How much to spend on amp/speakers to go with a Touch and Caiman?

[DevaFever]

Hi all.

Earlier in the year following advice to me on this forum I bought a Squeezebox Touch to pair with a Beresford Caiman.

I bought it to run without a computer by running a hard drive of lossless files into the Touch via USB. However, the Squeezebox Touch had other ideas and kept cutting songs short. So I have had to set it up to run wirelessly instead and now it works fine and the sound quality is noticably better with the Touch working in this way. I am even happier this week now that I have discovered the Touch can turn my computer on automatically without my having to go upstairs and do it myself.

Anyway, onto my question. With the Touch and the Caiman now set up and working fine, the limit on my sound quality has become my ageing amp and speakers (Nad c352 and Mordaunt Short 25i - both only about £250 each when new). So I sense there are probably big improvements to be had by upgrading them.

My question is how much money could I spend on an amp and speakers before they get too good for my Touch/Caiman?

When I first bought my hifi many years ago I had a vague rule of thumb that my budget should be split evenly between a similarly priced cd player, amp and speakers with some extra on cables.

However, I have no such rule of thumb as to what might be an appropiate budget for an amp and speakers to match a Touch/Caiman. I have read people saying such a combination is similar to a very high quality cd player which would suggest quite a lot could be spent on an amp/ speakers to match.

Any views? Is the sky the limit? or is there a price point for an amp/speakers at which you would want a more expensive transport or DAC to match it?

Richard.

[Ali Tait]

I'd go for the best you can afford. The Touch and Caiman is a very good combo,especially if you do the passive mod.

[John]

Tell us more about your room and what you wish to achieve; as Ali says you could go quite far this way but it does not have to be crazy money
Do you want standmounts floorstanders are you willing to try horns and open baffles (great even with very basic DIY skills)

[magiccarpetride]

My question is how much money could I spend on an amp and speakers before they get too good for my Touch/Caiman?

In my experience (I have both Touch and Caiman) it would be extremely challenging to get to the point where your interconnects/amp/speakers are too good for the Touch/Caiman combo. I have fairly high end amp and speakers, and Touch and Caiman are feeding them a healthy hearty diet of high quality signal beautifully. Especially if you can obtain some high definition music, sky will be the limit.

[DevaFever]

They would be going in my lounge which is 5m x 4m with my speakers either side of my centrally placed tv and hifi at one end and my chair nicely in the centre towards the back of the room

However, the house is only rented so I will probably be moving again within a year or two so I won't necessarily make a decision just based on my current house.

My plan would however be that the hifi would always go in the lounge so in terms of requirements, I would need the speakers to look vaguely respectable for a lounge and am looking for something to play well at low to medium volumes rather than shake the house loud.

You have lost me a bit with talk of horns and open baffles. However, I am intrigued to know more.

[Ali Tait]

Well the thing is,you can have something you make yourself that will sound far better than spending the equivalent on something commercial. Depends if you like making things. Open Baffles and Horns are types of speakers-google for lots of info.What type of amp are you after,valve or SS?

[Mark Grant]

Whats the budget ?

Maybe look for something high quality second hand.

[DevaFever]

Thanks for the replies.

I guess I had been assuming commercial rather than self made as I am not generally much of a DIY person and I haven't modded anything electrical in the past. However, I am always keen to learn stuff so I might be prepared to do something along these lines but it would have to be fairly straightforward.

In terms of budget, I am not too sure. It's partly why I asked the question. In the past I kind of assumed the next upgrade up from a seperates system where each component costs £250 would be one where each component costs £400-500. However, now I have the touch/caiman it occurred to me I could actually pay way more than this if I wanted to now that I am no longer limited by the quality of a cd player.

In reality I doubt I would go above £1,000 each for an amp and speakers and more likely would be looking at about £750 each which should give a fair improvement over my current system. However, it is nice to know I could potentially get really high end gear with the Touch/Caiman if I felt sufficiently flush with money.

Richard

[Spur07]

Thanks for the replies.

I guess I had been assuming commercial rather than self made as I am not generally much of a DIY person and I haven't modded anything electrical in the past. However, I am always keen to learn stuff so I might be prepared to do something along these lines but it would have to be fairly straightforward.

In terms of budget, I am not too sure. It's partly why I asked the question. In the past I kind of assumed the next upgrade up from a seperates system where each component costs £250 would be one where each component costs £400-500. However, now I have the touch/caiman it occurred to me I could actually pay way more than this if I wanted to now that I am no longer limited by the quality of a cd player.

In reality I doubt I would go above £1,000 each for an amp and speakers and more likely would be looking at about £750 each which should give a fair improvement over my current system. However, it is nice to know I could potentially get really high end gear with the Touch/Caiman if I felt sufficiently flush with money.

Richard

If you're not going down the DIY route you still don't have to spend mega-bucks to get decent speakers if you buy second hand. For a small/mid size floorstander think Royd, Rega or Ruark. You could bag any of these for £200 on fleabay and they'll compete with, even spank, many modern speakers over 1-2K.