amp,cd,speaker for hip hop and reggae music

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Hi

Im writing from Christchurch, New Zealand.I mainly listen to hip hop and reggae and new age pop music.I would appreciate some advice from people out there about what system combo would be best for my kind of music.These are brands I can demo,

B&W

Rega

Naim

Totem

Roksan

Neat

NAD

Spendor

PMC

JBL

Meridian

Monitor Audio
 
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Anonymous

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hi

My room is about 10m by 10m and my budget is about 10k nzd.

cheers
 

rich51080

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Personally I would go :

Naim CD5XS

NAIM NAC122X

NAIM NAP150X

NEAT MOMENTUM 3i

COST ABOUT £5500 WITH CHANGE TO GET SPEAKER STANDS AND CABLING.
 
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Anonymous

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For reggae and hip-hop where decent, punchy bass and a good, well detailed and midrange are needed I wouldnt go down the Naim and Neat route sorry

The likes of Monitor Audio, B&W, Spendor and PMC for speakers would be a good start, NAD & Roksan would be a very good base to start with re decent amps (i.e. NAD C165BEE pre, NAD C275BEE power or the NAD C356BEE integreated) or the Roksan Kandy K2 integrated amp

Again NAD or Rega CDP's would be my choice

From the above names my choices would be:

NAD C165BEE pre / NAD C275BEE power amp / Rega Saturn CD player / Monitor Audio RX6, Spendor A5 or A6, B&W 683 or CM9 or the PMC GB1i speakers / Chord speaker cable and interconnects
 

rich51080

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Naim is well suited to Hip Hop and Reggae in my opinion.

Everyone has their own opinions and I would avoid B&W - I own a pair and for acoustic/classical they are immense but hip hop? Noway.

I play Reggae and HipHop on my system and it is immense.

2pac and Run DMC make the room shake whilst having those awesome bass splashes that hip hop is known for.

Audition Naim - You will love it :) from a Naim owner.
 

rich51080

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Roksan to my ears are awful. Even the folks at Creative Audio advised me to stay clear of the brand and encouraged me to get Naim as you have option to upgrade and the sound is fun and rhythmical.

Rega are very good too. A Rega Saturn would be a positive buy.

Rega+Spendor work fantastic together. I loved the Detail,soundstaging and timing with this combo - The Brio was the amp. All less than £4500 and would be a worthy audition.
 

lindsayt

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Neat Momentum 3i???

In a room 10m x 10m!!!!

That's 10m x 10m not 10' by 10'.

Monitor Audio RX6's!! Pff, we can do a lot better than that for a room this size.

For hip hop, reggae and a large room and 10k NZ$ / £5k I'd go for large sealed box speakers:

Bi-amped Bozak Concert Grands or Bozak Symphony or something like that (trouble is there aren't many speakers like that). Maybe Yamaha NSM1000's or Goodmans Magisters.

Modern slimline ported speakers will sound like small boxes shouting to be heard and will have craptastic bass in this situation.

Amps will depend on the speakers. For active bi-amping I like to use a grippy solid state amp for the bass - such as Naim or Avondale, or Musical Fidelity, or Krell - with valve amplification (preferably SET's) for the midrange and treble. For passive amplification for reggae / hip hop I'd go for a solid state amp.

I wouldn't bother with a CD player. I'd just use a PC / MAC / laptop into a decent DAC such as a modded Behringer. Or depending on how much of the budget is left after buying the amps and speakers, maybe one of those dedicated music server PC's.

For pre-amps, if the source - DAC - has a healthy enough output I'd use a passive pre-amp. Either a stepped attenuator or an LDR one such as the Lightspeed.

You can buy new if you want. Buying 2nd hand will get you a much better sounding system for the same or less money.

10,000 NZ$ is enough to buy you a world class system that sounds about as good as it gets.
 

Overdose

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Benchmark DAC1 HDR (DAC, Pre-Amp and headphone amp with remote), with some midfield active monitors, such as Adam S3X. The change left over would get you a more than adequate CD player, or you could use a laptop or Pc CD Rom to great effect. A dedicated laptop would work a treat as a CD source. This combo would give you a flexible multi digital source system.

If you do go down the studio monitor route though, I would recommend sticking to midfield monitors due to your room size.
 
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Anonymous

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Hi

I must thank everyone who took the time to give some adivce.i have made the times to go and listen to quite a few systems that you guys have suggested and i will post how the results turnout.
 
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Anonymous

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also id like to know from people out there who have naim systems or rega.a dealer told me that naim and rega have like 50 to 60 watts which is ok for acoustic and jazz and classical music but it wont be enough for the kind of music i listen to.he told me i need an amp which is 100watts or more and high current and that will make the music more lively, punchy and the bass will be controlled.also he suggested i stay away from rega and neat speakers as they use paper cones and with a powerful high current amp like nad the paper cones may distort with music with heavy low end.

any thoughts guys.......with naim and rega owners will be appreciated.
 
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Anonymous

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thanks hortensio.i had a listen to the nad c375 amp with b&w 683 and 684 speakers.the sound was amazing for what i listen to.the bass is so controlled and punchy and you just dont sit and listen to the music, you feel the rythym and it makes you wanna get up and dance.the nad amp is pretty damn powerful and the guy who demoed the speakers told me that b&w speakers need a good powerful high current amp to be driven.

I will also listen to other systems like naim and rega before i make a purchase.
 
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Anonymous

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thanks hortensio.i had a listen to the nad c375 amp with b&w 683 and 684 speakers.the sound was amazing for what i listen to.the bass is so controlled and punchy and you just dont sit and listen to the music, you feel the rythym and it makes you wanna get up and dance.the nad amp is pretty damn powerful and the guy who demoed the speakers told me that b&w speakers need a good powerful high current amp to be driven.

I will also listen to other systems like naim and rega before i make a purchase.
 
A

Anonymous

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aan25 said:
also id like to know from people out there who have naim systems or rega.a dealer told me that naim and rega have like 50 to 60 watts which is ok for acoustic and jazz and classical music but it wont be enough for the kind of music i listen to.he told me i need an amp which is 100watts or more and high current and that will make the music more lively, punchy and the bass will be controlled.also he suggested i stay away from rega and neat speakers as they use paper cones and with a powerful high current amp like nad the paper cones may distort with music with heavy low end.

any thoughts guys.......with naim and rega owners will be appreciated.

This is why I suggested the NAD pre/power or the integrated combo along with the Monitor Audio or B&W speakers

These together would be a superb set-up for your musical tastes
smiley-smile.gif


This is all however, in my opinion

You'll get a lot of 'brand haters' on here that wont veer away from what they like (I'm included) but I dont enforce it as much or come across as much of a muppet as some people unfortunately do
smiley-undecided.gif


All I can say is that you appear to have a superb budget so you MUST demo as much as possible. However you may find that you'll get yourself a decent system sorted for a lot less than you've budgeted for so you can save the rest that you havent spent or put it to use elsewhere
 

Craig M.

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Overdose said:
Benchmark DAC1 HDR (DAC, Pre-Amp and headphone amp with remote), with some midfield active monitors, such as Adam S3X. The change left over would get you a more than adequate CD player, or you could use a laptop or Pc CD Rom to great effect. A dedicated laptop would work a treat as a CD source. This combo would give you a flexible multi digital source system.

If you do go down the studio monitor route though, I would recommend sticking to midfield monitors due to your room size.

this is the route i would choose. for a room that size you will need lots of power if you want to listen at a decent volume. my opals have about 700 watts per channel and, seeing as they are made in aus, might be well priced down there.
 

rich51080

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As a Naim owner I can assure you that my amp which is 50watts powers my hungry B&W 705'S with ease.

No distortion or anything.

Its not all about wattage. Naim has very sturdy power supplies which go along way to delivering a full sound.
 

lindsayt

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aan25 said:
also id like to know from people out there who have naim systems or rega.a dealer told me that naim and rega have like 50 to 60 watts which is ok for acoustic and jazz and classical music but it wont be enough for the kind of music i listen to.he told me i need an amp which is 100watts or more and high current and that will make the music more lively, punchy and the bass will be controlled.also he suggested i stay away from rega and neat speakers as they use paper cones and with a powerful high current amp like nad the paper cones may distort with music with heavy low end.

any thoughts guys.......with naim and rega owners will be appreciated.

What an absolute load of cobblers. Well maybe not entirely cobblers, but advice of a non-sequitor nature.

Is 50 to 60 watts enough? Depends on the speakers.

Get a pair of 100db efficient speakers and 50 watts into these is the equivalent of 1000 watts into 87db efficient speakers!!!

I don't get the bit about distortion and paper cones. On music with a lot of bass a small cone of any material, including exotic ones, will distort more than a large paper cone at generous volumes. For example, Bozak Concert Grands use four 12" doped paper bass cones. These speakers will sound better and less distorted in the bass than anything stocked by your Rega Naim dealer.

And as for demonstrations, if you really want to find the best sounding system you can for your NZ$ 10,000, the best thing to do is to hook up with some audiophiles who live near you and go and listen to their systems. If you want to end up with a system that sounds OK, but still sounds like a hi-fi system then go to dealers and buy the best sounding system from them. If you want to get a system that sounds like a live band playing in your room then get a properly blended system made up of a mixture of classic vintage and newish 2nd hand kit.

And don't forget Hoffman's Iron Law:

In speakers you can have bass extension, high efficiency, small size. Pick any 2.

The obvious 2 to pick in your situation is bass extension and high efficiency.

Your dealer was right in one thing that he said "stay away from Rega and Neat speakers". Not because of paper cones but because neither of them make speakers that are big enough to provide the sort of authorative sound that will fill your listening room.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
thanks guys for some good advice.i try not to listen to sales people as they just want to sell an expensive system in times of poor economy so that is why ive come here to get advice from people who are passionate about hifi.

the nad c375 amp and b&w 683 combo that i listened to was amazing in terms of power and very punch controlled bass but all the stuff is made in china and i think its not as good as the stuff made in th uk.in china its about mass producing whereas in the uk its about still maintaing the roots of hifi and the quality is far better so that system is out of my list.

re the matter of paper cones, my dealer demoed a rega rs5 with naim nat xs with a energy speaker of similar driver size which are made of kevlar, and the difference was there.with the kevlar cones of the energy speakers, it was able to be pushed harder, whereas the rega paper cones it was very scary.im sure the rega speakers are fine with paper cones or else it would not be made by rega but the point is i have a large lounge and it will be never able to work in my lounge.in saying that, both speakers were very good with naim gear.the bass was not very powerful but the music was so damn rythymic and it made me smile, which is a good thing.i also listened naim nait xs cd and amp with neat motive 1 and the sound was amazing,enough bass but the timing, attack and speed was just so so good.you actually forget about the gear and just enjoy the music.i could listen to this combo all day and night

only problem is the naim nait xs amp and cd and neat motive 1 is costing nzd$10k so roughly 5k in pounds.im not sure if its expensive.this system is no one in my list but im not sure it will work in my room.i could put this system in a medium sized room and enjoy.

also heard meridian g51 amp with monitor audio rx6, a mate has got it.just the amp and cd cost like 15k nzd, very expensive and the sound was **** i thought.the amp is 100 watts but it lacked everything naim had in just 60 watts.so now i see why so many people are into naim audio.im thinking about buying the naim nait xs and neat motive 1 and just enjoying the sound or a mate has suggested going for the naim pre and power combo so in the future it can be upgraded with better naim power amp.

any thoughts on this system............
 

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