Small room system

[admin_exported]

Hi all,

I have just joined the forum today and wanted to ask for some advice please.

I want to buy a second system to get good quality radio (DAB, FM and AM) and iPod/hard disc sound in my bathroom and home office. The quality rather than cost (within reason) is important to me.

The rooms are both very small and similar in size (approx. 2.5m x 3.5m and around 2.8 m high) but have very different characteristics:

1. Bathroom is fully tiled floor and walls (ceramic tiles) with lots of glass and porcelain - very bright and spacey.

2. The office is carpeted, only has a small window and is packed full of wood cabinets which are full of papers etc - very crammed.

I have speaker cables (an ugly purple/mauve coloured affair from Richer Sounds which cost £4 per metre around 10 years ago and was recommended highly by them at the time) running behind the plaster of the office into the loft and down into the bathroom behind the tiles. It would be too involved to replace this.

I think I'll need speakers with completely different characteristics - bright in the office and warm in the bathroom together with an amp and source unit which are flexible enough to give a different sound in each room.

Bathroom speakers will sit on purpose built shelves about 2m up the wall whereas the office can take standmounts or even small floorstanders.

I have no clue what speakers to look at but have thought about the Fatman ipod doc/amp or Olive as the source.

I'll be listening to a lot of speech radio (Radio 4, LBC, BBC London, Radio 5) and pop, soul and jazz music. Volumes will mostly be low but I'd like something that gives clarity at low volumes.

Thanks for listening and I'm grateful for any thoughts or suggestions.

Jackie.

 

[matthewpiano]

For small spaces I can certainly highly recommend the Acoustic Energy Compact 1 speakers. They are very open and detailed sounding and you'll get perfectly reasonable bass if you keep them quite close to the rear wall. Certainly worth an audition and their physical size makes them ideal for more compact rooms.

 

[tino]

Since space is an issue ....

Vita (Ruark) R2i for the office - DAB radio and iPod dock, integrated speakers (£270 ish)

Use the R2i line out to feed a small Class T-amp for about £50 which will drive your bathroom speakers and give you separate volume control and ability to switch the bathroom sound off.

No idea about bathroom speakers ....

 

[jakesaunders27]

the quad l-ite 2 speakers are good for your bathroom even though they are home cinema speakers they are compact and cheap and sound pretty good for £139 (superfi.com)

jake

 

[bob.g]

I've just purchased and installed a pair of AE1 speakers into a smallish room, and can confirm MatthewPiano's opinion.

 

[hoopsontoast]

I would go for some weatherproof speakers in the bathroom, I dont really know many makes, but you certainly would not want any speaker with a paper mid-bass cone.

In the study, that sounds ideal for some Rega R1/R3's. They are very easy to drive so could be run of an all-in-one like the Denon DM38 systems. or if you dont mind seperates, find an amp with two sets of outputs that are switchable (A or B) or (A and B).

 

[Anonymous]

I've spent much of the last month opening an iTunes account and downloading over 300CDs onto an iPod Classic. I play it through my current system via a Cambridge Audio id50 dock with integrated DAC. It doesn't sound as good as CD but great convenience factor and good enough to have in the background when doing other things rather than when "listening".

In the car, where it goes through a Logic 3 3.5mm Jack to 30 point connection, it is unbearable. For those of you old enough to remember, it's worse than Radio Luxembourg 208 on Medium Wave! So the Cambridge dock/DAC is obviously doing a great job - a good £100 spent.

Following all your replies (thanks) when I first posted and having read reviews, I have decided to demo the following:

1. Naim Uniti with DAB - not sure if iPod dock is needed

2. Spendor SA1s (in furnished room)

3. Neat Iotas (in bathroom which I have been told will work there)

Does anyone have any comments or concerns that this wouldn't work?

Regarding the quality of iTunes sound, is there common consensus that the Naim would make this sound somehwere approaching CD quality? I know nothing whatsoever about computers. I was really tempted by what I've read about the Linn Sneaky but I do not have the internet at home (rare nowadays I know) as I use my work laptop at weekends which accesses through an in-built card.

Does anyone have any thoughts on whether it would be worth getting the internet and looking at something more future proof?

Thanks

 

[tino]

Personally I am a little bit perplexed why you would want to spend £650 on bathroom speakers, unless it's a very special bathroom of course

 

[Anonymous]

lol- fair point.

I just love my music, it's my one luxury in life, and the layout of my house means it's the ideal place to get the sound from in the mornings. As to why £650? The Iotas are the only speakers that, from reading reviews, seem to meet all my criteria - humidity resistance, happy up against wall and will do the best possible to give a warm sound in such a bright reflective room with no soft furnishings.

Do all of you into streamed/didgital/network (not sure of the difference, sorry) store it on iTunes or am I missing a trick in terms of sound quality?

 

[jiggyjoe]

Some high quality in car speakers would work well in your bathroom, either mounted in the ceiling or flush in a partition wall.

 

[tino]

Do all of you into streamed/didgital/network (not sure of the difference, sorry) store it on iTunes or am I missing a trick in terms of sound quality?

Fair enough re: speakers ... but I would have though the Iotas could also work very well in your study / shelving space.

Have you considered the Marantz CR-603 (see review here http://www.whathifi.com/review/marantz-m-cr603)? A lot of people on here have one and can vouch for it as a good quality first or second system. It seems to me your choice of second system might actually be overkill and would be most people's idea of a dream first system :O

As for iTunes etc., I have no use for it, even though I have an iPod Classic. I use Foobar 2000 to manage the iPod music (converted from lossless FLAC to 320k MP3), and also play music directly or act as a server for a network player. I used iTunes for about half a day and hated it ... Foobar 2000 is much better from my point of view, but may not suit you.

PS Foobar runs on a PC. Your Uniti will need a PC or NAS acting as a music server if you choose to play music from something other than CD or iPod.

 

[celsius]

hi

whatever you buy don't get an olive nothing but trouble had two within two weeks both had serious problems.1st one took ten hours to eject a cd,2nd olive i spent three days ripping cds onto it then it crashed wiping 150 cds.save your money and get a naim uniti or a network amp like the onkyo 8050

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Celsius.

You are not the first to tell me this. I think the Naim Uniti or Linn Sneaky is where I'll end up. I just need to find a dealer who can cope with someone who knows nothing about computers!

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Celsius.

You are not the first to tell me this. I think the Naim Uniti or Linn Sneaky is where I'll end up. I just need to find a dealer who can cope with someone who knows nothing about computers!