Recommend me some used Hifi bits to partner this amplifier please?

[admin_exported]

Hi everyone,

A year or so ago I had a system in my bedroom consisting of B&W 685s, Marantz PM/CD6003 with Chord interconnects QED speaker cable, and later bought a Rotel RA1520 I saw going cheap to replace the Marantz and bk xls200 sub. That was my first experience of Hifi and it was brilliant! Really loved the soundstage and details I got over just listening to music on my ipod, and the bass from the 685s was just wow

. Unfortuntaely I had to sell almost all that system to fund a car.

But now a family friend has given me a an old amp and I'd like to try and build up a fairly cheap system from used components. The amp is a Sondex Amadeus Gold integrated amp with 50wpc I believe.The system will be in my bedroom again, which is aprox 4mx5m but with bed, a desk and 3 ikea storage units. It is carpeted as I hear this can make a difference. The system will be placed along one of the 4m walls, firing out into the room. I can probably have the speakers max 30cm out from the wall behind.

Music I listen to varies hugely, Nickelback, eminem, kanye west, john mayer, newton faulkner, Red hit chillis, muse, the xx, also some movie soundtracks and dance music too, the lost basically

The shopping list:

Speakers (floor standing or standmount)

CD player

speaker cable

(i still have my chord crimson interconnects and 4 shelf hifi rack )

Budget no more than £2-300 ideally, remembering it is used stuff from ebay etc im looking for.

Sorry for the long post, just wanted to try and set the scene as best I could

Any advice, recommendations will be much appreciated

Thanks

Jamie

 

[Dougal1331]

Hi Jamie.

I've done a heck of a lot of ebaying over the years (all hifi kit), and there is some good stuff to be had. I reckon this lot should fit the bill perfectly...

My recommendations:

Speakers- Mission 732 (or 732i)- usually £60-70 for a good pair. These large standmounts are superb, very detailed with tight, deep bass- and perfect for your music taste.

CD player: Sony cdp-930 or cdp-940(£65-100), or Marantz CD6000OSE (I picked up my '6000 for £80, in mint condition, and it's great.)

Speaker cable- something relatively inexpensive will do it- try Chord Carnival (about £6 a metre) or some Van Damme 6mm hosepipe, also about the same price.

If there is any budget left over, a different amp would be a good choice too- the Sondex is, well, errr... I've never heard of Sondex, but I imagine it's quite old and tired by now. You could have it serviced and re-capped, or perhaps look out for a Rotel RA971mk2. The 971 pairs perfectly with the speakers, I reckon it'd tick all your boxes.

Hope this is some help to you!

Jon

 

[lee37]

the cd player i would recommend the SONY X303ES CD PLAYER on ebay its £225 but that one is in excellent condition. i have one and even though its 18 years old the build quality is excellent and it rivals the nad c355bee cd player which i had and could only notice a very slight improvement in sound qaulity over the sony so i sold the nad. also there are no cd skipping/ jumping like the nad and it can read cd-r speaker cable i would go for chord rumour 2 or odyssey 2 depending on what length you need. as for speakers try tannoy mercury mx4, mercury f1, mercury m3 all seem around the £50 mark if the cd player is too expensive try a old nad c342 there are not bad but are prone to skip track

thinging about it the guy selling the sony cd has had it on there for ages at a buy it now make him an offer of 150 + postage youve nothing to lose

 

[Anonymous]

thanks for the advice Jon and Lee.

I've had a look at your recommendations and all seem like viable options.

I know what you mean about the amp, as I'd never heard of the brand before either, but the friend who gave it to me is serious about his hifi and seems to have some very decent older kit, so was hoping this amp would be alright. Although I can't find much info about it on the internet.

In regard to Mission speakers, after looking on ebay there are so many available, are there any others models that are worth considering or avoiding in particular?

Any other opinions would be greatly appreciated

thanks

 

[Dougal1331]

The Mission models to look out for, in my opinion, would mainly be the 73 series (i.e 732, 733 etc...).

Plenty of bang for your buck, great bass and crisp treble made this range a top choice for rockers. They weren't entirely neutral- they were designed for rock and dance music, and they really can party. That said, they sound perfectly decent with other genres, but in hifi terms, they aren't exactly subtle.

Others include 751 (legendary standmounters- good pairs still get high prices), 752 and 753 (legendary floorstanders). These are forgiving enough to humour budget amps, but will shine with higher-end kit. A quick google will reveal plenty about these speakers.

The 'M7' range was good too- M72 and M73s, and sometimes M74s pop up on ebay for reasonable money.

Some of the vintage Mission kit is brilliant too- 707, 770, 782 (twin bass drivers).