Contemplating a +/- $4000 HIFI setup. Suggestions?

[Ben-M]

What's your stance on used equipment, Mr. Sprinkles? If you're looking to get the most out of your $4k, it's the best way to go. And really, unless you get a dud, used stuff has lots and lots of life left in it.

 

I'm also Canadian and I've shopped the shit out of Canuck Audiomart. They've got tons and tons of listings. I've gotten some awesome deals and it lists where everything is, so since you're in the population Mecca of Toronto you'll be able to make use of local pickup and save even more.

 

To agree with everyone else, spend 60% on speakers, upgrade to a music PC down the road, and have a look at budget Chinese DACs on eBay. I've had a few and the bang for your buck has been unparalleled.

 

As for the speakers, personally I like powered ones because it takes the amp matching out of the equation, but you'll have to figure that out. Once you know that, then you can move onto the next step.

 

Good luck, and watch out for the rabbit hole.

[mistersprinkles]

I dont really like used stuff in general. I've never really bought anything used before. Is it really worth it? How much would I save? Would it be like 50%+ savings?

[Mike Mcsweeney]

i think you would be happier if you ensure the budget to include a subwoofer...unless you are going headphones, i don't think any system in your budget would sound right without a subwoofer. A subwoofer is definetely one you can get used. There are a couple velodyne HGS series used right now on ebay, that you would be happy with. Even the Klipsch reference series they have on sale all the time at frys electronics will make a vast improvement even if you don't want used....don't tell me later i didnt' tell you so (wink).

 

Also check out paradigm studios, B&W 6xx series, and martin logan motion speakers.

 

I have auditioned over 100 speakers in the last few months and those should be on your short list.

 

If you haven't decided on a reciever or amp yet, put the Marantz SR5009 on your short list...i have also auditioned 20 recievers/amps over the past few months and the marantz was heads above most. If you know you will never do multi-chan, then you can consider pm8005 and skip the dac....that or go with an ifi idsd dac. I have auditioned about 10 different dacs from 100 to 2000 and you cant beat the ifi, especially for the price.

[Ben-M]

I dont really like used stuff in general. I've never really bought anything used before. Is it really worth it? How much would I save? Would it be like 50%+ savings?

 

It's all over the map, depending on the item. Things like age, rarity, and condition will dictate your price.

 

I've bought all but 2-3 pieces of my current Computer Audio setup used(+50 pcs). I usually got things for 50-60% off and in perfect to near perfect condition.

 

My most recent purchase off canuckaudiomart was a long out of production power filter. Not perfect, but very, very good condition. If I didn't tell anyone it hadn't always been mine, no one would know. Retailed for $500 when it was made until ~2010, I got it for $120 shipped.

 

I bought an NHT X2 active crossover off CAM (as it's commonly called) just before that and it was literally in mint, unused condition. That one I got for $200, which is about 30-40% off its original MSRP, I believe. But, finding one, and a mint one at that, nowadays is pretty tough. Secondly, with the quality of that NHT X2 and what it can do, $200 is a steal.

 

I like CAM much better than eBay because you're dealing with fellow enthusiasts and usually first owners, for the most part, and not flippers that don't know 2 shits about the component. There's also no bidding, maybe a little bargaining, but no bidding competitions.

 

I'm not trying to force the used market on you, you've got to the care when browsing and demo things first if you can. But if you go used you can really stretch out those dollars and help beat the gap that our American brothers get retail.

[Mike Mcsweeney]

It's all over the map, depending on the item. Things like age, rarity, and condition will dictate your price.

 

 

agree, there are tons of used deals to be had out there, and lots of the used stuff is better than new stuff.

My wife is phenominal at finding great deals at garage sales. She recently picked up a pair of B&W DM601 for $45 and i sold them for $175, which was still a good deal for someone...great speakers for the price. I have picked up vandersteens, LS3/5A, Accoustic Research tube amps, linn sondek turntables, you name it, i have seen it all, and all over the board in price. I picked up an NAD 218 THX amp that was superb for $250. I later sold it for $450...that was one piece i wish i held on to, but the thing i missed th most was a pair of paradigm studio 60v5. I paid $800 and they were new, but were damaged in shipping. A couple pieces of plastic broken on the grill, and a couple small marks, but other than that perfect. I sold them for $1200. I would buy them back today for $1400...i really regret selling those...but there are great used deals out there if you are patient...

[mistersprinkles]

Ok, that settles it. I was on CAM and the deals BLEW my mind. More than 50% off on stuff in mint condition? No tax? Yes please.

 

Looks like I can actually afford much better equipment than I thought....

 

Now I must do the actual saving-up part.

[esldude]

Ok, that settles it. I was on CAM and the deals BLEW my mind. More than 50% off on stuff in mint condition? No tax? Yes please.

 

Looks like I can actually afford much better equipment than I thought....

 

Now I must do the actual saving-up part.

 

So we need to make new recommendations into the $8000 to $10,000 range.

[mistersprinkles]

So we need to make new recommendations into the $8000 to $10,000 range.

 

[mistersprinkles]

Here are some items that struck my interest while browsing CAM. Just putting these out there to get some feedback. I've decided to entertain the idea of bookshelf speakers on stands as well as floorstanders since I do live in a building... unfortunately.

 

Klipsch Floorstanders

KLIPSCH RF-7II SPEAKERS Photo #948342 - Canuck Audio Mart

 

PSB Floorstanders

PSB Imagine T2 Tower Speakers For Sale - Canuck Audio Mart

 

Totem Bookshelf

Totem The One For Sale - Canuck Audio Mart

 

Thoughts?

 

I imagine the most high fidelity speakers on the list are the Totem's but they won't give me the "I can feel it in my chest" effect of larger floorstanders?

[Mike Mcsweeney]

Here are some items that struck my interest while browsing CAM. Just putting these out there to get some feedback. I've decided to entertain the idea of bookshelf speakers on stands as well as floorstanders since I do live in a building... unfortunately.

 

Klipsch Floorstanders

KLIPSCH RF-7II SPEAKERS Photo #948342 - Canuck Audio Mart

 

PSB Floorstanders

PSB Imagine T2 Tower Speakers For Sale - Canuck Audio Mart

 

Totem Bookshelf

Totem The One For Sale - Canuck Audio Mart

 

Thoughts?

 

I imagine the most high fidelity speakers on the list are the Totem's but they won't give me the "I can feel it in my chest" effect of larger floorstanders?

 

For that kind of money, i would go with these

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PARADIGM-STUDIO-100-v5-FLOOR-STANDING-3-WAY-SPEAKERS-/261884667778?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cf98ae782

[ecwl]

In your price range, you're probably looking at NAD + Paradigm at Whitby or PSB + Arcam at Bay Bloor. But don't forget to check out Paradigm + Rotel at Audio One.

[mistersprinkles]

In your price range, you're probably looking at NAD + Paradigm at Whitby or PSB + Arcam at Bay Bloor. But don't forget to check out Paradigm + Rotel at Audio One.

 

Where's Audio One?

 

For that kind of money, i would go with these

Paradigm Studio 100 V5 Floor Standing 3 Way Speakers | eBay

 

What are these particular models' strengths vs the ones I listed? I hate being such a noob...

[ecwl]

Audio One is on Steeles Ave W, between Jane and 400. I presume you're travelling in from Whitby. So the distance from Whitby to Bay Bloor and Whitby to Audio One would be about the same. Anyway, I bought my first stereo system at Audio One, Arcam Alpha 5+ and Paradigm Studio 20 and then got a Marantz CD player at Bay-Bloor, lasted me from 1995-2007.

 

It's hard to explain the differences in speaker sound and why people have different preferences. That's why it's better to just go and audition the speakers. But my preference would be Paradigm and PSB over Totem and Klipsch (although I haven't heard the specific Klipsch model you mentioned). But then I like mangoes over pineapples, what does that mean?

[Mike Mcsweeney]

Where's Audio One?

 

 

 

What are these particular models' strengths vs the ones I listed? I hate being such a noob...

 

As suggested previously, speakers are very subjective. Depends on what music genre you like the most, what volume you like listening at, how big is the room. You should make a list and audition as much as you can...it will become a frustrating and lengthy process, and you will wonder if you made the right decision once you do make that decision. Like i said i auditioned literally 100s or pairs of speakers over the last 1.5 years. TO ME, you can't go wrong with the paradigm studios and a sub. I have had PSB and Klipsch. I heard totems at CES. I am not going to say there is anything wrong with speakers you mentioned. I am just going to say that in my opinion, you will be making a mistake if you don't include the paradigm studios in your short list. I also recommend you listen to Martin Logan and B&W. To let you know where i am today, after 1.5 years of auditioning, i am currently using B&W 685 S2 with a sub...i am happy, but i believe i would be happier by keeping the paradigm studio 60s i had for a short time....

[Sam Lord]

Sprinkler,

 

Buy Canadian, Canucks do magic with audio. They are funny people but nice, even in trailer parks. They love everybody but their neighbors, an endearing trait.

 

for example

 

Speakers: PSBs are really good, they've never made one that wasn't a bargain, and are much purer-sounding than Klipsch.

 

DACs: Resonessence and Exasound, 'nuff said. Although at your budget I would go with my choice of the last year, an Oppo 105D everything player, it sounds magnificent and works brilliantly. It has a *very* good variable output

too, no preamp needed unless you cohabitate with vinyl. For best results build playlists with JRiver and playback upconverted audio via HQPlayer (~$150).

 

Amps: Screw Canada. Build Hypex nCore400 monoblocks with SiliconRay enclosures, about $1300 USD or let James Romeyn build them for you. Seriously, go with great class D, Hypex-based. Go with your computer or a basic small desktop machine with some horsepower and a cheap fanless little NAA. (Look at HQPlayer website.)

 

Go curling, ski Kicking Horse, just don't stop building DACs and whatnot.

 

Cheers

[Sam Lord]

...Or maybe just get a CAPS as you had planned and set it close to the Oppo; cheaper and has enough grunt to run HQPLayer.

[chaskelljr1963]

$4K System:

Speaker System: Paradigm Monitor 11v7 Floor Standing Speaker System (Comes In Black Ash Or Heritage Cherry Veneer -- Five Drivers/Three Way) -- $1600.00

 

Integrated Amplifier/DAC: NAD C 388 Integrated Amplifier (150 Watts Per Channel Into 8 Ohms/4 Ohms; Amplifier Capable Of 1,000 Watts Instantaneously; Can Be Modified To Your Needs Thanks To "MDC" Construction; 24-Bit/192 DAC; MM Phono Input) -- $1600.00

 

PC Laptop Computer: ASUS Or HP (MS Windows 10; Intel Core i5, i7 Or AMD Processor; 1 TB Hard Drive; 16 GB RAM) -- $800.00 (-/+)

 

I'm assuming that you have either Outboard Cloud Service for storage and Internet Radio, or you have a Server at home, or contemplating getting a Server at some point.

 

Nice Affordable Combo.

 

Total Price: $4,000.00 (But You Have To Come Up With More Money For Cables & Other Connections Unless You Have These Already).

 

--Charles--

[TubeLover]

I hate living in a building, man. We were forced out of our old neighborhood by a bedbug pandemic. It had also become infested with undesirable scumbags of every kind. I saw one too many SWAT teams kicking doors in at 3am in my neighborhood. Once I was walking my dog at 3am and a swat team literally rolled up beside me and ran single file towards the house I was walking past. Another time I was walking my dog at 3am again and a group of cops ran by me with their guns out and down an alleyway after somebody. They found a guy in a shopping cart chopped up into pieces in the park 200 feet from my front door. There was prostitution... I would walk to the grocery store late at night and a guy out front would open his jacket and offer me steak at half price that he had just stolen from inside... My chinese food delivery guy told me a story about how he had been robbed for his money and food at gunpoint (with a desert eagle .50 cal no less) at a building like 500 yards away from my house. We had enough. Housing prices in 10 years tripled in the city and we couldn't afford another house, so we had to move into a building. It was a tragic set of circumstances. On the bright side I live in an area with very few undesirables in the suburbs now and I can rest easy at night knowing I'm not going to get stabbed or jumped because I want to go for one of my late night walks. And the supermarket doesn't have armed security. Good changes. Downside? I have upstairs and downstairs neighbors... And they're jerks.

 

I honestly had no idea whatsoever that crime and situations existed like this in Toronto (or for that matter, Canada in general). How disappointing. Very glad to hear you have escaped that kind of neighborhood.

 

JC

[mistersprinkles]

I honestly had no idea whatsoever that crime and situations existed like this in Toronto (or for that matter, Canada in general). How disappointing. Very glad to hear you have escaped that kind of neighborhood.

 

JC

 

For some reason Canada is portrayed internationally as this happy super safe place where the police ride around on polar bears and nothing bad ever happens. While that's mostly true in suburban Canada (most of it), it's not true of big cities. There are neighborhoods in Toronto that are so bad, I won't even drive through them. There are others that are bad enough that I'll drive through them without stopping. My really really stupid neighbour that I used to have almost got killed in deep Scarborough when he came out of a store and some kids asked him for a cigarette. He said he didn't have any, they insisted, he repeated himself and told them to #### off. They surrounded him and started threatening him. Just then some police pulled into the parking lot and the thuglets scattered. He got lucky.

 

He told me the story that night and laughed "I almost got my first Scarborough ass kicking" and I said "No, dude, you almost got stabbed to death" and he was like "oh, really? Are you sure?"

 

Stupid suburban neighbor...

 

He needed someone to kick his ass... He used to plug his electronics into my outdoor outlet and use my hose. Never gave me a penny.

If you're ever in Toronto, avoid Jane and Finch and the surrounding few blocks at all costs. Another bad area is morningside/Kingston Rd. Parma court, Rexdale, Dundas between broadview and Yonge... lots of bad areas.

[Ralf11]

look at the "best speakers under $2500" thread

 

then buy a used Oppo and a used nad, rotel, etc. amp

 

 

in Canada the police ride around on moose, not polar bears