Topic: What do you all use for home playback?

[Nick's Picks]

I think you can put something together for $500.
the integrated amp is a great suggestion.  Check out cambrige audio stuff.
speakers are the big one, and that will be a little harder.  There were some reviews in Stereophile last month on some rather inexpensive monitors that were under $300 new.  Do a little research, then find what you want used on audiogon.com

CD player...that will be almost impossible to squeeze in.

[Todd R]

I recently put together a playback system for my home office that is pretty good for just about that budget.  Including shipping it was $540 for the integrated amp, cd player, and speakers.  For interconnencts and speaker wire, I used what I already had lying around from upgrading my main playback system.  But you can do DIY canare starquad or CAT5 and get that done pretty cheaply.

Not necessarily saying this is exactly what you should get, but I'm very happy with it:

Cambridge Audio A500R integrated amp - $240 (closeout from audio-advisor.com)
Cambridge Audio CD4 cd player - $120 (ebay)
Monitor Audio Bronze 1 speakers - $180 (ebay)

I would definitely put Cambridge Audio and Monitor Audio on the list.  Very nice sounding stuff for the money.

A system like this is also very upgradable.  The MA bronze's have sweet highs and very nice detail and imaging.  As small bookshelves they don't go too low, but you could add in a nice sub when you've got more money.  The CA integrated amp sounds nice too, and has preamp outputs, so you could add in a separate amp as you got more money and use the A500 as a preamp.  Likewise, the CD4 sounds good on its own, but it has digital outs, so you could use it as a nice transport and get a good outboard DAC at some point.  So anyway, something else to think about--its nice to invest in a system that you can upgrade and grow around.

[scb]

my system is almost complete now!  the cd/dvd player finally came yesterday, even though it was supposed to be here TWO months ago.  so damon, i finally was able to listen to the dvd-audio discs you made for me.  thanks again for doing that!

and damn, studio dvd-a sounds ridiculous.  once the speakers come i may not leave the house for a few days...

[Lee]

I recently put together a playback system for my home office that is pretty good for just about that budget.  Including shipping it was $540 for the integrated amp, cd player, and speakers.  For interconnencts and speaker wire, I used what I already had lying around from upgrading my main playback system.  But you can do DIY canare starquad or CAT5 and get that done pretty cheaply.

Not necessarily saying this is exactly what you should get, but I'm very happy with it:

Cambridge Audio A500R integrated amp - $240 (closeout from audio-advisor.com)
Cambridge Audio CD4 cd player - $120 (ebay)
Monitor Audio Bronze 1 speakers - $180 (ebay)

I would definitely put Cambridge Audio and Monitor Audio on the list.  Very nice sounding stuff for the money.

A system like this is also very upgradable.  The MA bronze's have sweet highs and very nice detail and imaging.  As small bookshelves they don't go too low, but you could add in a nice sub when you've got more money.  The CA integrated amp sounds nice too, and has preamp outputs, so you could add in a separate amp as you got more money and use the A500 as a preamp.  Likewise, the CD4 sounds good on its own, but it has digital outs, so you could use it as a nice transport and get a good outboard DAC at some point.  So anyway, something else to think about--its nice to invest in a system that you can upgrade and grow around.

I demo-ed some of the Monitor Audio Silver line the other day- very smooth with defined highs (without being brittle).  Definately a great speaker- the floorstanding models are great even without a sub, but the bookshelfs definately need one.  I listened to the bookshelf model (S2 I believe) with and without a few different subs, and they sound great with a ML grotto FWIW.

Although I got a deal on some Paradigms that was too good to pass up, so I went that route...

[Tim]

congrats Lee!

what Paradigm's? I have a friend and fellow taper who has a nice 5.1/stereo Paradigm setup, Anthem pre, amp and 5.1 decoder. Nice stuff!

[Lee]

Studio Reference 20v3

should be here on Tuesday- now if I can just get my cat5 braided before then