Entertainment For Lively Minds
Can you help me buy some new hi-fi equipment ?
A relative has just offered to buy my existing (ancient) hi-fi system from me. I am therefore in a position to buy a complete brand new system. I want a separates system with a cd player, an amp and speakers, and also want to be able to play my Creative Zen through it. Budget is about £1,000. Speakers need to be smallish/bookshelf as it's a small room. I know a lot of you are audiophiles, so would appreciate your advice as to how to go about this. What kit would you recommend ? Where would you suggest I buy it from - I live in west London, but all the shops seem to be either very low end, or incredibly high-end. What percentage of my budget should I allocate to each component ? Thanks in advance - I'm excited, but aware I really need some help here.
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Find a good dealer and arrange a demo.
A good dealer will take some time to show you what you can achieve for the money. The old days of looking down their nose at someone who doesn't know the jargon or hasn't got loadsa dosh to spend are gone: especially at the moment, they should be keen and helpful. Breathe deep, chin up and visit a dealer.
Alternatively, you could buy a hi fi mag and try to mix n' match the top-rated components but this sometimes produces a "not the sum of their parts" answer. At this price point, there's some great kit from Arcam, Creek (CD, amplifier) or B&W (speakers).
Just remember: it's about what sounds good to your ears, not what someone else tells you you ought to like.
As well as a cd player
have you considered some way of streaming music through your system a sonos system or similar, having played and heard my mates sonos I would definitely consider one in the near future access to spotify and napster and your own music as well as BBC radio stations and may others. May be worth a go fraid i generally buy my kit from richer sounds
My 2 cents
As a starting point you could take a look at What Hi-Fi's website - they usually have the various components listed by budget and have a reasonable selection of reviews online. They also do some good "Supertests" along the lines of Best CD player under £500 etc etc.
After the have some ideas, get along to a dealer and have a listen. Nothing can beat that. It's what you like that's important.
I'm out of touch with prices these days, so don't know the going rate of my components, but I consider them to be a reasonable mid range setup - Marantz SA8003 (does SACD for my Genesis reissues !), Audiolab 8000 amp (they are now back in business after their flirtation with Tag McLaren) and Monitor Audio 702 speakers. I also have a Mobile Fidelity V-DAC hooked up to an Airport-Express via an optical cable for streaming from the computer - which is now my preferred way of listening.
I've always liked Marantz CD players and Monitor Audio speakers - I find they give a good, clean midrange. I'm not a big fan of stonking bass (a la Mission's). But, as mentioned, everyone is different.
That's a fat budget
if you have access to a wired or wireless LAN in the room, the Arcam Solo Neo should be able to give you what you need: CD, fantastic tuner, DAB and amp in a tidy wee all-in-one box and it should enable you to access streaming services and Internet radio, too. It will definitely work with ethernet cabling and may be Wi-Fi compatible as well but I can't say with absolute certainty It's about a grand, I think, and may have bookshelf Muso speakers packaged with it. I've heard it demoed in a good, non-snooty hi-fi shop in Ireland with both the Musos and the sublime ELAC MicroMagic 2.1 and the sound is pretty damned good.
For separates, you could rig up an Arcam CD player, ROTEL amp and very good Bowers and Wilkins bookshelf speakers for about a thou, as well, including cabling. For a little extra, you could add something like a Logitech Squeezebox for streaming purposes. Don't forget some of these hi-fi specialists will often do you a hell of a deal on ex-demo gear, too. Enjoy! (Note to self: must flog ten year old TEAC Reference system to brother)....
The little antenna sticking up at the back of the Neo
is its WiFi aerial. Several people here have the earlier model of the Solos and like them. I had one for 5 years and liked the looks, the sound and the integration. Unfortunately mine had problems with the iPod lead [used to crash the Solo] that were not fixed even by a trip back to the factory-I was rather glad when a generous Arcam trade in scheme coincided with one channel blowing up. I thus now have the Arcam A18 amp and now use DAC Magic/DVD player for CDs, and a Humax satellite recorder box for radio, sound is, if anything, better. I didn't consider the Neo, but was very impressed by Naim's all in one, the Uniti. Too expensive, alas, but try it with Nick Drake's "Black Eyed Dog" and your blood *will* run cold ...
[By the way, the separates system that Neilo mentions is, I am sure, v similar to the one used in somebody's office in the film "In the loop". Often wondered how this little piece of set dressing came about, but Armando Ianucci is a Mahler lover ... Those little B&W's with the metal speaker driver surrounds are some of the nicest looking small designs going]
E Bay
Don't avoid E Bay on this type of purchse. British gear like Cyrus, Naim and Arcam lasts forever and can be got very reasonably. I have got a lot of Cyrus gear off there.
Forget all those boxes
Try these...
http://www.avihifi.co.uk/adm9.html
You can read about them here (many owners)...
http://hddaudio.net/
and here (following registration).....
http://hddaudio.net/
Ooh..
They look good. A Sonos plugged into a set of them would be VERY sexy.
EDIT Christ.. They'd better sound bloody good at that price.. I know there's an amp, DAC, active crossovers and all the rest in there, but..
They do in fact sound pretty good
heard them with my own iPod and a nice Mission CD player in the only London dealer that I could see at the time which was one branch of Sevenoaks.
What has also impressed me as a real bargain if one wants to pursue the tidy, small active system path, and I like that idea very much, is the range from Epoz. See http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/Product_ID/6139
Whatever you do...
don't blow it all on things that aim to make mp3/4, what have you better. It's not worth it.
The better equipment you get, the greater will the imperfections in the source material sound. That applies to everything, be it vinyl, cd or mp3 etc. The problem with mp3 etc, is that they are never going to sound great on great equipment. If anything, the better your gear, the worse mp3 is going to sound.
If I were you, I'd have a look around dealers and then go on ebay.
Old speakers can be fantastic, you can often get parts pretty cheap.
For your money, I'd go for a valve amp, there's plenty around and you need to try various types. Most specialist stores DON'T have a good range, they tend to only stock a couple of makes. Don't be scared to make a nuisance of yourself by keeping going back.
I'd get a really good record player with a spanking cartridge.
What sounds good to you is the main thing and you're only going to get that from trying things out. Pick out a couple of records you really like and try the same copy on whatever gear you're trying.
Confirmation bias at work..
Most tests I've read show that most ears are unable to tell the difference between a 128kbs stream and an uncompressed stream. I certainly can't. And all the high-end hi-fi shops I know which are currently flogging boxloads of Sonos setups to staggered punters who can't hear the difference will agree.
also how you listen to music
most of the time is important too. We all have an idea of listening to our reference system in perfectly isolatation sat in the perfect postion a glass of malt close at hand. But alot of the time sadly this isn't the case so for instance how good they sound at low volume might be more inportant or via headphones etc.
If you get a chance
it's well worth hearing the standard dem that Arcam have invented to show off their rDac product: Mancini's Pink Panther at 128, 256, 320, FLAC and WAV if I recall correctly.
If done in the order (and accepting conf bias etc--it's neither blind nor shuffled) I think 3 things are clear.
1. As you add resolution, things like soundstage become clearer, and by FLAC stage the instruments sound more natural. This is what Arcam are trying to show you.
HOWEVER the demo has unintended (?) consequences:
2. The better you hear the recording, the worse you may like it. IMHO the demo they use is neither as exciting as good live rock, or as natural as Carolyn Sampson and a lute, say. By the time you get to WAV you can be easily distracted by this. I actually found 320 the most listenable in some ways.
and 3, hearing even 128 through a good amp and speakers [*] shows how acceptable "even" 128 can sound. I'd have liked to be able to transport my teenage audiophile self to the dem and see what he thought of it with vinyl-soaked ears ...
[* have heard it twice: once with A38 stereo amp and expensive Monitor Audio speakers, once with Arcam's top AV amp I think and a 7.1 (?) channel set up. Charles Arthur paraphrased it here:
--- http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/oct/10/arcam-rcube-hi-fi-ipod
]
I would have a look at
I would have a look at Richer Sounds, most of the smaller independent dealers would probably have starter systems at around £1500. Cambridge (Richer Sounds own brand) is pretty difficult to beat at this level. As a rule spend most on a CD player, then amp & finally speakers. Trust your ears, take the mags with a pinch of salt and remember the real magic is in the music rather than the equipment.