The budget thread (what sounds good)

[gasolin]

I have had the old budget speaker of the year wharfedale diamond 220 to test and it doesn't live up to my expertations, dull, closed top,lack of open and clear sound with a bass that is missing,hardly couldn't hear it unless it's some sheffield drum test cd,edm like trance fm, even the good records didn't gave the bass more power,oomph so i didn't want to enhance the bass using the eq/tonecontrol.

My marantz PM6005 made my boston a25 have a sparkel to the tweeter that i wasn't used to and the bass isn't big tight and deep like a big high end amp with loots of power, but it can be deep and loud, even tight with the right cd/song, i do feel it's good at controlling the bass and like the clear and open sound,midrange which are good when listening to bagground music,tv,movies late night at low volume, dac(optical, coaxial input),phono stage,45 watt rms in 8 ohm,remote control,good sound, normal price 449£ got it for 249£

Marantz CD5005 149£ which is a very good price, have seen it for 100£ more, it's lighter then my old rotel rcd-965bx le discrete, easy to use,good response(play open,close,next track.....) silent when i use it (it can be heard when you open the tray or just when the cd starts to spin before theres music,not agressive and a loud sound at all, generally it's very silent),again open clear sound, can't think of some cons about the sound, it's just sounds good, especially for the price, only thing i would get is a better interconnect that's it, do use a better power mains since i had one i didn't use (clearer audio alpha one).

Boston a25 can handle alot of power, deep punchy bass,not boomy muddy bass using isoacoustics stands (you can here it's deeper then the wharfedales diamond 220) easy load (amp NEVER gets hot) with a good amp a neutral top that's never sounds fattigue,open,clear (i know use those words alot to descripe who it sounds ) and a wide sound from the midrange. Boston a26 just have a bit deeper, more bass,higher sensitivity and power handling, great for those who want a bookshelf speaker for a big room or those who love to play loud

Audioquest dragonfly is a good little usb dac, havn't had anything to compare it against, but reviews say it's a great budget dac for a pc,can't go wrong with the dragonfly if you look for something not more then 100£

All great products, i was a bit disapointed about the wharfedales dull sound(top) and lack of bass.

There are a bigger market for budget amps,speakers,cdplayers,dac's,turntables,cable..... then there is for ridiculous expensive hifi parts almost no one can afford, even some budget amps,speaker.... of the year can be a bit disapointing do to a mediocre sound quality or just a bright,harsh sound, could also be a boom bass where frequency responce sometimes is a combination of both, like a smilie, lot's of bass/treble that easily can led to a fatigue sound (worst thing ever).

http://www.planetofsoundonline.com/pages/why-is-my-system-hurting-my-ears

The point in this thread is to discuss what budget hifi parts that actually sounds good and not just bright,harsh, alot of bass or a combination of both, those hifi budget parts that if you choose the right parts just makes you wanna listen to music all day and won't be embarrassed telling your friends that you have,if they just know a little about hifi they would know it sounds good, even if it's just a cheap budget amp,speaker,cdplayer.......

 

[hybridauth_Facebook_100004211376004]

Hay Gasolin.It seems you're looking for high end sound at a budget price.it ain't gonni happen buddy.

 

[Andrewjvt]

Youve just mentioned that despite the modest cost of the hifi components you can still get a decent sound quality for your bucks. And when you spend a lot more the gains are not massive in relation to the cost so enjoy the music.

In your topic i think the nad d3020 is a very good piece of kit as it has all the inputs and got good sound.

Speakers i think the tannoy dc6 are great sound and great value if you can still get them. Btw have you heard thise speakers?

 

[Andrewjvt]

Youve just mentioned that despite the modest cost of the hifi components you can still get a decent sound quality for your bucks. And when you spend a lot more the gains are not massive in relation to the cost so enjoy the music.

In your topic i think the nad d3020 is a very good piece of kit as it has all the inputs and got good sound.

Speakers i think the tannoy dc6 are great sound and great value if you can still get them. Btw have you heard thise speakers?

?

Not heard the tannoy's nearest place only have mercyry V1i and V4i and atm they don't have them in stock and i not shure if they would have them and if they do if it's possibel to listen to then (in a big store with lots of noise)

They would do well as you wanted a better sound but more top end sparkle than the wharfedales. Wharfedles are warm and so is your amp, possibly why sounded dull.

Where do you live again?

 

[lindsayt]

Hay Gasolin.It seems you're looking for high end sound at a budget price.it ain't gonni happen buddy.

Oh yes it will, if you know what you're looking for, and if you're in the right place at the right time.

The most high end sound for the lowest price that I've seen this year has come from high end professional gear where the speakers needed new surrounds for the bass drivers (a cheap and easy enough job which nevertheless puts many off from buying).

Lindsay's First Law of Hi-fi:

Whatever you buy you could have gotten something elsewhere that would have sounded better and have cost less money.

 

[knaithrover]

Nad D3020 + Q Acoustics Concept 20 with a cheap Toshiba bluray as source (along with bluetooth). This is my 2nd system and both were bought 2nd hand for a total of 250 off list price. Very very nice sounding aesthetically pleasing 'budget' kit.

 

[hybridauth_Facebook_100004211376004]

That's true,but I'm referring more towards buying new off the shelf.

There is a reason budget gear is budget.It just can't cope with the complexity of some music and maybe to some,it sounds bright or harsh or the bass is boomy.But in reality the technology employed in equipment at this level is just never going to be good in all areas .The op seems to believe that he can get the perfect sounding amp and speakers at budget prices,I'm afraid he's going to have to climb the upgrade ladder if this is his goal.most of us have started on budget kit,myself included and there is a reason why we have spent money on more expensive kit....because the budget stuff wasn't quite there in sq.If the manufacturers made excellent budget electronics and speakers?..where would that leave the high end stuff?

 

[matthewpiano]

There is one important factor that we all have to accept, whatever the cost of our equipment. Any hi-fi can only, at best, reproduce what is captured in each recording. Certainly some budget equipment can exacerbate the problems of some recordings and make them sound less good than they are. Likewise the compromises involved in building equipment to a certain price can limit how much of the recording you hear. However, there still comes a point where a problematic recording is still just that and you have to focus on enjoying the music in spite of the sound.

For an affordable, straight forward budget system that is engaging and hides its tracks well, it is hard to beat NAD, and this has long been the case. C516BEE CD player with C316BEE amp and a pair of Dali Zensor 1s or Q Acoustics 3020 on £70 Soundstyle stands and with basic copper cabling is an honest and very affordable little system. This is kit that isn't engineered to be superficially 'hi-fi' or impressive and it simply gets on with the job of relaying the music.

Outwith that classic entry-level set-up, considerations like partnering become greater. I've seen your thoughts on the Yamaha amplifiers Gasolin and found them hard to align with my own experience both of my current A-S501, and the A-S500 and A-S700 I've had in the past. Fortunately I've got enough different bits and pieces here to explore that disparity further. I've tried my Rotel RCD965BX in the system, and it was a big step back. The problems of that players out-dated conversion circuitry (including a glassiness in tthe mid-range) were shown up by the Yamaha. Switch back to the Denon DCD720ae (a modern entry-level player), and the frequency range becomes much more even and there is a real clarity. Switch up to the Rega Apollo-R (upper-budget?) and the Yamaha shows it is more than good enough to resolve the differences with the Rega bringing more natural tonal reproduction across the frequency range along with more stable soundstaging and a wider dynamic range. I found the same with my turntables. The Yamaha very clearly shows the performance gap between my Pioneer PL12D/AT95e and my Rega RP3/Elys2, and it is a far bigger gap than I ever thought previously.

The same applies with speakers. The Yamaha really shows it's best when you give it a nicely engineered speaker with quality drive units. Yamaha engineer their amps to be natural sounding and this isn't about having a house sound, but more about ensuring that the power supply is strong enough to grip the speakers, that signal paths are symmetrical and short, and that good quality components are used throughout. It would be over exaggerating to say that these amps fulfil Peter Walker's 'straight wire with gain' ideals, but they get as close to it as you are going to find at this sort of price. The Yamaha is a more capable amp than the NAD C316BEE, but where the NAD will flatter it's similarly priced CD player partner and speakers, the Yamaha is more likely to expose them. It will therefore last much longer as you upgrade other ancilliaries, but (much like the Pioneer A400) it won't suffer significant flaws in partnering components gladly or comfortably.

I'm not suggesting you should have an A-S501 or A-S701, but simply pointing out that a more powerful amp with a decent power supply and well planned circuitry will be more awkward about what you partner it with. To really get the best out of affordable kit you need to understand the approach that has been taken with each unit and how that will affect it's relationship to other components in your system.

 

[Blacksabbath25]

i think your got the best your going to get on a budget the marantz pm6005 & cd6005 is top value for the money they have both won lots of awards . when i got mine when i started back into hifi being away from hi fi for 10 years i wanted as much as i could get for my budget at the time i paid £350 each new thats £700 even before you start looking at speakers . when i started i got the dali 1s to get me going as they were cheap but then found out they were just to weak on bass so when i got the money i got the dali 3s which is as could as your going to get on a budget that works very well with the marantz gear . to have a proper up grade you got to spend £1000 min on speakers or more and i really do think if your into rock, metal they have to be floorstanding speakers to get the sound right i have found this out as book shelf sound like boxes if when your looking at a £1000 set as you need to move lots of air inside the speaker to give you that low bass that you need for rock and metal music thats why i am say floor standing speakers as the speaker plays such a big part in getting the sound right in the first place .

 

[gasolin]

Hay Gasolin.It seems you're looking for high end sound at a budget price.it ain't gonni happen buddy.

Nope, just want to make this thread beacuse many say something like save your money and when you can afford it buy more expensive stuff, like all cheap/budget amps,speakers,cdplayers ,headphone, are rubbish, not all amp,spekaers,cdplayer..... of the year means they are perfect for your system or taste, i do prefere my bostons over the wharfedales although bostons a2. have never been awarded (atleats not on whathifi) as speaker of the year, they are just speakers along with many others who sound good

 

[gasolin]

Youve just mentioned that despite the modest cost of the hifi components you can still get a decent sound quality for your bucks. And when you spend a lot more the gains are not massive in relation to the cost so enjoy the music.

In your topic i think the nad d3020 is a very good piece of kit as it has all the inputs and got good sound.

Speakers i think the tannoy dc6 are great sound and great value if you can still get them. Btw have you heard thise speakers?

Not heard the tannoy's nearest place only have mercyry V1i and V4i and atm they don't have them in stock and i'm not shure if they would have them and if they do if it's possibel to listen to then (in a big store with lots of noise)

 

[Blackdawn]

Hi gasolin.

How long did you give your wharfedales for running in? Maybe they need longer to sound their best. I agree the boston acoustics a26 are very good. Along with my dali lektor 2 - my top two budget speakers. The dali's being more exciting and musical. Due to the size of the wharfedale 220 and any small standmount, its difficult to get a large full sound, like you may receive from floorstanders. Maybe for the type of music you listen to floorstanders would suit more.

 

[ID.]

Don't confuse mediocre for sounding like crap.

It's just that there are going to be limits and compromises. Mathewpiano gave you a good rundown of his experiences putting systems together. You need a process for working out what you need to spend to achieve your goals. Personally I think the Marantz range only gets really worthwhile from the 8005. This wasn't always the case as I felt the 8003 was crap. Pleasant enough sound, but poor detail retrieval. It was all warm, broad brush strokes. I found it bettered by systems considerably cheaper.

 

[grimharry]

I spent a saturday trying new equipment in a shop and to my untrained and uncouth hearing I was seriously underwhelmed by the increase in sq by kandy cd, bt amp and bw cm5s2 speakers. This at the time was a nearly £2400 combo.

 

[steve_1979]

You want deeper more powerful bass? You want a detailed, sparkly treble with a clear mid-range that's as good as regular passive HiFi systems costing twice as much as what you can afford?

Then go to a pro-audio shop and have a listen to some Mackie HR624 Mk2 speakers. These will tick all the boxes that you want and more.

Clicky



Or alternatively keep an eye on eBay and the AVForum classifieds as there are some great second hand bargins to be had if you know what you're looking for.

 

[gasolin]

There is one important factor that we all have to accept, whatever the cost of our equipment. Any hi-fi can only, at best, reproduce what is captured in each recording. Certainly some budget equipment can exacerbate the problems of some recordings and make them sound less good than they are. Likewise the compromises involved in building equipment to a certain price can limit how much of the recording you hear. However, there still comes a point where a problematic recording is still just that and you have to focus on enjoying the music in spite of the sound.

For an affordable, straight forward budget system that is engaging and hides its tracks well, it is hard to beat NAD, and this has long been the case. C516BEE CD player with C316BEE amp and a pair of Dali Zensor 1s or Q Acoustics 3020 on £70 Soundstyle stands and with basic copper cabling is an honest and very affordable little system. This is kit that isn't engineered to be superficially 'hi-fi' or impressive and it simply gets on with the job of relaying the music.

Outwith that classic entry-level set-up, considerations like partnering become greater. I've seen your thoughts on the Yamaha amplifiers Gasolin and found them hard to align with my own experience both of my current A-S501, and the A-S500 and A-S700 I've had in the past. Fortunately I've got enough different bits and pieces here to explore that disparity further. I've tried my Rotel RCD965BX in the system, and it was a big step back. The problems of that players out-dated conversion circuitry (including a glassiness in tthe mid-range) were shown up by the Yamaha. Switch back to the Denon DCD720ae (a modern entry-level player), and the frequency range becomes much more even and there is a real clarity. Switch up to the Rega Apollo-R (upper-budget?) and the Yamaha shows it is more than good enough to resolve the differences with the Rega bringing more natural tonal reproduction across the frequency range along with more stable soundstaging and a wider dynamic range. I found the same with my turntables. The Yamaha very clearly shows the performance gap between my Pioneer PL12D/AT95e and my Rega RP3/Elys2, and it is a far bigger gap than I ever thought previously.

The same applies with speakers. The Yamaha really shows it's best when you give it a nicely engineered speaker with quality drive units. Yamaha engineer their amps to be natural sounding and this isn't about having a house sound, but more about ensuring that the power supply is strong enough to grip the speakers, that signal paths are symmetrical and short, and that good quality components are used throughout. It would be over exaggerating to say that these amps fulfil Peter Walker's 'straight wire with gain' ideals, but they get as close to it as you are going to find at this sort of price. The Yamaha is a more capable amp than the NAD C316BEE, but where the NAD will flatter it's similarly priced CD player partner and speakers, the Yamaha is more likely to expose them. It will therefore last much longer as you upgrade other ancilliaries, but (much like the Pioneer A400) it won't suffer significant flaws in partnering components gladly or comfortably.

I'm not suggesting you should have an A-S501 or A-S701, but simply pointing out that a more powerful amp with a decent power supply and well planned circuitry will be more awkward about what you partner it with. To really get the best out of affordable kit you need to understand the approach that has been taken with each unit and how that will affect it's relationship to other components in your system.

The opinion on the yamaha as500 amp wasn't mine, it was somebody elses and personally i was surprised that the yamaha did sound that bad to the op of the thread/topic (i remember i linked to) just goes to show you that beacause whathifi rewards a product with the best of the year award that not all experince it to be that great as whathifi feel it is

 

[Thompsonuxb]

What Matthewpiano said....... *good*

Gasolin, just stop chasing the sound you are imagining is possible.

Take a moment to hear the sound you've got at your price level, save and 'upgrade' when feasible.

But a step up in amp class imo is the way forward for you.

And no, not a £200 5star amp to a £150 5star amp.

 

[ChrisIRL]

Nad d3020 and Q acoustics concept 20 or Dali Zensor 3 ( as mentioned above) are budget systems that I could happily live with again and could probably be picked up 2nd hand easily enough.

 

[ChrisIRL]

A 2 minute search just found Q acoustics concept 20 and a Nad d3020 bundle for £629. That's an excellent system for that price.

 

[gasolin]

Hi gasolin.

How long did you give your wharfedales for running in? Maybe they need longer to sound their best. I agree the boston acoustics a26 are very good. Along with my dali lektor 2 - my top two budget speakers. The dali's being more exciting and musical. Due to the size of the wharfedale 220 and any small standmount, its difficult to get a large full sound, like you may receive from floorstanders. Maybe for the type of music you listen to floorstanders would suit more.

I had them only a few day's before i desided to sent them back (after i compared them with my boston a25's), there where b-stock speakers that someone had bought and returned for some reason i don't know,also don't know how long the first owner of the wharfedale had them before returning them.

I was surprised about the bass, same sized woofer as my bostons and bigger cabinet, i felt i couldn't here the bass on some songs, i use my amp in source direct,that makes the sound just a bit brighter (not much though) and didn't want to use the eq to enhance the bass (on some records,songs the bostons a25 have not only noticeable deeper bass but also a bit louder), the wharfedales just have a more thin sound, even when the top don't sparkle in the same way the bostons do (good thing if a speaker doesn't have so to much bass), the sound just felt lifeless and thin, i do, regardless of how much more bass and deeper it is on the bostons, never feel there is to much or that it's muddy or even boomy

 

[gasolin]

Youve just mentioned that despite the modest cost of the hifi components you can still get a decent sound quality for your bucks. And when you spend a lot more the gains are not massive in relation to the cost so enjoy the music.

In your topic i think the nad d3020 is a very good piece of kit as it has all the inputs and got good sound.

Speakers i think the tannoy dc6 are great sound and great value if you can still get them. Btw have you heard thise speakers?

Not heard the tannoy's nearest place only have mercyry V1i and V4i and atm they don't have them in stock and i not shure if they would have them and if they do if it's possibel to listen to then (in a big store with lots of noise)

They would do well as you wanted a better sound but more top end sparkle than the wharfedales. Wharfedles are warm and so is your amp, possibly why sounded dull.

Where do you live again?

Don't feel my amp has a warm sound.

I feel a warm sound is a fullbodied bass,midrange and a slightly laid bak top where mail voices like chris rea,barry white,isack hayes,leonard cohen has all the depth,volume they deserve (they shouldn't sound like young boys who never had a woman) and a soft top that is never agressive, that lets you listen for hours and hours with no listening fatigue

Denmark the home of B&O,Dynaudio,Dali,Jamo,Raidho,Buchardt audio,Audiovector,Densen,Gamut,System audio and Lego

 

[Blacksabbath25]

The best thing you can do is take some of your CDs to a hi fi shop and tell the salesman what sound you are after and if the salesman is any good he will show you stuff that will meet your expectations . The truth is he will not show you budget amps , CD player, speakers because it's not possible to get the sound your after without spending more then you did when you got the pm6005 amp I had to spend near £4000 to get the sound were I wanted it to be . Everyone is different in what they expect from there hi fi and everyone has there own opinion on this subject if you like your music and you think it's worth spending more money then you will have to move of the budget range sorry but it's the truth

 

[CnoEvil]

A 2 minute search just found Q acoustics concept 20 and a Nad d3020 bundle for £629. That's an excellent system for that price.

+1

IMO This will give a surprisingly good sound for the money.

 

[grimharry]

Read a review in another mag who said it was like listening to a pioneer a400 for the first time. But that's only something I read.

 

[Gazzip]

Pre Amplifier: Nakamichi AV1 - £240

Power Amplifier: Behringer A500 Reference - £140

Loudspeakers: [/b]Dali Zensor 3 - £300

This is the spine of my second system and I find it difficult to fault the above combination. Just strap on your preferred source and away you go. Bags of headroom in the amplification so this will power pretty much any loudspeakers you desire if/when upgradeitus strikes. Also both pre and power can run in balanced mode which adds a great deal of flexibility. Not sure how good/bad the pre's inbuilt DAC is but as a DAC is a DAC I would imagine it sounds fine, so you have a near complete and very good setup here for under £700!