HiFi and Speaker advice - £1k-£1.5k budget

Barnezy

Looking for some advice on hifi kit. 

Looking to play CDs and stream. Would like bookshelf size speakers. Happy to buy used. 

Saw the Kef LSX which look decent, but would like to explore a proper setup. Might look at vinyl in the future. 

Thanks

TheMarlin

You can pair a superb pair of speakers with an awful amp, and they sound awful. So be careful committing to a large speaker spend if the money is better spent elsewhere. 

I’ve been experimenting with hi-fi for 30+ years,   

What’s your source, what amp will you be using, what about your speaker cable and interconnects?
if we know more, we can advice you better. 

Good luck & merry xmas
Marlin

Zoolooter

Following this post with interest as I will be buying the same thing in the new year on a similar budget.

@TheMarlin particularly interested in what you might recommend for playing lossless/flac files. I have a Linn turntable and Rega Saturn CD (if it still works) player from years ago that I’ll be dusting off and firing up - so ok on that front. But, I have a load of flac files on my Mac that I transfer to a dedicated portable music player for the car. Until now, I haven’t listened properly to music in the house for years. 

Matt_McG

I use a Raspberry Pi with a good quality DAC  hat board for streaming. Works really well. I have a Linn turntable (just an Axis, with a decent cartridge, nothing fancy) for vinyl and that plus that Pi can do everything I need as sources. I never actually play CDs just rip and stream to the Pi. 

TheMarlin

There is so much snake oil in hi-fi.  You can really only trust good friends with good hifi, and your own ears and experiences.  I worked in advertising for years, and know how easily undeserved awesome reviews are coxed and threatened out of publications by major advertisers. 

If you have Flac files you want to play from a MAC, get a nice USB DAC. 

If you want to improve the Rega Saturn (assuming it has a digital out), a modern DAC will give it a new lease of life.  

I’ve got about five classic ‘audiophile’ CD player in my garage, all sound a bit ‘meh’ compared to a half decent Modern cheap CD player and a good modern DAC. 

I’ve tried loads of CD players, loads of DACS, but I currently use a Sony SACD player (£50 off eBay) and a Toppings D30 DAC. The Toppings cost me about £90 from Amazon, and is one of my favourite all time hifi purchases, and it sound freakin’ awesome.

I use it in all three modes, FLAC files from my laptop (via USB), COAX audio via my CD Player (where it makes a tremendous difference), and optical via Apple TV 3.   The Toppings D30 is an awesome Jack of All Trades. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01JU9EA2U/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_rnbaEbHRZZJQ7

I stream Apple Music on my iPhone as an easy lazy source. I can sit, sip a libation, and jump from album to album without moving from my comfy hobbit hole. 

The music streams from my Apple account through my Wi-fi to Apple TV 3, and out through the Toppings, it’s sounds excellent. A good CD sounds better, but a modern remaster sounds better streamed this way than an old CD release. 

I mostly use vinyl as a source. I have two decks, a NAD 533 turntable, bog standard turntable made by Rega (it’s basically a Rega Plannar 2 with some upgrades and some downgrades). 

I upgraded the bearing to a ceramic unit, upgraded the platter from MDF to a thick glass unit, and added a silicon mat. The standard cartridge is a Golding Elektra, and the tone arm is an RB250. Its sounds lovely. Very lovely, a fantastic combination. 

The other turntable is a massively upgraded Rega Plannar 2. Its got a heavily upgraded RB250 which has VTA adjusters added, upgraded tone-arm bearing, upgraded wiring, Upgraded hand machines sub bearing, and balances upgraded counterweight.  I swap cartridges regularly,  but mostly use a Ortofon 2M black or Nagaoka MP300.  The Nagaoka is stunning value for money. 

It’s also for a Delrin platter, Delrin main bearing, upgraded motor and power supply, and an SRM tech Azure turntable base which truly separates the motor from the platter.  It’s a very nice bit of kit, much maligned by magazine readers who have never heard one. 

As a step up, I use Schitt Mani. https://www.schiit.com/products/mani

The Schmitt Mani is incredible. For very little money, it’s blown away everything I’ve thrown as it.  Again, lots of people who have never owned one have strong opinions about them, but it’s stunning. I think you’d need to spend more than 10 times the money to get something better. It’s excels with MM carts, not so well with MC. But I prefer the sound of good MM carts. 

I use NVA P90 twin stepped attenuated passive Pre amp, both channels are truly separate from source, and signal is entirely passive, running along silver wire.  I do not like powdered Pre Amps. 

Power amp is NVA A60 mono blocks. Based on Meridian Amps, the whole system is ultra low capacitance. 

Speakers are ....wait for it...Tannoy Reveal passives monitor that cost me less than £50 lightly used from eBay. 

They fit my room perfectly, very dynamic, beautiful punch bass for the room size 15ftx15ftx12ft. 

I have better speakers, such as Tannoy Gold Monitors, little gold monitors, and 15” monitor reds, plus Quad ELS 57’s, 63’s and Martin Mogan Electrostatic hybrids, 

But for now, happy with the cheap Reveals. 

I will probably go back to a valve power amp in the future, such as a STA25 Mk5, but I love the sound of the system I have now, and it didn’t cost the earth to put together. 

roberty

Matt_McG said:

I use a Raspberry Pi with a good quality DAC  hat board for streaming. Works really well. I have a Linn turntable (just an Axis, with a decent cartridge, nothing fancy) for vinyl and that plus that Pi can do everything I need as sources. I never actually play CDs just rip and stream to the Pi. 

Second on the Pi. Although if I were setting up a system today I'd get an amp with a steaming DAC built in

Barnezy

TheMarlin said:

You can pair a superb pair of speakers with an awful amp, and they sound awful. So be careful committing to a large speaker spend if the money is better spent elsewhere. 

I’ve been experimenting with hi-fi for 30+ years,   

What’s your source, what amp will you be using, what about your speaker cable and interconnects?
if we know more, we can advice you better. 

Good luck & merry xmas
Marlin

Hi Narlin, thanks for you response and long overview of you're setup. 

As I say in my post, I want to stream bluetooth(convenience), play CDs and potentially get in to vinyl. 

I know nothing about HiFi other than the sound. 

I assume I would need an integrated AMP with BT or a VT dongle, a CD player and speakers?

Just looking for a good sound for £1500, rather than just buying something like a Sonos. 

Thanks

Winny_Pooh

I'd look at something like the dynaudio emit m10 & a bluetooth capable amp. With amps if you stick to the established well reviewed brands you can't go wrong and I'd buy based on features really as tonally there's not so much in it as compared to speakers.

With your budget there really is no harm in going to a Richter sounds and comparing speakers. 

IMO dont bother with vinyl unless you really like the idea of it. 

Ossyrocks

I've just upgraded my CD player and amp to Quad 99/909 and added a Quad 99 preamp.

I have my previous CD player and amp now available and was going to list them here.

Arcam Alpha 8 integrated amp
Arcam Alpha 7SE CD player.
Inc. Remote control.

Both in excellent condition and sounding mighty fine. I was very happy with them, but the Quad stuff just landed in my lap from my brother in law.

I guess I would take £200 for the pair. 

Cheers,
Rob.

oaf

Used B&W 805S (or maybe the D2 versions) perhaps? They need a decent amplifier to power them. If you're a basshead you may want to add a sub. Very nice speakers though.

Matt_McG

If it was me,* I would go to Richer Sounds, spend 300-350 quid on an amp/receiver that can do streaming (as per @roberty above) or a slightly cheaper amp, and add a Pi. Spend almost all the rest on a good set of floorstanding speakers and whatever bog standard cables I could find cheap.

I would never add a sub (hate them, hate** people who have them).

* if it was _actually_ me, and I was starting again, I would go for some unfashionable but high end active hifi speakers, Merdian or the like, and a preamp. 
** comedy exaggeration

oaf

The downside of equipment with built in streaming functions is that you've no guarantee how long they'll be supported/continue to work, so the Pi or similar is possibly to be preferred/much more flexible (but will have a much higher initial fiddle factor). Ripping CDs to FLAC and streaming them over your own network (look at Squeezebox Server) saves you the bother and cost of a CD player and is much nicer to use.

The sub hate made me smile high quality and properly setup subs will go unnoticed and just extend the low end that conventional speakers can't manage. They don't all sound like a teenager's stereo in a Vauxhall Nova. You have a point regarding badly setup subs on the other hand though...!

In any case I've realised that the budget is for more than just speakers so the used B&Ws I suggested are probably not appropriate anyway.

ROOG

My suggestion would be to go into Audio-T or similar local HiFi shop and ask them for advice. There are lots of options available to you with new ones and second-hand solutions coming along all the time.  You should be able to get a nice combined streamer/amp plus a pair of speakers with the option to add a turntable in the future for your budget. 

I would not overlook secondhand kit, HiFi buffs are a fickle lot and change gear with a change in the breeze, just like guitarists, in a "grass is always greener" kind of way. 

Rocker

Every 'box' in a hi-fi system has good and bad points and has a sonic signature.  The OP and I have differing ideas of how a hi-fi system ought to sound.  There is no right or wrong sound.  If the overall sound from the system sounds 'right' it will be played and kept.  Unlike a smartphone etc, a hi-fi system will last for many years.

Without knowledge of the sonic signatures of the boxes that make up a hi-fi system, it is pure chance if the result is pleasing to your ears.  The only way to ensure you buy right first time, is to go to a hi-fi dealer, tell him your requirements from the system, tell him your musical tastes and tell him your budget.  £1K+ is enough to get very good sound in your room.  No hi-fi dealer will laugh at you or your ideas on sound.  It becomes his job to put together a system that meets your requirements and is within budget.  If you like it, buy the system from him.  Don't go and look for s/h kit of the type used in the demo(s).  As I said the sonic signatures change over time.  Don't buy some box because it is cheaper than that in the shop.

The one BIG benefit from buying a hi-fi system from a dealer is that if you don't like the sound of your new system when it is installed in your home, it becomes the dealers responsibility to change something to get it sounding right.  For this reason I always advocate getting the dealer to install the system in your home.  This service is worth every penny it costs.

roberty

Matt_McG said:

If it was me,* I would go to Richer Sounds, spend 300-350 quid on an amp/receiver that can do streaming (as per @roberty above) or a slightly cheaper amp, and add a Pi. Spend almost all the rest on a good set of floorstanding speakers and whatever bog standard cables I could find cheap.

I would never add a sub (hate them, hate** people who have them).

* if it was _actually_ me, and I was starting again, I would go for some unfashionable but high end active hifi speakers, Merdian or the like, and a preamp. 
** comedy exaggeration

Modern amps and DACs are pretty much perfectly flat and distortion free. All the audible distortion and colouration will be added by the speakers and the room. I'd be looking to spend around a grand on speakers with that kind of budget

dindude

I have the KEF LSX, don’t believe the hype - very convenient and sound fine, but one step up from a sound bar IMO - has that thing where you think “that’s impressive bass for their size” but beyond a general rumble you won’t tell if it’s a bass guitar, a synth, or an upright, there’s no definition. And the treble feels muted, there’s no “crack” or dynamics when a high vocal note is hit. 

Honestly, as convince factor has gone up over the years for me, first by stored files via  Computer and DAC, then to Streaming and a one-box solution, audio quality has gone down. I long for the sound of my old CD player, modest amp and Monitor Audio speakers, sounded epic.