speakers and amp advice - £10-20k budget for rock and dance music

[steve_1979]

If it is about enjoying your music rather more than the kudos[??] of having spent £10k or more, then buy a pair of AVI ADM 9RS active speakers + dedicated AVI sub for just £2k.

+1

Don't be put off by the low price. These are fantastic speakers for just £2,000 including the matching subwoofer. They're certainly worth an audition along with some of the more expensive systems suggested here.

 

[steve_1979]

yeah not sure about the studio look, but thanks for the suggestions...

Yeah, most of them are pretty fugly.

...how do monitors get on with subtler music styles?

Very well. These are certainly worth an audition (if you can live with the looks).

 

[FennerMachine]

Demo, demo, then demo some more!
Make a shortlist of speakers to demo, both passive (traditional) and active.
Find a shop or two that have a mixture of your shortlist and compare them.
For the passive speakers you need to try different amplifiers as they can make them sound different.
Then once you have found one or two systems that you really like get home demos.
You don’t want to buy the first thing that sounds ‘good’ only to find after a few weeks that you can’t live with it long term!
Also, agree with several other posters – you don’t need to spend £10,000.

 

[Exoticsounds]

Sonus Faber Venere 2.5 and 3.0 are beautiful speakers that also sound great.

Accuphase E-560 (Class A) or alternatively E-460 looks and sounds great as-well as being built to last.

Another nice "future prof" set-up would be Marantz Reference NA-11S1 Network Audio Player/DAC and Marantz PM-11S3 Amplifier, reference quality sound and great looks.

 

[floyd droid]

Also, agree with several other posters – you don’t need to spend £10,000.

Aye , but coming from folk who 'maybe' havnt even lived with a 3k system let alone10k/20k , well they would say that wouldnt they if you think about it.

 

[John Duncan]

If I had that sort of money I'd want to hear the PMC AML2 an Genelec 8260s. I'd also be talking to those two and Quested about custom install services...

 

[richardw42]

If I had that sort of money I'd want to hear the PMC AML2 an Genelec 8260s. I'd also be talking to those two and Quested about custom install services...

Have you heard either of the Beolabs ? What did you think.

I turned up at the Bose shop by mistake last week . So still haven't heard them.

 

[FennerMachine]

Also, agree with several other posters – you don’t need to spend £10,000.

Aye , but coming from folk who 'maybe' havnt even lived with a 3k system let alone10k/20k , well they would say that wouldnt they if you think about it.

Good point.

I have lived with an approximately £5000.00 system. My current system that I prefer cost around £1500.00 but many of the components are second hand.

I did have a good listen to a system consisting of B&W 800 series speakers with Meridian electronics that total cost if bought new would be more than £10,000. It did sound amazing to a point but had something missing. With the brief (a couple of hours) demo I know I could not live with it.

 

[John Duncan]

I heard the 9s once and liked them a lot, but not necessarily over £5k worth of traditional alternatives. I couldn't have the 5s in my house, irrespective of their engineering credentials.

 

[steve_1979]

...I'd also be talking to those two and Quested about custom install services...

A £20,000 Quested custom install including room treatment and custom speakers. :?

Now where did I put that lottery ticket...

 

[matt49]

Aye , but coming from folk who 'maybe' havnt even lived with a 3k system let alone10k/20k , well they would say that wouldnt they if you think about it.

Indeed, there is some wild talk on this thread about a £2K system sounding "better than any £20K systems". Very easy claims to make, but when pressed they generally turn out to be based on very limited experience.

Having said that, I'd join with those who advise demoing lots of stuff before you buy (I happen to find that part of the business very enjoyable, though I understand why others don't) and carefully considering whether you need to spend your whole budget.

Also I'd recommend buying second-hand electronics. If you make a mistake and want to change something, you've not suffered a big hit on depreciation. (I'm less happy buying second-hand speakers.)

Have fun!

 

[alienmango]

If it were me....

I'd look at it like this, you have 10-20k to spend on awesome things... You by your own admission don't know a lot about high end hifi. Most people have a point at which spending more on an object doesn't increase the enjoyment you get out of it. For example I can hardly see a £200 chopping board making me happier than a £10 one.

For speakers I would try to find this rough price point. The way I would do it would be to take a few companies eg monitor audio and listen through the bronze, silver, gold and platinum lines (with suitable amplifiers) until you find a price point where spending more doesn't really improve your enjoyment of listening to the music significantly. You could do this with b&w, wharfedale, adam etc etc.

Just don't pay £20k when the £8k chopping board makes you just as happy. :bounce:

PS I'd also buy one of these: http://funkywaves.net/catalog.cfm?item=fw_18_0

 

[John Duncan]

If it were me....

I'd look at it like this, you have 10-20k to spend on awesome things... You by your own admission don't know a lot about high end hifi. Most people have a point at which spending more on an object doesn't increase the enjoyment you get out of it. For example I can hardly see a £200 chopping board making me happier than a £10 one.

For speakers I would try to find this rough price point. The way I would do it would be to take a few companies eg monitor audio and listen through the bronze, silver, gold and platinum lines (with suitable amplifiers) until you find a price point where spending more doesn't really improve your enjoyment of listening to the music significantly. You could do this with b&w, wharfedale, adam etc etc.

Just don't pay £20k when the £8k chopping board makes you just as happy. :bounce:

PS I'd also buy one of these: http://funkywaves.net/catalog.cfm?item=fw_18_0

Indeed. Even if I had £20k I'm not sure I could bring myself to spend it on hifi. Guitars, on the other hand...

 

[Al ears]

I am quite frankly mystified as to why anyone would want to spend this much on a system when the main source is going to be 'sonos (spotify and lossless CD collection)'

Whatever you spend you can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear.

 

[CnoEvil]

I am quite frankly mystified as to why anyone would want to spend this much on a system when the main source is going to be 'sonos (spotify and lossless CD collection)'

Whatever you spend you can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear.

I tried to get that very point across some time back......it was why I asked the question in the first place.

 

[matt49]

I am quite frankly mystified as to why anyone would want to spend this much on a system when the main source is going to be 'sonos (spotify and lossless CD collection)'

Whatever you spend you can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear.

I tried to get that very point across some time back......it was why I asked the question in the first place.

This would be a good start, though I grant a Linn DS might be better.

 

[steve_1979]

I am quite frankly mystified as to why anyone would want to spend this much on a system when the main source is going to be 'sonos (spotify and lossless CD collection)'

Whatever you spend you can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear.

I disagree. There's nothing wrong with the quality of lossless CD rips and Spotify Premium with any system. Even one costing £20,000.

The Sonos would be a perfect source for those Adam Tensor speakers that I posted earlier.

 

[steve_1979]

Buy the car and get out and meet a new woman!

Chris

+1

You don't need to spend anywhere near £20,000 to get a really amazing sounding system IMHO. For a budget of £5000-10,000 (or less!) you can buy a system that has 99% of the performance of the best £20,000+ systems. Very often with many of the urber expensive HiFi systems you just end up getting expensive bling which doesn't actually sound better than much cheaper systems and many of them even sound worse.

Having said that, something like the Adam Audio Tensor Gamma Mk 2 speakers are fantastic. These are available in both active (with built in amplifiers) and passive versions (that need an external amplifier). The active versions are the ones to go for though because they have better sound quality and more dynamic range. They cost a around £12,500 and you will need a pre-amplifier to control the volume. You can get good pre-amplifiers with built in DAC's for a few hundred pounds which will have perfect sounding audibly transparent sound quality. If you do want to spend a bit more then the Benchmark DAC 1 for around £1,000 is a good option but you really don't need to spend that much IMHO.

Here's the Adam Audio Tensor Gamma Mk 2 web page:

http://www.adam-audio.com/en/home-audio/products/gamma-mk2/description

Here's a review of the old Adam Audio Tensor Gamma Mk 1 speakers:

http://www.whathifi.com/review/adam-audio-tensor-gamma

 

[matt49]

I disagree. There's nothing wrong with the quality of lossless CD rips and Spotify Premium with any system. Even one costing £20,000.

The Sonos would be a perfect source for those Adam Tensor speakers that I posted earlier.

I agree there's absolutely nothing wrong with lossless CD rips. I don't think that was Al ears's point.

The problem with Sonos is that, whilst it delivers a bit-perfect message, the message comes in a noisy signal. That's my experience at any rate, based on quite a lot of (admittedly informal) blind comparison of basic Sonos with other sources, e.g. modded Sonos, PC via USB, and a Naim Superuniti.

 

[DocG]

Hi aje1979,

First of all -- better late than never -- Welcome to the forum!

I'm in a somewhat similar situation as you: I'm on the look-out for a new hifi-set, starting from scratch; haven't owned proper hifi gear ever before, and I want to get it right at once. Budget is in the same order of magnitude.

I would urge you to first of all decide on a direction, before going into the details. Have a good listen to a set of top notch 'classic' box speakers, but try to hear what panel speakers and horns are about too. And -- as mentioned more than once -- give the active speakers route the necessary attention.

Same thing for amplifiers: are you a tube guy deep inside? Do you prefer class A over class AB? Maybe you're fond of class D...

To make things complicated: the amp often dictates which speakers are suitable -- or the other way round!

I hope I confused you, so you take your time before you come up with your money!

 

[matt49]

I hope I confused you, so you take your time before you come up with your money!

Very wise words!

 

[Craig M.]

I'd buy a decent dac/pre (by decent I mean one that isn't going to turn its nose up at your Sonos), probably a Benchmark dac. Then I'd spend as much as I needed to to get some active monitors that sounded great with the 'not so good' recordings and jaw dropping with the great ones. My experience so far with good studio actives is they look bad but sound devine, and blow traditional hifi out the water where sound per pound is concerned. A problem you may have is a lot of rock/dance type music isn't mastered all that great - I wouldn't want a system that rubbed my nose in it. Almost anything you listen to is going to sound great after your present system, whether it represents good value is up to you. As others have said, be sure to demo at home - the room can have a big influence on how a system sounds, and maybe take a good look at room treatment as well - it's not like the missus is gonna complain about how it looks!

 

[Craig M.]

Indeed, there is some wild talk on this thread about a £2K system sounding "better than any £20K systems".

Really? I think I need a new browser, this one seems to be leaving posts out.

 

[letsavit2]

That's a lot of money and your ears may well prefer say a 5k system. My last demo I went in willing to spend a lot more, ok not 20k but double what i actually spent. As soon as I heard the naim/neat combo I got that "wow that sounds sweet feeling" hour later after hearing more stuff including naim pre/power combo's when they connected it back up again the demo stopped and I bought it. Even the guy doing the demo had to admit it was not worth spending no more.

 

[Philim]

Demo and then demo some more.

Find a good hifi store with a LOT of different equipment and spend some time getting to know what you like at different price ranges. There is a great store in coventry...im sure there are many others who will help you part with your cash.

10k i think is a good base to get a decent system..but spend some time demoing as it can soon become 20k when you change your mind |( .