$25k budget for new system. How would you spend it?

[nc42acc]

Audiophile hoarders have great sounding rooms? Might be cheaper than some of the treatment options.

It can be a good sounding space, the clutter dampens and diffuses chaotically , i have seen many rooms like that with actual good sound ..



Regards

 

[FastEddy]

Audiophile hoarders have great sounding rooms? Might be cheaper than some of the treatment options.

Cheaper? Add up the cost of those records. Fremer's room is fair warning. I stopped buying records because . . . . seriously?

 

[petek]

It may as well be a 10x10 with all the stuff in there but Mickey is happy and his whole life's work and passion is in that room so that's all that matters.

My one listener room is approx 10X12 and is full of records, gear and treatment and sounds very good. At one point it was stuffed with unneeded clutter to even include a 4 nonitor set up. Needless to say in those days I had zero stage/imaging.

 

[Hear Here]

Choose speakers first - as good as you can afford, but the TYPE of speaker (box, horn, panel, omni, etc) has to be determined by your room features. Home demo before parting with cash, as speakers needs to be happy in your room - or is it vice versa?

Do you really want to limit your potential sound quality by allocating a large chunk of your budget to a turntable? How often do you listen to records? I suspect that to match the sound quality of good streaming, a turntable / arm / cartridge / vinyl you'd have to spend half your budget on that one source! Then you'd be let down by your "cheap" speakers, amp, etc!

Consider ditching the TT idea and concentrate on streaming. My system is simple but only slightly over your budget. It consists of excellent £20K speakers fed by a bargain £5K all-in-one streamer, radio, DAC, DSP RC, amp. It’s simple and does everything I want, but no vinyl as this would halve what I could spend on the rest. Peter

 

[jmusica]

Stumbled onto this thread because I have a buddy in the market.

This combo that Mike put together for his YouTube channel is elegantly simple, looks great, and I love the way it sounds in the video. Seems to have great potential.

Boulder 866 w/ Vivid Gaya S12

Vivid S12 + Boulder 866 - part 2 - YouTube

 

[RistrettoX6]

System is going in a multipurpose room. Will be used for parties and late night listening. I like to listen loud (not ear bleeding levels).

Requirements:

- turntable
- streamer (ideally something that can be controlled by phone)

Would love to hear some opinions.

Here’s a system someone local has suggested:

Main Stereo

* Speakers (Options)

* Bowers & Wilkins 702 S2 Floor Standing Speakers $6000
* Monitor Audio Gold 200 Floor Standing Speakers $7500

* Turntable

* Rega Planar 6 with Ania Pro Moving Coil Cartridge $3500
* Rega Fono MC Moving Coil Phono Stage $650
* Total $4150

* Pre-Amp / Amp / Streamer

* NAD
* C 658 Pre-Amp/DAC/Streamer $2000
* C 298 185 W/Ch Stereo Power Amp in Bridge Mode $2800
* C 298 185 W/Ch Stereo Power Amp in Bridge Mode $2800
* Total $7600

Thrifty...?

 

[Hear Here]

Stumbled onto this thread because I have a buddy in the market.

This combo that Mike put together for his YouTube channel is elegantly simple, looks great, and I love the way it sounds in the video. Seems to have great potential.

Boulder 866 w/ Vivid Gaya S12

Vivid S12 + Boulder 866 - part 2 - YouTube

I'm not sure that would be good for the OP. Where's the streamer and he wants to play loud!

I'd suggest an all-in-one such as NAD M33 (includes the excellent BluOS streamer) and a pair of decent-sized floor-standers with a good bass section, so no need for sub.