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Friend needs advice for $8,000 system

My friend is starting out from scratch with an $8,000 budget. He listens to all sorts, but mainly indie rock. He's keen on the Magnepan .7 speakers and lives in a small apartment, so listening room about 4x3 metres. Don't worry about cables. We just need a power amp, a turntable, a cartridge, a phono stage, NOS tubes, and a DAC.


How do we achieve:


Truthful tonality/timbre


Truthful harmonics


Liquid sound


Transparency


Speed/Dynamics/Pace/Rhythm/Timing


Soundstage Coherence



All for $8,000 new.



Cheers!


uberdine
uberdine OP
100 posts
 
Wow. Thanks for the help all.

tomic601, goheelz and phcollie, that's pretty much what I'm thinking, a mixture of all your recommendations. Thanks!
Post removed 
honeyberk
2 posts
 
A friend of mine just helped me get set up for about $5k with the .7s, though I went for a SACD player and not a turntable (plus additional for upgraded power cables, interconnects, etc.):

Maggies - $1,500
Used BGW 500D amp from eBay (prev. owned by a church!) - $250
Custom built QA-112-Mk3 preamp from Space-Tech Laboratory - $850
Bluesound Vault 2i streamer/CD ripper with 2TB drive - $1,300
Used McCormack UDP-1 Deluxe SACD player (one owner) - $650

Either way, the Maggies will make him really happy, as long as he feeds them well! :)
uberdine OP
100 posts
 
gkr7007's avatar
gkr7007
150 posts
 
Since when do .7's cost 3 grand?  You better tell your pal that Maggie's are a bitch to drive and that he's going to need need high current amplification.  Most integrated's are going to get spanked trying to drive those unless they are in the expensive range.  Been there, done that.
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