Lovely budget second hand set up

[admin_exported]

Been putting together a second hand system for the living room. Manged to pick up six month old Monitor Audio RX2's for £250 from a student in Oxford. Paired them initially with a Pioneer A400 for £80 and a Marantz 63 Ki Signature CD for £100. Very nice system for only £430. However, like others have noted I did find the Pioneer a little "shrill".

So I sold it for £95. Managed to souce a local Arcam Alpha 9 for £150. Promised by the seller worked perfectly. Glad to buy it as it was a Polish seller who had brought it back to England from Poland. Anyway at home the amp had the common input selector fault. Crackle city!

Opened her up and gently tapped on the switch and things slightly improved. Emboldened that the fault was therefore just dirty contacts, hot foot to Maplins for a can of Super 10 switch cleaner. 10 minutes later - perfecto.

And wow what a transformation in sound. These three components, the M.A. RX2, Alpha 9 and Ki SIg CDP are made for each other. Incredibly lush, coherent, but with great seperation also. Hate to say it, but it sounds at least as good as my Arcam Alpha 10 i/p, Alpha 9 cd and JM Lab Electra 926 upstairs.

So anybody looking to put together a sub £500 system that sounds like one costing a lot lot more - you now know where to look!

 

[k77stan]

wow,not bad at all :bounce: it goes to show you can achieve a decent sound without spending silly..pays off in the end if you bide your time :clap:

 

[Overdose]

My original active system cost around £500.

Mint BM5As £450 delivered and a mint UA-25 DAC/preamp £80. Sounded great, still does, although I now have the DACmagic Plus instead of the UA-25.

 

[hoopsontoast]

My current one: ~£500

Sony DVP-S9000ES

Puresound A10

Kef Reference 104/2

Previously: ~£300

Sony DVP-S9000ES

Sony TA-F670ES

Keesonic Kolt / Target R1

A couple of years ago: ~£600

Sony QS CDP

Sony TA-F770ES

Kord Tornado

One from a good few years back: ~£500 (not inc the XQ1's)

Rega Planet Mk1

Primare A20

Rega R3

I could go on, plenty of bargains out there :dance:

 

[the record spot]

Oh for sure; Mission 752s - £80 in near mint nick (the original ones, not the Freedom version), Marantz CD52 Mk II SE - £35 delivered, Sansui AU-217 £33 serviced, and delivered. Bargains aplenty if you know what you want and do a little reading up beforehand. Then it's just patience!

 

[Anonymous]

Wow that set-up with the Kefs and the tune amp looks a million dollars!

Challenge! Best set-up for the littlest money.........

 

[drummerman]

My current one: ~£500

Sony DVP-S9000ES

Puresound A10

Kef Reference 104/2

pic

Previously: ~£300

Sony DVP-S9000ES

Sony TA-F670ES

Keesonic Kolt / Target R1

pic

A couple of years ago: ~£600

Sony QS CDP

Sony TA-F770ES

Kord Tornado

pic

One from a good few years back: ~£500 (not inc the XQ1's)

Rega Planet Mk1

Primare A20

Rega R3

pic

I could go on, plenty of bargains out there :dance:

Yep, I saw some of your systems elsewhere. Did you also exhibit a system comprising, amongst other things, an Audio Innovation S700 ... all in for about £400 at one of the shows?

I must say, whilst I agree that there are some bargains out there, I dont think I have come across one of the above valve amps for less than about £350, no matter what the condition, never mind the rest of the system which included a pretty exotic turntable and decent speakers. These amplifiers still sell for the same money s/h as they did when I sold mine some 15years ago.

If that wasn't you, pls. ignore the above.

regards

 

[Shanka]

Hi,

I bought an Alpha 9 last year for £130 and I love it, tweaked around with my system in my bedroom and very happy with it, turnable I found in an office about 15 years ago and got the speakers from a company that had been sold for nowt about 9 years ago along with a Sonyxa20es cd player.
I also have a dacmagic which at £200 is my most expensive component, linn ics for £25 (ebay) and VD lcofc cable for £30.

Any new systems I build will be s/hand, it did take me about 6 months at get the Alpha 9 at the price I wanted but thats part of the fun.
Mind you I am about to but a new dac for my main system but expect that to be my last big hifi purchase.

Have fun :cheers:

 

[hoopsontoast]

My current one: ~£500

Sony DVP-S9000ES

Puresound A10

Kef Reference 104/2

pic

Previously: ~£300

Sony DVP-S9000ES

Sony TA-F670ES

Keesonic Kolt / Target R1

pic

A couple of years ago: ~£600

Sony QS CDP

Sony TA-F770ES

Kord Tornado

pic

One from a good few years back: ~£500 (not inc the XQ1's)

Rega Planet Mk1

Primare A20

Rega R3

pic

I could go on, plenty of bargains out there :dance:

Yep, I saw some of your systems elsewhere. Did you also exhibit a system comprising, amongst other things, an Audio Innovation S700 ... all in for about £400 at one of the shows?

I must say, whilst I agree that there are some bargains out there, I dont think I have come across one of the above valve amps for less than about £350, no matter what the condition, never mind the rest of the system which included a pretty exotic turntable and decent speakers. These amplifiers still sell for the same money s/h as they did when I sold mine some 15years ago.

If that wasn't you, pls. ignore the above.

regards

Afraid that was not me, never owned an Audio Innovations amp. The AI Series 300 integrated goes for around £250-£300. The Puresound in the pic was £300, the Decware Zen I had before was the same price as well, and the TA-F770ES.

The 104/2's were £200, an epic bargain, as well as the Sony DVD/SACD player which was in fact free, from my old boss. I will be at Scalford once again this year, with whatever I happen to have.

I actually prefer the lower end S/H market (<£300 a component) as you can pick up some cracking kit.

 

[Overdose]

The 104/2's were £200, an epic bargain, as well as the Sony DVD/SACD player which was in fact free, from my old boss. I will be at Scalford once again this year, with whatever I happen to have.

That's cheating. 😉

 

[hoopsontoast]

The 104/2's were £200, an epic bargain, as well as the Sony DVD/SACD player which was in fact free, from my old boss. I will be at Scalford once again this year, with whatever I happen to have.

That's cheating. 😉

Its not what you know, but who you know :rofl: