Hi fi system advice

[Tim Lund]

Recommendations please on where to go, brands, and what to pay for either:

1. Separately, an amp, CD player and DAB radio for use with existing turntable and speakers, with possibility of adding more bits of kit (iPod etc); or

2. an entire new system.

Sound quality is not a big issue - I kind of like some of the scratches on my old vinyls

[simon]

Seperates every time for me tim. That way you can adapt as technology develops without having to upgrade some kit unnecessarily.
If you've got good speakers and a good amp, dont bother changing them but if they're no good there's little point in changing anything else.
Think seriously about buying a tuner that only has DAB: the signal for FM is better for music at present.
There are a lot of people who bought USB turnatables for decent money so they could convert vinyl to mp3 but now you can get a converter for around £30.00.
Also; research cables and shop around for them. Decent cables between the different stages of the system really do make a difference to end sound. Lots of people spend big money on speakers but lose the benefits by connected with cheap cables.
Having said all that, I'm having to listen to Sydenham Community Radio live on a laptop in my kitchen right now because I haven't bought an AM/FM/DAB/Internet radio reciever to hook up with my system.
Good luck.

[Rebelmc]

Recommendations please on where to go, brands, and what to pay for either:

1. Separately, an amp, CD player and DAB radio for use with existing turntable and speakers, with possibility of adding more bits of kit (iPod etc); or

2. an entire new system.

Sound quality is not a big issue - I kind of like some of the scratches on my old vinyls

Difficult to recommend brands, they're all pretty reliable and it will end up coming down to what features you want, how you like it to sound and, most importantly, budget.

My current set-up is an Arcam (Cambridge Audio) amp, Sony Q series Pro MD, either a NAD or Yamaha CD (the NAD for quality, the Yamaha for optically connecting to the MD), Denon cassette deck, Marantz analogue tuner (can't be bothered with DAB) and Bose speakers; I don't often use a turntable but, when I do, it's either a Technics SL1200 (not an audiophile favourite!) or an old Garrard that I keep purely because it plays 78s.

What I would do is buy the latest copy of 'What Hi-fi' and browse through that; they usually have recommended buys in every type of componant, catagorised by price, budget, average and top end.

As to where to go, I either use Richer Sounds (really good prices but don't always have the precisie thing you might want) or Sevenoaks Hi-fi (they have a branch near Thornton Heath) if I want something really specific.

One thing I would say is set aside some of your budget for good quality interconnects and speaker cables; it's amazing the difference it can make if you ditch the OE stuff and get something better than the bell wire they usually give you to hook up the speakers, you can transform the cheapest componants into really good sounding kit in this way.

[ALIB]

I couldn't resist this blast from the past

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSINO6MKtco


I would go to 'Richer Sounds' . The things they sell tends to be end-of-the-line stuff, but is excellent vallue. I would think £100 for each component would be about right, but have no idea how much decent cables would cost

[Tim Lund]

Thanks Ali - you're not making me feel any more comfortable. But good to see Griff Rhys Jones there as well, now leading the Civic Society Initiative
http://www.civicsocietyinitiative.org.uk/

[Wing]

I agree with Simon that with a good FM aerial FM will sound better than DAB. I listen to DAB only on talk/chat/news. I used to have a PURE DAB/FM music system and I tend to listen to music on FM because of its better sound.

[Tim Lund]

Okay - I now have a Cambridge Audio amp and CD unit, with which my old speakers occasionally make a nice sound, but more often nothing or an unpleasant buzzing. Before I fork out more on new speakers, can anyone come round with some speakers just to test that this is what's going wrong?

[Chazza]

If the problem is intermittent, it's most likely to be a loose connection, so check all your cabling, especially the connections between amp and speakers.

[chrisj1948]

I finally got my speakers (built in 1974 - Kefkit 3's in damped transmission line enclosures) set up in the Sydenham house by dint of placing them on their sides, covering with thin drapes and cushions, and pretending they were bench seats - they are BIG mothers! No room left for my separates, and the turntable is redundant anyway since the record collection was destroyed by flooding in the last house a few years ago. I went the other way and a couple of days ago bought a Denon M37DAB micro unit. Very pleased with the performance and its handling of MP3's is excellent. Since the speakers are normally the critical element in a sound system I expected a good result. Only drawback is that the drapes need to be lifted up for taxing pieces such as Telleman on original instruments.

On the subject of DAB versus FM. To cram in more channels DAB stations normally have a bit rate which is considerably less than the effective bit rate of an FM channel, and so FM does sound better. It seems unlikely that we will be getting the better DAB2 system in this country for many years.

Regards
Chris