Building a hi-fi system - help needed!

dangalf

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Hello all,

I am looking to build a hi-fi system with a budget of £3000 for a source, amp and DAC. The £3000 does not need to include speakers, headphones or a headphone amp as I will add these shortly. I will do around 20% of my listening through speakers and the rest through headphones.

I need to include spotify premium access, to be able to play ripped local files and the ability to play either lossless files or CDs. It would be a bonus if I could access features such as Last FM, internet/DAB radio and HD music.

One potential set-up would be to use a laptop as my source, a Cyrus XPD QX and a Cyrus PSX-R.

Alternatively I could replace the laptop with a Sonos ZP90 and a CD player with a separate amp and DAC

How would you spend the money? I will try to demo as many combinations as I can.

Many thanks,
 

Overdose

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Plenty of options, but my tendency would be for a good pair of active speakers, fed by a DAC/Preamp combo, which would also be a headphone amp.

The source would be a small form factor Pc or Mac with large capacity HDD. This setup would give you an almost universal disc player and no need for a dedicated CD player.

An example would be

Event Opal active monitors, Benchmark DAC 1 HDR and Asrock Vision 3d series.

That lot would be over your budget, but would include speakers, it would also be a very minimalist setup with only two boxes providing all of your streaming, storage and disc playing needs and would meet all of your criteria. Other options are available at various price levels, my set up is similar, albeit on a more modest budget.
 

CnoEvil

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Here are my suggestions for going into the hat:

SOURCE: Linn DS (Sneaky or Majik DS)

AMP: Sugden (Mystro or A21 Al)
Musical Fidelity M3i
Electrocompaniet (PI-2 or ECI-3)
Unison Research Unico (Primo or Nuovo)
Leema Pulse (the one on offer)

Get access to Spotify however suits, though I think there is a "workaround" with the DS (by installing Jamcast on laptop....google access to spotify through Linn ds). Last FM is covered.
 

dangalf

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Hi guys,

Thanks for the replies - looks like I have some auditioning to do!

Any other suggestions are also welcome.

Thanks,
 

steve_1979

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Have you ever heard any active speakers? I think they sound much better than equally priced passive speakers. They have built in amps so all you need to add is a computer and a DAC that has a built in preamp.

I particularly like the Dynaudio's active monitors.
 

dangalf

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Hi Steve,

No I haven't ever heard any active speakers - once I had decided on the set up, auditioning speakers was next on my list. I've heard good things about Dynaudio generally though so maybe I should check them out - thanks!
 
steve_1979 said:
Have you ever heard any active speakers? I think they sound much better than equally priced passive speakers. They have built in amps so all you need to add is a computer and a DAC that has a built in preamp.

I particularly like the Dynaudio's active monitors.

steve, I know what you are getting at, but surely you are saying you feel they sound much better than an equally priced combination of amp and passive speakers? Or to put it another way, actives may seem a bit pricey, but when you allow for the savings on amplifiers, and the great integration, they can be a very persuasive alternative?

I've a hunch actives may become more popular with the growing market for streaming.
 
A

Anonymous

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can anyone help me with this?

Its an old system.. cant find any help on the internet....
but wanna know.. can more speakers be added to the system?
( idont know anything bout this stuff )
but its the black and red wires that go into the back of the system... soo, can you add more speakers into it that use the red and black wires?
or is there antoher way to get more sound?
 

steve_1979

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nopiano said:
surely you are saying you feel they sound much better than an equally priced combination of amp and passive speakers? Or to put it another way, actives may seem a bit pricey, but when you allow for the savings on amplifiers, and the great integration, they can be a very persuasive alternative?

Yes that's what I ment to say. :)
 
craig6661 said:
can anyone help me with this?

Its an old system.. cant find any help on the internet....
but wanna know.. can more speakers be added to the system?
( idont know anything bout this stuff )
but its the black and red wires that go into the back of the system... soo, can you add more speakers into it that use the red and black wires?
or is there antoher way to get more sound?

Might be better to start a new thread, but please tell us what it is! Make, model, maybe a picture? What speakers are you using, etc.

Generally, you won't get "more sound" with more speakers. You might get more volume (louder sound) with more sensitive speakers. But let's understand what you have at the moment!
 

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