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$800 to spend on speakers, $1500 on whole system

I am new to community and am seeking advice on my first good sound system. I am looking to spend $500-800 on a used set of two speakers for my living room, which is not very large. I cannot decide between bookshelf speakers or a floor speaker. I will be listening mostly to digital music, and I could use recommendations on a DAC and receiver. I would like the receiver to be bluetooth if high quality receivers come with this feature, but that's not a deal breaker for me.

My Ideal system would have two speakers at $500-800 and with receiver, DAC, cables, and anything else I would need totaling around $1200, but $1500 maximum. I figured I would start with speakers and go from there.

I like to listen to most music, except rap. Heavy metal, funk, jazz. Any advice is much appreciated. Thanks

pawadalla

Showing 2 responses by heyitsmedusty

heyitsmedusty's avatar
heyitsmedusty
227 posts
 
Hello @pawadalla, and welcome to the community.

Since you're new to the game, I thought it might be helpful to lay out a list of brands to look out for. You've entered a new level, with new players. Say goodbye to your old friends Sony and Kenwood, and say hello to your new friends:

Here are the brands I would suggest looking in regards to bookshelves in your price range (used):
Totem
B&W
Sonus Faber (the Concerto can be had for around $750)
Vienna Acoustics
NHT
ELAC (Uni-Fi UB5 is getting STELLAR reviews, comes out soon)
Wharfedale
Paradigm
Proac

B&W, NHT, and Paradigm have products spanning the spectrum from basic consumer to high-end, but in your price range each of their offerings should be high quality. 

Now in the amp/preamp department, same drill. These are quality brands with offerings in your used price range:
NAD
Adcom
Musical Fidelity 
Emotiva
B&K
Outlaw
Rotel

Starting out, you may be better served with an integrated amp. That means your amplifier has multiple inputs for each of your components, and also controls the volume. In the future, you may want to get separate components for these duties.
heyitsmedusty's avatar
heyitsmedusty
227 posts
 
I agree with @soix that you should get a local audio dealer to let you audition the speakers in your home rather than take your amp to their spaces. The thought being that YOUR SPACE will determine the sound you get out of your speaker/amp combo much more accurately than their space.

You mentioned you're in a smaller room. I think that will help quite a bit with the concerns mentioned in this thread about under-powering your speakers. A smaller room is easier to load and will provide some natural gain (https://trueaudio.com/st_spcs1.htm) as well as placing you closer to the speakers when listening.

Naturally you'll want to up your amp game at some point, as the additional power will afford you more headroom, manifesting as more dynamic sound and added transparency, but you have plenty of time. The audiophile pursuit is an ongoing journey, and you've got decades of tweaking ahead of you. 
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