Hello everyone!
This is my first post here, so, greetings from me! It's quite a long post, I'll be really really thankful for those of you with enough patience to read it! For quite a long time now I have been doing research on setting up a new stereo system im my bedroom, as I'm moving to a new house next year. The space available is not one of the largest, so I have decided to have a stereo one. I wouldn't like to spend a huge amount of money, but still I'd quite like to have a really good sounding one. Just for some rough sense of perspective, the Shure SE530 in-earphones are sort of a benchmark for me: perfectly balanced (although I'd like some more bass sometimes), exceptional throughout the whole range. I'd like some advice on it, and as you guys are the experts, here I am!
I have a MacBook Pro (mostly), an iPod Classic and an iPhone as the main sources from my audio, as well as some casual CDs. What would you suggest for that system? I thought about buying an amp and a pair of speakers (obviously), good cables and an iPod dock. Another thing that I'm considering is a dedicated DAC, is it necessary? I want it to be reasonably loud and also for me to be able to use headphones quite often.
I have also been thinking about the specific equipment, and this is what I thought of:
For the amp, I read very good things about the Arcam Solo, the Cyrus products in general, the Fatman iTube 452 Valve amp and the Pathos Logos. The Fatman and the Pathos are valve amps, which is something I'd quite like, but they're also more expensive, specially the Pathos, and have no way of connecting a headphone to them, so I'd need a headphone amp, like the Lehmann Black Cube USB Headphone amp. Are those valve amps worth the money? The Arcam Solo and the Cyrus (I don't know which one of their products would be ideal, cause they have like CD/DAC/Amp, or everything sepparately, etc) on the other hand, are not valve amps but as far as I could work out sound damn good. Also, they have the advantage of being a CD player as well, although I could use the computer for this. For the dock, I am considering the Arcam rDock.
For speakers I need bookshelf speakers. I though about the Bang & Olufsen Beolab 3 and Beolab 4000, something from Bowers & Wilkins or something else. I personally heard both the Bang & Olufsen speakers, and loved them, but they're as expensive as they're stylish. So I though about having something from another speaker manufacturer that would cost something like £2000 at the most. Bowers & Wilkins as far as I know is wonderful, specially the 686, the CM1 and the 805. Any other? Or from another manufacturer, all suggestions are appreciated.
I don't want it to be hugely expensive, but I also don't want to compromise sound quality very much, as I'm quite demanding in that sense. This is why my suggestions have such a big cost range; I'd like it to be as cheap as possible but with the best sound quality possible in a system under something like £5000 or £4000 if possible. So this is it, I'm opened to any suggestions!
Thanks in advance!
Leo
This is my first post here, so, greetings from me! It's quite a long post, I'll be really really thankful for those of you with enough patience to read it! For quite a long time now I have been doing research on setting up a new stereo system im my bedroom, as I'm moving to a new house next year. The space available is not one of the largest, so I have decided to have a stereo one. I wouldn't like to spend a huge amount of money, but still I'd quite like to have a really good sounding one. Just for some rough sense of perspective, the Shure SE530 in-earphones are sort of a benchmark for me: perfectly balanced (although I'd like some more bass sometimes), exceptional throughout the whole range. I'd like some advice on it, and as you guys are the experts, here I am!
I have a MacBook Pro (mostly), an iPod Classic and an iPhone as the main sources from my audio, as well as some casual CDs. What would you suggest for that system? I thought about buying an amp and a pair of speakers (obviously), good cables and an iPod dock. Another thing that I'm considering is a dedicated DAC, is it necessary? I want it to be reasonably loud and also for me to be able to use headphones quite often.
I have also been thinking about the specific equipment, and this is what I thought of:
For the amp, I read very good things about the Arcam Solo, the Cyrus products in general, the Fatman iTube 452 Valve amp and the Pathos Logos. The Fatman and the Pathos are valve amps, which is something I'd quite like, but they're also more expensive, specially the Pathos, and have no way of connecting a headphone to them, so I'd need a headphone amp, like the Lehmann Black Cube USB Headphone amp. Are those valve amps worth the money? The Arcam Solo and the Cyrus (I don't know which one of their products would be ideal, cause they have like CD/DAC/Amp, or everything sepparately, etc) on the other hand, are not valve amps but as far as I could work out sound damn good. Also, they have the advantage of being a CD player as well, although I could use the computer for this. For the dock, I am considering the Arcam rDock.
For speakers I need bookshelf speakers. I though about the Bang & Olufsen Beolab 3 and Beolab 4000, something from Bowers & Wilkins or something else. I personally heard both the Bang & Olufsen speakers, and loved them, but they're as expensive as they're stylish. So I though about having something from another speaker manufacturer that would cost something like £2000 at the most. Bowers & Wilkins as far as I know is wonderful, specially the 686, the CM1 and the 805. Any other? Or from another manufacturer, all suggestions are appreciated.
I don't want it to be hugely expensive, but I also don't want to compromise sound quality very much, as I'm quite demanding in that sense. This is why my suggestions have such a big cost range; I'd like it to be as cheap as possible but with the best sound quality possible in a system under something like £5000 or £4000 if possible. So this is it, I'm opened to any suggestions!
Thanks in advance!
Leo