All in 5-6k for setup in living room...with bad acoustics


Looking for suggestions with a total spend of 5-6k (because I think deals can be had) for a living room. Room is fairly large and we often listen to the music from the kitchen. Not an ideal setup at all but the silence without music right now is killing me. Other thing is I tend to listen to music on the loud side rather than sitting down and critically listening,

I’m sensitive to compression drivers and the "harsh" highs. Unfortunately the one side of the room is sliding glass doors with curtains so I’m thinking a dome tweeter. What about something like the Magnepan speakers? I don’t think they would have the desired output but they do sound nice.  GoldenEar an option as well?

There are a lot of speakers out there for under 6k that are tempting, a few B&W’s, Ariel 7T, and my favorite is the Focal 1038be which is out of my budget currently. If I get speakers like these will a sub be required (I’m thinking yes) and what about amps, etc. Can I power these speakers with a 1k budget or am i dreaming? Typically listen to music from my Blue Node.

Asking a lot of questions here but thanks for the help.

 

seanile31

Showing 5 responses by mofojo

I love deals! Makes me happy lol. My favorite system cost me 2200 total and would Msrp 9k. Not real old stuff still relevant.l and very good. Newly built garage system with brand new speakers and kicks.s old Luxman amp retail 1200 ish total. Cost me 30 bucks after selling very quickly what I didn’t need. 

So it’s new only? You can put together a pretty kick butt system for 6k used.  New will buy you one piece of it. 

Keep an eye out on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist as well. Found some gems on there from time to time. 

For that money I hear a lot of people are saying room treatments. Ok spend a grand on room treatments and the rest on the system. Don’t worry about cables. Very small improvements IME in the level you are looking at. Just an example of one of my systems:

 

Focal 836W rated 8 - $700 (drove 2 hours each way)

Jolida CRC 302 upgraded vintage rca input tubes rated 9 - 550

Burson Dac new model rated 9 - $600

 

This is my favorite most musical system in the house.

 

in a normal size room at reasonable volumes room treatments mean less unless you are sitting farther away. They matter for sure…

 

pick your transport or streamer or record player and done. 
 

Deals come up if your quick and need to be patient. Guy like me checks daily on all the sites 😜. 6k buys a real nice system used if you buy right.