How cheap can audio get and still sound good? Most of the mags would have us believe we need to spend at least 100K for our systems to be good, well it just ain't so.
Danny came by my house this morning and left a pair of his N1 speakers built in Parts Express Boxes, so that's approx $500.00. I hooked them up with 18ga lamp cord, free almost. Drove them with a Virtue model 1 amplifier, also from Danny, $269.00. Hooked the amp to my dac with freebe interconnects. The Dac is the new Cambridge DacMagic, $400.00. Music is being feed to the dac via monster optical cable $30.00 from my Apple Macbook laptop. I won't factor in the cost of the macbook as you could use a cheaper source. Now that's a total of only $1300.00 plus a source. Oh and the speaker stands are home made cheap.
So how good is it you ask? Its unbelievable good. I was startled when I first fired it up by the dynamics and clarity of this cheap little system. I'm serious guys and gals, this system is real high end hifi on the cheap. If you have not heard the N1's you have no idea what you are missing. Oh and another plus, my wife said the N1's look nice !!!!!!!!!!
Update:
I have a pair of Linkwitz Orion's that I built back in 04-05. I have felt they were the greatest thing ever. Well this evening I have been listening to Danny's N1X speakers for a couple of hours and then switched back to my Orion's. Yes the Orion has some things I like better, but then again the N1X does some things I like better than the Orion. Now that's a sick feeling to think a $329.00 kit can match or better my $3000 dollars plus cabinet investment in the Orion's. Danny has been kind enough to come by my house and help with tweeking my Orion X-over settings to get a better balance from the Orion's. Now if I could just get him to loan me one of each of his speakers so I can compare them all!!!!!!!!!!
