The budget thread (what sounds good)

[gasolin]

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.

Have had my share of active speakers m audio bx5 d2 agressive top/tweeter and a lack of bass returned them after 1 week,krk rookit powered 5s g2(had them for abou 1½ years) and g3 (ground loop,hum problem) LOTS of bass to lower midrange (to much although i didn't need a subwoofer at all, g3's had bass adjustments but only by a few db),adam f5 loud but omg the top was to low, wrong adjustment from the factory compare the f5 to the f7 (omg) i found a gain/volume for the tweeter behinde a rubber knob after i returned it to get my money back https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt9ig5XUOmk adam ax5's are also loud never felt the bass was noticeable deep,only 2x2 front bass ports that acted like hairdryers playing loud edm(the same problems have dali lektor 2's with the tiny front bass ports),felt the midrange was to absent,not easy to hear the midrange and finally the biggest badest meanest studiomonitors ever to cross my home.

The new Yamaha HS8 on my desk, they are huge, lots of deep bass (guees if i ever wanted a subwoofer) and they where loud,sold them because they where to big (couldn't possitioning then that well) and mabye because i wanted a 29" 21:9 monitor (can't remember).

One thing i always had and almost evey studio monitors have is noise, white noise,hiss (something to do with the gain) https://www.gearslutz.com/board/so-much-gear-so-little-time/917370-quietest-active-monitors-hiss-etc.html didn't use a dac/soundcard with a volume knob but a tc electrioncs level pilot, huge channel unbalance at low levels and static noise they are famous to have after a few month.

I don't want a tweeter,top with alot of sparkle,i have it at high levels on bright records/songs, i like a neutral top you can listen to for hours without listening fatigue, open clear midrange that is easy to hear without soundig like it's artificially enhance and a deep bass you never want to enhance (i'm not a bass acholic) that never gets boom,muddy unless it's recorded that way

Have always liked the genelecs especially in white, but decent size genelecs are expensive 900£ and you only get a pair of speakers with 5" woofer

 

[knaithrover]

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

I have this as my 2nd system, bought 2nd hand but mint for £500. Very very big bang for one's buck. Worth noting that for me anyway Dali Zensor 3's did not work at all well with the Nad..

 

[gasolin]

Pre Amplifier: Nakamichi AV1 - £240

Power Amplifier: Behringer A500 Reference - £140

Loudspeakers: 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!

not bad, googled the amp, hop you don't have any distortion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWj5CUl7rio

 

[matthewpiano]

I've had a long listening session with a fresh head today. The A-S501 is a very good budget amp and I stand by what I said earlier. However, I've done some direct comparisons with the Brio-R today, and the Rega is in a completely different class.

You see, there's the other issue with all this hi-fi stuff. Your mood, level of tiredness etc. has a direct impact on how you perceive your system. Decisions are best made with a fresh head when you are relaxed, not in the middle of a busy working week.

 

[gasolin]

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

I have this as my 2nd system, bought 2nd hand but mint for £500. Very very big bang for one's buck. Worth noting that for me anyway Dali Zensor 3's did not work at all well with the Nad..

I also agree zensor 1's not that good with the nad D3020 i feelt again the top was to bright compared to boston A25,how good are the Boston M25's (noticing you have a pair) as i remember it's more then twice the price of the boston a25 (so fare the best compact speaker i have had boston a25/26 and to me better then dali concept 1, zensor 1, system audio saxo 1,wharfedale diamond 220 i have had)

 

[knaithrover]

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

I have this as my 2nd system, bought 2nd hand but mint for £500. Very very big bang for one's buck. Worth noting that for me anyway Dali Zensor 3's did not work at all well with the Nad..

I also agree zensor 1's not that good with the nad D3020 i feelt again the top was to bright compared to boston A25,how good are the Boston M25's (noticing you have a pair) as i remember it's more then twice the price of the boston a25 (so fare the best compact speaker i have had boston a25/26 and to me better then dali concept 1, zensor 1, system audio saxo 1,wharfedale diamond 220 i have had)

Boston Acoustics are quite an underrated brand IMO, I had the A25's and liked them very much, a great all rounder with a very full 'big' sound for a small speaker. The M25's are in an entirely different league, I picked mine up for £150 on chavbay and they are certainly my best ever buy (I think they retailed at £600 in Superfi) They have a huge deep wide soundstage, very smooth yet subtle sounding - beautiful especially with vinyl. Need a bit of power to drive tbem though they are 4ohms and my 50watt per channel Nad C320bee is at the very minimum these need power wise. Very underrated and unheralded, people in the know though have them as their reference 'up to a grand' bookshelfs. Very good indeed.

 

[matthewpiano]

It would be very surprising if Boston Acoustics speakers didn't match well with Marantz electronics, as they are both part of D&M and Ken Ishiwata has, IIRC, been involved in developing the Boston speaker range.

 

[gasolin]

It would be very surprising if Boston Acoustics speakers didn't match well with Marantz electronics, as they are both part of D&M and Ken Ishiwata has, IIRC, been involved in developing the Boston speaker range.

The same should be for nad and psb but does it always do that?

 

[matthewpiano]

It would be very surprising if Boston Acoustics speakers didn't match well with Marantz electronics, as they are both part of D&M and Ken Ishiwata has, IIRC, been involved in developing the Boston speaker range.

The same should be for nad and psb but does it always do that?

I suppose that depends on whether the designers have the same musical aims as the listener. It seems there are plenty of people enjoying NAD with PSB in different parts of the world. As these forums prove, one size doesn't fit everyone so the 'in house' approach won't work for every customer. I have Rega RS1 speakers as well as my Dynaudios and they sound extremely good with the all-Rega electronics.

 

[gasolin]

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

I have this as my 2nd system, bought 2nd hand but mint for £500. Very very big bang for one's buck. Worth noting that for me anyway Dali Zensor 3's did not work at all well with the Nad..

I also agree zensor 1's not that good with the nad D3020 i feelt again the top was to bright compared to boston A25,how good are the Boston M25's (noticing you have a pair) as i remember it's more then twice the price of the boston a25 (so fare the best compact speaker i have had boston a25/26 and to me better then dali concept 1, zensor 1, system audio saxo 1,wharfedale diamond 220 i have had)

Boston Acoustics are quite an underrated brand IMO, I had the A25's and liked them very much, a great all rounder with a very full 'big' sound for a small speaker. The M25's are in an entirely different league, I picked mine up for £150 on chavbay and they are certainly my best ever buy (I think they retailed at £600 in Superfi) They have a huge deep wide soundstage, very smooth yet subtle sounding - beautiful especially with vinyl. Need a bit of power to drive tbem though they are 4ohms and my 50watt per channel Nad C320bee is at the very minimum these need power wise. Very underrated and unheralded, people in the know though have them as their reference 'up to a grand' bookshelfs. Very good indeed.

Have for a few min though about boston m's, i mean if they are much better then the a's they must be GOOD (haven't heard any better budget speakers then the boston a's), but the only one who imports boston in denmark (hififreaks) only have m25 surround speakers, that's about it in the m range and they start to have less and less boston a's (are they discontinued?).

50 watt and peak 160 watt in 4ohm shouldn't that be enought for boston m25's (86db)

Listening to whitesnake's slide it in (greatest hist 1984-2009) bit surprised over the sound quality since the top is softer then most cd's but not dark or dull (no sparkel at levels beyond medium,if i play any louder i have to move away from the speaker since it would be a bit to loud)and good punchy bass,(not ultra deep and thight)better then most cd's, the guitars have energy but isn't at medium levels agressive

Shouldn't be all about me and my needs,system(have made enough threads about my system,what i like,don't like), so back the budget thread, does todays budget systems sound better or worse the system 20-30 years a go like the nad 3020, marant cd63 se, the small rogers bbc monitors and all the other stuff that we look at as the old budget hifi that might if in mint condition could be an alternartive to new budget hifi?

Another one on whathifi would agree with me that his new budget cdplayer (remember it as one from denon) sounded better the his old rotel rcd-965bx (mine is the le discrete version and the only hifi part i have had that longe on the original box it say january 1993, bought it may or june 1993 after my 18's birthday) , i also fell the same way,that my new "budget" cdplayer also sounds getter then my old cdplayer, even when i first felt a lack of details from my new interconnect wíth my old rotel cdplayer, i have nothing negative to say about the sound quality from my marantz cd5005

I think when i comes down budget hifi it's more or less reasonabel price hifi, hifi most people can afford to buy

 

[gasolin]

It would be very surprising if Boston Acoustics speakers didn't match well with Marantz electronics, as they are both part of D&M and Ken Ishiwata has, IIRC, been involved in developing the Boston speaker range.

The same should be for nad and psb but does it always do that?

I suppose that depends on whether the designers have the same musical aims as the listener. It seems there are plenty of people enjoying NAD with PSB in different parts of the world. As these forums prove, one size doesn't fit everyone so the 'in house' approach won't work for every customer. I have Rega RS1 speakers as well as my Dynaudios and they sound extremely good with the all-Rega electronics.

Dynaudio doesn't make amps so there speakers have to sound good with the amp people have,as long as they are powerfull enough (remember to have read that the smaller dm2/6 2/7 needs powerfull amps, not wattage,but power,current)

Rega makes amps so it's hard to imagine that rega amps doesn't sound good with rega speakers

 

[knaithrover]

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

I have this as my 2nd system, bought 2nd hand but mint for £500. Very very big bang for one's buck. Worth noting that for me anyway Dali Zensor 3's did not work at all well with the Nad..

I also agree zensor 1's not that good with the nad D3020 i feelt again the top was to bright compared to boston A25,how good are the Boston M25's (noticing you have a pair) as i remember it's more then twice the price of the boston a25 (so fare the best compact speaker i have had boston a25/26 and to me better then dali concept 1, zensor 1, system audio saxo 1,wharfedale diamond 220 i have had)

Boston Acoustics are quite an underrated brand IMO, I had the A25's and liked them very much, a great all rounder with a very full 'big' sound for a small speaker. The M25's are in an entirely different league, I picked mine up for £150 on chavbay and they are certainly my best ever buy (I think they retailed at £600 in Superfi) They have a huge deep wide soundstage, very smooth yet subtle sounding - beautiful especially with vinyl. Need a bit of power to drive tbem though they are 4ohms and my 50watt per channel Nad C320bee is at the very minimum these need power wise. Very underrated and unheralded, people in the know though have them as their reference 'up to a grand' bookshelfs. Very good indeed.

Have for a few min though about boston m's, i mean if they are much better then the a's they must be GOOD (haven't heard any better budget speakers then the boston a's), but the only one who imports boston in denmark (hififreaks) only have m25 surround speakers, that's about it in the m range and they start to have less and less boston a's (are they discontinued?).

50 watt and peak 160 watt in 4ohm shouldn't that be enought for boston m25's (86db)

They are definitely discontinued in the UK. I've seen them available for sale on ebay from the USA and Germany also though..

 

[gasolin]

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

I have this as my 2nd system, bought 2nd hand but mint for £500. Very very big bang for one's buck. Worth noting that for me anyway Dali Zensor 3's did not work at all well with the Nad..

I also agree zensor 1's not that good with the nad D3020 i feelt again the top was to bright compared to boston A25,how good are the Boston M25's (noticing you have a pair) as i remember it's more then twice the price of the boston a25 (so fare the best compact speaker i have had boston a25/26 and to me better then dali concept 1, zensor 1, system audio saxo 1,wharfedale diamond 220 i have had)

Boston Acoustics are quite an underrated brand IMO, I had the A25's and liked them very much, a great all rounder with a very full 'big' sound for a small speaker. The M25's are in an entirely different league, I picked mine up for £150 on chavbay and they are certainly my best ever buy (I think they retailed at £600 in Superfi) They have a huge deep wide soundstage, very smooth yet subtle sounding - beautiful especially with vinyl. Need a bit of power to drive tbem though they are 4ohms and my 50watt per channel Nad C320bee is at the very minimum these need power wise. Very underrated and unheralded, people in the know though have them as their reference 'up to a grand' bookshelfs. Very good indeed.

Have for a few min though about boston m's, i mean if they are much better then the a's they must be GOOD (haven't heard any better budget speakers then the boston a's), but the only one who imports boston in denmark (hififreaks) only have m25 surround speakers, that's about it in the m range and they start to have less and less boston a's (are they discontinued?).

50 watt and peak 160 watt in 4ohm shouldn't that be enought for boston m25's (86db)

They are definitely discontinued in the UK. I've seen them available for sale on ebay from the USA and Germany also though..

The Boston m's or both the a's and m's?

 

[matthewpiano]

It would be very surprising if Boston Acoustics speakers didn't match well with Marantz electronics, as they are both part of D&M and Ken Ishiwata has, IIRC, been involved in developing the Boston speaker range.

The same should be for nad and psb but does it always do that?

I suppose that depends on whether the designers have the same musical aims as the listener. It seems there are plenty of people enjoying NAD with PSB in different parts of the world. As these forums prove, one size doesn't fit everyone so the 'in house' approach won't work for every customer. I have Rega RS1 speakers as well as my Dynaudios and they sound extremely good with the all-Rega electronics.

Dynaudio doesn't make amps so there speakers have to sound good with the amp people have,as long as they are powerfull enough (remember to have read that the smaller dm2/6 2/7 needs powerfull amps, not wattage,but power,current)

Rega makes amps so it's hard to imagine that rega amps doesn't sound good with rega speakers

Yes, I'm well aware that Dynaudio doesn't make amplifiers. My point was that Marantz and Boston products are pretty much as good as coming from the same company and share development personnel, including Ken Ishiwata.

 

[NS496]

I just live it when a good budget system comes together and an amp/ speakers just gels together...deliver a combined perfornance, better than sum of the parts

intetestingly back in the 90's Boston speakers with Rotel amps were very popular over here. Sounded great then. Nowadays people seem to like B&W with Rotel amps. NAD were often partnered with AR in the 80's.

 

[gasolin]

One great buget unit is the behringer uca202 interface,dac and the headphone amp can easily for a few bucks be made into a very good headphone,amp mabye the best bang for the buck,value for the money ever http://nwavguy.blogspot.dk/2011/02/behringer-uca202-review.html