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Please Advise me on Building a System on a Budget

Hello everyone,

I am an aspiring audiophile who loves music but I have never had the money to buy any real nice equipment. I am looking to build a relatively nice system for the first time and I am on a budget. I am looking to spend only around $2000 on everything. I am looking to get everything used and I am willing to hunt on ebay and craigslist for bargains. I want to stretch this $2000 as far as I can. I have a few questions that I hope some of you experts could help me with.

Ideally, I need a pair of speakers, a preamp, an amp, a record player and some type of digital source like a cd player (or SACD player). I know that is an aweful lot to ask for on a $2000 budget but tell me what you think I could do.

One question I have been wondering is if it really makes sense in 2011 to spend big money on a cd player or SACD player. I don't quite understand people who are spending a thousand dollars on a top of the line NAD player or other unit. Wouldn't it make more sense to have a hard drive based unit or computer playing lossless audio files? Wouldn't that be able to produce the same quality audio but be more convenient?

My initial thoughts would be that I should have a PC with a solid DAC as my digital source (or hard drive based player) and then get a good record player. Does this sound reasonable? Or is there some reason why playing old fashioned CDs through a NAD or other device would sound superior? Also, would you recommend a SACD player? Of course, there are plenty of high resolution FLAC files that I could conceivably play from a hard drive unit as well.
Please advise on this.

What I was thinking of as far as budgeting was concerned is: Spend about $700-$800 on the best used speakers I can find. Spend about the same on the best Pre-amp/Power amp combination I can find. And spend the rest towards the rest, particularly the digital and vinyl sources.

The $2000 is not a hard and fast budget but I seriously do not have a lot of money and I want to get the best audio I can for a reasonable amount. I would rather spend more on the speakers and amps and maybe wait on a record player.

What can you suggest? Thanks. I look forward to hearing your suggestions.
jrodefeld
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soundsbeyondspecs
122 posts
 
Another member posted a great note on developing better critical lisening skills. Critical listening skills can help you better interpret transient changes in music reproduction during high demands.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17725584/Critical%20Listening.pdf

One interesting note is why some critical lisener's "occassionally" use subwoofers. During high music peaks, especially with lower ohm-rated speakers, amps can drop the balanced levels of less demanding instuments and voices. A good musical sub can reproduce the lower notes, removing the lowest frequency demands from the main speaker amps during highly demanding music.

Matching your main speaker's with a perfectly matched musical sub is something to consider, especially, if the levels of less dominant instuments and voices drop off during musical peaks.

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soundsbeyondspecs
122 posts
 
Better link:

Here is the link in working order: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17725584/Critical%20Listening.pdf
orpheus10
5,988 posts
 
You can get an awful lot out of your computer if you know a geek. I don't know squat about computers, but I know a "geek". Although I have a Marantz transport feeding a DTI which goes into a DAC, I hardly ever use them. I use CODEX on the computer and transfer that to a playlist.

Maybe you could do without a CD player for awhile.
ebm
5,165 posts
 
Go to Radio Shack DUDE!!
dayglow
708 posts
 
I would recommend the Denon CX3 Series. The build quality is exceptional. The player is a SACD and the matching receiver is a class D design. Depending on condition $1000 might be enough for both units. This leaves you enough for the Magnepan MMG, brand new! If your a rock/metal only guy look into Klipsch.
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