Advise on A First System

[Will1]

Hi,

This is my first post so firstly hello.
I am looking for advice on building a first system on a budget of £800 - £1000 and any advice would be really useful.

I need a DAC, cabling, a amp and speakers. Any suggestions would be much appreciated? The system will be played off a Computer and the DAC needs a USB option. I was considering either a Beresford tc-7D20 or a V-dac def favoring the Beresford having talked to Stanley today.
The Amp and the speakers, I really do not know.

The system will be for a small room, musically I would like the system to sound 'fun.' I know this is a terrible ambigious phrase but it is the best I could come up with, mainly I mean exact accuracy is not the key I looking for.
I listen to rock/pop, indie rock, classical, jazz, and acoustic music. I really dont care about bass or the abilty for good sound at anything above a 'normal' listening volume. The system would also ideally be easy too set up. Finally, as well as buying new I am also considering buying second hand, thinking that then I would be able to trial and resell equipment would this be advisable? If so where is a good place to look for second hand gear? Any dealers offering to sell or people thinking of selling second hand also please message.

Thanks in advance,

Will[]

[Rare Bird]

Hi Will

Firstly welcome, can i just say you don't have to limit yourself to USB DAC even though you may only have USB .

[John]

I think my advice would be to hear a few systems before you commit I think dealing with a good dealer, going down the second hand route you could pick up a very good system but I still think a dealer would be better at this stage. Take your time with this make sure you get a system that suits your needs
I hope a few others will be along to give you a few ideas for a system

[DSJR]

The odd pair of used AVI ADM9's come up from time to time for £750 or so. These have a good performance, they're actively driven and have a world class dac and preamp contained within. There are one or two other similar opions available from pro music shops too and in terms of "new" product with a computer as source, this may well become the future of newly purchased audio in future years..

Obviously, the above suggestion can take the "fun" out of choosing gear as it's all done for you (extremely well I should add), so in that case, you should get the Beresford (as the man himself is a regular poster here and always willing to help), together with, IMO, either a Cambridge integrated amp as a solidly designed product with a stable spec or, look out for a WD valve amp, available either in kit form, or ready built (decently made ones come up for around £300 or so).

As for speakers for the above, new for £200 are things like the Monitor Audio BR2 and the smaller B&W 680 series (a bit coloured but tweakable I think), although £200 will buy you some really good vintage speakers with better performance like KEF 104ab's, Corelli's, Concerto, Cadenza and some undiscovered Tannoys (Mercury 2, Venus and some DC models still).

Hope the above doesn't confuse you too much...


Seriously, the performance of smaller active monitors (look on Dolphin Music's site) can be so good now, I really do believe the future of low-cost audio is here, rather than with cobbled together boxes of dubious performance and worse appearance. For £800, a very much "fun" system can be got with carefully chosen used gear - and that's what we're here for.......

[Spectral Morn]

Hi,

This is my first post so firstly hello.
I am looking for advice on building a first system on a budget of £800 - £1000 and any advice would be really useful.

I need a DAC, cabling, a amp and speakers. Any suggestions would be much appreciated? The system will be played off a Computer and the DAC needs a USB option. I was considering either a Beresford tc-7D20 or a V-dac def favoring the Beresford having talked to Stanley today.
The Amp and the speakers, I really do not know.

The system will be for a small room, musically I would like the system to sound 'fun.' I know this is a terrible ambigious phrase but it is the best I could come up with, mainly I mean exact accuracy is not the key I looking for.
I listen to rock/pop, indie rock, classical, jazz, and acoustic music. I really dont care about bass or the abilty for good sound at anything above a 'normal' listening volume. The system would also ideally be easy too set up. Finally, as well as buying new I am also considering buying second hand, thinking that then I would be able to trial and resell equipment would this be advisable? If so where is a good place to look for second hand gear? Any dealers offering to sell or people thinking of selling second hand also please message.

Thanks in advance,

Will[]

Hi Will

Welcome to AoS.

Regards D S D L

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Hi will
welcome
an option that isn't quite as much of a gamble as buying second hand based on random bits of advice is pop down your local ritcher sounds, they have a clearance section of ex display and stuff with tatty boxes, I'm fairly certain that way you could have a listen to complete systems and get a good deal...
Not that the random bits of advice from a place like this would be bad... In fact you have chosen quite a good forum to ask such a question, in as much as there is a lot of experienced people here who actually use their ears ... But like John said if you go to a dealer you get to listen before you commit to anything...
http://www.richersounds.com/clearance
going to various dealer might help you decide what you like more too if you do decide the second hand route is for you
a little bit of random advice from me - I recently bought some s/h usher s520 speakers for £160.. They might be worth looking at as I think they sound "fun"... They certainly do in my system!

Oh and don't read what hifi, they are often biased by the wrong things

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Oh and out your budget £100 would be likely to be needed for cables and for that I would highly recommend "mark grant cables" mark is another follow member here, a nice chap and his cables are very good value as he, like stan is an imdependant manufacturer so you are only paying for his beer, not matey in the shops beer and matey at supplyers beers and lots of matey's in vans beer

[Will1]

Firstly thanks very much too all the responders the advice is all useful. Hamish I had been using what Hifi as a bit of a guideline so its good to know to take its advice with a pinch/handful of salt. I am heading to Manchester later this week so I will have a look in Richer Sound. An advance look on there website shows they have some good clearance book shelf speakers and amps. These two stood out. Speakers: KEF IQ3 and amp: Cambridge Audio AZUR 640A V2 > any thoughts on these two anyone?

Although advice on the AVI ADM9's is what I would really like. I was not even aware that dac and amp integrated speakers even existed. What other similar products to these exist? Space is actually limited and I will certainly be moving a few times this year so the portability would be really useful. Where should I look to get some AVI ADM9's second hand?

Thanks again,
Will

[DSJR]

ebay sometimes have them and 5 ways Hifi are a good midlands dealer to ask also.

For portability with a little bit to play with, get a Caiman DAC, look at the apparently very popular Yamaha and possibly Quad active monitors at around £600pr and I can get advice on a cheapo way of controling volume. There may be dac's out there with good quality and not too expensive that can drive the active speakers directly. Again, Dolphin Music will be able to advise...


The point I'm very clumsily making is that HiFi shops haven't cottoned on to the fact that for many people "on the move," a separates system just isn't always feasible. OK for when you're settled and there's some money in the bank, but not to start with. Some of these little "pro" active jobbies are made in the far east for not much dosh and "some" of them are superb by all accounts, being properly balanced and not at all fatiguing to listen to for long periods. The Quad 11L active is based on a very successful passive design and having active crossovers and directly coupled amps in each should tighten up the sound somewhat. They're also reasonably good looking. I'm told the Yamaha actives are extremely popular for near field monitoring and may be just what you need for now.

The HDD forum should be able to help (forget the AVI bias and associated threads, there's much good for you to learn there) and Sound-On-Sound magazine has good reviews, including many online ones of speakers such as you might need...

[DSJR]

Look at the "Budget Active Speaker thread on here too..."

I'm told the BM-C2 DAC-controller might be just what you're looking for betwixt laptop and active speakers...... You may need an M-Audio transit or similar to give a digital signal to the controller..