Hi,

I'm looking to spend up to about 500 UKP on a stereo amplifier and speakers for my home office (about 8ft x 12ft) and am looking for recommendations.

The main source (initially, but may be supplemented with a standalone CD player in the future) will be my PC and an M-Audio Audiophile 2496. My music is mainly a combination of CD-Audio ripped as FLAC, and 192kbps MP2 captures from digital radio.

I also have a Denon TU260L FM tuner, permanently tuned to "XFM", which should give you a clue about my musical tastes.

The amp also needs to have a phono input, as I will be adding a turntable in the very near future.

I don't know if the following fact influences my choices, but I will generally be listening at relatively low volumes, so that''s where I need the amp/speakers to work well.

Also, any tips for connecting my soundcard (in both directions - for FM recording) to the amp? My office is a very electrically noisy environment, so I would imagine that would affect performance as well.

Thanks,

Dave.
http://dvd-audio.sourceforge.net

Hi!

I want to do that too, and I just read about a product that might be of interest. to you.

You might want to check this out....

http://www.stereo-link.com/

and there is a product review at this site.....

http://www.exhardware.com/reviews.php?Id=112

Obviously, it could only be one piece of the very large puzzle when it comes to getting great audio from cd to hard drives to stereo.

My best to you!

-rayna

rayna,

Thanks for your reply. However, that simply looks like an external USB soundcard - not something I'm looking for at the moment.

Initially, my computer will be the main audio source, but I've also got an FM tuner, and will be adding a turntable and maybe a standalone CD player in the future.

But it's the amp and speakers I'm looking to buy first.

Dave.

No Prob! I just thought it might be of interest rather a PC soundcard for obvious reasons.

I read about it a few hours before I read your post, so it was fresh on my mind.

My best to you!

-Rayna

P.S. I am so glad I found this site today. It's a great resource!

Signing off!

I would look on the Audio Asylum for speakers. You should be able to find recommendations there based on what you need from the speakers and your musical tastes. After that you can match the speakers to an amp.

for under 500 pounds you should be able to get a pair of Yamaha MSP5's, which sound pretty good - little, so they'll fit well on your desk, and powerfull as hell.

they're internally bi-amped, like all decent nearfield monitors, and they're pretty cheap.

i'm looking into buying 5 of these to hook into the analog out of my DVD player rather than forking out for a 5.1 receiver...

Thanks for that idea, I hadn't considered monitors, mainly because I was thinking in terms of a standalone system, with my PC being just one of many sources.

But the only other source I own at the moment is an FM tuner, which I am assuming I could connect directly to the line-in on my soundcard. So monitors would fulfill my current needs.

I followed CSMR's advice and looked around Audio Asylum for inspiration - but there is far too much information there.

A combination that I've seen recommended in a few places is either the Monitor Audio Bronze B2s or Silver S2s with the Rotel RA-01 amp.

Some other speakers I've seen mentioned are the EPOS ELS-3, but the bass on those has been criticised, and the (more expensive) NHT SB-2s have been recommended as out-performing the EPOS ELS-3.

Does anyone know how any of those speakers I mention would perform in comparison with the Yamaha monitors? Are there any other monitors worth considering?

Thanks,

Dave.

It's a great idea - those are very nice monitors and the internal amplification makes them very easy to set up - as well as not needing an external amp.

However - you might find yourself dissapointed when comparing studio monitors to other lower end speaker systems. This is not due to a failing of the monitors - its due to that fact that many systems (low end and expensive alike) deliberately colour the sound in order to sound 'better'. This approach is obviously not tolerated with studio monitors.

Bottom line - it's definately worth listening to the Yamaha set and, if neccessary, add a preamp to allow you to select sources more easily.

A good combination also could be one NAD C320BEE amplifier with one pair of excellent Celestion F15 speakers.

NAD is a very recognized manufacturer of Hi-Fi audio amplifiers, and Celestion is a excellent manufacturer of speakers in England...

The price of this combination (NAD C320BEE + Celestion F15) is less than 500 pounds, and could offer to you a very good performance.