Cheapish amp and dac

[BlackSpy]

So I'm looking for a cheapish amp and dac combo for the kitchen. I've got a netbook there just now that feeds a five year old Denon mini system that I've never really liked and onto some ten year old Elac speakers which I have to say are really great. The sound is pretty awful in total though.

I'm mostly going to be streaming music and I'm happy to use the netbook as the source but I quite fancy replacing the dac in the netbook with something better and the amp has never been any good (don't know how it got five stars, probably on price vs features).

I'm happy to spend up to about £500. The integrated solutions from the likes of Naim, Moon and Cyrus are all a good bit more than that and I'm not aware of anything cheaper so it's probably going to be two boxes. Any thoughts of happy bedfellows?

 

[the record spot]

Are space considerations an issue? In which case, look at either the M-Audio Transit (circa £70 max) or the Musical Fidelity, soon to be replaced, V-DAC (around £125-140). Neat, good at what they do and in budget.

Amps? Ten a penny. Decent new ones out there, good used ones that will do the job perfectly well. Depends what you want in the kitchen and the requirements that amp needs to have. If you are looking for something near the standard of the brands you highlighted, you're best to pitch at the used or ex-dem route.

Many dealers will offer a warranty (best examples I've seen are Jordan Acoustics over in Glenrothes and Audio Emotion not too far away from them in Leven in Fife - both will offer up to 5 years for their warranties which is pretty impressive) and the good ones out there won't leave you in the lurch if they don't but you end up with a problem down the line (Retro Reproduction in Edinburgh look after you too). Happy hunting!

 

[BlackSpy]

It would be better if they were smaller, but at least unobtrusive should do it.

There is certainly no shortage of amps in the space, it's ones that work well together I suppose I curious about. Maybe I could get the rDac and second hand Arcam amp.

 

[Anonymous]

maybe something from Firestone Audio products?