I am in the same boat. Covid has me working from home in my office lots. Also wanted to see what I cloud do for $1000.
I have an older set of M&K S150 speakers and MX200 sub. The speakers where powered by an old Denon AVR and connected by a basic bluetooth dongle. System always had noise in it and sounded a bit muted.
I tried a few different amps and Bluetooth dongles. Ended up with:
Apple AirPort Express $60
Topping E30 DAC $110
Class D Audio CDA-250C Amp $300
DSPSpeaker Anti-Mode 8033S-II $250
Benchmark Toslink to Mini Optical Cable $50
Furman PST-8 Dig $90
iFi Audio power $50 (for the DAC)
The AirPort Express, Amp, Furman and Anti-Mode I bought used.
Tried several class AB amps and did not like them with the speakers as much as the Class D Audio amp. I listen at very low volumes during conference calls and there is no hiss at all from the Class D Audio amp.
I bought the Furman chasing down noise in a Rotel amp I was trying out. The Furman did nothing for the hiss (sound floor I guess), but swapping out the amp made a difference.
The AirPort Express is much better than Bluetooth for wireless and is an ok DAC. The Topping is a better DAC though. I use the Topping as the pre-amp and there are three digital inputs (USB, Coax, and Optical)
I have a smaller room and sub placement is not great. With the Anti-Mode in the system I was able to cross over the speaker amp at 100hz using Harrison Lab FMods for the high pass cross over.
I had fun shopping and piecing things together. Next up is the garage system :)
I have an older set of M&K S150 speakers and MX200 sub. The speakers where powered by an old Denon AVR and connected by a basic bluetooth dongle. System always had noise in it and sounded a bit muted.
I tried a few different amps and Bluetooth dongles. Ended up with:
Apple AirPort Express $60
Topping E30 DAC $110
Class D Audio CDA-250C Amp $300
DSPSpeaker Anti-Mode 8033S-II $250
Benchmark Toslink to Mini Optical Cable $50
Furman PST-8 Dig $90
iFi Audio power $50 (for the DAC)
The AirPort Express, Amp, Furman and Anti-Mode I bought used.
Tried several class AB amps and did not like them with the speakers as much as the Class D Audio amp. I listen at very low volumes during conference calls and there is no hiss at all from the Class D Audio amp.
I bought the Furman chasing down noise in a Rotel amp I was trying out. The Furman did nothing for the hiss (sound floor I guess), but swapping out the amp made a difference.
The AirPort Express is much better than Bluetooth for wireless and is an ok DAC. The Topping is a better DAC though. I use the Topping as the pre-amp and there are three digital inputs (USB, Coax, and Optical)
I have a smaller room and sub placement is not great. With the Anti-Mode in the system I was able to cross over the speaker amp at 100hz using Harrison Lab FMods for the high pass cross over.
I had fun shopping and piecing things together. Next up is the garage system :)