Hi-Fi heaven and how to achieve it

[admin_exported]

Hello folks

My idea of HiFi heaven is to be lying on my sofa accompanied by can of Grolsh with a ipodish sized controller and to be able to control and listen to all my tunes. The house is empty, the neighbours aren't in and the only time I need to move is to get another beer..

How do I achieve this? I have around £2000 to spend.

I'm not interested in having a CD player any more. I'll have all my tunes on either my PC or some other kind of storage device.

I have looked at the Sonos Wi-Fi system but I'm wondering if there are any other options. What I like about the Sonos system is the controller. Its really user friendly and would allow me to achieve my Hi-Fi heaven albeit through Wi-Fi.

Thing is I don't really need Wi-Fi if there are other systems that offer such a good interface to all of your tunes. I don't mind updating said storage device now and again by taking it to my PC if I have to.

Has anyone got any suggestions?

I would also like to control the volume though the interface.

I very flexible on how I achieve this. Maybe I could have all my tunes on a very small labtop which is Wi-Fi ed to a DAC? I think that would give me a small degree of volume control.

I should also add that I've thinking about getting a Kandy K2 amp and a set of RS6 Monitor Audio speakers or similar to go with this set up.

Looking forward to your views and seeing if anyone is already in heaven.

 

[Messiah]

Hi Fi Heaven - well you have come to the right place.....

1. AVI ADM 9.1s - £1150

2. Partington Super Dreadnought Stands - £150

3. iPod touch - £150 (or iPhone from free on contract) - lovely interface to control your tunes and the volume

4. Airport Express to stream the tunes to the speakers - £73

5. BK XLS 300 (subwoofer) - £390 although there is money left to be flexible with the finish.

6. Cheapo cables - £rest of the budget

( alternatively you could ditch the sub and airport express and go for a Netbook and a DAC although the AVI ADM 9.1s have one built in)

 

[Anonymous]

Well firstly are you looking for floorstanders or bookshelf speakers? if you go for bookshelves you will need a subwoofer if you enjoy deep bass imo.

 

[method man]

along messiahs lines. perhps you might be intersted in reading

about my setup. i feel its relevant as u mention a remote, lying on the sofa with a drink

browsing your music . cos thats exactly what i wanted, and what i now have.

link http://community.whathifi.com/forums/t/272669.aspx

 

[Anonymous]

interesting ideas messiah

Itouch would be really nice. Is it possible to be able to network to a Broadband modem or your PC with the Itouch and at the same time network with a DAC. That way you could play radio through your HIFI. If not a sure a Netbook would be able to do this and so might offer more options.

Any other thoughts?

 

[Anonymous]

How about a Linn Sneaky DS plus some speakers around £900?

Networked media player with apparently fantastic audio quality with a fairly capable built in amp.

There is an iPhone/iPod Touch app to control the Linn Sneaky DS too http://bookshelfapps.com/songbooktouch.php

 

[rtweed]

Well I achieved what I believe is hi-fi heaven for considerably less than 2000 quid. See my sig below for what I use. Spend the majority of the money on speakers. The rest of the stuff costs hardly anything, and you just need a PC or Mac, a USB DAC and power amp.

 

[Anonymous]

method man:
along messiahs lines. perhps you might be intersted in reading

about my setup. i feel its relevant as u mention a remote, lying on the sofa with a drink

browsing your music . cos thats exactly what i wanted, and what i now have.

link http://community.whathifi.com/forums/t/272669.aspx

Thanks Method Man for your link. I just finished reading it with fascination. I didn't realise there were so many options open to me.

Will definately try to book a AVI audition now.

 

[the record spot]

Buy a turntable. Oh.

 

[wireman]

ingus:method man:

along messiahs lines. perhps you might be intersted in reading

about my setup. i feel its relevant as u mention a remote, lying on the sofa with a drink

browsing your music . cos thats exactly what i wanted, and what i now have.

link http://community.whathifi.com/forums/t/272669.aspx

Thanks Method Man for your link. I just finished reading it with fascination. I didn't realise there were so many options open to me.

Will definately try to book a AVI audition now.

If you're interested in what Method Mans' Squeezebox Duet can do, here's a review of it by Malcolm Steward (respect). It's a tidy piece of kit.

http://www.malcolmsteward.co.uk/?page_id=368

 

[method man]

thanks for that also wireman. i hadnt seen that one.

 

[Anonymous]

unless you get the dynaudios.... atc's... or the rokones.... or the technics, with that cool subwoofer fiited in the back (old models but brilliant)

 

[Anonymous]

How about the B&O portable music player... or the b&w zeppelin... or even the meridian "ferrari" thingy ma bob... ORRR

The Roksan amp and the speaker choice you've mentioned are a brilliant combo... I tested them myself. Soo you could combo that with the sonus you were also talking about, Am I right that the sonus has memory for your music???... otherwise the IPod would be good, to link up with the Amp etc.

Sonus £800-£900

Roksan k2 amp £895

Monitor audio RS6's £600

IPod and Dock £60-£120 Total= £2355-£2515... little bit over the price limit, but IF you could find a shop that sells everything together, then you should get a fair amount off of the products... I will say as well the roksan L.III is Absolutely brilliant with the monitor audios... and its £300 cheaper... I know what I'd do.

Buuuut yeh, anyway, You can "haggle" for 10%-15% off of everything here as a total Which would be £235-£251.50... in the above products, which is a good saving. Buying everything from the same store is always a good move in my opinion.

 

[Anonymous]

hi,

You can do it pretty cheap here is what i have done.

Connected 2 pairs of speakers-good qulaity downstairs(quad21l) and cheaper acoustic solutions upstairs.

Run a 3.5mm to phono cablefrom appleimac to denon aurround amp.

I have an iphone so i have also the remote free application whic controls my i tunes music and podcasts,volume and track selection-very cool!

I have only used cheap cables running upstairs.

The sound quality is not too bad.

cost wise i reckon you could do it all for £1000-i had most of my equipment already so was mainly cables and tweaking-i have a gale sub but only use for movies.

Just to add i have silver anniversary cable connected to quads-but not biwired i have had them for 6 months now and starting to come into their own.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi guys

Thanks for all your help I'm gonna try and find a store that does the AVI ADM9.1s and also the K2 amp and Monitor Audios and a decent DAC and then I'm gonna decide which sound best.

I'm also gonna do a bit more research/surfing about wifi and find the most suitable wifi for me. Sonos looks likes it out for now cos a reckon if I use a apple based system (itouch, itunes on my PC and Airport Express to a DAC or the ADM9.1) there will be more flexibility as and when apple invent more free programs. I also think the apple based system will be far cheaper than sonos.

Not looked much in the squeeze box. That is tonights homework!!

Thanks again.

 

[JoelSim]

I'm in hifi heaven tonight. Joy. And I've not even smoked anything!

This CDP is seriously lovely, the WHF review is spot on.