Now that I know where to go....

[admin_exported]

So I've been trying to buy my first HiFi system for a few years, but I was living in Myanmar and didn't have great access. I've had a few products in mind (Marantz PM6001, Onkyo: B&W 685, Monitor Audio BR2) but was hoping some of you could steer me in the right direction.

I listen mostly to reggae, soul/funk and jazz, but have loads of other genres that I play as well. My budget is about USD$1000 and I'll be living in a smallish (750 sq. ft.) apartment. I'm thinking bookshelf for a start. Also, all of my music is (I know) mp3 and I'm using an airport express. So, I'm looking only for a amp/speaker combo. Wire/Chord recomendation would be helpful too.

Cheers,

Keith

 

[John Duncan]

Include £100 in your budget for a Beresford DAC, since Airport Express is very wooly and anything you buy will be limited enormously by this. Alternatively, consider a musical AV amp (think Cambridge 540R for starters) which will have a DAC which should improve on the AE enormously.

I say should because I haven;t tried it myself yet, but am going to dig out my Yamaha receiver next week and feed the AE into it to check out the level of improvement.

jd

 

[Anonymous]

Where can you get a DAC? I've not really heard anything about them before.

Keith

 

[Anonymous]

Also, what other amps are AV?

Keith

 

[PJPro]

Here for the DAC

 

[JoelSim]

http://www.homehifi.co.uk/main/main.html

 

[John Duncan]

nyahkeith:
Also, what other amps are AV?

Keith

There are loads - generally referred to as 'receivers'. Marantz, Onkyo, Yamaha, Arcam and Denon (inter alia) all make them for all pockets. Since you want yours for music, you may be swayed by some makes more than others (Yamaha and Arcam, for example), though the more you spend, the better all brands get. Bit of a waste if you're not using it for movies though - the DAC mentioned above plus a £200 stereo amp would be better than most AV Receivers up to a grand for music.