my first hifi (the ebay way)

[admin_exported]

up until a month ago i was very happy with my bose companion 5 system and playin music through my laptop, then my brother (hoggers on this forum) brought come new gear for his hifi and i realised just how much better sound a hifi was producing compared to the laptop speakers.

so i decided to take the plunge into the world of seperates. being a complete novice i decided to have a read around (mainly on this forum) and try to educate myself in what is a very complicated field. after a bit of a read around i decided i could get a much better sytem by buying well second hand than i could afford off the shelf.

i decided i wanted a cd player, amp and some bookshelf speakers and had set a budget of £400 (a pretty tight budget. ok so this is what i ended up doing with my money.

the amp

after a little look around i settled for a mainly cambridge audio based system as there product are very well priced. after loosing a few auctions on ebay i finally brought an azur 540a setting me back only £90 seemed a steal to me. the amp was in really good condition and i had a good starting point to form the rest of my system around.

the cdp

sticking with the CA theme i brought (again on ebay) an azur 640c for £105. again this was in really good nick and came with the original box.

speakers and stands

now the speakers was not somewhere i wanted to skimp on quality. so after a massive session reading around i set my heart on some Dali lektor 2's. i thought that the small design would be perfect for my small bedroom. after waiting for a week i finally brought the lektor 2's for £135. not sure if thats a good price or not but there wasnt many for sale and i had my heart set on them. as for the stands my brother very kindly donated some atacama nexus to the cause (cheers bruv).

cables

again another place where i knew not to skimp so decided to go for new items instead of the used route. QED seemed to offer really good value products so i decided the go with them for the wiring. i brought a performance interconnect for the amp and cdp. i then purchased some xtc speaker cable. the interconnect and the speaker wire set me back £40 but seem like really well made products (nice and sturdy looking)

so after spending £380 i was ready to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. got all setup and sat down for a music sesh. instantly i was blown away. being very new to this is dont have the expert ears of many but the sound was perfect. the dalis had great bass and the music seemed very crisp (not sure if thats a technical term but sounds good to me). im sure that had i have brought new equipment i would have no where near as good a system (especially on the speaker front).

still to come

ok so this is where im needing a bit of advice. firstly im in the market for a DAC so i can play music from my laptop, any suggestions people?

also thinkin of gettin some decent power cables and a 6 bank plug socket, again will this make a difference? and what would you guys recomend?

your opinions

ok so what do you (who definatley know more than me) think of the system? whats the weekest component, wanting to make the weakest component the strongest and upgrade slowly in this manor.

thanks

thanks for reading guys and thanks in advance for any advice. oh and sorry for the poor spelling as im almsot certian theres probably hundreds of typos in hear

 

[steve_1979]

Sounds like you've got yourself a really nice system there for only £400. :clap:

Any chance of some photos?

 

[Anonymous]

Yes indeed I'm really pleased with it. Yet of course at work at the mo but will get some up later

 

[steve_1979]

ok so this is where im needing a bit of advice. firstly im in the market for a DAC so i can play music from my laptop, any suggestions people?

The Cambridge Audio DacMagic is good and will match the rest of your Cambridge Audio gear.

also thinkin of gettin some decent power cables and a 6 bank plug socket, again will this make a difference? and what would you guys recomend?

IMO expensive power cables are a waste of money but there are other people on this forum who think otherwise. My advice would be to have a listen yourself first before you buy and see is you can hear any difference.

 

[John Duncan]

Agreed, that's a nice, balanced system without any obvious weak links without ramping up the cost. I'd go easy on a DAC as well, tbh - did you have a figure in mind? USB only?

 

[Anonymous]

hi guys. struggling with uploading photos, how do i do this?

steve_1979

was looking at the DAC magic looks like a pretty versatile bit of kit. yer im not sure that massively expensive power cables will make a difference in my system. could still do with a 6 bank to tidy things up so probably gonna get a tacima cs929 should do the job lovely.

john duncan

not really got a very good knowledge of DACs. just looking to hook up my laptop so i would imagine i only need USB connection. was hoping to spend around £100, £120 would be top of the budget.

also i have masses of speaker cable as i got to much. i have 3m lengths but only really need 1.5m lengths. firstly will this excess be effecting the speaker performance (cable interferance maybe as its all bunched up?). and secondly dont want to go chop shop on the cable as i may need longer lengths in the not to distant future so was going to buy some more shorter lengths of cable. should i get more xtc cable in shorter lengths or is there a better alternative? would it even make any difference having smaller legnths?

thank you in advance

 

[Juzzie Wuzzie]

Don't chop the speaker cables - 1.5 v. 3.0 will not make any noticeable difference to your system. Just make sure if you are "bunching" it up that you are not causing any physical damage to the cable. Likewise, rather than joining bits on to make longer cables, I'd keep your current cable in good order, and sell it to fund the purchase of new cable to meet your needs. I've been following some speaker cable auctions, and some reasonably bargains can be had.

Just one man's view.

 

[Anonymous]

Juzzie wuzzie

Yer I think im gonna get new shorter cable and leave my existing as is, maybe keep hold of it as I'm sure I'll find a good use for it. Think I'm gonna go for qed xt anniversary , seems to be well priced.

 

[Juzzie Wuzzie]

Wouldn't even get shorter cable - just stick with what you have until a) you need longer cable or b) upgrading the cable is both financially and aurally sensible.

 

[Anonymous]

Juzzie wuzzie

Thanks for the advice. Will just stick with the cable I have for the time being and concentrate efforts elsewhere. Thinking a USB dac needs to be the next port of call.

 

[fr0g]

Before you splash out on a DACm, just connect up the laptop with a 3.5mm to twin RCA cable first and compare to your CDP. You may be surprised (or not). Some laptops have pretty decent sound without a DAC, some sadly don't.



*edit. If you haven't got one, look on ebay and pay no more than a tenner...

 

[steve_1979]

Apparently the Behringer UCA222 DAC has exellent sound quality that can rival much more expensive DAC's dispite it only costing £30.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Behringer-UCA222-U-Control-Ultra-Low-Interface/dp/B0023BYDHK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331840950&sr=8-1

 

[Anonymous]

For the cash you spent its a great system i too have been on ebay and got my denon cd and award winning classic tuner for less than £50.00
I am at current looking for an amp to match . I had a full yamaha cinema set up years ago and sold when i moved in with partner and got my teac mini hifi but we now have the space to buy seperates again i have a tacima cs929 mains socket and you can tell the difference in the sound not bad for around £30 from hificables.co.uk

 

[Anonymous]

hey guys sorry its been a while

lanks76

yer ebay is the way forward for a budget system. i have just purchased a tacima cs929 to mainly just to tidy things up. the only problem with ebay is its massively tempting to keep buying bits

 

[Anonymous]

too true .. or all to easy to hit the buy it now button on your mobile phone whilst talking to your children yes i did it and am the not so proud as didnt want it owner of a yamaha dspe200 cinema processor !!! im sure ill find a use for it if not back on ebay it goes :shifty:

 

[Anonymous]

Just had an eBay moment . Brought a q acoustic surround sound (2x 1030i, 2x1010i and a 1000i centre) . Sounds pretty good to be only had it wired up 2 at a time. Cost me £110. What's your opinions on these speakers ? Gonna have to get a surround amp at some point what would be good with these ? Thanks guys

 

[John Duncan]

For £110 they're bloody fantastic

Look out on the 'bay for older receiver models; you could pick up something like my Yamaha DSP-AX620 for £50 on a good day, which would be a great-sounding system (though only for older 5.1 formats like Dolby Digital and DTS).

 

[Anonymous]

What do you guys think of using my 1030i's as my main stereo speakers and loosing the dalis ? Just wondering as having both is definitely going to take up a lot of space ? Cheers guys

 

[John Duncan]

Haven't heard the 30s but if the 50s are anything to go by then I htink the Qs would be a perfectly fine alternative to the Dalis. You have both in the house, give them a go!

You could probably do some quick A/B switching using the Cambridge's twin speaker outputs...

 

[Anonymous]

Well after my first (confusing) step into bi-wiring the 1030i's are up and running and performing every bit as as strongly as the dali's. Think once I have had a chance to play around with them ( mainly raising them) they will go from strength to strengths so I think the dalis are gonna make way

 

[john1000000boy]

Pics??

 

[Anonymous]

How do I upload pics ? Tried uploading content from word and just froze my computer? Thanks in advance

 

[John Duncan]

Our good friend Messiah does a nice précis here:

http://www.whathifi.com/forum/your-system/how-do-i-upload-pics

 

[hybridauth_Facebook_1433746461]

Ok so its been a while. Have been fkat out with work partnered with having to move the hifi listening took a bit of a back seat. Ok so there have been some changes since i last posted. The q acoustics speakers are now part of a friends system and the dalis have also made way for some b&w 686's.

Hopefully that picture worked. Paid 120 for them from ebay again which i thought was ok. The only thing is they didn't have the post jumper. So i got back on ebay and foind a guy making jumpers out of speaker cable. Looked like he was doin a nice job so i got a couple.

They look the part on and the sound is nice although i have never heard the speakers with originals. I have also changed to atlas speaker cables. They came up on ebay for £50 for a pair of 2.5m length. Probably the purchase im happiest with, the build quality and termination is really nice.

The system is still a little cramped but fits the space nicely and sounds good to me

Ill try and post more often as more purchases inevitably happen. Anyways thanks for looking. Opinions always welcome good or bad

 

[hybridauth_Facebook_1433746461]

Ok so pics didnt work. I worked out how to get them working and edited the post but it wouldn't let me post reporting me as spam? Any ideas