valve amp. 300B amps do tend to limit you to very efficient speakers and perhaps these won't be to your brother's taste. If it was my brother, and he could be bothered, I would also suggest he listened to Sugden and Naim equipment.

If he does this he would get a pretty good snapshot of the different options out there and would probably find something he likes, on-route.

 

Interesting the name Sugden popping up. Well done 7_V. Forgot about these. The a21 and CD21 sound nice but relatively efficient speakers are required. Second hand Living Voice Auditorium is the obvious choice but most floorstanders of 90dB+ should be OK. Castle Conway 3 is an option as are various JMlab models.

I agree that Arcam FMJ looks like a good choice too but is stretching the budget if bought new. The Arcam DiVA range gets very close for quit a bit less cash and for a similar price Exposure is well worth a look. Sounded great at Bristol and looks good too.

 

Well thats a quite a lot for him to be going on with, he will now go and have a listen to some systems. I have advised him not to be in a rush and demo everything first. One of his staff have an Exposure 2010 cd and amp into Monitor Audio, he wil go around there first.

Thanks guys, I'll let you know how he gets on

GAZZ

 

Just to let you know, he has decided on

Exposure 3010 cd
Exposure 3010 amp
PMC FB1

Thanks all you guys for your views.

GAZZ

 

Gaz you have PM