Topic: Some help with a playback system... help me spend my money!

[pjl100001]

So I have about $800 from my high school graduation and I need a nice playback system for next year in college.  I was thinking about just going to best buy and getting a this yamaha reciever I had my eye on and a 5 disc changer to play through 2 jbl bookshelf speakers that were $150 a piece.  I am about to just go ahead and do it but for some reason I think I might be able tofind some better deals. Can anyone help me out at all?  Any suggestion would be appreciated.  I plan on using this mainly in my dorm room and home bedroom and I was to be able to hook up my computer, tv and disc changer to one set of speakers playing mostly rock, jazz, blues, and country music.

[jpschust]

i think you can do better than that- a pair of used maggies and an intergrated amp and that 60 dollar toshiba cd/dvd player. 

[Craig T]

Panasonic xr50 receiver ($300)
Toshiba 4960 cd/dvd/dvd-audio/sacd player ($150)
Epos ELS-3 speakers ($300)

You'll have to go a little over the $800 when you include interconnects and speaker cables.  You can do this cheap if you can DIY, otherwise I'd recommend a place like www.signalcable.com that basically sells good quality DIY designs but DI-for-you.

[som]

Check out Ascend Acoustics speakers....I bought some of their CBM-170's and really enjoy them.

http://www.ascendacoustics.com

Spend some time browsing through the reviews at www.audioreview.com

[MBecker]

jpschust, what kind of dorm room can hold maggies?  Mine sure as hell didn't have that much room.  My recommendation would be to get some bookshelf speakers, PSB Image 2Bs can be had for $250 a pair (normally 400).  E-mail me at marcbecker@gmail.com for dealers.  I'd look into a NAD or Marantz receiver.

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

The inexpensive used maggies are the smaller ones and I think they can be wall mounted.

Shit yeah, turn that dorm room into an audio love palace.

[jpschust]

a- he didnt mention dorm room- a lot of my friends didnt live on campus their freshman years
b- the mmgs can be wall mounted, hence making them even better space savers than bookshelf speakers at times

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

I plan on using this mainly in my dorm room and home bedroom and .....

Better reproof those contracts.  ;-)




Again, I encourage the love palace theme for all on campus living quarters.

[pjl100001]

At this point I'm thinking about going with a pair of epos els 3 and the center channel speaker els 3c.  As for the receiver, I'm leaning towards a sony strde 897s.  I don't know too much about receivers but I found this for $315 and it has 7.1 dolby digital with 110 watts of power in each channel.  That was much more than I found on a few onkyo and yamaha models I looked at in the same price range that only had 6.1 with 85-100 watts per channel.  This should run a little over my budget with a 5 disc cd changer that I found for $90.  Anyone have any other suggestions or does this seem reasonable?

Another question... how much does a cheap sacd player run for and will it work well this reciever I picked out?

And one more question... will DVD audio cds play in any dvd player?  I'm just seeing a few things here and there about DVDA and it has caught my interest.

Any help is greatly appreciated.


PS.  Yes Teabag, audio love palace is definitaly the plan...

[MBecker]

" 7.1 dolby digital with 110 watts of power in each channel"

not all watts are created equal.  Every manufacturer rates watts differently, so i definitely would not buy one off specs.  I would guess, that a 70 watt NAD receiver probably has a lot more power than the 110 watt sony.  I'd recommend checking out the ecoutics.com message board, along with www.avsforums.com and http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/index.php for more playback advice.

[Craig T]

if going the receiver route, the Panny "xr" series (30, 50, & 70?) with the digital amps CRUSH the other cheap offerings from Sony, Yamaha, Onkyo, etc.  Don't sweat the "watt" ratings, you should be fine with anything >30 wpc.  I also wouldn't worry too much about 6.1 vs 7.1 - in a dorm room its all going to sound the same.

That Toshiba 4960 I mentioned supports CD, DVD-video, DVD-audio, SACD, MP3, and the recordable CDR's and DVD-R's.  I have one on the way.  The 3960 has become a cult favorite for cheap mod-able player, I bet the 4960 will also have a bunch of mod's available if you find you want to squeeze a little more quality out of it.  As for changers vs. single disc, I'd stick with the single - they typically sound better (due to better transport I assume).

[pjl100001]

Craig T, you say "if going the receiver route..." what other route would you suggest? 


And as for speakers, I'm split between the maggie mmgs or the epos els 3 and els3c... anyone have any suggestions here?

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

Here is a nice integrated for less than $400:

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?intatube&1094914912

here are some maggies for just over $400:

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?spkrplan&1094998055

get one of those toshiba DVD players for $60 and use it for CDs and video unless you have to have SACD and DVDA.

There is a pair of MG1s on audiogon for $250 but if you need space, wall mounted mmgs is a really good option. You'll have a better system than one from best buy for the same money and the resale will be good too on the maggies and jolida.  The jolida has a tubed preamp, so you have the option of playing with different tubes.  

Anyway, these are just suggestions.  I'm sort of old school with the tubes and the just two channels, but the digital amps would be a solid bet too.   I usually recommend going with used higherend stuff so that you can resell at minimal loss when (not if) you upgrade.  You'll see a lot of the NAD and Sony stuff show up on audiogon too if you want to go that route.  The digital amps may be too new to be on audiogon yet.

[jpschust]

I plan on using this mainly in my dorm room and home bedroom and .....

Better reproof those contracts.  ;-)




Again, I encourage the love palace theme for all on campus living quarters.

hahaha im a jackass :-)  i said 95 not 100 :-P

[dnsacks]

What are your listening goals?  Listening to music or home theater?  In your budget range, I think you'll do a lot better limiting yourself to 2 channels and skipping the center channel (and surrounds) for now.  Also, re cd changer -- I'd buy a single disk version.  I picked up a changer thinking it would be THE "solution" -- turns out I play all my music through my single disk dvd player.

I also agree with Craig on the digital amp side -- I have a more expensive sony digital amp and love it.  The beauty of the digital amps is that they are fed a digital signal by the cd/dvd/etc. player, meaning that even the cheapest cd player will sound REAL close to a high-end one.

On speakers, KEY point -- be sure to listen to 'em.  Just because some folks love magnaplaners doesn't mean that you won't find 'em to be totally lacking in bass, etc.  -- IMHO, especially on speakers, ignore the specs and focus solely on the sound.