HiFi for a Friend

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Good evening all!

My friend has decided after listening to my hi-fi that he would love to blow all his student grant on his first system! He is looking to spend around £800 and listens to a lot of acoustic music mixed with some rock, metal and alternative. The source has been decided as a Beresford TC-7520 DAC with the op-amp upgrade running in a similar environment to my system. I have obviously advised that he needs to listen to some systems; the shortlist I have quickly thought up consists of:

Amp

1. Rotel RA-04
2. Nad C326BEE

Speakers

1. B&W 685
2. Dali Lektor 2
3. Wharfedale 10.1
4. Monitor Audio RS1

Me and my friend appreciate all your feedback, after all it's all of you who helped me get to the system I have today.

Many thanks,

Lee and Eddy

 

[Anonymous]

Rotel RA-04 integrated amplifier do not has remote control. If it is not a problem then you also can consider RB-03 or RB-06 power amplifier and use TC-7520 as preamp.

 

[Anonymous]

ediots:Rotel RA-04 integrated amplifier do not has remote control. If it is not a problem then you also can consider RB-03 or RB-06 power amplifier and use TC-7520 as preamp.

I don't think it really matters to him about the remote control. The idea you raised about using the TC-7520 as a pre-amp and the Rotel RB-06 as a power amp sounds quite interesting! Do you have any experience in doing this? Do you think it would sound better than using a standard integrated amp?

Thanks for your suggestion, keep them coming!

 

[Anonymous]

Personally I do not have, using headphones at the moment, but some people say yes, it's better. Like here http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=3767

Anyway, usually power amps have better specification and cheaper as integrated amps from the same line. If you later feel that additional inputs and remote control is welcome, you can add integrated one or preamp later.

Also you can go straight for Caiman DAC instead of TC-7520, or additional to opamp upgrade do dac chip upgrade to Wolfson WM8716 as well.

 

[Anonymous]

They certainly think it's worth it! Another combo to audition, thanks again mate!

 

[Anonymous]

Anybody else have any recommendations?