2. amps-preamps
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Hi-Fi Lo-Fi

There has been a fair amount of discussion about how hi-fi seems to be a dying hobby. Most people just don’t get it.

And when we suggest that they need to have their house rewired and buy $1000 speaker cables to get good sound it is no wonder that that average person thinks we’re nuts.

We are nuts. Of course.

But that’s another story.

Anyway, I feel like a better way to expand the hobby is by showing folks that they can put together a decent system for less that a half decent speaker cable.

I recently did this. By accident sort of.

My old Toshiba receiver from high school (1980) finally bit the dust. It was the basis for the system down at my cabin.

I’d already replaced my Bose bookshelf speakers with Polk Audio Monitor 70 towers, $180 Craig’s List.

So I needed an amp and radio. We listen to the radio a lot down there. I had a Denon tuner in my home system that I never use. Approx. $110 eBay.

I just bought an NAD 316BEE on eBay, $200. Its 40 wpc and gets great reviews.

I had a Toshiba DVD play. $15 at thrift shop.

That’s $505. Add 12 ga low ox speaker cables and some banana plugs and an outdoor FM antenna and I’m close to $550. Interconnects are mid level RCA that I already had.

Results? Surprisingly good. The old Toshiba receiver was not bad but this NAD really opened up the sound stage...well outside the speakers in fact. And the room (larger main room in a small log cabin) is far from ideal. Bass seems great to me but I’m no bass fetish. I have a large B&W subwoofer but don’t feel the need. Volume and energy are excellent far exceeding levels I would ever actually listen at.

Of course it does not have the richness, clarity and sound stage of my home system. But it cost about 30x less.

Many folks won’t be willing to spend even $500 for a system. I only did so reluctantly and piece by piece.
But for those who really want to get started in hi-fi I think we all ought to be able to point them in this sort of direction to get them started.

Once they’re hooked we can steer them toward the $10,000 speaker cables. ;-)


n80
n80 OP
2,107 posts
 
" I still believe, at " retail "pricing, your gear that was acquired, was over 20 K, based on my familiarity with the gear"

That could be true. I was never able to find actual prices for when some of the components were new.

For what its worth, I'm still enjoying the system and impressed that it works so well after all these years and the abuse it endured before I got it.
paulcreed
539 posts
 
It does sound better when the whole system was bought cheap with killer good deals. I put together a $600 system that really sounds good. My main system would retail over $30,000 without wire. I bought it all used so maybe little more than 1/3 of that. Every time I listen to $600 system I'm amazed what little money can do. I bought a Scott lk48 for $225. I read about the $1000 speaker shootout and a speaker I never heard of won. It was AV 123 Encore with Sking Ninja mods. Which is a GR Research speaker, alpha core, mills, sonicaps for $125 on eBay . A old Exemplar Audio tube Denon 2900CD player for $300 on Audiogon. When the good deals pop up there no time to think about it you have to hit the Buy Now button quick because it's  gone within minutes or hours.

tony1954's avatar
tony1954
936 posts
 
How can we expect people to see the light when their eyes are closed.If all you hear is what comes out of your phone's ear buds or the built in speakers on your TV or laptop, why would you spend the money?If more people could somehow be exposed to high fidelity sound, perhaps they will better understand the reason for our addiction.
n80 OP
2,107 posts
 
tony1954, I think you are correct for a certain percentage of people.  Which is probably small.

My (limited) experience has been otherwise. A few times to my amazement. I have had people who like music listen to songs that THEY LIKE on my system who come away utterly unimpressed. My wife being one of them. They are even less impressed when they find out what such a system costs and when they consider how it would affect the decor of their home (my speakers are 4 feet tall, weigh 140 pounds each and a black......my wife hates them).

So yes, I agree. Folks have to hear good sound to appreciate it. But once that appreciation develops they also need a way to do something about it. If you tell them it will cost as much as their mini-van, BMW......or hot rod snowmobile..... it becomes a harder sell. 

Anyway, I've been down at the cabin listening to my $500 system and it is all too clear that it is not a $20,000 system. But it is also clear that it sounds good enough to enjoy even from an audiophile standpoint, even for periods of serious listening.

I should also clarify something. I'm comparing it to my home system which was probably around $20k new. The system at the cabin would probably have cost around $1200 new. A quick eBay search shows my home system's basic components could be purchased used for about  $6000, closer to $7000 with similar cables.
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