Need a hifi for up to £100, willing to spend up to £150

[Soap]

So a bit about my usage patterns, i mainly listen to trance. Different sub genres, with different varties of sounds, from highs, to mids and lows. I want a loud system, that is also accurate and true to track being played. I currently listen to music on my m50x headphones, and would like a system that is akin to this. Thanks everyone. I did see a akx18 on currys for £99, says 350 watts but I really doubt its that powerful for 99. Worth checking out?

 

[hybridauth_Facebook_100004211376004]

Sorry bud,but you ain't getting anything HI-FI for £150.you might get some kind of music system,but hi-fidelity replay it will not be.I'd be struggling to find only the amp in that price range,maybe if you were more specific to what your looking for,then folks might be able to give some help.

 

[davedotco]

If you have a source, a computer say, that supplies your music and can control volume, then a pair of inexpensive active monitors is the way to go.

Best to avoid hi-fi brands and look for something like....

http://www.thomann.de/gb/prodipe_tdc_8_coaxial_studio_monitor.htm

Plenty of other options around the £150 mark, depending on what is available where you live.

 

[Blacksabbath25]

You might be able to get an old technics amp for £50-£100 on eBay loads of bass on them old technics amps I started hi fi years ago with one I think it was called su 600 very good amp in its day . And a technics CD player with what ever left but £150 is not a lot for a budget but this is the best I can think off .

 

[Soap]

I will be outputting most music from my PC, but also playing CDs as well. I would like to play stuff from my iPhone through BT/Phono

connection. I can get my budget up to 250, if needs to be. Some cheap studio monitors do look good though.

 

[davedotco]

I will be outputting most music from my PC, but also playing CDs as well. I would like to play stuff from my iPhone through BT/Phono

connection. I can get my budget up to 250, if needs to be. Some cheap studio monitors do look good though.

Are the best value at this level, but they are simple devices. In general they have a single line input (sometimes with a choice of connectors) and a level control that is for equipment matching not everyday volume.

So the moment you need more than one input, or a volume control, you are going to need some sort of dac/pre-amp and that is going to push thr price up, way beyond budget.

If you load the CDs onto the PC, use a decent software player which will handle volume etc, then a pair of punchy studio monitors will work well and give great sound for minimum cost.

The speakers mentioned above, a Behringer UCA202 usb dac, and a pair of longish phono cables can be had for under £200.

If you have to have more functionality, try the Q Acoustics BT3, which are available for just over £200 if you shop around. Nowhere near the power and punch of studio type speakers but they will do what you are asking, well, bar the 'loud' bit anyway.

 

[Wolverton]

Hi Dave

Do any active or powered speakers have a DAC onboard? I like the idea of less cable clutter but I don't need the extras that the Q Acoustics deliver. (By the way I liked the Fii0 D3/ Studiospares S4 you suggested a while back, for TV . I'm passing them on now.) Do the Behringer MS20s fit the bill?

Thanks.

 

[DannyB]

+1 for the BT3's

Hey dave we seem to be mentioning those quite a lot in these posts!

£209 Peter Tysons

Bargaaaainnnnn

 

[MajorFubar]

Do any active or powered speakers have a DAC onboard?

These Alesis M1 Active 520 USB do, at £169. I use them in my small home studio and for the price I'm very satisfied with them. But most hifi enthusiasts are frightened of speakers like that because they're made by a pro/semi-pro manufacturer they've never heard of and they can't scurry off and read some WHF review of them.

 

[davedotco]

Hi Dave

Do any active or powered speakers have a DAC onboard? I like the idea of less cable clutter but I don't need the extras that the Q Acoustics deliver. (By the way I liked the Fii0 D3/ Studiospares S4 you suggested a while back, for TV . I'm passing them on now.) Do the Behringer MS20s fit the bill?

Thanks.

True active speakers such as the little SN4s are generally separate self contained devices, putting a dac onboard is childsplay but when used for stereo there is a problem.

Modern dacs take time to process the incoming data stream, often introducing 'buffering' to reduce jitter or in some cases reclocking entirely. This will delay the signal, often by an unspecified amount that varies according to circumstances and partnering equipment, not a problem with normal dacs as the incoming data stream is stereo, so both channels are delayed by the same amount.

If you put a dac handling just the left channel in the left speaker and one handling the right channel in the right speaker, there is every chance that they delay each channel differently, messing up the stereo.

This is a well known effect and is called 'latency', it can be overcome and often is in professional applications, but it is expensive. It is possible to use a 'sync' cable between the two speakers to keep the dacs in 'sync' but again expensive and fairly rare. One of the least expensive models that syncs separate dacs are the remarkable Monkey Banana Turbo series.

The most common method of adding a dac is to put it, along with some basic pre-amp functions into one speaker and connect with a line level analog signal to the second speaker, the infamous AVI ADM9/10 is of this type, some also require a data cable in addition to the signal cable, the Yamaha NX-N500 for example.

This 'master/slave' configuration is not that cheap to implement in proper active speakers but is very cheap and easy to do so in powered systems where a two channel power amp is fitted into the 'master' with the 'slave' connected by a length of regular speaker cable. Good examples of this are the Q Acoustics BT3, the Audio Engines and many others.

Some, myself included, prefer proper actives to powered speakers but for those unfamiliar or unconvinced of the advantage active designs have over powered models, the aforementioned Audio Engine and Q Acoustics models are a reasonable place to start.