I am older and just recently got into this hobby. I just purchased my first set of speakers (Graham ls 6) for their rich midrange and are deciding on an amplifier, dac and streamer which I will probably buy as an all in one to keep things as simple as possible. I understand that separates usually sound much better, but I am not an audiophile both because my hearing is older and I don’t have a strong knowledge base in music. What I do like is listening to beautiful music which I can do for hours. I want to thank the OP for starting this thread and the people who contributed for very interesting and often helpful reading. As many others have said, this is simultaneously such a fun and frustrating hobby.
What I wish I knew before starting my audiophile journey
I’ve considered myself an audiophile for over 3 years now. In those 3 years I’ve owned over 12 pairs of speakers, 10 amplifiers, 4 pre amplifiers, 7 DACs all in search for the perfect sound. What I’ve come to learn is I knew nothing when I started and now have some, not all of an understanding of how this works. Im passing this on to anyone that’s getting into this hobby to help fast track them to a better sound and learn from my experience. If I were to do this all over again, here is where I would start and invest my money.
1. Clean power- I wasted a lot of time and probably sold very good gear thinking it wasn’t good enough because I didn’t have clean power. I installed a dedicated 8 gauge power line with 20 amp breaker and hospital grade plugs for approximately $800. This was hands down the single biggest upgrade. You really have no idea what your gear is capable of delivering until you have fed it with clean power.
2. Speakers-this is where I would spend the a big chunk of my budget. I could make tweaks all day to my system but until I had speaker resolved enough to hear them, it all seems a waste of time. I discounted many things like cables because I couldn’t hear the difference until I had speakers that could actually produce the differences. Keep in mind the room size. I believed that bigger was better. I actually now run a pair of very good bookshelves that have no problem energizing the room.
3. Amplifier power. Having enough power to drive the speakers is crucial in being able to hear what those speakers are capable of delivering. Yes different amp make different presentations but if there’s enough power then I believe it’s less of an issue and the source determines the sound quality more.
4. Now that I have the power and resolution to hear the difference between sources, cables, pre amplifier, streamer, DACs ect. This is where the real journey begins.
On a side note, my room played a huge roll in how my system sounded but not a deal breaker. I learned that it’s possible to tweak the system to the room by experimenting with different gear. I learned that speaker size based on room size is pretty important. Have good rug!!
For reference my set up
Dedicated power
Lumin U1 mini
Denafrips Venus 2
Simaudio 340i
Sonus Faber Minima Amator 2
cables, AQ full bloom. NRG Z3, Earth XLR, Diamond USB, Meteor Speaker cables.
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Nice little speakers @switzer145 and not that difficult to drive Rega and Naim would be natural partners who make all in one solutions. Croft for a more bare bones approach with better sound would work also. |
@akg_ca "An affordable speaker with high-end amplification and source makes more sense in audio performance, than an expensive speaker matched up with a cheap amp and source." I must disagree. The speaker is where the rubber hits the road. The sound that reaches your ears can be no better than the speaker itself, full stop. It will not matter how expensive your amplifier is, if the speaker isn't up to task. as far as "garbage in, garbage out"... well, you don't have to spend a lot of money to NOT have garbage, when it comes to amplifiers and cd players or streamers... Decent but inexpensive amps and cd players can sound marvelous, but only with good speakers. There is much bigger bang-for-the-buck in upgrading speakers. |
You’re right to start with the nice speakers. Think about something like the Marantz n40 amp... old school/new tech: has a streamer and all the modern hookups, plus has bass, treble, balance controls right on the face. That’d sound really nice with your Grahams. You can tack on an over the air tuner like a Teac for about $125, if you like radio, and the Marantz 60 cd player if you want to stay "matched" or even an inexpensive Yamaha CD player will do you fine. Or even a decent receiver; I have a Pioneer Elite sx-84 from about 1999 aprox that has hdmi, optical, and coax inputs, bass/subwoofer management, surround sound though I only use it for stereo... 140 watts of deep rich power; really sounds very nice with a decent pair of speakers... and it already has a decent over the air tuner too; you can get one for less than $300 on ebay, and then tack on a Bluesound Node for your streamer and you’re good to go for less than $1000. |
@switzer145 and @jond And what jond says also makes sense, too... a Naim Unity or something like that |
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