...building a budget computer-based system... opinions and suggestions are welcome!

[admin_exported]

Hello all,

I am a classical musician and I listen mostly to classical music, jazz and acoustic rock. I am looking to put together a very low-budget, yet decent system for my apartment. My music is stored on my computer, and I was thinking of buying a Buffalo Link Station NAS to store it on my home network.

I would appreciate any suggestions from the experienced audiophiles, since I am really just starting, and I am aware that this will be a very entry-level system. My budget is less then 1300 pounds, and I would like sound for two rooms. This is what I have put together for now on the shopping list...

LIVING ROOM (will double as stereo home theater)

- HARMAN KARDON HK 3490 Stereo Receiver + Primus 360 HiFi Speakers (x2)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/HARMAN-KARDON-Receiver-Speakers-ComboKit/dp/B00415BL3A/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1305849013&sr=1-2

BEDROOM (smaller than living room)

- computer connected to NuForce Icon HDP Class A Headphone Amp, 192 24 DAC, Pre Amplifier

http://www.sightandsounduk.com/NuForce-Icon-HDP-Class-A-Headphone-Amp-192-24-DAC-Pre-Amplifier.html

- Pioneer A-209R Stereo Amplifier

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pioneer-A-209R-Stereo-Amplifier-Black/dp/B00005OOJG/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1305898285&sr=1-2

- Tannoy Mercury V1 Bookshelf Speakers

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tannoy-Mercury-V1-Bookshelf-Speakers/dp/B004EQMPC2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1305895817&sr=1-2

The problem now is how to connect the computer to both systems. Would something like the audioengine W1 Wireless adapter do the trick?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Audioengine-Premium-Wireless-Audio-Adapter/dp/B0018Q4WUO/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1305892920&sr=8-5

And if so, wouldn't it be better to attach the transmitter AFTER the DAC to preserve quality?

Any other ideas are welcome... Thank you!

Foscolo84

 

[John Duncan]

Hi and welcome, foscolo84

Couple of questions first. Are you based in the UK? And what's your source for the home theatre aspect?

 

[Anonymous]

Hello John,

thank you for your post. I am based in Denmark; but as far as I can see, it is cheaper to order from the UK for most products. I was planning on buying a Sony LCD television and Sony Blu Ray player:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-KDL46EX503U-Widescreen-Internet-Freeview/dp/B003BVI4DU/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1305901097&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-BDPS370B-CEK-BDPS370-Blu-ray-Player/dp/B0038M1UTW/ref=sr_1_21?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1305846771&sr=1-21

But I am open for suggestions also on those products.

Foscolo84

 

[chebby]

Are you Tommaso Lonquich ?

 

[John Duncan]

Are you Tommaso Lonquich ?

Do you claim your five krone?

 

[John Duncan]

Hello John,

thank you for your post. I am based in Denmark; but as far as I can see, it is cheaper to order from the UK for most products. I was planning on buying a Sony LCD television and Sony Blu Ray player:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-KDL46EX503U-Widescreen-Internet-Freeview/dp/B003BVI4DU/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1305901097&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-BDPS370B-CEK-BDPS370-Blu-ray-Player/dp/B0038M1UTW/ref=sr_1_21?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1305846771&sr=1-21

But I am open for suggestions also on those products.

Foscolo84

OK - I can't speak specifically for that sized panel, but like Sony televisions very much, and you can't go wrong with the 370 (though that price is expensive, and I think I read somewhere earlier that it's replacement, the 380, can be had for £100 somewhere, though don't know if it was a retailer who can ship to Denmark). Some general findings here.

As for the other equipment, I think you have a bit of a mish-mash there and there may be some better alternatives within your budget; let me have a dig and come up with some other suggestions. I'm assuming that budget of £1,300 excludes the television and BD player?

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the info John,

I will be very interested in your suggestions. The budget of 1300 GBP does exclude the television and the BD player.

T.L. (since Chebby blew my cover!)

 

[John Duncan]

Thank you for the info John,

I will be very interested in your suggestions. The budget of 1300 GBP does exclude the television and the BD player.

T.L. (since Chebby blew my cover!)

Welcome. I'm still working things out so give me a little while, but if it was my money I'm thinking Yamaha RXV667 and Q Acoustics 2050 for the living area (bear with me on my thinking here, need more time to explain and am just going out), a very modest USB DAC and a half decent amp/speaker combination in the bedroom, and airport express to tie it all together. One other thing: where's the computer?

Nice K622 btw.

 

[amcluesent]

So, spending £1300, I'd go for -

NAS - Vortexbox music appliance 1GB- £400

Bedroom - Squeezebox Touch (£180), Audio Engine A5 active speakers (£240)

Livingroom - Squeezebox Touch (£180), Monitor Audio BX2 (£225) and mid-range AV Receiver (£400) from same maker as TV and blueray player so they all link on HDMI. The benefit of having a common control is serisouly overlooked - I run a Sony TV/Receiver/blueray combo.

Tad over, but you can pick some items from EBay or keep using your PC and defer the NAS

NB Trying to get decent music and AV in the same system is near impossible unless you spend big.

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you for listening to the Mozart and for the first pointers. The computer can be in either room actually, although I would think it would be more often in my bedroom, since the Sony television has internet capabilities as well. It's a laptop, so I am flexible with that. The most important thing is that I be able to stream the audio content from my computer to both systems. I thought it would be good if one DAC could be involved in both systems at once, but I am not sure that is possible.

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you amcluesent. It's true what you mention about the comfort of having only one remote...

As far as the difficulty of having decent music and AV at the same time, I can understand... In that case I would personally be more inclined to prioritize the music quality.

I was looking into the Squeezebox, as well as the Sonos, but I am encountering a big obstacle with every wireless streaming service. My digital collection is very large and very organized, but unfortunately it is organized by folders in Windows 7. The ID3 tags are not organized as I want them to be, and as far as I understand, both Sonos and the Squeezebox deal with ID3 tags, not with folder browsing. The collection is too large to be updating all the ID3 tags at this point, and I anyway find that for the purposes of classical music, the folder structure is much more flexible.

I would like to just be able to select the album in Windows Explorer, play it in WMP, and have it stream... that's why I thought possibly the http://www.amazon.co.uk/Audioengine-Premium-Wireless-Audio-Adapter/dp/B0018Q4WUO/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1305892920&sr=8-5

may be a solution... but I am not sure about how functional it will be and about the audio quality.

Any ideas?

 

[Anonymous]

But I have just found this program:

http://rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/windows/

I think it's starting to sound like Airfoil in conjunction with AirPlay may do the trick I was looking for... am I right?

 

[John Duncan]

But I have just found this program:

http://rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/windows/

I think it's starting to sound like Airfoil in conjunction with AirPlay may do the trick I was looking for... am I right?

Yes, that's how I stream to my Uniti. However, with WMP being a media server out of the box, an AV receiver with networking capability could be all you need. Apologies I can't give you a full answer tonight, have had a long day and can't think straight. Will try to give you more ideas tomorrow,

JD

 

[amcluesent]

> I anyway find that for the purposes of classical music, the folder structure is much more flexible.<

My collection is mostly classical, maybe 4000 albums. Squeezebox certainly can browse directories on disk and play some/all the files in a folder.

How you tag classical is a topic of debate, it's down to personal views rather then there being a 'right' way. That said, Squeezebox has support for the Composer tag and also let's you have sub-genres of your choice, for example I tag 'Classical|String Quartet', 'Classical|Woodwind' etc

TBH, as you are listening to classical, jazz and accoustic, I'd take the £1300 and get a Squeezebox Touch, then seek out 2nd hand amp/speakers. Something like an Audio Analogue Puccini SE or Quad 34/306 and a pair of Sonus Faber Concertinos. That combo would be be far, far ahead of anything you could buy new for the same money. IMHO!

 

[John Duncan]

OK, the reason I wanted to point the OP in the direction of an AV receiver was because of the availability of some very good classical music-on Y blurays. So take the Sony BDP-S380 (for example) and add it do a 400 quid receiver, and you have a system that not only can play high-res music, but can act as a DLNA client for the music on his PC.

As for speakers, I too would be inclined to go for small, quality stand mounts, but am taking the OP's cue for floorstanders, hence suggestion omath Q 2050, which is an awful lot of speaker for the money, thouh not something I could fit in my house. That would leave about 500 quid for a bedroom system, which could go so many ways; a squeezebox may be the very thing, but personally I'd probably get a very cheap USB dac, and add a Yamaha or Marantz stereo amp and, quite possibly, the Tannoys or similar.

Tommaso - is there any way you could run a second set of speaker wire from the living rooto the bedroom? Lots of AV receivers (and other amps and systems, incidentally) can run two zones...

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you John and Amcluesent. I would like to avoid wires running from one room the other, if possible.

As far as the speakers go, I have been thinking as well that the floorstanding speakers may be too imposing for the space. Smaller standmounts would fit better.

Thank you for letting me know about the folder browsing on the squeezebox. Given that capability, I wouldn't mind putting a very simple squeezebox boom in my bedroom and investing the difference in better equipment for the living room.

As far as the receiver, which budget models have DLNA capability? I am not really interested in multi-speaker set-ups, so stereo would be perfectly fine with me.

One last question: given this price-range of components, do you think that using high-quality cables would make an audible difference? I.E. Chord Crimson Plus RCA and Chord Company Carnival SilverScreen Speaker Cable?

 

[John Duncan]

OK. Let's say a squeezebox Boom is £200, that leaves you £1100 for the main room. Let's put £200 on speaker stands and cables, leaving £900 - with that you could get a £500 receiver and £400 stand mounts; I still say Yamaha but Denon and Onkyo May also be to your taste. KEF Q300 would be the obvious speaker choice, if you can get past their ugly tree looks.

Forgive me banging on down the receiver route, but I do think that blu ray could be the future disc of choice where classical is concerned - and your choice of Sony will give you SACD and DLNA capability thrown in.

 

[Anonymous]

That sounds like a good plan, John. Where would the DAC come in? Wouldn't that be an important part of improving my computer sound? Or since everything is streamed anyway, will the internal DACs in the receiver and squeezebox take care of that?

 

[John Duncan]

Firstly, I'd argue that a Squeezebox Booom isn't good enough (re;atively) to need a DAC to imporve it's sound, so wouldn't bother. The main system would have a DAC in the receiver, so I'd be inclined to use that before worrying about improving it with an onboard one.

One point you should note about the BDP-S370: the music formats it supports are AAC, mp3, WMA and WAV - how is your music stored currently?

 

[Anonymous]

I have tracks saved in WMA and AAC, so that could work. I think I got quite a good idea now of how to proceed. Thank you for the very valuable advice!

TL

 

[John Duncan]

Great, and you're welcome. Let us know how you get on.

Oh, and do feel free to go and grace the Gramophone forum!