Beginner Audiophile Setup

[MDP]

Hi all - I am new here!

I have recently become an audiophile, converting all my music into lossless formats and purchasing in-earphones for my iPod - It's amazing!

Although, I would like to expand my interest by purchasing a nice audio setup for my room that can play back CD, SACD and DVD-A. Can anyone recommend me an inexpensive, but good quality surround-sound setup to get started?

Also, can I use speakers from older setups with others? - this might reduce the overall cost...

Cheers!

 

[Haoleb]

How much money do you want to spend, What do you mean by old speakers. And are you sure you want to go in the surround sound direction vs 2 channel stereo.

 

[MDP]

I am looking at a total price of $1000AUD - I could go over if I needed to.

I have these two, big speakers that seem to produce a nice sound - It's just the amplifier is quite old now, so I might be able to hook these up to a new amp?

I was considering 2 channel stereo, but I heard that SACD is best with surround sound. Does SACD sound good with two speakers?

 

[Haoleb]

SACD sounds fine with two speakers, The only advantage to surround is that some include a 5.1 mix.

SACD will sound alot better on two good speakers vs 5 mediocre ones. Also, Keep in mind that because something is old doesnt always mean its not any good anymore. There are some older peices of equipment which are still very sought after, and which sound quite good. If you could find out exactly what you have already we can help make a reccomendation on where you can go from here.

 

[MDP]

After having another look at the old speakers, it is obvious that they have been disintegrated due to age. Although, I found some more smaller speakers that seem to be in good condition:

Specifications: "TEAC 5111 - Two-way, 2" tweeter, 4" woofer, 60-20,000Hz frequency response, 50 watt maximum power at 8 ohms."

Is this any good?

I also found my older CD Player, a "TEAC PD-230 Compact Disc Player", and my Amplifier, a "TEAC TA-680 DC Integrated Stereo Amplifier", with the speakers. I'm expecting these to be quite ancient...

 

[jcPanny]

Inexpensive SACD and DVD-A playback

Check if the Oppo Digital dvd players are available over there. The DV970 offers SACD and DVD-A playback (in addition to DVD upscaling) for $150 US.

Also list some speaker brands that are readily available.

 

[Seth=L]

After having another look at the old speakers, it is obvious that they have been disintegrated due to age. Although, I found some more smaller speakers that seem to be in good condition:

Specifications: "TEAC 5111 - Two-way, 2" tweeter, 4" woofer, 60-20,000Hz frequency response, 50 watt maximum power at 8 ohms."

Is this any good?

I also found my older CD Player, a "TEAC PD-230 Compact Disc Player", and my Amplifier, a "TEAC TA-680 DC Integrated Stereo Amplifier", with the speakers. I'm expecting these to be quite ancient...

You are in desperate need of good speakers. The Teacs aren't going to get you anywhere close to high fidelity unfortunately. Speakers and room acoustics have the largest effect on the SQ of a sound system. In your case we will just start with the speakers. Once you get a list of available speaker brands I would suggest going out and trying to listen to as many speakers as you can and see what you like. The Teac amplifier and CD player could actually work fine for a while so if you wanted to divert most of the budget to the speakers and an Oppo if you can get one that would probably be best. Then later you can upgrade the amplifier, chances are the Oppo will perform well as a CD player, at least better than the Teac.

 

[MDP]

I am planning on heading to my local electrical hardware store today to get an idea on what speakers are available to me.

Could anyone recommend some speaker brands/models to be on the look out for? What about SACD players?

 

[BoomBoom]

sorry for the revival of an old thread but was just wondering if anyone knows the rough RMS power out put on the TA-680 DC amp?

 

[lsiberian]

sorry for the revival of an old thread but was just wondering if anyone knows the rough RMS power out put on the TA-680 DC amp?

http://www.teac.com/consumer_electronics/contact/ in general your best bet is to contact the company, but depending on the weight of the amp and number of channels you can get a good idea of the wattage. Please not that it takes about twice the watts to make a truly noticeable increase in sound when you are not focusing on sound level. +3db. So I don't suggest you worry too much. Chances are if the amp is in good working order it can drive most speakers to reasonable levels. 3-way speakers would be the only type where I might be concerned. Any 2-way should be easily driven by a decent amp to reasonable levels. What speakers are you looking at?