Hello My first post here is seeking advice I’m afraid, I am looking to purchase an amp and bookshelf speakers for my girlfriends birthday. I have a budget of £500 and I am looking to get am amp which could take inputs directly from her laptop or mp3 player probably via a 3.5mm to phono cable. We do have a NAS box and we do do a bit of streaming from Spotify etc but I would expect these would come through a PC/laptop first but maybe not as I see some kit has this built in. Probably not going to change again soon as the current hifi, a Sony CD/tuner/tape deck is 12-15 years old so looking for something else that will last, hence the phono connection of the MP3 player rather than a proprietary connector. Any advice greatly appreciated. Thanks
What amp and bookshelf speakers for £500?
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Thanks for the quick response, I just thought it might help if I said what type of music we listen to, it is mainly dance, house, trance with some indie and pop.
Probably prefer traditional separates as it would allow us to add a tuner later if we want to.
Probably prefer traditional separates as it would allow us to add a tuner later if we want to.
Have you considered investigating suitable active speakers? These combine amplifiers for the speakers in the body of the speaker cabinet. Some have DACs onboard as well (which will convert the digital source signal from your computer to an analogue format you can hear when output through the amp). Roland DS7's are a good example, but there are several others under £500 worth looking at.
As for traditional separates, there are many to choose from and the likes of Marantz, Yamaha, Cambridge Audio and a fair few others would be on the lips of many no doubt. I'd suggest you look at Harman Kardon's HK3490 receiver. It combines a 120wpc amp, but also offers an onboard DAC, will take two sets of speakers, handle two subwoofers and a bunch of other stuff as well. Yours for £349 from the Harman site direct (I've seen it for around £270 on and off elsewhere though). That leaves you £150, if we go by the HK shop amp price, to spend on speakers and this'll get you the likes of the very well reviewed Mission MX1 or Q Acoustics 2010 or 2020 standmount speakers. See if you can demo though, as while these add up nicely on the money front, they'll need to do just as well when they're paired together.
As for traditional separates, there are many to choose from and the likes of Marantz, Yamaha, Cambridge Audio and a fair few others would be on the lips of many no doubt. I'd suggest you look at Harman Kardon's HK3490 receiver. It combines a 120wpc amp, but also offers an onboard DAC, will take two sets of speakers, handle two subwoofers and a bunch of other stuff as well. Yours for £349 from the Harman site direct (I've seen it for around £270 on and off elsewhere though). That leaves you £150, if we go by the HK shop amp price, to spend on speakers and this'll get you the likes of the very well reviewed Mission MX1 or Q Acoustics 2010 or 2020 standmount speakers. See if you can demo though, as while these add up nicely on the money front, they'll need to do just as well when they're paired together.
Fairly dos - the HK3420 I mentioned comes pre-equipped with an FM tuner (no DAB sadly) but of course, if you're using your laptop, then that opens the door to internet radio and the BBC Listen Live service. If you've a freeview equipped TV, hooking that up to the HK will let you stream higher quality bitrate BBC radio to your amp and - again - you're off.
Welcome to the forum by the way!
Welcome to the forum by the way!
Think you should check out Epoz Aktimate Maxi. You can buy them for £400 and have some spare cash.
Then again, try to audition whatever you buying.
Good luck
Then again, try to audition whatever you buying.
Good luck
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