Very new to high end audio - Recomendations

“Beware of anyone who says they know. Trust me, they don't, or they wouldn't have to say they did.“

meridian dsp5000's then, they are like retaining walls lmao

Welcome and Congratulations!

Can't help but recall my surprise at the cost of a decent stroller/car seat.
Also a vivid memory of a young families concerned over their 150 pound speakers tipping over, which I'm listening to at this moment. 

oh and thanks dearly! @mesch :)

I get that nothing at that price is high end. That wasn't my intention. It was to ask the knowledgeable people of something that was of good quality at that budget; As the title states.
Any response outside of that is only floggin the donkey. 

You cannot enter high end at £1,000. Period. Just being honest.

I spent $1,000 … in 1969! I was 14-15 years old, I saved my lawn mowing money etc and I built my own Dyna 70 amp and Dyna PAS preamp, combined them with Advent speakers and Garard turntable. That was quality entry level at the time. 

That’s $7,439 in today’s $s (£5,216).

The snarky responses I see from others here - you know who you are - does nothing to encourage this person to explore.

theaudioatticvinylsundays.com

Well, congrats are in order! 

Might have to scrap new speakers for now, the missus just announced she's got a baby in the oven

20 year old DSP with internal amplifiers would give me pause...

Steve59 is spot on.  You should be able to get a pair of used Meridian DSP5000s within your price range.  They are excellent speakers.

cheers @vitussl101 
Yeah I went to sevenoaks in cambridge for a sit down in their demo room, decorated in a typical loungeroom setting, no clutter eg, for the KEF meta. lovely speakers but I felt lacked mid and a bit of bottom end. the highs were sparkly though. not for me as loudspeakers in front of the room. Without the demo, I probably would have impulse bought. 

You're in the UK ( £1000 ) ?   If you are , you must have some good audio dealers near enough to visit.  The kind where you can sit down and listen in hopefully an uncluttered  fashion, not some room just full of equipment.  An audiophile is an enthusiast like in any hobby.  It's the path down a road to hopefully get you where you want to be in the hobby of reproducing music in your home.  And starting with a quality audio dealer or two or three if possible where you can listen to several systems , setups in a no rush way  and staff  that really enjoy what they do and maybe explain why they like the equipment that they sell.  Simply accumulating a bunch of disparate opinions on the web will just confuse you more.  Go listen;  if you like what you hear, don't be afraid to say "I like that".

These puppies?https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-1980s-Meridian-M3-Active-Hifi-Monitors-Speakers-with-101-Preamp-/...

Umm?

Active for a grand? Vintage meridian. Thank me later

What are the B&W CM4's like? How much would you pay for a second hand pair?

@noromance  yeah I wish I did too.

With the LS50 you can easily add a KEF KC62 sub in the future. I run a 10 year old LS50s (can guy these for $900 today) driven by 380 watts of Benchmark AHB2 mono power in a second system.  It is pretty amazing sound, especially now with the sub. Even 100 watts of power will work great with the LS50.

A lot of people want to buy the LS50 Meta that recently came out so there are a lot of old LS50s available today (like my one which I am not selling).

Kef LS50 w power, they took the time and money in hat version to correct  time and phase….

Should have listened to the Silvers instead of the 50s. 

I felt they lacked mid. But could also have been whatever the amp setting was on. I didn't play with the amp

A colleague has a set of Kef Ls50's, I think driven by a Musical Fideloty amplifier.  I felt the bass was amazing for such a small speaker but I thought the highs were too sharp and biting.

I had a listen to some KEF ls50 meta today. Sounded quite good. For less money they also had some monitor audio silver floor towers. Didn't have time to listen to them though. 50% though..

Used of course, from trusted seller. Active speakers are a good way to keep the cost down and get great sound. Not as easy to upgrade, so just sell them when you're ready to spend the big $$. 

For that money, you can’t go wrong. Unless the seller is flogging off a damaged pair. I’m not really sure what you are aiming for though. With a decent source and a clean amp, the MA Bronze will be fine.  You'll need a pair of speaker stands. If that's not a thing, look at floorstanding speakers.

@noromance  monitor audio have many good products, bronze br2 on eBay for £95. Any thoughts on the bronze line?Ive also been looking at the KEF LSX.

What makes a 'loudspeaker' any different to a studio monitor, or bookshelf etc, they look basically the same?

In the old days, monitors were for analysis, loudspeakers for listening.

In the 80's Yamaha NS-10 loudspeakers became ubiquitous pop music small monitors in studios. IMO, sonics suffered from using them. Later Genelec self powered. I never cared for either, monitoring or listening.

Might be a good idea to state the size of the room you intend to put a system in, and what you are looking for in sound? Hi Fi 2 channel only? some home theater ? small room ? etc

this is now proving impossible to settle on a decision. 

Check out the Canor amps high end build quality and sound at affordable prices .Tube and solid state. The Audio Hungary makes nice tube amps too. But the dealers got together and jacked up the prices. That is what those positive reviews will do .

@noromance 
didn't even see that futile response. I must have a twat filter on

ah, and loudspeaker to fill a room of sound I assume. Makes sense 

@death_block As you are in the UK, look at Monitor Audio. 

What makes a 'loudspeaker' any different to a studio monitor

I'm not a pro but a monitor generally has to fulfill a number of criteria. 
1. Flat frequency response within its range.
2. Small enough for close in use so the sound imparted to the engineer is not caused by room reflections etc.

What makes a 'loudspeaker' any different to a studio monitor, or bookshelf etc, they look basically the same?

I didn’t realise JBL made decent gear. Where I come from (Australia) JBL is very popular in the mainstream electronic entertainment chain called JBHIFI. JBL products flooded the shelves with crappy portable bluetooth and headphones/speakers aimed at the average consumer who listens through music with their iphones. Is this the same JBL?

Search results: 'jbl' | JB Hi-Fi (jbhifi.com.au)

For that thousand pound budget, try some used equipment first. You can always sell it if not to your taste. And, james633 has a great idea: JBL sells at deep discounts all the time (my son scored a pair of Studio 570 at 50% of retail, they sound very fine with a stack of Carver from the 1980s: C2 pre, m200t amps monoblocked, Schiit Modi3 and laptop source). 

@richdirector  I've really been admiring the KEF LS50's apart from wireless, are the MKII the way to go or the normal LS50 work really nicely aswel? im not to fussed on wireless.


No thoughts on the paradigm monitor 5's?

For that budget KEF Ls50 active monitors Second hand as have streaming inbuilt  1/2 box simple solution 

Knowledge always starts from the beginning :)

Knowledge is almost zilch when it comes to speakers/amps etc.

You’ll fit right in. [Sorry, couldn’t resist]

Most here are FanBoys. Ignore ALL specific recommendations. No one has your taste in music, response, level or R O O M !

IMO, powered speakers are a risk. They are convenient for recording engineers that move from studio to studio. I've never heard a pair that I’d want to take home.

You can fine tune separates with cables and amplifiers. FWIW, which is zero, I had the same speakers for 35 years and 5 different amps and about the same number of cables for both interconnect and speaker. [Truth in advertising dept: Speakers were Spica TC-50 and I place coherence over frequency response six ways to Sunday.]

Since you referenced quid, search out some High End HiFi shops relatively close by. [Distances are much less in the UK than here in the US.] Time spent now trolling the waterfront will keep money in your pocket later. If you are in one of the bigger burgs, there may be a HiFi or Tube society. Worth checking out.

Bonne Chance!

Hello,
I am going to suggest the PSB AM5. These are a lot less than your budget. This is a lot of powered speakers for the money. It even has a built in Phono amp. With your left over money I would invest in a used subwoofer. Not to rock out but to get great sound even at low levels. Another powered speaker is the KEF LSX. These really rock plus come in cool colors. They are baby LS 50s. No sub needed for now and you have full capability but no phono preamp. $1000 is just under your budget and they just upgraded these so you can find the previous model for a few $100 less. You cannot go wrong with these two. It looks like you are in Europe. If someone else wants to check out these two powered speakers and several more and live in the Chicagoland area this brick and mortar has all of this to try out before you buy. https://holmaudio.com/
Later you can add the matching KEF KC62 sub that plays down to 11hz. Also, The big brother KF92 that also plays down to 11hz but 50% louder. KEF makes killer products. 

At some point you’ll outgrow active speakers due to its non flexibility. It could happen pretty fast, so my suggestion is to go class A amplification with high sensitivity speakers….pay a lot of attention to preamplification as sound signature depend on it a lot…tubes are preferred….be ready to do a lot of experiments (speakers positioning, cables rolling, power sourcing, room treatment etc..)  

thanks for all the comments! What are your thoughts on paradigm monitor 5 floorstanding speakers?

death_block ... this may be the future to music consumption.  That is, a smart phone/ ipad/ laptop with powered speakers.  A concept that is largely rebuffed here but has high return for cost and at the end of the day sounds very, very good.  Check these guys out ... perhaps you can find some used.  Let us know!

https://www.elac.com/category/powered-speakers/

Audio gear is just like high-end watches.

A watch may cost 40k and the other $400 or $4000

Yes, in both watches and HiFi, there is an enormous price range.
However, with watches, even $50-$100 can get you a quartz watch that keeps nearly perfect time. With HiFi, with respect to sound quality, there is no equivalent to the $100 Timex. In my opinion, you are unlikely to get a "high end" component audio system for £1000, even with used gear.

For that budget, if you’ve ruled out headphones (because sharing music with family and friends is the goal), have a look at some of the Sonos or Bluesound units. A single Bluesound Pulse 2i might work, or maybe a pair of the Bluesound Pulse Flex 2i units. Products like this can sound quite good. They take up little space,and are easy to set up and use. If you later invest in a more expensive component HiFi system, the Sonos/Bluesound units should be easy to integrate as satellites for a bedroom or kitchen.

For a little more, you might be able to find a pair of used, high-quality bookshelf speakers and a used integrated amp with WiFi built in. Maybe have a look at something like the Totem Dreamcatchers and a Bluesound Powernode.  The Totems might be ~$300+ USD used on eBay, the Power Node 2i about $700 new. 

What I don’t get is why would you have to look here? It’s not rocket science to assemble a nice system. I had/have a nice set up long before looking here...

+1 on hifishark. You can filter for the UK.

A small integrated and a pair of small speakers may be found new for about £1000 and if you go used you can get better speakers. Some amps also include a dac but it may be worse than your dap. Or equal.

Marantz PM6007 may be for you. 

I just saw that Dynaudio has active speakers called Xeo 10. A bit over your price but you could look for sales.