Kube

For someone who really loves music and needs an excellent system to enjoy it.

receiver, amplifier, cd-player, speakers, phono

What would you recommend?
Thank you.

Brian Shannon

This is just my .02.

First, decide on a budget.

Second, go out and listen to speakers with your own source material.

Third, assemble the amp/receiver and cd/dvd player to drive the speakers.

Speakers are the voice of the system and often overlooked or chosen after a shiny gadget is purchased. I can tell you what speakers I like but I cannot tell you what you will like.

Good luck!

Kube

The budget is anywhere from 1-2 grand.

Please do tell me what speakers you recommend.

Please do tell me what system you recommend.

It would be greatly appreciated.

Brian Shannon

Personally I am a fan of B&W speakers. I also like Magnepan, Paradigm, Definitive Technology, NHT and Canton.

I would not choose anything else until I had decided on my speakers.

Kube

Ok.......so I'll get one of those speakers. Now what. What would you recommend?

shelland

What he's saying is that no one can tell you what you'll like. Different speaker brands have very different sounds. You need to find some of the brands that are recommended, and go out and listen to them yourself. Even different models from the same manufacturer sound quite different.

If you're looking to get a decent setup, the main thing I'd recommend it to visit some "real" stereo shops - don't spend all your time in the chain stores like Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. Like most, I assumed that a trip to a stereo shop would increase the price a great deal. I was quite happy to find that not only did the quality increase a great deal when I went to stereo shops, the price did not have to.

Some other things to take into consideration:
1. Will you only be using this for music? Any HT? Both?
2. What style of speakers do you want? floorstanding? bookshelf?
3. What type of system are you looking for? Stereo? 5.1? 6.1? 7.1?

Make sure to make careful selection of your speakers. The speakers are critical to the system. Bad speakers with a $1000 receiver still sound like bad speakers. Great speakers can still sound great with a $200 receiver.

Personally, I went with Paradigm, but their sound may or may not be for you. Make a disc of your favorites, and make a few stops at local shops. Take recommendations for brands to listen to, but you have to buy what your ears like, not what any of us like.

Why all the questions? Because your request has been pretty open-ended. What if you asked "what car should I buy?" Well, none of us can tell you what car to buy, because we don't know whether you want a compact, full-size, SUV; we don't know if you care about fuel economy; we don't know what options you want on it. If you give guidelines, then people can make suggestions. But, would you buy a car because someone told you to, or would you take it for a test drive yourself based on their recommendation?

Go take a number of speakers on a test drive...

Good luck!

Scott

BDB

I think I have the answer

I heard those BOSE speakers are great..



You really do need to audition stuff, I like my B&W speakers a lot, but to each there own

Kube

Besides the speakers........what system do you recommend?

I don't know the technical terms of what i'm looking for...just something that while using very high end speakers would sound great. To play CD's, tape, LPs. Not to hook up to tv to listen to movies.

Let me rephrase the question......what sound system (excluding speakers) do you have....and are you happy with it.

Brian Shannon

Picking out equipment is very subjective.

If you are looking for stereo I would look at a Yamaha receiver after deciding on speakers.

If you want to see my "system" check the link at the bottom of the post. I am using a Yamaha RX-V1 driving B&W CWM in wall speakers. My other system is a Sony STR4AES driving B&W CM 7 speakers.

Good luck.

NaturalMystic79

I thought Bose was overpriced crap. Don't they withhold the specs of their speakers/equipment?

shelland

There was a big ol' "" after that post!

Sdallnct

I like all of those as well. But I own KEF which I think you should throw in with the group.

Be aware that some speakers are difficult to drive. In particular the Maggies can be tough.

Sounds like you need to find a good high end audio store in your area (not Best Buy, etc). Ulimate has some decent (but not always great) stuff. But I wouldn't go there unless you already pretty much knew what you wanted.

Many of the smaller "mom & pap" high end stores will take the time to not only show you stuff, but talk to you about your needs, budget, different products, etc.

NaturalMystic79

Thanks!

Drew_W

You could get the Magnepan MMGs from them directly, then mate it with a Rotel RB-1070 (200W or so into 4ohms), RC-1070 preamp, and an RCD-02. The RC has phono (mm), and the combo would run you $1700 retail. You can get 10-15% off usually on Rotel, so that brings it down to about $1500 or so, and the MMGs run $550 direct from Magnepan.

Now there's a system that will rock your world.

Drew_W

I should also add that people will be mystified as to why there's sound coming from this panel. Surely it can't be a speaker...or can it?