Firstly let me lay down that I am a student and being a student money is TIGHT.
I first got into audio when I got my dads old hifi gear out of the loft. Some of the stuff up there was insane. Like a 1kw bose power amp out of a nightclub.
Anyway, there was a pair of old tatty monitor audio speakers in like a marble effect and a small seperates system in the corner which caught my eye. The seperates system was an old aiwa my pace 22 system from the 80's (just search p22 in google). I hooked them up with some pound shop speaker cable and the sound blew me away! Such a warm sound.
It all went down hill from there though. The speakers gave up on me as the rubbers had perished, so, I baught a pair or Mordaunt Short 902i's from richersounds which set me back £100 in the sale and I got a few metres of there cheapest gale cable thrown in. and again the sound was excelent. I had them sat down on my windowledge which just happened to be the right depth. Plenty of sability. So i never bothered about stands. anyway. The power amp gave up on me. I think it was because the speakers take quite a bit of juce to drive especially for an older amp.
So my search began for a low budget, decent amp.
My girlfriend's dad had just baught a hifi - Cambridge audio 640 amp tuner and CD player with a set of Quad 11L's which sounded fantastic. Knowing I could never afford such a system I wen on ebay and picked up a Cambridge audio A3i for just under £50 which looked decent enough. 60wpc and a reputabe make. Can i just say now that it sounded AWFULL! Boomy and a horror to listen to. ugh. Flogged it straight away and got my money back. Since the Cambridge audio sounded to boomy I thaught I would go for a 'brighter' amp.
Moved into student accomodation. A box room aprox 2.5m X 3.5m. I needed speaker stands so I picked up a set of jamo's for £1.25 model - cornet 45. they arent brilliant speakers but do make pritty good stands. I plonked my mordaunt shorts on top of them with blutack adheisive, attached some wooden spikes on the bottom of the jamo's and put 20kg of weights on each speaker. Sturdy enough for you? Rock solid. A botch job i know but it is the best I could do with my budget. Please don't judge me.
I picked up a denon AVR-1907 for £80 in excellent condition. The denon is good for tv and games sounds really clear and real but it isnt fantastic for music. Even when biwired. It is way too bright and it hurts my sensitive ears. Cant listen for long. Sucked out almost all of the enjoyment. I have found that turning the speakers away from me about 30degrees helps a lot, but still isnt brilliant. Grrrr
So, its time for a change yet again...
Please could someone help me choose a decent low priced amp that would match my Mordaunt Shorts and still have enough power to give them a decent enough level of volume. Not earth shattering but i am a student... My music tastes vary from rock to pop. Really into pendulum, linkin park, alphabeat, and mansun at the moment (not marilyn manson. if you have not heard of them get there album. 'attack of the gray lantern' it is a beautifully crafted album suitabe for most tases.) if that helps.
My budget is a mear £150-200 (true budget and not 'im looking for a budget amp arround £400' ) and I am verry willing to go second hand or maby vintage if it is built well enough. A second option would be to buy a decent pre-amp to get the old Bose power amp going again. The model is - Bose studiocraft F1. I cant find Anything on the internet about them but all i know is that It takes a verry strong signal to get anything decent out of it. (the aiwa pre-amp sounded awful with it.)
Any advice would be greatly apreciated and thank you for listening/reading.
Elliot
I first got into audio when I got my dads old hifi gear out of the loft. Some of the stuff up there was insane. Like a 1kw bose power amp out of a nightclub.
Anyway, there was a pair of old tatty monitor audio speakers in like a marble effect and a small seperates system in the corner which caught my eye. The seperates system was an old aiwa my pace 22 system from the 80's (just search p22 in google). I hooked them up with some pound shop speaker cable and the sound blew me away! Such a warm sound.
It all went down hill from there though. The speakers gave up on me as the rubbers had perished, so, I baught a pair or Mordaunt Short 902i's from richersounds which set me back £100 in the sale and I got a few metres of there cheapest gale cable thrown in. and again the sound was excelent. I had them sat down on my windowledge which just happened to be the right depth. Plenty of sability. So i never bothered about stands. anyway. The power amp gave up on me. I think it was because the speakers take quite a bit of juce to drive especially for an older amp.
So my search began for a low budget, decent amp.
My girlfriend's dad had just baught a hifi - Cambridge audio 640 amp tuner and CD player with a set of Quad 11L's which sounded fantastic. Knowing I could never afford such a system I wen on ebay and picked up a Cambridge audio A3i for just under £50 which looked decent enough. 60wpc and a reputabe make. Can i just say now that it sounded AWFULL! Boomy and a horror to listen to. ugh. Flogged it straight away and got my money back. Since the Cambridge audio sounded to boomy I thaught I would go for a 'brighter' amp.
Moved into student accomodation. A box room aprox 2.5m X 3.5m. I needed speaker stands so I picked up a set of jamo's for £1.25 model - cornet 45. they arent brilliant speakers but do make pritty good stands. I plonked my mordaunt shorts on top of them with blutack adheisive, attached some wooden spikes on the bottom of the jamo's and put 20kg of weights on each speaker. Sturdy enough for you? Rock solid. A botch job i know but it is the best I could do with my budget. Please don't judge me.
I picked up a denon AVR-1907 for £80 in excellent condition. The denon is good for tv and games sounds really clear and real but it isnt fantastic for music. Even when biwired. It is way too bright and it hurts my sensitive ears. Cant listen for long. Sucked out almost all of the enjoyment. I have found that turning the speakers away from me about 30degrees helps a lot, but still isnt brilliant. Grrrr
So, its time for a change yet again...
Please could someone help me choose a decent low priced amp that would match my Mordaunt Shorts and still have enough power to give them a decent enough level of volume. Not earth shattering but i am a student... My music tastes vary from rock to pop. Really into pendulum, linkin park, alphabeat, and mansun at the moment (not marilyn manson. if you have not heard of them get there album. 'attack of the gray lantern' it is a beautifully crafted album suitabe for most tases.) if that helps.
My budget is a mear £150-200 (true budget and not 'im looking for a budget amp arround £400' ) and I am verry willing to go second hand or maby vintage if it is built well enough. A second option would be to buy a decent pre-amp to get the old Bose power amp going again. The model is - Bose studiocraft F1. I cant find Anything on the internet about them but all i know is that It takes a verry strong signal to get anything decent out of it. (the aiwa pre-amp sounded awful with it.)
Any advice would be greatly apreciated and thank you for listening/reading.
Elliot
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