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Hi Fi seperates on a budget



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ClioSport Club Member
  Seat Leon
Hi looking too buy a budget system
Cd player
Amp and speakers
Used to be well into the hifi stuff years ago and had B&W speakers with marantz seperates.Dont want too spent a lot and was looking at cambridge Audio and Mordaunt short for speakers.Any help advice would be great
Thanks
 
Buy used for a start.
Depending on what your budget is, what size of room you have, what you intend doing with the system in the future, but I recently put together:
Pair of B&W 601 S3 bookshelf speakers - £50 with damaged tweeters
New tweeters - £50
Onkyo 608 - £125 or buy one of the audio only models if you dont ever intend expanding to surround.
Raspberry Pi etc for movies
Cheap Cd player with digital out. I still firmly believe there is no perceivable difference with CD players, its digital media, read by laser and trasmitted digitally, it will either work or it wont.
 
I like the wharfedale diamond 9s, but I bought a pair along with some Gale 3010s and I actually preferred the gales. Apart from weighing about twice as much, they just seemed a nicer product with a more rounded sound.

For a normal living room both are a little small, so I'd maybe try the 4010s
 

Daz.

ClioSport Club Member
  Clio 200 RS EDC
Buy used.
And anyone who likes hi-fi knows it's such a personal preference that recommendations are to be taken with a pinch of salt!

I've always circled around Exposure, Neat, Royd, Rega gear but I've got some oddballs in there too!
 

R3k1355

Absolute wetter.
ClioSport Club Member
Used is the way for good budget stuff, Hi Fi equipment depreciates pretty rapid.

AV Receivers are particularly bad as the technology moves so fast making them outdated quickly.
You can pick up a really nice Yamaha unit thats a few years old for very little money at all.
 

Daz.

ClioSport Club Member
  Clio 200 RS EDC
I wouldn't touch an AV receiver for music, unless it some of the more exotic stuff, they just don't make music.
 

Ol’ Tarby

ClioSport Moderator
  Clio 220 Trophy
I wouldn't touch an AV receiver for music, unless it some of the more exotic stuff, they just don't make music.
Yeah I was gonna say this. I've had two onkyo receivers and I've never been impressed with their musical output
 

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ClioSport Club Member
  Seat Leon
Budget 400 to max 450
What about speaker cables and interconnects.Can remember 10 years ago paying i think 96 for think it was a brand qed silver spiral?
 

Daz.

ClioSport Club Member
  Clio 200 RS EDC
Aye I remember the days of £15 a meter speaker cable!
That's a tight budget for all 3!
 

Daz.

ClioSport Club Member
  Clio 200 RS EDC
Naaaa - I'd agree with silly money cables but even the talk talk stuff at £3.50 a meter made a massive difference to detail and control over the bell wire I was using first time round.

Look how much Exposure speaker cable goes for now in decent lengths, Stick that on an Exposure amp and it transforms it.
 
  Listerine & Poledo
That's a tight budget for all 3!

Already costed up with new Marantz and Wharfedale gear (post 10)
:wink:

As for cable quality...sure, do't just get 50p/m bell-wire, but for this kind of set-up anything over, say £4/m is overkill. IMO
 
Agreed! Don't go crazy with cable, just the usual half-decent stuff they have spools of in RS. Beyond that it's totally pointless for sensible power levels imo.

One thing I would say is to spend a disproportionate amount on an amp, it's the root of all quality. :)
 
  Listerine & Poledo
See your budget ? Smashed it :smile:

Speakers : £125 https://www.avforums.com/threads/bowers-wilkins-dm600-s3-speakers-in-sorrento-boxed.2103867/
Amp : £300 https://www.avforums.com/threads/audiolab-8000ap-audio-processor-pre-amplifier.2093073/

Lets ignore the CD player for now. Budget a few more £ / m for speaker cable , £10 for a interconnect.

Add the CD player later.
Nice used A/V processor....... just needs a power amp to go with it, which will not be cheap.

Why is everyone so in on the "buy it used" bandwagon? I get that you can get some bargains, hell I got my Arcam Delta 90 on eBay and no, it has never skipped a beat. But I wouldn't trust a modern, heavily-electronic amplifier as used. My Sony A amp detonated after 11 months, but one trip into RS and I was given another one, with another year of warranty.
 

Daz.

ClioSport Club Member
  Clio 200 RS EDC
Never ever had a failure in any used equipment I've had, decent expensive stuff is built to last, and also had the support if something DID go wrong.

The best speakers I ever owned, and wish I had never let them go were Jamo Concert 8's (google them -it's not your usual Jamo s**t) - They were £1450 retail when released and can be had now for around a third of that, you would never find anything that could touch them for £475 new not a chance - why WOULDN'T you buy used!?!
 
DM600 speakers are tiny and mainly used as rears, or fronts in tiny rooms. Since the OP hasnt provided ANY details on room size, shape etc it's hard to know, but I run DM601 in one room and DM 602.5 floorstanders in another and both are technically undersized.

Speaker cable is generally snake oil. Buy some decent cable with a good conductor area and otherwise ignore.

Interconnects are only worth spending on if analogue really


See your budget ? Smashed it :smile:

Speakers : £125 https://www.avforums.com/threads/bowers-wilkins-dm600-s3-speakers-in-sorrento-boxed.2103867/
Amp : £300 https://www.avforums.com/threads/audiolab-8000ap-audio-processor-pre-amplifier.2093073/

Lets ignore the CD player for now. Budget a few more £ / m for speaker cable , £10 for a interconnect.

Add the CD player later.
 

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ClioSport Club Member
  Seat Leon
Hi for a small room bookshelf type speakers
Used too have stands I filled with sand.Forgot the name now,so just after a decent sound without big price tag
 
  Ex 182 owner
marantz cd-63 ki sig... used to be the one to have. good ones still going strong s/h.

bet stands where Atacama se24's if you had 601's

as others have said s/h buys lots of nice kit on any budget.
 

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ClioSport Club Member
  Seat Leon
marantz cd-63 ki sig... used to be the one to have. good ones still going strong s/h.

bet stands where Atacama se24's if you had 601's

as others have said s/h buys lots of nice kit on any budget.
That's it 63 and got the amp in the attic but it doesn't work.
 

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ClioSport Club Member
  Seat Leon
Just found this in the attic
The volume knob is missing
Is it fixable.Sorry poor pics
IMG-20170607-WA0001.jpeg
 
  Listerine & Poledo
Just found this in the attic
The volume knob is missing
Is it fixable.Sorry poor pics
I'd imagine so, it's just a knob (lol?).

email marantz, most of the better AV people will support older products. I had KEF send me bits for a speaker I bought off of eBay ffs, and they didn't charge because it was out-of-circulation stock.
 

Daz.

ClioSport Club Member
  Clio 200 RS EDC
That was actually a good amp for the money back in the day! The KI Sig was the pick of those - not worth doing anything with like that sadly.

I can recommend Rega RS1's for small rooms, great little speaker and really don't mind being up against a wall.
 

andybond

ClioSport Club Member
DM600 speakers are tiny and mainly used as rears, or fronts in tiny rooms. Since the OP hasnt provided ANY details on room size, shape etc it's hard to know, but I run DM601 in one room and DM 602.5 floorstanders in another and both are technically undersized.

Speaker cable is generally snake oil. Buy some decent cable with a good conductor area and otherwise ignore.

Interconnects are only worth spending on if analogue really


Its a £400 budget. Perspective and realisation of what sound can be achieved are needed here .

If we are willy waving , I have CM10s2 as my speakers. #JustSayin
 


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