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Best advice is to start with the speakers and then build the rest of the system around the speakers. There's lots of good speakers around, I'd recommend starting with a few that I've found to be excellent:Daedalus Athena'sSerenity Super 7'sGeddes AbbeysAudiokinesis Dream MakersThe vast majority of audiophile speakers out there are quite overpriced, IMO. The 4 above are not. They are expensive, but worth every penny.
$25 is just the maximum budget for the above mentioned components and the speakers. Room treatments will have their own budget. But don't get me wrong. I by no means believe that the entire budget must be spent. And I'll certainly be perusing Audiogon for deals. But cost adds up quickly. I've got $5k+ in an adequate living room 2-channel setup, half of that in the monitors and sub. Going up from there, it's easy to spend that on a pre and amp and not be heading into esoterica land, or even approaching the border. Going bang-for-the-buck, internet direct, off the top of my head, with say, a pair of 3.7s, AVA FET Valve DAC, Pre, and 600R amp, and a pair of Salk-built Rhythmik subs would hit $17k, sans cabling. You could substitute the Salk HT3s for the Maggies for about the same money, without upgrades. Adds up fast, and Frank's gear is all engineering and zero bling. His Ultra DAC is the best piece of gear in my living room, followed by the ART Legato I feed it with, both of which I bought used, right here. I'm talking a no-holds-barred dedicated room in which I'll also be working with background music going for hours each day. But I'm a practical sort, so I set a ceiling and won't go beyond it, new or used, and I'm not necessarily a retail guy, so used is likely, at least with electronics. I'll probably DIY most of the room treatments, and my diffraction will be bookshelves that would drive any self-respecting librarian crazy with wanting to straighten the spines, spaced at intervals around the room. Yeah, I read a lot. And I'm a music lover first, then maybe a stereo freak. Audiophilia comes in last. Bling? Meh. Okay, I have a weakness for beautiful wood. But huge, detailed, nuanced, realistic sound with my favorite music is what this will be about, low or high volume. I'll definitely give the 1.7s a listen, as well as the Vanderssteen 5A (heard great things about them, but have never had a chance to meet them in person). Basically, I'm going into research mode, and appreciate the input of folks who have been down the trail ahead of me. And the shared interest, of course, in all its many forms.
Thanks everyone for the input. I can't make Axpona this year, but I'll be seeking out regional shows this summer, as well as visiting nearby cities to hit the shops. Like I said, lots of listening over the next year. I'm not in a hurry, and have lots of other things to do in the meantime. I appreciate the suggestions, if only because you all have brought some brands to my attention that I wasn't aware of. Be checking out a lot of manufacturer websites too. I can safely say that I'll always lean toward smaller companies who take great pride in their products, and show that through the products themselves and excellent customer support/service. This will influence my decisions in no small way.As far as speakers go, well I'm glad to hear that the longevity issue with Magnepans is a thing of the past. I may have the speaker choice right there, because I absolutely loved the lower-end models I heard, and can't wait to hear the 3.7 (there's a local dealer about 100 miles away.) I'll give the 20.7 a listen too, but I can't imagine having a room big enough to accommodate them. Or maybe where there's a will there's a way.
I cannot condone any system without a power conditioner. Personally the only one I'd consider using is my own, at this point; and custom made to assure it is optimal for the given system. So far I've found no matter how much you try and spend, a good power conditioner is what makes you actually listen, a lot. (and stop swapping gear so much)
This is such a general statement, a power conditioner is only necessary if you have noisy mains? I don’t have noisy mains, so I would not waste my money and even if I did I would look for other ways to eliminate the problem.
That is where I disagree. ENTIRELY. Even components in your stereo produce certain amount of noise that they can share among themselves. Even if I don't have a way to explain it, the results are something else. Frankly 99.99% of peoples idea of "noise" isn't very good; they're trying to remove what they can identify as audible noise, I am trying to make the music actually sound good. Well designed equipment doesn't let apparently audible noise through very easily, but all of it is subject to all noise affecting it. The difference is in level of fatigue, tonality, attack, decay, inner resolution, and what isn't yet definable by words. Being concerned with RF and stuff that resembles tape noise is an immature understanding of power conditioning. Saying you don't have noisy mains for me is like hearing that you should treat a fever with ice baths. It sounds good based on your conception of what is going on, but the complexity of it is beyond such simple conception, show by the truth of the improvement. In fact this parallels a lot of life where people want simple answers that fit their simple comfortable ideas of how anything should work. Personally I find the attempt to fit everything into human paradigm, as if we can mold the world to our simple understandings and never learn anything new, repugnant. It undermines the beautiful complexity and wonderment of everything, which we are able to appreciate over time with openness to understand in new ways. We should be ready to accept to be proven wrong on very fundamental ideas, because it will happen.