Helping a friend build a new system


A good family friend has recently retired and is looking to build a system for his home office. He used to own a nice sound system some 25 years ago but hasn't been actively pursuing the hobby. He was visiting my home a few weeks ago and I guess listening to my system must have inspired him to finally build a new one. He asked me to help set up a new system (new to him, he's willing to buy used). I asked him a bunch of questions to find out what he wants and how much he is willing to spend. His responses are summarized below:

1. Budget -- since he's retired he wants to keep the total system budget to around $7-8K (including cables)
2. Components Needed -- bookshelf speakers, integrated amp, cables. He already has a CD player which would do for now, but he might get into streaming later on. He owns a few hundred CDs.
3. Room size -- around 10x12 with 10 foot ceilings. Fully carpeted with some furniture.  
4. Music genres -- jazz, blues, vocals (he's a big fan of Frank Sinatra, Chet Baker, Billy Holiday, etc.), and R&B
5. Listening preferences -- he is looking for an 'intimate' and cozy experience and wants to try tube amps with high sensitivity bookshelf speakers. He mostly listens at a moderate volume and can be sensitive to high frequencies.

He also mentioned that he has some hearing loss since he's in his early 60s and suffers from a mild case of tinnitus. I'm not sure if this plays a role in the choice of components but I thought it's worth mentioning just in case.

I will really appreciate it if you guys can provide some pointers. Please remember that he is retired so $8k is absolutely the max he can do. System synergy is important. And, please no Tekton or class D recommendations. He really wants to try some affordable tube gear as a starting point.

arafiq

Showing 1 response by rixthetrick

is that you take a bath when if you don't like it and want to sell it.
To experience a major financial loss; also, to fail miserably. This slangy cliché dates from the first half of the twentieth century and originated in gambling. It transfers cleaning oneself in a tub to being cleaned out (see take to the cleaners). It appeared in BusinessWeek on October 27, 1975: “Our profits won’t make up for the bath we took last fall and winter.” In the alternative sense, the University of Tennessee’s newspaper, the Daily Beacon, stated, “As . . . Sen. Robert Dole put it, the GOP ‘took a bath’ in elections for the U.S. House” (Nov. 4, 1982).

Well I'll be, another American idiom I've learnt. Most commonly used in Australia is to lose your shirt.