Beginner needing help

Smellicus

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Jan 25, 2014
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Hello

I am just starting in the hifi world with a very limited budget of around £400. I have been reading up for weeks now and have choosen this to be my starting HIFI system.

Marantz CD5004

Marantz PM5004

Wharfedale 9.1

and then to add after a little savings a Pro Ject Essential ii.

I looked at the second hand market but was to scared of getting ripped off.

Would people agree that this would not be the worest starter set and that they would all match up ok?

If people have any better ideas would love to hear them and also there is very little reviews on the 5004 series I just hoped that they where as good if not better than the ones before it and after.

please give me your honest opinions.

Many thanks
 

a91gti

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That looks a pretty good choice to me pal. I know the diamonds and would recommend them and I have nothing but good to say for the Marantz kit I have owned.
 
a91gti said:
That looks a pretty good choice to me pal. I know the diamonds and would recommend them and I have nothing but good to say for the Marantz kit I have owned.

Agree with this, and welcome to the forum by the way.

Whilst your choice should gel together quite nicely be aware that all the reading in the world is no alternative to actually getting out and listening to kit.

Even on a limited budget it pays to audition whatever you can assuming you have some sort of hifi dealer in your vicinity.

I've always rated Marantz kit and the newer versions of your choices are getting very good reviews as usual. The Wharfdales are an excellent speaker for the money. If you can get some decent stands to mount them on and give them a bit of room away from the back wall (assuming you have the space to do so) as they will sound better for it.
 

slice

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I have the 9.1s and like them, they are tremendous value. I would also say they work pretty well close to walls- the fact they are front ported was one reason I bought them.

I currently own a Marantz pm 6002 which I have had for 6 years - it improved my system a lot. I used to have a Marantz cd 5001, and was pretty disappointed with it - seemed a bit flat and wasn't an improvement on a very old sony cdp I had previously.

For less than the budget you have for the 5 series amp and cd player, you could buy the better Marantz pm6005 amp, which has a decent built in dac, and use a cheap cd player or a dvd player as source for your cds, connected to the amp via a coaxial/optical lead. I would definitely do this in preference to the 5000 series if I were in your position.

Hope this helps.
 

Smellicus

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Thanks for all the responces.

The 6004/5 are all around 279-299 each so unfortunately is out of my budget as I have had to be playing my cds off my Playstation4 (which is why I would like a good upgrade), and I think any improvement over that would be a good start.

Please can I have some advice on cables. I am rather confused on them as some people seem obsessed with them and others say any old thing will work as well.

Many thanks for your replys already.
 

Ernie

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Smellicus, just a thought, but take a look at the Pioneer P1DAB. This is marketed as a starter system. What Hi-Fi have a review on this and gave it 5 stars. It's just outside yr budget at £469 but it may be worth a consideration.

As Matthewpiano said though, make sure you get out there and listen first.
 

slice

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Regarding my previous post, I notice that the marantz pm6005 is now listed at £299 at richer sounds which I think was up from £270 in the sales. Another budget pairing is the denon 720 series, with cd and amp £149 each at richer sounds. I think Matthewpiano has written warmly about this amp on the forum. I'm sure you would be able to get a hifi shop to demo the marantz 5 and denon 7 series side by side to compare them.

I would suggest you sign up as a VIP on the richer sounds website- when I did so several years ago I think they emailed me a 10% off voucher, and in any event they will shower you with emails which include £10 vouchers. I notice that they are currently doing a system deal of the two denon units + dali zensor 1 speakers for £480 which would be within your budget- worth going to have a listen?

Regarding cables etc there are widely differing opinions as you say, but at the budget end I don't think this affects you, as it would be silly to spend a very high proportion of a limited budget on very expensive cables. For stereo interconnects one option would be Fisual install at £5 a time (amazon), if you want better then the 300 series at RS is £20 a time. For speaker cables a very good buy is VanDamme blue, used by a number of us on the forum, which is used by recording studios etc. If you search wikipedia under speaker cables there is a table which tells you what width of cable you need compared to your required length of cable - you can then check the price of that standard of Van Damme on amazon etc. Be aware that hifi shops may try hard to sell you expensive cables-at your system's level I would resist this.
 

GCE

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...the marantz pm6005 is now listed at £299 Another budget pairing is the denon 720 series...

I think Matthewpiano has written warmly about this amp on the forum.

I'm sure you would be able to get a hifi shop to demo the marantz 5 and denon 7 series

side by side to compare them....

I too think that a review of marantz pm6005 vs denon 720 series

would be very usefull for a lot of people

but I've never saw...
 

knaithrover

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The Marantz 5004 is a very capable amp at the price and well worth a try - i have one and thought it was pretty average until i paired it with MA BX2 speakers and it really sings with the upgrade. I accept that until you listen yourself its hard to make your mind up but it isn't always possible to audition when you live out in the sticks. I actually live 5mins from a Richer Sounds but they really are useless and i think their audition room is for the staff to take their breaks in....There isn't another Hifi Retailer in my area, not one. This is where these sites are at least a help - if 17 out of 20 people say a piece of hifi kit is useless then there is a chance that it is probably worth avoiding. Likewise if the majority say something is excellent then it is at least a pointer towards the fact that it may be at least pretty decent. If I was you i would go for the PM5004 paired with the best speakers you can afford and you could do a great deal worse than MA BX2.
 

Smellicus

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Hello

Again thanks for the replys. I have been out to RS to hear both the PM5004 & 6004 & the CD5004 & PM6004. There was a marked difference in the 2 with the 6000's being ohhh so nice compared to listing to a playstation attached to a old Panasonic surround sound reciever system.

My question would be my budget does not really stretch to the 600 pound (plus my wife would stretch my neck) should I buy the PM6004 and use the playstation as source or do they just work better as a pair and get the 5000's

many thanks in advance
 

slice

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Sorry to be persistent, but if you got the pm 6005 you could use anything as a source as long as it had an optical or coaxial output. The recent article in Hifi choice shows the dac specifications to be the same as in the cd6005, so you could buy any cheap dvd player with a digital otput and it would work as source for the pm6005. I'm not into playstations but if it has an optical or coaxial output it would work into a pm6005. Your own review has shown the 6000 series to be better!
 

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