£400 for Floor Standers, an Amp and cable

[Zak33]

Lo dudes

Was playing with nice of stereo stuff this weekend, and I'm now in dire need of a proper amp, and some floor standers.

I will look at shelf speakers and stands, but foor standers are my first choice. And a suitable amp

Music: A moderate amount of metal, but nothing monster bassy. No dance or drum/bass. Lots of classical (I find Classic sounds good on stuff that makes AC/DC sound good tbh)

Melodics and vocal are my first and most prized sounds. From Deacon Blue -> Lord of The Rings sound track..... character and depth, but it doesnt need to blow my windows out!

I have today looked in Richers and seen some nice Celestion F30's (though not my favourite colour, being dark applewood) @ £200 and a Cambridge Audio Azur 340A (40w per channel) @£150.

I'm well open to comment, but I'll reinforce this: I want harmonics, mellow warmth, and not brash harshness. I have a 5.1 system from long ago that does a blinding job on bangs, crashes and explosions, so I'm looking for audio hot chocolate here... Green and Blacks chocolate

What else should I look at?

What did I hear this weekend? Arcam hardware....and I heard things on my own CD collection that even my best headphones didn't ever show me!

[Steve B]

i recently purchased a Denon AVR-1507 with 2xGale 40 series floorstanders, 1xGale 40 series centre, and 2xKef Cresta 10's for the rears. It sounds absolutely phenomenal. AVR was 190, 270 for the Gale's and 50 for the Crestas. Bit overbudget, but if you just need the floorstanders, they were ~200

[Zak33]

PS: Man in the shop (much more helpful than my last three attempts at Richers) also suggested considering Mordaunt Short MS 904i , but that was partly cos I hated the dark wood of the Celestions.

In cases where it's possible, it'll be a bi-wired job. The cable lengths will be very short.

[Zak33]

ahh....Steve B, cheers for joining in. I also had some 4040's suggested. I shall consider...but have you tried those on a stereo amp, instead of a cinema amp? Reason I ask, is my worry about harshness. I didn't get to hear those. But bang on budget.

[Steve B]

ive got the 4040's in birch i think, the lighter colour anyway
not tried them with a stereo amp, as cant afford one. The AVR plays back Elgars Enigma variations incredibly though, it sounds vunderbar!

[Alex]

I have a pair of MS 904s (the non-i version) which I really like. I'm still not sure whether speakers get better with use, or whether your ears just get used to them, but I didn't like them as much at first as I do now, and I'd rate them higher than the Monitor Audio Bronze B2s, B4s, and the Kef Q1s.

The only thing is that they do lack a little in bass, if you like that sort of thing a lot, they may work better with a subwoofer.

That said, you could look for some 914s or 906s second hand, they rapidly drop in value once second hand and theres a limited amount that can go wrong with speakers.

I love my Cambridge Audio Azur 540R amp, again, I'd rate it over a Denon 1906 or Pioneer 915, but I haven't compared it to any stereo amps. The only thing about it is that it did break once, but since I had a Richer Sounds warrantee on it, and they didn't have any in stock, they replaced it with a V2. Yay! Well worth it.

[Zathras]

Zakky, is this for music alone, or will you be hooking it up to some home cinema equipment (ie DVD player)?

Stereo amps still pound/pound far outperform AV amps/receivers. A £200 stereo amp will be quite reasonable, whereas £200 for a AV amp won't really blow you away. I'm talking from experience, own a Denon 1807 AV Amp for the lounge (was in my room) and a Denon PMA700 for the bedroom. Connected to the same speakers and source, the stereo amp was clearly in a different league.

[Zak33]

Stereo....strictly stereo

I have surround sound as a totally seperate system.

[Daneel]

Go 2nd hand, much more value for your money. I'd start over at AV Forums.

[Alex]

Second hand for speakers, definitely. Second hand for AV electronics, well, I'd be less tempted, especially as Cambridge Audio, Denon, Marantz and the other likely suspects tend to hold their value quite well. Much better to buy that new with the warrantee.

[kushtibari]

For one thing, unless you're biamping I wouldn't bother biwiring - no difference to the sound and will cost you less for cable.

I would be very deinitely going down the 2nd hand route at £400 for the full lot. Some of the older Sony ES kit is great value for money second hand.

Some of the older Marantz CD's are excellent bang for buck now as well. I've got a CD63 MkII KI and a CD67SE floating about and they're both good. The KI's are going for between £100 and £180 on fleabay atm.

Amp wise the older Cambridge and Rotal amps are nice as well - I might also be tempted by this on fleabay. Heard one of these a bit back - very nice sound.

Any particular reason you're going down the floorstanding route?
Maybe too expensive but you might look at a second hand pair of Regas R3's from one of the forums. Failing that some Castles of Ebay - some beautiful old speakers with a nice sound.

Currently using Spendor S6e's on the end of an Arcam CD92 and Sugden A21a, just changed from PMC TB2+.

[Zak33]

cheers guys...Kutshti...bloody good words. I'd not been on ebay for this as I need to hear, but reviews are good for me too.

Won't be bi amping, but will still buy the wire for bi wiring as I'm all for trying it out, and the speaker cable distatances are soshort the costs irrelevent really.

It does have to be said I HAVE fooled myself into thinking I had heard a bi wire sounding better than a single cable, and I was wrong as the single was the one I chose as better,but I'm gonna try becuase I did it 3 times with those speakers and chose single everytime!

Hence and therefore maybe there was a difference and maybe the new ones will be better/worse for it. Shall try.

[kushtibari]

Cablewise I'm using Van Damme Blue series - cheap as chips and a good sound, either 4mm or 2.5mm. I intend bi-amping but only when I find a Sugden A21p second hand at a decent price. I've compared the Van Damme to cable costing a lot more and I can't see the point unless its being bought for snob appeal. The same goes for interconnects. The standard give away ones do tend to be crap but its not expensive to make your own - Maplins again for all the bits.

[unrealrocks]

Im currently selling a Denon PMA350 amp and some beautiful Wharfedale speakers in the for sale section hint!

[Zak33]

Originally Posted by unrealrocks

Im currently selling a Denon PMA350 amp and some beautiful Wharfedale speakers in the for sale section hint!

hint brutally ignored.....brutally.

[Howard]

http://www.richersounds.com/showprod...=MORD-904I-MAP plus http://www.hifi4less.com/product.php/1079/0/ and use some mains cable as speaker wire Not that I'm biased towards Nad or anything