New Onkyo, Q-Acoustics separates - any thoughts?

[admin_exported]

Hi there,

I'm considering this separates system from Onkyo and Q Acoustics, does anyone have any experience with this kit and can vouch for its quality / performance in the sub-£1500 range?

Looking at a

• Amplifier - Onkyo A-9050
• CD Player - Onkyo C-7070
• Tuner - Onkyo T-4030
• Speakers - Q Acoustics 2050i
• 
  

Is this a good setup for the money? It's going into a fairly large living room with a wooden floor.

Cheers!

 

[WinterRacer]

Hi teamcaptain,

That looks like a well-balanced system, will you have a chance to listen to it, or at least the speakers, before you take the plunge?

A lot of people are ditching their CD players these days to replace them with network streamers. Is this something you're considering for the future? If you're prepared for the one-off process of ripping all your CDs, you get instanteous access to all your music. Assuming you've got broadband, you'll also get 000s of internet radio stations, plus things like Spotify to try.

Since I entered the world of streaming, there's no way I'd want to go back to the old world of CD players and DAB radios. Something to consider as alternative approach?

Another thing to consider would be AVI ADM9 speakers. They cause a lot of controversy, so it's probably best to do your own investigation and make up your own mind about them. If you do go down this route, all you'd need is a Airport Express (or something similar) and a pair of ADM9RS. A very nice neat system that IMO sounds great, even in very large rooms.

 

[Baldrick1]

IMHO stick to CD & Tuner...at least for the moment...and also depending on where you live...streamers are in their 'relative' infancy and when I looked at them recently (but went for a tuner) the prices for something decent was higher than I was prepared to pay/my broadband situation whilst OK is not brilliant...yet. So it is something for me to look at possibly moving to when my venerable (but still brilliant Technics) CD player finally gives up the ghost. And hopefully by then streamers will be hopefully more mainstream (no pun intended ).

BTW...proposed kit looks OK. Have some Onkyo which I am pleased with...but not my main system, so not an expert).

Just my halfpenny's worth...for what it is worth.

 

[chebby]

The A-9050 amp has a built in DAC (with optical and co-axial digital inputs) so you can still do all that stuff Winteracer was referring to.

You could plug in an Apple TV (£90) using the optical connection to the amplifier's DAC input (and ethernet from the Apple TV to your wireless router) and go down the AirPlay route with an iPhone (or iPod Touch or iPad) to access and control all the internet radio stations/iTunes/Spotify/iPlayer Radio etc.

Or you could just plug in any computer equipped with an optical digital connection.

 

[gurjitsidhu]

I have got the 2050i speakers hooked up to an as500 amp and cds cdp. it works and sounds very good. a tad bright but i demo'd the 2050i again tannoy V4 and Dali Zenzor 5. i think 2050i were by far the better speaker. dali were a bit more detailed but didnt have as much clout as the 2050i which i loved. the music comes alive with 2050i BUT they need a lot of time to burn in (mine took 100 hours- no joke! at 80 hours they just sounded crap then all of a sudden its like the just broke in!) and secondly the cabinets need a lot of space- 50cm from side wall, 30cm from back wall and 2-4 m gap between the speakers so check your space first

 

[Anonymous]

That's great feedback, just what I was looking for, thanks! Any more feel free to chip in?

I did look at network streamers, including the Onkyo T-4070 but the cost kind of put me off. I know there is cheaper options out there though, it's just that I don't really spend too much time on spotify and a lot of my digital content is not the highest quality, having been kept on from years ago where some of it was ripped as 192kb MP3's or similar..

It would be an effort to rip everything again and I wasn't convinced that it would be worth it given that I still love to buy a CD, take it home and stick it on in the traditional way. However, I'm well aware of the advances made in digital formats and I know keeping things in the digital domain all the way to the in-built DAC will give me a good platform to enjoy my music as it was intended to be heard.

Maybe I will swap out DAB Tuner for a Network Streamer as my next upgrade, and in the meantime make do with one of the other options that are out there. Isn't there a wireless USB interface you can use to stream to the iPod/USB port on the CD player anyway? I'm sure I saw it as an optional accessory.

As regards the 2050i's, I really did just go with the general consensus and reviews I've read about floorstanders at that budget. I've heard them but I don't have a reference point as I've not been able to audition the kit I have listed as nowhere has all the bits in stock.