I beg to differ. Anybody, and I do mean
anybody; anybody spending time to make sure their money is spent wisely on audio is most definitely
is an audiophile. That's the very definition of the word.
What you really meant was that you're not obsessive about it, and that's fine; lots of audiophiles aren't obsessive about sound either. What they (we) love is music and we want it to sound the best without spending a fortune.
The Yam amp is good. The Sony turntable... it's debatable.
If you particularly need the ability to rip vinyl to hi-res audio files and want your TT to come with USB output and a bit of software to make that happen then this is probably the turntable for you.
My personal view is that a TT has just one job to do, and that's to get as much information out of the groove as accurately as possible. That happens when the TT is well engineered (good bearings, stable motor, decent arm and cartridge), and within a £250 retail budget there's only so far that money can be spread before making some inevitable compromises. Guess what happens when you start siphoning off money to pay for built-in phono stages with analogue to digital converters and USB output?
The Yamaha AS301 has a built-in phono stage. You could buy a turntable where there's no money wasted on an internal phono pre-amp and use the Yamaha's instead. That opens up your choice for a TT where more money went in to the tonearm, bearings and motor. The Rega Planar 1 ticks all those boxes.
Alternatively, if you're just looking for any TT with a USB output, the Flexson Vinylplay is a better package. The tonearm and turntable is made by Rega and they know vinyl replay better than Sony. It sounds better than the Sony TT too and is £50 cheaper @ £199.
Speakers: Monitor Audio is always good value. The Bronze 2 are an evolution from the equally adept BX2 which were a favourite budget choice.
Like crinkleshoes though, I'd be in favour of looking second-hand for speakers. Speaker evolution is a gradual thing. There aren't huge leaps in performance every time a new model comes out. Well, not unless someone in the design department made some bad choices and the sound of the new model is drastically worse lol. That means the Bronze 2 aren't way ahead of the BX2.
Currently there's a pair of BX2 with stands for sale on Ebay for £200 in Bradford. They look in decent condition from the limited images in the post. The only minor points are that there's no info about speaker grilles (just ask if they're included) and the bi-wire links have been replaced with thick speaker wire which is a common tweak amongst the audio fraternity.
While looking on Ebay I came across a pair of BX5 floorstanders in black @ £250. These are also in Bradford. That might not be your colour but they caught my eye because they sound better than BX2s.
The 5's add a bass weight that 2's can't reproduce, and once you hear it then it's hard to go back. The other thing is that 5's take up no more space than 2's on stands. At retail, 5's were double the price (£500 vs £250) and so they sold in lower volumes. Of the Bronze/BX range they're the hidden gem.
As for your other questions, the Yamaha IR code-base is well known to Harmony so you shouldn't have an issue there. Adding a Connect is simply a case of connecting the Line Out from the Connect to a spare Line In on the Yamaha. It's not difficult.
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