Back in the eighties and nineties I was a complete hi-fi freak, listening to CDS on a Luxman/Rotel/Interdyn set up and very much on the geek fringe. In those days, hi-fi knowledge seemed simple enough and I was always ready to rattle off advice... "Forget your all-in-one," I'd say, "get yourself a set of good bookshelf speakers, whack 'em on decent stands, grab a good integrated amplifier and a CD player, conenct it all up with good cable and you;ve got a starter system that can blow your music centre out of the water."
Then other demands came along... paying off a house, computers, trips, and the hi-fi thing fell by the wayside. I still loved music, but mostly enjoyed it via MP3 format on an ipod or computer.
Now, the bug has a chance of biting again, but in looking around I am as confuded as any newbie I encountered back in the early days. Everything seems confusing to the max. After preliminary investugatiosn, I wonder do people still HAVE hi-fi systems as I understood them, these days? It all seems to be about either (a) listen to your tunes in a lossy format on an MP3 player, or (b) stick to your creaky old formats like CD players, turntables, cassette decks, and other things that I thought had died, or at least only exist in a kind of geeky hobby enclave,
* Is there, today, any kind of basic budget "starter system" like the historical one I describe above? And if so, does it still have olde worlde CD players and analogue tuners and such? If so, is there a reason for this... like, perhaps, that dedicated CD players give a huge sonic advantage over listening to your CDs on a Blu-Ray player?
* What are the typical sources for a modern set-up? The modern version of CD Player/Radio Tuner/Turntable/Cassette Deck?
* Building from my question above, is there a kind of hard drive thingy with a slot, that can rip CDS and DVDs, and play them back through my amp/speaker combo (or TV for the DVDs?) and connects to a hi-fi?
*Or should I buy a laptop used JUST as a storage device for FLAC and ripped movies? I really don't want to get into wi-fi streaming from other rooms if I can help it.
* Should I play CDs on a Blu-Ray? Or would I get more bang for my buck buying a cheaper Blu-Ray and a seperate CD player for the same price?
I present these questions for discussion... since I am sure many others would love to get into good, lossless sound and are repelled by the sheer confusion of it all and go back to their MP3s.
Anyway, here's what I'm kicking around with going with... comments welcome.
Good integrated amp, set of bookshelf speakers, subwoofer.
TV
Blu-Ray player (with the sound outlets plugged into a hi-fi amp)
(if possible) a hard drive as I describe above OR a cheap laptop to be used for media storage.
(maybe, see above) Dedicated CD player
(when finance permits) Turntable
Sorry if this is so &*^%^ long. Blame it on new member enthusiasm :^)
Then other demands came along... paying off a house, computers, trips, and the hi-fi thing fell by the wayside. I still loved music, but mostly enjoyed it via MP3 format on an ipod or computer.
Now, the bug has a chance of biting again, but in looking around I am as confuded as any newbie I encountered back in the early days. Everything seems confusing to the max. After preliminary investugatiosn, I wonder do people still HAVE hi-fi systems as I understood them, these days? It all seems to be about either (a) listen to your tunes in a lossy format on an MP3 player, or (b) stick to your creaky old formats like CD players, turntables, cassette decks, and other things that I thought had died, or at least only exist in a kind of geeky hobby enclave,
* Is there, today, any kind of basic budget "starter system" like the historical one I describe above? And if so, does it still have olde worlde CD players and analogue tuners and such? If so, is there a reason for this... like, perhaps, that dedicated CD players give a huge sonic advantage over listening to your CDs on a Blu-Ray player?
* What are the typical sources for a modern set-up? The modern version of CD Player/Radio Tuner/Turntable/Cassette Deck?
* Building from my question above, is there a kind of hard drive thingy with a slot, that can rip CDS and DVDs, and play them back through my amp/speaker combo (or TV for the DVDs?) and connects to a hi-fi?
*Or should I buy a laptop used JUST as a storage device for FLAC and ripped movies? I really don't want to get into wi-fi streaming from other rooms if I can help it.
* Should I play CDs on a Blu-Ray? Or would I get more bang for my buck buying a cheaper Blu-Ray and a seperate CD player for the same price?
I present these questions for discussion... since I am sure many others would love to get into good, lossless sound and are repelled by the sheer confusion of it all and go back to their MP3s.
Anyway, here's what I'm kicking around with going with... comments welcome.
Good integrated amp, set of bookshelf speakers, subwoofer.
TV
Blu-Ray player (with the sound outlets plugged into a hi-fi amp)
(if possible) a hard drive as I describe above OR a cheap laptop to be used for media storage.
(maybe, see above) Dedicated CD player
(when finance permits) Turntable
Sorry if this is so &*^%^ long. Blame it on new member enthusiasm :^)