In case it’s useful to anyone else, here’s where I ended up on this project:
Total: ~ $800
Sounds at least as good as $800 gets you. My baseline = Micromega M-100, Nola Boxer gen 1, Dynaudio Stand6, REL R-328, redbook, .flac, Tidal.
- amp/dac: Yamaha RX-V485 AVR, $349 new <= 80w 2ch 8ohms at 0.09% THD, TI/Burr-Brown PCM5101APWR DAC circuit, decodes .alac, .flac, aiff to 192kHz/32-bit; DSD support to 11MHz, Tidal to whatever their non-MQA max is, Spotify to 328Kbps
- speakers: Paradigm Mini Monitor v7 $300 new <= 75Hz-22 kHz ±2dB, max input 80w
- stands, interconnect, misc $140 <= Sanus Stand26, Monoprice 14awg, generic banana plugs, etc
Total: ~ $800
Sounds at least as good as $800 gets you. My baseline = Micromega M-100, Nola Boxer gen 1, Dynaudio Stand6, REL R-328, redbook, .flac, Tidal.