What direction to take.


Hello all hope everyone's having a good day.

I am a musician by trade and I have finally decided to begin and assemble a music listening room. The room in question will be double as an office. My room is 11 1/2 X 18 X 10 ' tall. I don't know how much I want to spend because I don't really know how much it would cost to get a decent set-up. If anything right now I am willing to spend around 6-800 dollars. Now here's my delima.

I spoke to one of my friends and he suggested with my budget I should get some really good studio Active monitors. That would yield the best bang for the bucks. He recommended two brands to look at Genelecs and Dynaudio. Such as the Genelecs 1029a and dynaudio bm-10. My questions two all of you is what is the difference in listening enjoyment with active monitor with hi-fi speaker set-up?

Now the other route I can take is just using my computer and getting a good integrated amp (don't know what that means) and then get some decent speakers. Onix online has a good sale of a onix a-60 amp with their .5 reference monitors. is that good? I don't know. Would this type of set-up give me more choices and flexiblity later on. My biggest worry about getting studio monitor is sound quality and listening enjoyment.

Maybe this can help with the type of sound I like. I am a big headphone collector and I own and enjoy the Senheissers hd-580 and the Etymotics 6 and 4s and also own a pair of shures 3's.

My main question to everyone is in what way should I spend my money. Buy some good active monitors or start buying components slowly? What yeilds a better sonic quality and listening enjoyment?

Finally feel free to list what you would do with the budget listed. If the budget needs to increase say a to maybe a thousand I would be willing to do that aswell. So have fun and help me out please.

Thanks alot everyone
daimbert
You hit on the mark. I do eventually want to upgrade my eq so I figured seperates would be better and would give me the flexiblity not supplied in active monitors.

Thanks for the reponses Dweller, Tobias. What have you heard of Marantz intergrated/amps? Was thinking one of them. Should I buy an amp that is surround sound capable while am at it for future or just stick with simple 2-channel?

Give me more suggestions on speakers and intergrated amps people much needed. thanks.
Daimbert,

First of all don't forget to go out and listen. With that said. Using you computer as a source is a good way to start. You can use .wav files or flac files with the right media player.

A squeezebox ($250.00) connected from your computer via ethernet or USB to an integrated is one way to go.

As far as an integrated NAD is a good choice. C320BEE is $400.00.

I am a devout B&W fan so my choice would be DM600 S3 at $350.00 a Pair. These are monitors so you would need stands.

That puts the total at $1000.00 which is already pushing your budget and does not include wire and speaker stands.

Michael
Amp:
Panasonic XR55 Receiver $250
Unbeatable for sound & versatility at its price point.

Speakers:
Alegria Audio Ling $389
http://www.us.alegriaaudio.com/Ling.htm
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue20/alegrialing.htm

Cables:
Radio Shack, Blue Jean Cable or Home Depot.

Good Luck!