Quality

[drak3]

Hello all,

I am new in the HI FI world, and I am looking for quality os opposed to loudaness (power).

I ve had loads of "amateur" speaker kits from the various brands (logitech, gigaworks etc.) and I am fed up I have to admit.

I ve been to a friend a while back and he had KEF + mclaren hardware and even though he played just an mp3 I was amased by the clarity of the tones. I heard stuff I could not hear back home with my average gigaworks speakers

I know I like KEF speakers since I was impressed and from what I read here they are well respected (maybe "best"). They are quite expensive however and I am not sure what I should be looking at for a pro (but entry) system.
I know 0 about amps or even if I need an amp (for now - maybe audio card?) as I plan to play my media through my media PC.

Finally, I assume the pro speakers and hardware use optical or some other sort of connection as opposed to the ancient "plug" I am used to?

Your comments and help is appreciated. Budget wise I am the person who will pay the little extra if it is value for money but will avoid paying the extra for the LATEST and overpriced kit.

 

[Grimley]

it would help if you gave us an idea of exactly what you want to spend.
Amplification - look for NAD.
S/H market for Hi-fi Newbies is always good.

 

[fini]

Do you have room for floorstanding speakers or will you need bookshelf speakers?

Could you give a ball-park figure for the kit - there's a massive massive difference in price from low to mid to high.

Would you consider second hand kit at all (hifi gear tends to last for decades, is usually well looked after and as such a lot more people opt for second hand kit than with other products)?

What do you need - just amp, CD and speakers? Do you need record deck, radio etc..

 

[drak3]

Do you have room for floorstanding speakers or will you need bookshelf speakers?

Could you give a ball-park figure for the kit - there's a massive massive difference in price from low to mid to high.

Would you consider second hand kit at all (hifi gear tends to last for decades, is usually well looked after and as such a lot more people opt for second hand kit than with other products)?

What do you need - just amp, CD and speakers? Do you need record deck, radio etc..

I have space for floorstanding.

hmm ... not more than 750quid for sure given my current finances.

depends on process to get S/H kit. Are they availabel at shops? Bay etc.?

I have all my media on a media PC (can I feed amp from this?). No radio, records etc. I guess is amp speakers, CD would be an extra.

 

[fini]

depends on process to get S/H kit. Are they availabel at shops? Bay etc.?

Shops sell ex-demo stuff at reasonable good prices and some do sell trade-ins. Second hand stuff is available off the bay though you'll get better prices from specialist trading places like the audiophilecandy freeads and hifiwigwam .

For £750 I'd be looking at spending:
£30 on leads
£360 on speakers
£360 on the amp

If you're feeding in sound from your computer then you'll need to have a sound-card that can output phonos (like the E-MU 0404) or you could go digital and then get a DAC (but of course that's then added expense. The computer wont give as good quality as a CD player unless you go out of it digitally into a DAC - though it'll still be pretty good as long as you use an audiophile type soundcard.

I'd recommend going second-hand and with second-hand most things tend to be a bargain. Have a look what's available at the moment and see if it suits the type of music you listen to. You should be able to pick up Rega R3 speakers for £275. As for the amp well I suppose as I suggested the R3's I should probably suggest the Rega Mira amp, which can be picked up second hand for around £300. That would see everything in around £600 for a great set-up - spend the rest on some music!