new pc based system

[pauldownton1979]

well very vague question, just looking for ideas really......

one of my castle pembroke's have given up so im using it as an excuse to start over. ive bought a pair of tannoy vi1s to do me for now - i suppose they are ok for £100 ....but not what im used to, however they are better than nothing.

i have imported my cds to itunes (wav) and i use spotify (free) im using a basic maplin dac through usb (the only option on my dell laptop) to an ancient but capable sony integrated stereo amp. im using audioquest flx-slip 14/4 cable and a basic cambridge audio 3.5m - 2phono interconnect.

the first question is how much cash do i have to part with to aquire some good powered speakers ? i know there are some that have built in dacs that appeal to me. however, most i have seen are either for desk top use, or very expensive ( i've got 500 to spend on the project )

there's a cambridge amp with built in dac, or theres the marrantz pm6005 but i would need a usb adaptor ( will it detract from quality ? )

or theres the option of a good 2nd hand amp with a seperate dac ie dac magic xs or r-dac or dragonquest ect which i would hope would give me fasr more than my maplin effort, which feels cheap

im open on speakers at the moment

any advice appreciated

thanks

 

[SteveR750]

I think you'll get more help by posting this in the main hi fi section, given your question is about the entire system. I also think you need to start by deciding how much cash you have to spend, otherwise there is simply too much choice, though in simple terms you'd best look at buying used off ebay.

The DAC won't be up to much, and you have to decide what configuration you want, there are many DACs that works as preamps, and can feed a pair of active speakers, or a DAC into an integrated amp driving passive speakers.