Looking for a 2.1 setup for music and home theater

The Quad Z2 are amazing sounding they were $2500 now $2k add a $1k Paradigm Defiance sub which is shockingly good for $1k or the larger 12 inch for $1299 and you will have one terrific package.

The Quad Z2 uses an extraordinary Ribbon tweeter that is smooth yet with superb detail and the speaker throws a huge soundstage. 

The Quad loudspeakers have won numerous awards in the UK for their stunning sound quality. 

http://www.quad-hifi.co.uk/product-detail.php?pid=30

https://www.paradigm.com/en/ported/defiance-x12

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Quad and Paradigm Dealers

With your preferred music, I'd look to ATC.  Here's a nice pair of SCM40s v2 in your price range, shipped from God knows where, but they have good feedback and $190 to ship.  They require a bit of power, and maybe @audiotroy can recommend a good amp for these since I believe they sell ATC.  Great speakers!  Best of luck. 

https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lis94a3j-atc-scm-40-passive-in-cherry-full-range

What would you suggest bookshelf/stand wise instead of those Dalis if paring with the suggested setup? Not big on their aesthetic.

Op you can use the streaming services or not, you may find that the streaming services built into the amp might sound better than your computer into the amp.

Obviously you can just get an integrated amp with a built in dac, the  NAD C 658/Nuprime combo was astonishingly good, as we stated before this combo trounced a Hegel H190 which is a highly regarded $3,500.00 intergrated amp/dac combo, and the  Nad's room correction option can really help with difficult rooms.

There is no troubleshooting just the oposite you pick up your Iphone or Android device and launch the app and you are playing music instantly the computer directly into a dac is much more complicated and more likely to be problematic as sometimes dac's drop out and need to be rebooted or may have some issues with playing files and then you have to use an Ipod or Ipad or tablet to screen mirror your computer so actually more to go wrong. 

Williewonka we sell the Power Node it is very good for $800 but it is not anywhere near the C 658/Nuprime combination that we mentioned, it is also less then half price. Personally the C 658 is like a much better Node with Dirac room correction and a lot of inputs and outputs. 

Erik the Dali's are insanly smooth loudspeakers with the ribbon comming in at 15k or so to add a bit of detail to a speaker whose treble is a soft dome, Dali's are known to be warm and musical yet possessing a  good amount of bass, never ever heard a Dali loudspeaker called bright and we have been working with the brand for years.

The Luxman is terrific and so is the Mytek however that combo will far exceeed the OP's total budget.

The Peachtree option is a good one a lot of value there and some pretty good sound and dac. Personally we love the idea of having inexpensive sepates they will allow you to upgrade later hence our original recommendation. 

Good luck OP we sell a lot of budget oriented high end lines, Rega, Peachtree, Nad, Nuprime, Kef, Dali, Paradigm, and others feel free to contact us if you would like to throw around some ideas.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ 

Read the Swarm threads and ditch the idea of a single sub.

Get a primialuna and Tekton speakers.  Great sound for the price. 

Thanks to everyone for your responses thus far.

One thing to note, I am not really concerned about streaming services or "internet of things" "connected devices" at all. 

I work in tech, and prefer to keep my home setup more simplistic so I'm not troubleshooting stuff all the time. Just want something reliable and well well paired.

Personall loathe current Dali. They are bright sounding and bright measuring. They give you extra detail for the first few minutes and then are pretty uncomfortable. I know I am in the minority.

Instead of a 2.1, strongly suggest a 2.5 speaker tower like a Monitor Audio. Superbly performing.


Subs are great, and hard to really configure correctly. It's luck. Better a 2.5 way speaker that is narrow, high sensitivity and will mate with the room more easily.

I'm using a Mytek Brooklyn with Luxman 507ux. Love the combination.


Mike Rose at Excel Audio sells both, but he has 505ux (almost same amp) for $2,500.

If you go this way, do not go with Marantz. :-)


Best,

E

I switched to a 2.1 system for my A/V setup when we moved - I wanted something simpler that my wife could operate...

- Blusesound Powernode2
- B & W sub-woofer
- Tannoy Fusion 4 speakers

My room size is 25 x 26 with a cathedral ceiling 15ft high

I find it loud enough and very high quality sound.

The sub connects via a single ended RCA cable from the Bluesound.

The Bluesound streams most services and also from a NAS drive where I keep all my music. It can also strean from any device via bluetooth. I have it hooked up via Ethernet

Hope that helps

Would look used on speakers to stretch your budget.

Somethinng like spatial M3 s turbos are dynamic as you are used to klipsch. It’s a really good speaker for the money. Or depending on the size of your room, I like the OHM walsh speakers bang for buck. They have some nice 2.2000s right now on their outlet site. But speakers are so individualized to what you like and your space. The tekton double impacts at 3k are a fun speaker. Used they can be found for less. The spatials and tekton are really efficient so you don’t have to have a beast of an amp.

Maybe be a peachtree integrated, there have been some recertified showing up on eBay and other sites.

But it at that budget level, used speakers would really help you get more bang for the buck if you are open to it. With the digital end and needs, it’s a balance between having what’s current vs value,