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System for a dorm - how is this?

Well I am back in school, Law School now, and I am looking to get a system set up for my dorm room. The room is about 12ft x 17 ft rectangle. I listen to almost everything from jazz to metal, but usually it is more along the lines of Dylan, Cash, Wilco, Death Cab, Thursday, indie type stuff I guess.
I am looking to spend in the $1200-$1500 range unless the extra $500 would really upgrade the system.
One problem though is that I would like CD and a turntable, so it may hurt with the budget, but lets see what we can do.
Right now these are the things I have been looking into.

-Cambridge Audio Azure 540 or 640 Integrated Amp
-CD - A NAD (which one?) or Rotel 1072 or Cambridge Audio Azure
-Turntable - Simiko Pro-Ject 1.2 or the one below
-Speakers - EPOS - ELS3
AND as a possible alternative or addition: a headphone and and the Grado 80 (something like that)

So what do you think? What would be good speaker cable and interconnect cable to start looking into? Will these pieces gel together well? Thanks for the help for a newbie.
jmurray16
themadmilkman
182 posts
 
$1500 is a good budget given that you're in law school... hopefully you'll actually have some time to listen to it!

Anyway, here's my suggestions--

Get an NAD C320BEE integrated amplifier. Virtually impossible to beat for the price. Yeah, you'll need to add a phono preamp, but the unit is rock solid. I would also suggest a C521i or C521BEE CD player (I own the former). The two together can be found online at good discounted prices from authorized dealers (dmc-electronics.com, yawaonline.com)

While the Sumiko Pro-Ject is an excellent turntable (I own one) for the price, try and find a deal on a (used) Rega P2. The RB-250 tonearm is simply excellent. That alone makes it worth your time to hunt down a deal.

EPOS speakers are an excellent choice. I heard them at CES and loved them.

For interconnects, go cheap. Really cheap. I would say Bluejeanscable for your interconnects, and signalcable for your speaker cables. Excellent products for the price.
philjolet's avatar
philjolet
2,262 posts
 
Why not the NAD amp that includes the CD player? Then get the JM Reynaud Twin speakers. You could save money on ICs and put it into the speaker wire.

I think it is a waste at this price range to buy seperate components and then have to buy ICs which would be inferior to having the CD player hard wired to the amp like the NAD.

BTW the Reynauds are terrific speakers but seem to be unknown on Agon

all the best

Phil
jmurray16 OP
9 posts
 
Guys...thank you so much. I am going to look into all the suggestions thus far and then check back. Any other things to look into?
themadmilkman
182 posts
 
Why not the NAD combo? Because everything I've read seems to point to the unit being trash. Not nearly as good as the separate units.

There's a lot more to building a unit than simply cutting down on the number of interconnects. Generally I love NAD's gear. I own it and use it. But that's one unit that I'd simply pass up on.
sfar's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
sfar
1,352 posts
 
The suggestion of the Philips 963 DVD/CD player is a good one if you've also got any interest at all in video. I helped a coworker put together a system recently that she's very happy with, the 963, a pair of the Soliloquy 5.0's I recommended above and a Creek A50i integrated amp. She was equally interested in music and movies (but didn't care about 'home theater.')

Substitute any of the less expensive integrateds that have been recommended for the Creek and you'd be within your budget (except for the turntable, but you're going to be busy with law school and not have the time to track down vinyl, and except for the TV, but these are the kind of complications you're faced with when you ask opinionated strangers for advice.)
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