Up to £1000 budget for complete system

[admin_exported]

Back in the day ... ie. 15 years ago .. I bought a Kenwood stack system, everything there, CD, tape, record player, amplifier etc. - It cost about £600 at the time and was large in size, with large speakers and has sounded great for 15 years.

I now feel it's time for a new system but everywhere I look all I see are those tiny micro systems with speakers the size of a piece of Lego. So, I have some questions :

a) Do these new-fangled small speakers / systems actually produce any decent sound (ie. bass as well as treble ?)

b) If the answer to a) is no, then where on earth can you buy a nice big system with nice large speakers that will rattle my house with bass, DB's and quality sound for under £1000 ?

Dave

 

[Razz]

Hi Dave,

You have a point there and a lot of interesting questions 🙂 It does seem you need to pay more these days for a decent hi-fi than 15 years ago, although many would argue that quality of separates has also gone up - which may be the case for certain products.. However, to answer your questions, these tiny speakers do sound now better than a decade ago, and they can even produce acceptable bass, not to mention the refinement of treble and midrange that some possess. It seems however you are looking for 'big' muscley speakers which will automatically send you these days to floorstanders...

Good 'strong' floorstanders nowadays in your budget would be the new Q Acoustics 1050 at 330 quid; this range has caused quite a stir in the hifi circles of late (http://www.qacoustics.co.uk/floorstanding_speaker/). Another option would be the Monitor Audio BR4's at 400 (much revered by what hifi recently) or the KEF's iQ5's (a long standing best buy), also at 400. Also you could find some 'big' strong standmounts like in them good'ole days in B&W's 602 S3's at 350 pounds...

As for electronics the obvious choices would be a Cambridge Audio system, made up of their CD player Azur 640C V2 at 250 quid and the Azur 640A V2 amp at 300 quid (both praised by most hifi specialists) (check their site at http://www.cambridgeaudio.com); or you could combine the above player with the much praised Marantz PM7001 amplifier at 350 quid (or even the PM7001 KI version at 500) (www.marantz.com). Marantz's amplifiers of late have greatly impressed me and they have certainly raised the bar considerably for the other brands - as have done Cambridge Audio... Worth checking are also the NAD electronics, although I haven't seen these mentioned in serious hifi press in a long while...

The above are the top buys of the moment, and they should give you a better system than what you used to have - although maybe not as muscley 🙂

Good luck and have fun with the audtioning :-D

Razz

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Dave,

Am currently in the market myself for a £1000 system. My thoughts at the moment are:

Radio: Denon DTU1800 (DAB and FM) - a no brainer at £200, everyone seems to say that it's the best in this range.

Speakers: Monitor BR2 - not sure if it has enough ooomph for you, but in this price range again it seems the best. (£200)

Amp: For the amp I am tied between NAD C352, Marantz PM7001 or the Rotel RA-04 (all circa £250-300). I fear that the lack of remote means that the Rotel would become too annoying over time despite the glowing WhatHiFi reviews. The NAD seems to be good but I wonder if what was the award winner in 2004 (and I see that it was not in the annual What HiFi best hifi mag that is just out, which may not be a good sign?), has now been far surpassed by newer machines (eg RA-04) - this issue is never rather annoyingly really answered by magazine reviewers. The Marantz has some good reviews too (eg HiFi Choice), but I note its only a 4 star in this magazine.

CD player: again rather confusing. I think the Cambridge Audio 604c V2 (£250) is the winner, but you can't test that with many other amps as its only at Richer Sounds. Am also thinking maybe the Denon DCD-700AE.

Thinking though that maybe its worth going with the Cambridge Audio 640 CD and amp. The Rotel combo wins the recent What HiFi, but again the remote issue...

Accessories: Soundstyle Z2 (speaker stands ) £60; Supra Dual interconnects £40 each; QED Silver Anniversay XT speaker cable £5.5/m -t do you need bi-wire? It seems like not really, but the jury still seems to be out so I see that as a way to save a few pence. And maybe with a little extra cash, the Atacama Equinox rack £180...

Am also still unclear about remote controls. If all your seperates are from different different manufacturers do you need to buy an all-in-one remote or can an amp remote do basic functions for all machines??

Good luck

 

[Razz]

It's me again 🙂

One more "exotic" idea: I don't know how patriotic you are Dave, but there are some very interesting choices at UKD (http://www.ukd.co.uk/) a British importer of Italian and French audio equipment. I have seen in their bargains section some very interesting ex-demo offers: The Audio Analogue Primo CD player and partnering amplifier (Settanta) which have each been reduced from 500 to 320 quid. These (especially the amp) have had amazing reviews from very 'snotty' connaisseurs in the world of hifi... You could couple these with the Triangle Comete ES speakers, also imported by UKD - reduced from around 500 to 335 quid - and you'd have a pretty refined and sophisticated system...

The Audio Analogue equipment is known for a smooth, valve-like sound - if that is your cup of tea... Talking of valves, UKD also offers an ex-dem Audio Analogue all-in-one unit (Enigma) with valves (!) (best of its type sound-wise according to several magazines) which has been reduced from 850 to 685 quid (http://www.audioanalogue.com/eng/enigma.php).

Also you could pair these electronics with some of the speakers mentioned above. This seemed to me like such a good deal that I couldn't stop mentioning it here! 🙂

(Also above I have mistakenly written BR4 instead of BR5 for the Monitor Audios. Sorry).

Again good luck with your quest.

Razz