Topic: TSKB: budget stereo in a small room

[marc0789]

so I have a 10' all around square den, with a 10' ceiling as well, and ceramic tile floor. Just looking to pickup an amp, cd player and a pair of decent floor speakers. Definitely on a budget, I'd like to spend about $1500, no more than 2k-can anyone suggest a combination? I could go bookshelf speakers and something low wattage like an NAD receiver/cd player, but I'd rather have a bit more juice.

Thanks, Marc.

[aaronji]

I recently bought a system for a similarly sized room (a little bigger; maybe 12 x 15) on an identical budget (I was looking at 1500 max).  I ended up getting a Marantz M-CR603.  60W/channel (into 6 ohm impedance), CD player, and AM/FM/DAB.  On the front panel, there is a USB input for an iPod (which bypasses the DAC on the iPod), MP3 player, or USB drive.  On the rear panel, there's an ethernet connection (DLNA compliant) so you can stream files from your computer or internet radio.  It supports FLAC (many similar devices don't), WAV and a bunch of other formats.  I got a small pair of Dynaudio speakers to go with it. 

The sound is pretty phenomenal (especially considering the compact size of the system) and more than enough wattage for the space.  The M-CR603 was 580 and the speakers were 600.  A little over 300 more for a pair of speaker stands, cables, and an ethernet switch.  So, all in all, I was very close to my budget (those figures are in euros, incidentally, but should be fairly similar in dollars).  Being able to stream my recordings in FLAC/WAV is awesome...

[Fatah Ruark (aka MIKE B)]

They aren't floor speakers, but I just picked up a pair of Epos ELS8 speakers for $250. Half off!

I've heard nothing but good things about them.

http://www.needledoctor.com/Epos-ELS-8-Bookshelf-Speakers?sc=12&category=-112

[sparkey]

My B&W 602 S3's sound great and they're nice and small.  I love them mounted off the floor with no footprint.