2. misc-audio
  3. 182532-162255

Really Inexpensive Systems That Sounded Great?

I think there is a big difference between "cheap" and inexpensive. I have blown money on "cheap" cables and immediately regretted it when my ears started bleeding from the brightness in my digital components. I also don’t mean "bargains" like the time I scored $2000 speakers for $200 on Craigslist, that is basically luck.

I am talking about inexpensive (less than $1500) for a system that sounded really great to you.

I fell into a whole house audio system from DTS Play-Fi because I wanted to try and compare different brands. I picked up Play-Fi amps, preamps and active speakers made by Polk, Paradigm, Klipsch, Onkyo and DefTech all for less than $1000 a pop. For what it is, whole house audio/casual listening it sounds great.

What inexpensive great sounding systems have you tried?

 

kota1

Showing 2 responses by kh6idf

kh6idf
28 posts
 

I've been enjoying listening to our living room / tv system comprised of Raspberry Pi 4 source, HDMI out to tv, tv optical digital out to a Nuforce DDA-120 integrated and a pair of Polk R300 speakers.

Playing Qobuz at 16/44.1 (limited by what the TV will pass thru), it sounds good enough to definitely hold my attention.

RPi 4 was about $100 (running Raspberry Pi OS and Qobuz in the Chromium browser), DDA-120 was I think $275 used, and Speakers were $100/pair on sale.

kh6idf
28 posts
 

The Nu-Force DDa-120 has gotten rave reviews and that sounds like a MUCH better way to listen to TV. Can you run the Pi via USB into the amp?

Yes, I have tried connecting the Pi directly to the DDA-120 with USB.  But I read a quote from someone at NuForce that said it sounds best using the optical input.  Plus the USB is supposedly limited to 24/96.

 

 

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