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Ok let me preface this, I'm still quite a newbie when it comes to better audio, granted I have a killer HT/stereo hybrid rig I've been fiddling with things in my bedroom for a good listening system that doesn't take up a lot of space or overpower the room. For the longest time I've had a pair of Polk Audio RTiA7 towers with a Marantz SR6008 powering them. Yeah...that's small! So I toyed with the idea of using my Polk RTiA3 bookies with a NAD C326BEE supplanted by a small sub...don't get me wrong but for a home theater aimed speaker they didn't sound too bad with the NAD feeding them but I longed for better but didn't know where to go.
I'm not cash rich by any stretch so when a local higher end audio retailer decided to throw some appealing things on a deep sale price I kind of thought...aw F it, I'll try this better stuff out. They put some bookshelf speakers that looked good and actually in the store sounded great so I bought them, the Wharfedale Diamond 225. I know, not all that high end but a step away from the big box retailer speakers. Now being in Canada prices are a little well..insane to start with but these normally retail out at $600 a pair, kind of steep for my pockets but I could get them for far less, $380 so I grabbed a pair and saw the store was demo'ing them with a Cambridge Audio integrated amp but don't ask me the model I didn't look closely. So I used the 225s on the NAD for a week and perused the stores website for something else, saw the Cambridge Topaz SR20 receiver was on sale from $800 to $500 so off I go to the store and grab one of those. So with that in the system, using a old but nice Pioneer DV-45A DVD/Universal player and a Mac Mini digitally (optical) into the SR20 and no sub...yes make it known...NO SUB I've been letting this modest little rig be the primary music source for the last few weeks.
What strikes me as a relative newb to the "better" stuff is this is amazing, I'll be honest I didn't expect what I'm getting out of this thing. There's actual bass from these smallish bookshelf speakers and the top end is just right, not bright, not too subdued, can I use the word relaxed here? It rewards well recorded music and lets the not so well recorded stuff get by without a lot of punishment. I do prefer rock and metal music to the old standards but hell, I've never heard Billy Joel sound as nice as he does now. Even as I type this exact line out, I'm hearing a Halestorm cover of Metallica's Ride The Lightening just melt off the 225s in such a way that it sounds hard and heavy but it's not lacking.
I know I've got a lot to learn when it comes to audio and hoping that you people here can steer me in a good direction, and if you've read this far...thanks and apologies for completely butchering the fine art of writing, it's never been a strong suit lol.
Ken
I'm not cash rich by any stretch so when a local higher end audio retailer decided to throw some appealing things on a deep sale price I kind of thought...aw F it, I'll try this better stuff out. They put some bookshelf speakers that looked good and actually in the store sounded great so I bought them, the Wharfedale Diamond 225. I know, not all that high end but a step away from the big box retailer speakers. Now being in Canada prices are a little well..insane to start with but these normally retail out at $600 a pair, kind of steep for my pockets but I could get them for far less, $380 so I grabbed a pair and saw the store was demo'ing them with a Cambridge Audio integrated amp but don't ask me the model I didn't look closely. So I used the 225s on the NAD for a week and perused the stores website for something else, saw the Cambridge Topaz SR20 receiver was on sale from $800 to $500 so off I go to the store and grab one of those. So with that in the system, using a old but nice Pioneer DV-45A DVD/Universal player and a Mac Mini digitally (optical) into the SR20 and no sub...yes make it known...NO SUB I've been letting this modest little rig be the primary music source for the last few weeks.
What strikes me as a relative newb to the "better" stuff is this is amazing, I'll be honest I didn't expect what I'm getting out of this thing. There's actual bass from these smallish bookshelf speakers and the top end is just right, not bright, not too subdued, can I use the word relaxed here? It rewards well recorded music and lets the not so well recorded stuff get by without a lot of punishment. I do prefer rock and metal music to the old standards but hell, I've never heard Billy Joel sound as nice as he does now. Even as I type this exact line out, I'm hearing a Halestorm cover of Metallica's Ride The Lightening just melt off the 225s in such a way that it sounds hard and heavy but it's not lacking.
I know I've got a lot to learn when it comes to audio and hoping that you people here can steer me in a good direction, and if you've read this far...thanks and apologies for completely butchering the fine art of writing, it's never been a strong suit lol.
Ken