Where to spend £300 pounds for first Hifi system. Mini or Separates.

[a.j.buckle]

Hi

I’m looking to make my first outing into descent hifi sound, as im bored of listening to all my music on tiny headphones, and i have an ever growing cd collection, thought its time to get a descent sound hifi.

I’m looking to spend around £300 pound maybe a tad more, and have the unit in my new living room, maybe 6 sq meters room.

I'm not sure where my money would be better spent, because I’m unlikely to want to upgrade elements for a few years, and just want good sound. Listen to a lot of 60-70s rock, and prog.

My current options. Denon DM37 with Tannoy F1 Customs or wharfdale diamonds 9.1.

Found a TEAC reference 300 MkIII for similar money. Tho unsure of reviews of this.

Or separates???

do i get cheap-ish separates Cd player and amp for around £100-120? is more money better spend on an amp or CD player in this case? Found few things like cambridge audio A1MK3SE or A5 amp for 120 ish.

It's all rather complex really and want the best sound for my money.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

cheers

 

[aliEnRIK]

If I only had 300 quid ~ personally id be heading to ebay

Ive had some serious bargains off there (My denon av amp which im thinking of selling soon due to an upgrade was 1k to buy new which I got for £200)

 

[a.j.buckle]

Hi. Thanks, yeah i do like ebay, but its warranty , GUARANTEE and aftercare that corns me with ebay/second hand, tho i might be worth looking. guess it depends on build quality etc of the brands.

 

[8009514]

I think I'll have to agree with 'alienrik' about going to ebay. £300 doesn't get you a lot now. 6 months ago you could get the Denon DM37 with speakers for that price. The unit w/out speakers was going for about £220. Having popped into Sevenoaks Sound at the weekend I noticed it is now priced at £299 w/out speakers. You'll then need another £100 - £150 to add the speakers to it. There may be some deals around, try Amazon, Superfi etc.

If you are going by the prices in the WHF mag then you'll find many of them rather out of date (not WHFs fault). There have been some quite considerable increases in the price of HiFi equipment in the past months.

 

[the record spot]

This was a good little set-up back in January when I saw it and it's a good one now; £70-odd more than your current budget, but worth a look:-

http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/Product_ID/4863

...and so's this one at £340-odd:-

http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/Product_ID/3856

Both feature NAD kit, both at very good prices and the only difference between the two are Q Acoustics 1020i in the first set-up and Tannoy Mercury F1s in the second one.

 

[a.j.buckle]

Hi

Great thats a realy good deal, and as both NAD unit have the what hifi 5 star rateing, i think ill stretch my budget and go for this one.

cheers for advice. And this hifi worlds quite addictive once u get into it.

adam