Newbies- Complete high end systems for under 8k . .

bummrush · « **Reply #20 on:** 12 Oct 2012, 04:01 pm »

I'm at 2500 give or take.All used and b stock. 8000 is a nice price Far far from a decent price to spend, but if that's your starting point cool. For speakers at read world price I'd try Atlantic Technology. I have Clements speakers that are 15,, 17 yrs old by Phil Clements and I can only imagine how good his new speakers are.

TomS · « **Reply #21 on:** 13 Oct 2012, 02:20 am »

I heard the Odyssey system at RMAF for $5900 NEW (Candela, Stratos, Kismet monitors) and would definitely put it on an $8k system list. Add the GIK room treatments that were on hand and a decent source and you're well under the target. I heard many other way more expensive systems today that this one would just kill. Great job by Klaus, Alex, and Bryan Pape, even on day 1

Austin08 · « **Reply #22 on:** 13 Oct 2012, 04:40 am »

$8000 is a lot for a newbie system. Yes, you can find a really good system for that kind of budget but if it was me, I would start building a good low budget around $3000 then taking my time to swap around electronic and learning from it. One importance thing is it is easier to build your system around your ”perfect” choice of speaker than the other way around, IMO.

jimdgoulding · « **Reply #23 on:** 18 Oct 2012, 07:41 pm »

Another speaker contender could be the new Sonus Faber Venere 2.5 which Robert Harley is reporting about in TAS online at RMAF and cost $2,500.00. Neil Gader will soon be reviewing the 1.5 two way stand mounted version (price was not stated). According to Harley, NG is "extremely enthusiatic" about it. Harley is, too, about the 2.5. Now isn't this what you want to see? A major speaker building company starting to put its expertise in a downstream product? And what Ozark Tom said. Isn't Salk factory direct, too, and aren't there others? Happy trails.

jcm2128 · « **Reply #24 on:** 20 Oct 2012, 02:26 am »

Try Ascend Sierra Towers with RAAL tweeter for just under 3k. They have a number of good finish options as well.

jaxwired · « **Reply #25 on:** 5 Nov 2012, 03:56 am »

Ok, $8k right.

Benchmark DAC2 HGC $2k
Belles 150a Reference V2 $2400
Dynaudio Contour S1.4 $3500
Apple AirPort Express $100
Apple iTunes $0

$8k exactly. Full retail prices. Killer system.

Ericus Rex · « **Reply #26 on:** 5 Nov 2012, 02:03 pm »

How's 'bout some tooobs?

Rogue Audio Tempest III integrated - $3k
Marantz SA-8004 SACD with digital input - $1k
That leaves you $4k to buy any pair of the hundreds of speakers available for that price range. Personally, I'd see if I can find some Reference 3A Grand Veenas, Meadowlark Nighthawks or Heron-i, Reynaud Emerauds or Concorde Signatures (good luck for $4k) or some Vandersteens for that price range...all used. I'm too out of the loop to recommend something new in that price range. Haven't shopped for speakers in quite a while.

wisnon · « **Reply #27 on:** 5 Nov 2012, 02:34 pm »

Quote from: jimdgoulding on 18 Oct 2012, 07:41 pm

Another speaker contender could be the new Sonus Faber Venere 2.5 which Robert Harley is reporting about in TAS online at RMAF and cost $2,500.00. Neil Gader will soon be reviewing the 1.5 two way stand mounted version (price was not stated). According to Harley, NG is "extremely enthusiatic" about it. Harley is, too, about the 2.5. Now isn't this what you want to see? A major speaker building company starting to put its expertise in a downstream product? And what Ozark Tom said. Isn't Salk factory direct, too, and aren't there others? Happy trails.

Speakers? You've got the Heil AMT Aulos bookshelf with subwoofer stand for about $4K, the Tekton Pendragon-SE for about $3K and the Lore-S for about $1500. The Vapor Jules Black was about $4K and gets great accolades. I heard great things about the Shelby+Kroll monitors plus S/woofer. The small Kef LS50 is making waves and costs just $1500, so you can add a couple fast subwoofers from TBI or the like and still be in the $4K range.

The Tektons are 93db or more. The Heil is 89db, not sure of the rest.

I do agree that the Viennas are great and the finish is immaculate.

TheChairGuy · « **Reply #28 on:** 5 Nov 2012, 02:44 pm »

Quote from: OzarkTom on 11 Oct 2012, 10:32 am

Since Anthony Gallo has gone factory direct only, you can buy the Classico IV's for $2500, the TBI Millenia amp is $500, and the great tube AMR Dac is $5000. That totals $8000.

But I could live with the Eximus Dac, $3K, to save $2000 and I hear great things about the $1695 Mytek Dac to save more.

So for less than $5000, the Classico IV's, TBI, and Mytek will be a very hard to beat combo at even spending $8K.

Wow - didn't know Gallo went factory direct. With diminished physical dealer network out there, it make sense for a well known brand name such as his to do so,

No crossovers and that brilliant CDT2 tweeter makes $2500 very appealling. My old (tweeked) Lineaums have dusted many a pricier speaker contender over the years...the Gallo Classico is the nearest update to them today in the market.

Thanks for that info....John

Ericus Rex · « **Reply #29 on:** 5 Nov 2012, 03:18 pm »

Looks like Gallo is only 1/2 direct. The Reference line is still dealer only. That Classico line (looks like Thiel to me) is factory direct only.

mark funk · « **Reply #30 on:** 5 Nov 2012, 03:39 pm »

Hows about this?

AVA Vision preamp/DAC 1,600

AVA Synergy 450 amp (225 watts) 2,000 or an UltraValve 2,000

Salk Sond Towers 2,000

Some CD or DVD player for transport 100?

With a little left over for some tunes.

roscoeiii · « **Reply #31 on:** 5 Nov 2012, 03:56 pm »

For a DAC, and to take care of some room issues, I'd recommend a DSPeaker Dual Core 2.0.

Just got one, and in limited listening its A/D/A conversion compared to an all analog chain was very transparent. No weaknesses jumped out at me (and they may well reveal themselves after further listening). This was without DSP employed, just a test of A/D/A. Then the DSP was applied from 20-500Hz, and wow what a difference. Not only a flattened bass response, but also really improves the decay of the bass. Very very impressive.

So $1100 for the DSPeaker, $500 for a Mac Mini or CD transport, $1200 for a VPI Traveller (if you want to go vinyl too), and you have $5200 left over for an integrated and speakers (which would need to be well suited to each other and the speakers will very much be a matter of personal preference and fit for your space).

wisnon · « **Reply #32 on:** 5 Nov 2012, 04:32 pm »

Quote from: roscoeiii on 5 Nov 2012, 03:56 pm

For a DAC, and to take care of some room issues, I'd recommend a DSPeaker Dual Core 2.0.

Just got one, and in limited listening its A/D/A conversion compared to an all analog chain was very transparent. No weaknesses jumped out at me (and they may well reveal themselves after further listening). This was without DSP employed, just a test of A/D/A. Then the DSP was applied from 20-500Hz, and wow what a difference. Not only a flattened bass response, but also really improves the decay of the bass. Very very impressive.

So $1100 for the DSPeaker, $500 for a Mac Mini or CD transport, $1200 for a VPI Traveller (if you want to go vinyl too), and you have $5200 left over for an integrated and speakers (which would need to be well suited to each other and the speakers will very much be a matter of personal preference and fit for your space).

Did you set the correction to 500hz (auto correction is set to 150hz as default, but can be overridden)? If so do it again to only 250hz and see if this does not improve further!

The Dac upsamples all to 40bit/6.1mhz and it has an analog preamp built in! You just need poweramps.
Its a great device.

roscoeiii · « **Reply #33 on:** 5 Nov 2012, 04:57 pm »

Yes, I should have mentioned that it can be used as a preamp! Though I tend to not be a fan of DACs with built-in preamps (even if it is in the analog domain that volume control is occurring). If we are talking $8k total, I'd try out an integrated or a pre-amp power amp combo...

That said, I have yet to compare it direct, vs running through my preamp. I will add it to the to-do list.

I have run the DSP to 500Hz, and to the Typical setting's tope frequency (150Hz, IIRC).

Why do you think that 250Hz would be preferable?

Sorry to others for going OT, maybe we could continue this where other DSPEaker folks are more likely to read about these thoughts, on that thread...

srb · « **Reply #34 on:** 6 Nov 2012, 05:41 pm »

I went a bit over to include cables - $8150

Dell Latitude 10 Tablet w/docking station stand - $750
Western Digital My Passport 1TB external hard drive - $100
J. River Media Center 18 - $50

Benchmark DAC2 HGC - $1995

Van Alstine Synergy 300 amplifier - $1500

Salk Supercharged SongTowers - $3500

Interconnects: 1 pair - 3 ft. Furez FZ162AA with locking RCA plugs - $40
USB Cable: 1 - 1m Pangea USB-PC - $30
Speaker Cable: 1 pair - 5 ft. Canare 4S11 terminated with Multi-Contact LS4 bananas- $85
Power Cables: 2 - 5 ft. Asylum Belden 19364 terminated with Seymour 5266-X plug and Schurter 4300.0603 IEC - $100

Steve

martyo · « **Reply #35 on:** 6 Nov 2012, 06:26 pm »

Quote from: srb on 6 Nov 2012, 05:41 pm

I went a bit over to include cables - $8150

Dell Latitude 10 Tablet w/docking station stand - $750
Western Digital My Passport 1TB external hard drive - $100
J. River Media Center 18 - $50

Benchmark DAC2 HGC - $1995

Van Alstine Synergy 300 amplifier - $1500

Salk Supercharged SongTowers - $3500

Interconnects: 1 pair - 3 ft. Furez FZ162AA with locking RCA plugs - $40
USB Cable: 1 - 1m Pangea USB-PC - $30
Speaker Cable: 1 pair - 5 ft. Canare 4S11 terminated with Multi-Contact LS4 bananas- $85
Power Cables: 2 - 5 ft. Asylum Belden 19364 terminated with Seymour 5266-X plug and Schurter 4300.0603 IEC - $100

Steve

That's pretty nice Steve. All new too.

geowak · « **Reply #36 on:** 6 Nov 2012, 06:38 pm »

This is an interesting topic, but to me a little silly IMHO.

I guess if one were to list a system that one owns or one actually pieced together and heard it would be very relevant. But 8K is not chump change and throwing together a piece here and there, heard it was good, read a good mag review of it.... is really just fun, not serious.

I for one only buy what I can listen to and also SYSTEMS do have synergy or not. If someone offered me an opinion on a piece of gear and I was motivated enough, I would go have a listen. That would be hard to do with systems listed that were thrown together...

doug s. · « **Reply #37 on:** 6 Nov 2012, 08:24 pm »

good point geowak.

modded melos ma333r preamp - $2k (retail $6k)
piega p5 mkll ltd speakers - $1500 (retail $9.4k)
homebrew hypex ucd180 amp - $400 (retail?)
pair of vmps larger subs w/upgraded drivers - $1200 (retail $1200)
deqx 2.6 pdc active x-over - $1500 (retail $4k)
pair of electrocompaniet awb75dmb amps - $1300 (retail $5k)
modded art di/o dac - $250 (retail?)
audio alchemy transport - $250 (retail $1300)
hotrodded oracle delphi w/o-l silver taper arm & ortofon mc25-fl cartridge - $2k retail ($6k?)
pentagon ps3 fono stage - $600 (retail $2500)
stromberg-carlson sr443 refurb'd vintage fm tuner - $50 (retail?)
studio-12 fm mpx decoder - $150 (retail $150)
eva-2 ldr remote - $300 (retail $300)

this is what i am listening to now. oops - at $11,500, i am a bit over the budget; sorry!

how to save $3500 (or more)?

replace ma333r w/sha-gold-r - $1k
replace ec sub amps w/a pro-audio amp - $1k
replace deqx w/behringer - $1200
replace pentagon p/s with aragon or acurus p/s - $300
replace oracle w/empire set-up - $1500

do all that, and you are down to $6500. (i have also used a $150 rawson gainclone instead of the hypex ucd180 - works great in this system.)

there are so many ways to get a great system for $8k, especially if you want to shop used...

realize that this present system was not simply thrown together, it has morphed over the years. and i have tube amps and different speakers that could change the equation. and likely will, when i move in a year. but, this will likely be the set-up until the next move. except for the fm front end which gets switched out about every month or two...

ymmv,

doug s.

JerryLove · « **Reply #38 on:** 7 Nov 2012, 12:38 am »

If it were me:

Used HT3's @$6k http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=105402.0

If they have their SNR under control (the jury is out?) then an Emo XPA2 http://shop.emotiva.com/collections/amplifiers/products/xpa2
If not: there are any number of satisfactory amps around $1k (http://www.adcom-usa.com/gfa-565se-2)

That leaves a $1k for an AVR as a preamp, a player (Sony has an excellent BD player that will open up streaming, BD-A, DVD-A, and CDs (sadly: they don't support SACD)).

rjl276 · « **Reply #39 on:** 18 Nov 2012, 07:59 am »

A little old post, but very apropos.

It is easy to pick a "good enough" or even a "great sounding" system after years of trial and error. But what we often forget is all the "tuition" we paid to get there. Besides, the journey was half the fun of the whole enterprise

If I were to start today, 12 and half systems later, I could do it for about 5K (good electrostats, good class D amp, acoustic treatments, nice furniture, DAC) but half those things were not available back in the day. And even back in 1980, good sound was not cheap. I recall a good system being about 3K in 1980 dollars which is, surprise, surprise, about $8,400 today! Le plus ca change, le plus ce la meme chose (the more things change, the more they remain the same).

Try this handy inflation calculator: http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm