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If you want your system to sound 'fun' and if you don't take the active route,
then I would suggest Dali, Dynaudio or Focal speakers instead of the Kef. ;)
In my opinion, you should build your system around the speakers : go and listen to a few of them (if you haven't already), chose the ones you like, then it will be easy to find correct amplifier and source. :)
a caiman and a pair of dynaudio bm5a speakers (which i have liked when i heard them) would be within budget at new prices, and would be very "portable"
Check out "Greenhome Electronics" The owner posts here and has a lot of kit at good prices.Worth a look.
The Beresford Caiman has both fixed and variable outputs so is quite capable of driving active monitors.
There are some excellent active monitors in the pro-audio arena at very keen prices. I referenced a few in the 'Budget Active Speaker' thread. Don't be put of by the fact that they have balanced inputs. All you need is a pair of RCA to XLR adaptors and you're good to go. This is certainly a simpler route than messing about with a full size separates amplifier. You get a lot of performance for your money.
The Cambridge Audio and KEF units you mention above would also be fine. Frankly, at this price point you have a huge choice of amps and speakers and there are not many bad ones.
Hello there folks.
I thought I would just send a update now I have bought my gear. I followed the advice given here and it really helped. I went a listened to some monitors but found the sound was just to flat. I played around with various other brands and found like Themis suggested that Kef were more accurate driven and did not really suit my tastes. Eventually I gave up on the portability idea and decided sound quality was my number one criteria.
I Have bought
Dac - V-dac (£144)
Amp - store bought but second hand Roksan Caspian (£300)
Speakers - Monitor Audio RS8 (500)
My only really issue is the DAC the V-dac seems good its just it annoys me a little I did not go for the Beresford Caiman. I am going to buy one this week and see if it offers a noticeable improvement, I spoke to the shop I bought the V-Dac from (action gate audio) they said if I wanted to change they'd refund me the money!
My other wonder was how necessary is it too terminate cable (i bought QED silver anniversary) I did not bother with airlocks but did not want to use bare cable just for easy of moving around so I put some cheap brass plugs on - will this have any serious impact on sound quality?
Finally I am going to buy some okay USB cable not sure if it will make a massive amount of difference but there was some down from 35 to 10 in Superfi the other day so its not exactly a huge gamble if it does nothing.
Finally, although I no expert if anyone is browsing this thread considering buying gear for the first time. My one massive piece of advice is go out and listen to speakers and amps yourself! Browsing the internet magazines you will find hundreds of opinions go out try speakers work out what is it you want and how you like your music too sound. Then come to a decent forum where you ask for some advice.
Thanks for all the help,
Will
Couple of pointers based on your choices - that qed stuff can easily be beaten I found it vieled my old system, but a lot say it can make bright treble (I think) so if that problem comes up, it might be worth looking toward the cable for a solution.
Secondly, be carfull with positioning them rs8's, I hav installed a good few pairs of them and somtimes if you arnt careful that powerful bass they do can overwhelm
Also based on the v-dac being warmish I would have thought the caiman would also be more suitable with the rs8's
Hi Will
Do me a favour - DO NOT BUY A USB LEAD FROM AN AUDIO RETAILER. They are ripping you off at £10, never mind £35. Just get a USB2.0 spec cable from any computer seller. Here is a good place to look and get an idea http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Se...rewire-Cables/ .
Chris:)
Wow, Hamish you seriously know your stuff. I forgot to add thanks to you before for pointing me towards monitor audio. In terms of treble I have found it can go a bit ott but nothing serious I demod the speakers with a Marantz Pm6003 and then it was more of a problem (using the QED cable as well.) The only reason I went for the QED was because it was the only real choice in the shop and I as I was getting it thrown in at better than half price it seemed a good idea (and to be honest as I able was the last thing to buy I really wanted to get going trying it out!). I have two 8 metre leads at the moment so would not replace them quite yet. However I plan on getting two two metre leads, I'll think I will buy the cable from Mark Grant? you recommend last time.
As for the Bass its not been a massive problem but I have still noticed it can dominate a little, still playing around with the placement (I only set everything up last night and tonight been the first time I have really listen. So'll take it account.
Stratmangler - Noted - I did expect that I would be able to get much cheaper cable from a computer supplier. I just could not work out wht cable would be okay so I had settled on slightly over paying at a HIFI shop. I was thinking of getting this then: http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Pr...-2-0-Certified
Did I recomend monitor audio? ... Anyway, no probs, Its just a coicidence that I happen to know about most of your kit in fairlness as we sell monitor audio, the vdac, and qed cables... I also have a caiman :) (you didn't get you kit from a branch of sight2sound did you)
did you have a listen to the rs6's? I prefer them slighly, but a £500 the rs8's are a lot of speaker for the money. We did have one customer that had a pair of rs8's that didn't work for him because of heavy bass, I went out there and with a bit of tweaking we got them sounding just as he liked them ... I have a feeling we just moved them out of corners of the room, but I can't remember for sure. He had bought them based on a slightly unrealistic demo where they had been placed basically in the middle of the room (not by me of course :) )