Source electronics are so good and so cheap these days they are almost disposable, so I don't know why anyone buys second hand. On a budget, I would look no further than Richer Sounds or a reliable UK-based company like IAG. My son had a TEAC amp from Richer fail and they got it repaired no problems at all.
TEAC, Onkyo and Yamaha mass produce high quality electronics with maximum economies of scale and hardly make any profit, so the consumer can't really lose.
Personally, I stream 80% of my music from Qobuz, I shudder what it would cost me to buy all the new recordings I listen to. I buy the occasional download, heavily discounted via Qobuz Sublime. My wife also uses Qobuz via Sonos, my kids are both on Spotify.
I would go for a good DSD DAC, transport (if you have a CD collection) and Aries Mini.
DAC/pre: TEAC UD-503 (£700) or Audiolab MDAC+ (£800) - I have the latter
Aries Mini: £375
Transport: Spoilt for choice under £200, try the Marantz CD5005 or the Tascam CD200, both of which have coax and optical outputs. I used the latter, until I stopped playing CDs completely.
Rip your CD collection with dbpoweramp, put on a USB hard drive and put into the Aries, then no need for a transport at all.
So £1,400 including cables and £20 per month for more music you can listen to in 100 lifetimes.
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Originally Posted by walpurgis
