Advice - How to build my new Hi Fi System please!

[hybridauth_Google_114072499779525851744]

Hi Everyone

Completely appreciate how this may be a boring post but you could be saving my life here!

10 years ago I made a very pricey purchase. I bought 15k worth of Cyrus kit and 4k speakers.

Times have changed, I'm older and life got expensive so I had to sell it all. Now I'm starting from scratch again. I don't have a high budget for Cyrus yet or T+A (he he in my dreams) and I like all sorts of genre music. Mostly jazz of all types.

So researching extensively I didn't think buying a premium brand means anything these days, it's personal choice and taste. I don't personally feel attracted to Pioneer but I do like the look of Cyrus and Naim. I'm hoping to upgrade to Arcam as I like the British brand, design and quality.

live heard lots about audio separates costing an absolute bomb when really it's the shell your paying for. Whether that's true or not, I take no judgement.

My first initial idea was to purchase a Denon mini hi fi stack, however I knew it wouldnt suit me further down the years. I saw the Cyrus Streamliner looks great, and a possibility in a months or so but here's my kit so far:-

Cambridge Audio AM5 with Monitor Audio MR2 speakers. Silver Cambridge ultramicro cables (bi-wired).

Im really impressed! However, I hear distorting in some tracks (I'm playing my iPod through the MP3 socket at the back using a Cambridge lead all supplied by Richer Sounds.

In the past I was advised to stay away from Richer Sounds but they were brilliant today and patient with me. Everything with the speaker stands included was just shy of £400

i'm pleased, it sounds great apart from the little distortion, but I'm going to shift the speakers around tomorrow.

All id say is that the vocals aren't loud enough they seem distant? Bass is brill.

What do you think I could add to my starter hi fi system? I Don't mond aiming higher keeping the speakers. How can I improve and give it some welly, any idea on cables etc? My old Cyrus kit had £500 of cables and I got all the advice from a hi fi specialist in London I souring have known if I was ripped off or not. But I'm glad to spend the money if it means keeping It it for a very long long time.

Your advice will help thank you for reading!

 

[hybridauth_Google_114072499779525851744]

Sorry for spelling errors I'm using my dreaded iPhone and typos go hand in hand with this smartphone! Sorry!

 

[CnoEvil]

You might want to consider:

Cyrus + Vienna Acoustics

Arcam + PMC

Bel Canto + Kef R Series

 

[hybridauth_Google_114072499779525851744]

That's great thank you, I'll check that out straight away!

 

[NSA_watch_my_toilet]

Giant improvements could be achieved in a correct room preparation. Absorbtion pannels in critical frequencies and/or spots and although resonators sometimes.

My first advice will be to work on that first.

In second place, find speakers you will actually love for your own music taste. Then, you can search in anything you want to drive that. Speakers have a center role in the overall reproduction (with the room reflections). Don't do this quick. Take your time and go visiting some shops and listen to some stuff you can afford. In the whole bunch, they will be speakers you will find better for your tastes and some that don't.

The last budget to spend will be for sources.

Another thing, I didn't understood quite well what you wrote, but you must, like me, not be so fluent in english. So I could had missed a point in your explanations.

 

[Overdose]

A mini hifi system can sound great, but will have limitations, those mainly being the ability to power good speakers beyond moderate levels without noticeable distortion.

I use active speakers with the sources plugged in directly to them via optical inputs, as generally speaking, an active system will give you greater clarity and more volume than a comparably priced traditional hifi setup. The more things that can be squeezed into one box the better the value for money of the product, hence why £400 gave you such good results with the mini system.

 

[hybridauth_Google_114072499779525851744]

Great advice guys, I'm going to take everything in and soak up all the information. At the moment I think inneed to concerntrate on tightening up the sound.

Is funny, but Richer Sounds didn't influence my decision despite being really passionate about CA. So once I researched online, CA seemed the best option (for now). After I made the purchase the Store Manager said he owned an all-Cambridge hi fi system because of how versatile it is. It can handle a spectrum of music.

Im undecided about the cables he gave me, he supplied me silver Cambridge ultramicro cables no grace or beauty here, just plain ole cables. He advised that there wouldn't be any point getting expensive high end cables as it wouldn't make any difference.

I disagree. What do you think? I'm clearly talking with a well experienced and well educated group of enthusiasts here.

These Monitor Audio MR2's are astonishing. I like Tannoys but I dont mind the change. I like my music to sound natural and true to sound. CA preach about this, and they've certainly given me that.

Thanks again everyone!

 

[Craig M.]

Im undecided about the cables he gave me, he supplied me silver Cambridge ultramicro cables no grace or beauty here, just plain ole cables. He advised that there wouldn't be any point getting expensive high end cables as it wouldn't make any difference.

Unless you're happy paying for a placebo effect I'd forget all about cables, the whole industry is full of bull.

And kudos to the RS manager, most would be happy to pocket the enormous margins that cables have on them.

 

[nopiano]

You have probably got about as good a sound as £400 will buy, with cables and stands included, and I agree with the advice that fussing around with cables is simply not relevant here. I've also spent plenty on these over the years, and it might be justifiable on a ten grand set up, but not a few hundreds (and apologies if this sounds snobbish, because that isn't my point at all).

Positioning the speakers carefully will help, but I would be wondering about how good your iPod source is. Have you got a CD collection and would you consider a Cambridge CD Player (or any other model) to match?

If your source is only MP3 standard then that is surely the weakest link?

 

[The_Lhc]

Im really impressed! However, I hear distorting in some tracks (I'm playing my iPod through the MP3 socket at the back using a Cambridge lead all supplied by Richer Sounds.

Is that an analogue lead? If so you'll be limited by the quality of the mp3 player. If you have the mp3 player at full volume it's possible you may be over-driving the input on the amp at times, so knock the volume back one notch and see if it helps. I have this problem playing music off my phone into my car's stereo (headphone socket to the aux input), with the phone at full volume there's distinct distortion on the car's system, even at low volume but there is no distortion listening to the same music on headphones from the phone, so in the car I just knock the volume on the phone back one notch and it sounds much much better.

 

[relocated]

What LHC said and, more forcefully, what Craig M said. Rid yourself of the odd distortion and then settle in to your system for a time. Having spent the sort of money you have in the past, I fear your upgrade-itis will drive you on quite quickly.