Help Me Build a Second System For Less than $10000


Hi, I am trying to build a second system for by Bedroom and looking for suggestions . I am planning to spend around $10000 for everything including speakers,pre/pro and Amps. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I am willing to spend a little more if necessary.
veerapaneni

Showing 2 responses by ckoffend

For a $1,000 I would get a Melas Sha 1 or other good headphone amp for a few hundred and budget $400-500 for great used heaphones (see headfi.org). If the budget is $1,000 you really can't buy a DAC that is going to offer you any real notable improvement over the SB and still get the rest of a system (either headphone or otherwise). You can buy a dac if you want, but you won't get any improvement (based on this budget).

For $10K, I would look at a used pair of Gemme speakers (Katanas used are around $3,500 I think)or other brand that are quite forgiving in terms of placement in relationship to performance. An integrated amp (Moon, Krell 400xi, or othes) and look for an older DCS DAC for about $2,500. With cables, etc. . . that should give you a really great sounding used system.

Another fun system would be a pair of Coincident speakers and a Manley Stingray integrated amp - which would have enough power for the Coincident speakers.

I've had systems set up in my bedroom, which is fairly well sized. But in the end, I always end up back with my headphone system for any real listening as I lay in bed and read. . . I do happen to have a pair of speakers hooked up to a DVD player via a crappy little digital Sonic T amp just so that music can play in the background on occassion - but it really isn't used that much for anything other than watching movies (also a rarity). Certainly isn't serious listening oriented.
10-20-11: Veerapaneni
I am going to use Logitech Squeezbox Touch which has digital output. I dont see Bryston Integrated has Digital Input option.

At your budget, you are likely to gain much better performance by using a separate DAC - unless it is one of the plethora of current market $1,000 DACs (they will provide little real improvement over the SB analog out) that only have a high sampling rate chip versus a full audio component with a good power supply and analog section.

Personally, I would look for a used DAC in the $2,000 range that incorporates more than just the latest chipset. You may even want to consider a CDP with digital inputs (like an Esoteric, Moon SuperNova, Levinson 390S, all of which sell for about $3K used - and several others).

Also getting back to the speakers, as I suggested earlier as an option and others have as well, a more highly efficient speaker may be a good choice. Realistically, how often will you be listening at lower volume levesl? Frequently the higher efficiency speakers perform better at lower volume levels, IME.