Help needed

[flakyboy]

Hi, I'm new. You might need to be patient with me...

I'd like some kind soul's out there to help me figure out what I need. I live in a small two storey semi. In the living room we have a fairly basic setup consisting of an old Samsung TV hooked up to a Panasonic Bluray player and surround bundle. If in the living room, we occassionally listen to CD's through the Bluray player or perhaps my iTunes catalogue via the Apple TV box. Next door is a dining room where we tend to eat which leads onto a small kitchen. At the moment we have some old shiity portable CD player and as bad as it is, we tend to listen to music on it when we are eating or preparing food a few yards away in the kitchen. Up until last year I did have an old Denon all in one unit that was hooked up to a pair of Mission m70 stereo speakers.

Upstairs I have an office where I spend a lot of the day working and I listen to my iTunes library via my PC and a pair of Creative computer speakers (I KNOW....shame).

I am tired of not getting the most out of my music sonically and have decided to spend a few quid to improve my listening experience. I still like the idea of HiFi seperates but where do I put them? If it's upstairs in the office then when I'm not working and i the kitchen, I'm back to low fidelity. Vice versa, if I create a nice setup downstairs then I have nothing suitable upstairs.

I know nowadays there are music streamers and wireless speakers but really I have no clue whats out there and at what cost? Is it possible to connect some kind of wireless device into a seperates setup and have a good quality audio experience from a wireless speaker elsewhere in the house? I can't afford a proper home installation with speakers in every room all centrally controlled and I have a rough budget of £1000-1500 max.

I can use the Mission stereo pair somewhere as they are decent sounding and still work fine. I have a Technics SL PG490 CD player sat in the spare room donated by a friend but haven't tested it. My first purchase was going to be a good stereo amp like the Cambridge CXA60 at around £500 and hook up the PG490 and m70's together for a basic starting point.

Can anyone offer any advice on what route they may take?

 

[drummerman]

Why not get a something like a Naim Mu-so (or the cheaper QB), perhaps even a couple of?

 

[jonathanRD]

As you spend a lot of time listening to music upstairs I would look at spending a good few hundred pound on a good pair of active speakers to connect to your pc, and add a dac if the speakers dont come with one. I'm sure you should get a few suggestions here.

In your dining room/kitchen - it depends on how intently you will listen to music, where you can place the speakers and whether you will have a decent listening position. All these factors will decide on what to buy.

We spend a lot of time in our kitchen and eat most meals there too (just the two of us these days), so we find the Sonos Play 1 ideal as 'decent sounding' background music. If we wanted a better sound we could add a second Play 1 for stereo.

Or pick up a budget amp to connect to your CD player and Mission speakers.