Getting Stereo Integrated and Speakers for PC, which?

The 780SE are the ones to look out for, and those are the regular 780. Saying that though if you can get those for under £100 that would be a good start.
 
A good start is no good, it has to be right the first time, I don't have the money to buy new speakers willy nilly :(

Could one of you be extra nice and point me in the direction of specific models from brands such as Cyrus and Arcam, and maybe anyone else I should be looking at, just to help me whittle down which amp to get :)

Looking at Arcam 10 now...
 
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The Arcam 10 is reportedly a very nice amp.

As I said before, you want to make the right choices, and the only way to do that would be to do a lot of research into what you can reasonably expect for your price and what the reviews and user experiences say. Obviously the absolute best way would be to have a listen to some stuff for yourself. A demo costs you nothing and you don't have to buy the gear. If you're looking at second hand stuff, head to a dealer and listen to some kit from the same manufacturers as you're looking at. You might get a good deal at a hi-fi shop as they often have second hand or clearance stock and often offer good bargains on new equipment too. You must have some sort of hi-fi dealer within an hour from you.
 
Yeah I'd love to demo before purchase. Been looking around for HiFi dealers, the closest appear to be in Cardiff. I'm in Milford Haven, and I can't drive, so we're looking at a 3 hour train journey each way, at a cost of about £20 return. Do you know of any dealers closer to my location? Pembrokeshire, SW Wales.

Thanks for your patience with me guys, I really appreciate it. My ears are most likely no where near as educated as you guys, but gotta start somewhere :D
 
Wharfedale 9.1/9.2 with a Rotel amp (RA01/02, RA971 mk2) maybe?

I've got the RA02 and 9.1s and they sound lovely to me. Picked up the 9.1s for £129 delivered new from ebay and the RA02 was £150 used (but mint) from ebay. Then some atacama SE or Nexus stands maybe?

Think about where they're going before you pick your speakers. If you go with rear bass ported speakers they need to be a fair distance from the wall (30-40cm). Front bass ported are more flexible about positioning.
 
The speakers will be going on stands, but they won't be able to be placed 30-40cm from the wall, well, they might, but it'd be more convenient to place them a bit closer.

Amplifiers though, from what I've been reading so far
Used: Arcam 10
New: NAD 352CT

I am not set on these two, I am still waiting for comments from users on here and avforums.

To reiterate, I am looking for an amp/speaker pair that will get me an enjoyable, untiring setup. Although I should be training my ears to listening to uncoloured music really :) From the small amount of research I have done, I have found that the Arcam gives a slightly bright colour to the music, while the cyrus is more natural. I do want a setup which doesn't sound like the average tripe that you can get in your average hifi store. I'd like it to be pretty much how the composer wanted you to hear it (doesn't everyone?), but still be enjoyable. I like to turn up the bass sometimes, depending on mood, music type, and such.

(yes I did CnP some of that from AVF...:p)

Cheers all!
 
Sounds like you want front bass ports then. That rules out those Mission 780s. I was going to suggest the Quad 11L, but again they're rear ported.

Do you have a branch of sevenoaks or superfi near you? You really need to get along somewhere and have a good listen to some of the candidates. B&W DM601 and DM602 are worth a listen, as are the Wharfedales, Kef Qs and Monitor Audio B2s, Tannoys etc... I dunno if Mission do anything with front bass ports apart from the budget M30i/M70s. You don't want to be spending under £100 (new) on speakers if your total budget is £600. Mission are good if you like plenty of bass though.

If you're looking for a warm sound, best avoid those Rotel amps I mentioned, and the Mordaunt Short 902i's (aluminium cones).
 
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You can always put some foam in the ports to reduce bass boom if they must be closer to a wall. My mission m72s came with foam plugs for this. I'm sure a sock would do the job just as well.
 
I'll have a look if theres a sevenoaks near me later...the closest superfi is in cardiff :(

Whats the opposite of warm? (don't say cold). Would an Arcam 10 produce a warm sound?

I will look up some info about the speakers you mentioned, and will check if there is a branch of sevenoaks to pop into for a listen anywhere near here. If not, I might have to rely on other peoples opinions :(
 
My old speakers, Eltax Monitor 3s, have down firing bass ports, and as I've just upgraded to Wharfedale 9.1, my mum was going to have the Monitor 3s in her front room, but they would have to go up against a wall (like 5cm). So last week before my new speakers turned up, I experimented with putting the Monitor 3s closer to the wall, and the results were quite hideous. I had a thread about it on AV Forums -

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3045794#post3045794

As you can see even 2 pairs of very tightly inserted socks didn't bring the bass back down to anywhere near a normal level. 2 socks and the speakers 20 cm from the wall was just about ok, but not any closer.

I don't know a lot about speakers though, it may be that down firing bass ports are worse in this regard than rear ones, and I'm sure foam works much better than socks. Just thought it was worth considering.

What hi-fi point out the same thing if you take a look at the 'compatability' comments in this roundup and look at where the bass ports are -

http://www.monitoraudio.com/pdf/B2WHF206b.pdf
 
Didn't mean to sound like I was contradicting you there tom btw. If your M72s sound fine close to a wall with the bungs in then that's fair enough.
 
Don't worry about it, I was just making the point that rear ported speakers can be positioned closer to the wall if the bass ports are blocked. Some (like you) might find this inadequate and seek alternate speakers. Even front ported speakers are meant to be positioned away from the rear wall.
 
fish99 said:
My old speakers, Eltax Monitor 3s, have down firing bass ports, and as I've just upgraded to Wharfedale 9.1, my mum was going to have the Monitor 3s in her front room, but they would have to go up against a wall (like 5cm). So last week before my new speakers turned up, I experimented with putting the Monitor 3s closer to the wall, and the results were quite hideous. I had a thread about it on AV Forums -

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3045794#post3045794

As you can see even 2 pairs of very tightly inserted socks didn't bring the bass back down to anywhere near a normal level. 2 socks and the speakers 20 cm from the wall was just about ok, but not any closer.

I don't know a lot about speakers though, it may be that down firing bass ports are worse in this regard than rear ones, and I'm sure foam works much better than socks. Just thought it was worth considering.

What hi-fi point out the same thing if you take a look at the 'compatability' comments in this roundup and look at where the bass ports are -

http://www.monitoraudio.com/pdf/B2WHF206b.pdf
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You have to remember that the amount of sound energy radiating from something that approximates to a point source does so spherically, and that dissipation is a 1/4pi*r^2 relationship. Thats in free space. If you put a speaker up against an acoustically hard floor, it can now only radiate its energy over 2pi*r^2, so you get a lot more reinforcement. At an intersection of a wall and the floor, you get less and in a corner you are getting most of the energy radiating straight at you.

Of course in the real world this isnt quite perfect so you get reflections, cancellations and standing waves which usually mean huge LF nodes scattered around the room as you move the loudspeaker closer to the wall.
 
Looks like I need to dismiss all but front firing bass ports then!

That comparison chart certainly brings out the Wharfdale Diamonds and the Kef's :) I've not read into Monitor Audio gear yet, I know I should...

I'm still pretty lost within the jungle that is Hifi gear!

Would an Arcam 10 satisfy someone who is wanting to hear music as intended, sounding natural, while not being too bright, but still sounding enjoyable? I like to turn up the bass for some types of music too, as my tastes span many genres :) Same goes for the volume, I do like to whack that up (when the neighbors are out of course!) Should I be looking for a different Amp?

For speakers it seems to be Wharfedale, Kef, or MA, what do you all think? :)
 
Arcam have a nice rounded sound, tending to the warm side. Certainly would do the trick when you "want to turn the bass up" - not something I would personally choose to do under any circumstances but there we go :p They also tend to be able to deliver power to a certain extent, though under heavy loads on demanding speakers I have found that their power amps "ran out of puff" to my ears at least.

The newer Kefs dont have fantastic power handling, so depending on how much you want to crank things up and how often, they might not be for you. Maving said that, out of the 3 manufacturers listed, they are the sound I prefer. I havnt ever really thought much of Wharfedale as a whole, whey just feel / sound / look cheap and nasty.
 
I don't mean that I want to turn the bass up to the full, just adding a little bass to dance music etc. I can guess that with this sort of kit, I wouldn't need to enhance the bass much if at all to make music sound good...

Yeah DRZ I have read that the Arcam 10 has small heatsinks for its power output, which can trigger overload shutdowns when driving 4 ohm speakers loud. Is there anything else you think worthy of your recommendation? :)

The iQ3's have a sensitivity of 90db, so they shouldn't need to be turned up high to sound loud, right? I've only ever heard Kef speakers properly, and they did sound good, but they were Q1's, and older Q30's, both sounded very good to me, but I perhaps know no better, as I've never heard any of the kit your all recommending before.

I've always pictured Wharfedale as being cheap and nasty, but people here seem to rave over them, so I've been giving them some thought, though I'd prefer a set of iQ3's :)

If you feel that you could devote some time to talking to me about this stuff, could we use MSN or something?

Thanks :)
 
LadFromWales85 said:
If you feel that you could devote some time to talking to me about this stuff, could we use MSN or something?

Thanks :)
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Sure, go ahead :)
 
You probably won't need to turn the bass up. Dunno what sort of hi-fi gear you've used in the past, but generally speaking if there's lots of bass in the music, hi-fi speakers (including bookshelf speakers) will reproduce it.

I think the 9.1s look (with the covers on) and sound nice, and they do get decent reviews. Certainly worth the £129 I paid for them. I've seen the Quad 11L for £279 if you fancy those, they do look classy. The review I read said they're bass shy, but also said putting them closer to a wall (20cm) helps make up for that. There's the 12L but you might not be able to get those and an amp good enough to drive them for £600. The Quads aren't shielded btw if that's important to you.
 
I think Quad speakers are an aquired taste. I personally dont rate them, but then I do like my warmth, which is something that they dont really do :p More or less the same story with ProAcs :)
 
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