Help on hifi system and set up

[mazzoni82]

Hi,

I live in a two bedroom apartment and looking to get a hifi system for the living room. What would be a good set up for listening to online streaming through spotify, soundcloud etc? Should i get a wireless air play speaker or is it worth getting some decent speakers with an regular amp or a home cinema amp. I have a budget of about £600 total.

Also how do you hide the wires. I dont think I can feed through walls or under the carpet?

Thoughts and suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

[cannibal_ox77]

For the tidiest solution, you could get something like the Marantz MCR-510 with a decent pair of speakers, plenty of choice there. Q-acoustics concept 20 at the top end of the budget (although that's not including stands), but you can get great sound for a lot less - q-acoustics 2020i, dali Zensor 1/3, wharfedale diamond 9.1, monitor audio bx2 etc..

How big is your room? You may want to look at floorstanders

 

[mazzoni82]

Hi, thanks for your suggestions. The room is quite small - about 8m by 6m.

How would you set the speakers up in the room - side by side? or in the corners on stands, or mount them on the wall?

Also, do these speakers only sound get when there is decent volume? Ideally I would like something that provides very high quality sound when volume is fairly low.

 

[mazzoni82]

Regarding the marantz, am I better looking at a home cinema amp with wifi or airplay capabilities?

 

[davedotco]

If you are using some sort of phone/tablet/computer with airplay, then the simplest cost effective system would be an AEX into a pair of active speakers.

For example, the Presonus eris 8 will give you real room filling capabilities, a 'big' sound if you like, whereas something like the Equator D5 is smaller and more refined.

Being active designs both will sound good at low levels, clarity is of a high order. Use either an AEX or an ATV, with an add on dac if you like, and keep in simple.

If you prefer a system that has the capability to expand with your needs, a Sonos Connect and either of the speakers mentioned will go slightly over budget but is effectively open ended. Use your mobile devices to control the Sonos, one of the best sorted interfaces there is.

 

[gasolin]

Regarding the marantz, am I better looking at a home cinema amp with wifi or airplay capabilities?

Not if the cinema amp costs the same as the marantz, then you will be spending you money on extra channels and stuff that don't give better sound

All this you can connect to the marantz amp http://www.esfera-audio.com/WebRoot/StoreES/Shops/ea1415/4C13/778F/EDD2/8A17/453F/D94C/9B1E/A718/marantz-mcr-510-conexion.jpg