Need advice on what to buy - £2000 budget

[admin_exported]

Hello all

This is my first post so please be nice 🙂

I am totally new to buying hifi equipment, unless you count an all in 1 system. Anyway, I have been meaning to replace my speakers for some time as they crackled a lot, the other day the amp exploded and now I am sans music.

I have bought the latest What Hi-Fi mag, but even after reading the jargon section at the back I am still no closer to knowing what I want and need.

Basically I am after a speaker system, and I already have the following to go with it:

• Stanton STR8.150 turntable - has phono and digital out
• XBOX 360 - digital out
• Toshiba HDTV - I forget the model, not sure if I can even connect this to an amp as I can't get to the back of it to look
• Macbook Pro - Not sure how I would connect this up.

I am after some speakers, an amp and wire/cable.

Primarily will be used for music from the turntable and mp3s on my Mac. My tastes range from heavy metal/dnb/hip hop/jazz/indie... pretty much anything other than pop music, something bass heavy and driving would be needed, but at the same time would pick up on the intricacies of the music. I have a smallish room, so nothing too big. Would prefer an integrated amp if this means I only need the 1 box (as I said i'm pretty much clueless when it comes to this and I don't have a great deal of room).

I've set a budget at £2000. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Anonymous]

No suggestions?

After reading reviews for the B&W XT4's they sound incredible, and possibly exactly what I am after. I'll need to find somewhere that will demo them now.

So if I bought these what kind of amp would I need? I read the speakers are very power hungry...also I need to do something about the digital out I have on the turntable and XBOX... I've not seen any amps yet with digital inputs, so i'm wondering if there is an AV selector or something along those lines?

If need be i'm willing to push my budget up to £2500 if it means I can get quality performance with good bass and drive.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Hi there

Sorry, your thread got buried a bit. Here's some suggestions:

It's great you've got a big budget together, but I strongly suggest you don't blow nearly all of it (£1700) on the B&W XT4s, as you simply don't have the source (or any amp!) to do them justice, and as you mention having a smallish space, I fear they'd been overblown.

Let's get back to basics. You want to listen to music via your turntable (excellent DJ deck, by all accounts...) and your laptop. And ideally you'd want to hook up your hi-fi and TV, too.

You don't mention surround sound, so i'll stick to stereo for now (though a multichannel receiver and a set of surround speakers may be worth considering, using the front speakers for your music...).

You'd need an amp with enough inputs to suit all your sources, plus a phono stage to suit your turntable (as far as I can tell from its spec, the turntable's digital output is designed to plug into a computer soundcard). I'd suggest our current Product of the Year integrated amp, Roksan's Kandy Mk L.III (£650) - lots of grunt, deep bass, and has all the features you need.

To that you should add an Apple Airport Express (£65), which will wirelessly receive your Mac's iTunes connection.It plugs into a mains plug near your hi-fi stack,with a cable leading to one of the Roksan's five line-ins. We'd recommend using a decent cable for this - Chord's iChord cable (@£40) is excellent.

As for speakers, you need to be careful not to make the system sound too bloated by adding big floorstanders that overwhelm your big space. But not knowing how big that space is.... You should try listening to a selection of speakers, including Monitor Audio's Silver RS6 (£600, floorstanders), Dali's Ikon 2 (£549, standmounts - don't forget to budget for decent stands, @£100+) and the Jamo C803 (£700, standmounts - again, deserve good stands).

If they all sound too 'big', KEF's IQ5 SE or the Monitor Audio Bronze B4 floorstanders (both £400) are great for smaller spaces, and would thrive on the end of the Roksan's power.

Hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any follow-up questions.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the suggestions, will try and find time to demo some of them this weekend.

I am just wondering if I would need the Apple Airport Express, what is the range like on the wireless? I don't have a Hifi stack currently as 90% of my music is on vinyl, and 10% on MP3.

 

[Clare Newsome]

The Airport Express has a claimed range of 150ft - though that will depend on how thick your walls are!

Let us know how you get on re the system.

PS I'm listening to vinyl right now. Don't feel you have to ditch it - sounds like nothing else....