Modest Amp for PC / Home Office?

[Benedict_Arnold]

Suggestions for modest amplifiers with and without built-in DACs, to couple up proper hifi (bookshelf) speakers to my PC in the home office please.Money no object and it would be a Cyrus Streamline 2 and a couple of decent bookshelf speakers, probably a small pair of Monitor Audios or B&Ws.Pyle do little power amps (with volume knobs) starting around 50 bucks, and I have a spare pair of surround speakers I could use. That is the bare minimum alternative.Any more down-to-earth suggestions would be appreciated. Also, how do I hook up the analogue outputs on the back of a PC to an amplifer? Are they speaker voltages or RCA line in / out voltages? The digital I have covered - SPDIF optical output on the motherboard to SPDIF on the (hopefully) DAC / preamp combo.Finally, any suggestions for a small (and modestly priced) powered subwoofer? Thanks

 

[John Duncan]

I think I'd be looking at the KEF X300A for a mid priced system, just to keep it clean. No subwoofer output though AFAICT.

When you mention your bare minimum though, do you want to keep at that end or did you have a real figure in mind?

 

[andrew_cawood]

Audioengine N22 is a good little 22W class A/B amp, and can be picked up on ebay pretty cheap - but no built in DAC. New £150ish, but £80 or so on ebay if you can find one. I'm guessing you're in the US, so expect you can get it even cheaper over there. It has a 3.5mm input so can plug straight out of your computer's headphone amp.

Also consider TEAC AH01 - has a built in dac, these seem to have been superseded now and can be bought for a good price. Used to be £400 but now go for much less.

I've used both, the N22 is good but lacks the punch of the 50W class D AH01.

 

[tino]

Amplifier - Teac A-H01 (you might be able to get an end-of-line one for a good price)

Active desktop speakers - Focal XS Book (the new wireless version) and a Bluetooth apt-x dongle for your PC (http://www.whathifi.com/news/focal-adds-bluetooth-to-its-xs-book-wireless-desktop-speakers-plans-stereo-and-multichannel-pac)

 

[chebby]

How about this amp/DAC...

http://www.teac-audio.eu/en/products/ai-501da-90193.html

90wpc.

USB, optical and co-ax digital. (24bit/192KHz or 24bit/96KHz)

Meters!

Built-in headphone amp.

Looks good (well it does to me).

£699 in the UK. (A check on a couple of USA outlets shows them selling for around $870 dollars which is £566 here right now so favours you.)

Remote control.

Compact @ 11.4" x 3.2" x 10.4" (inches rather than cm as you are in the USA)

 

[Benedict_Arnold]

How about this amp/DAC...

http://www.teac-audio.eu/en/products/ai-501da-90193.html

90wpc.

USB, optical and co-ax digital. (24bit/192KHz or 24bit/96KHz)

Meters!

Built-in headphone amp.

Looks good (well it does to me).

£699 in the UK. (A check on a couple of USA outlets shows them selling for around $870 dollars which is £566 here right now so favours you.)

Remote control.

Compact @ 11.4" x 3.2" x 10.4" (inches rather than cm as you are in the USA)

Divide those numbers by a factor of 10 and you have a realistic budget for an office system. For 700 quidI might as well buy a half-decent, e.g. Denon or Teac mini stereo system and be done with....

 

[Benedict_Arnold]

I can get this setup (with its whopping 13 W per channel RMS (I sincerely hope :roll: ) for 350 bucks.

http://www.onkyousa.com/Products/model.php?m=CS-N755&class=Audiosys&source=prodClass

It has a built in FLAC decoder to feed nice "lossless" audio to those iddy biddy speakers....