Hi. I'm finally in a postiion to upgrade myself from Klipsch THX Promedia 2.1 computer speakers, to something that can do proper justice to my love for music, espeically classical music.
I'll be using my Macbook Pro as the 'source' with Apple Music. Macbook only has USB-C outputs so either a iFi Zen type DAC or just a USB-Toslink adapter will be needed.
The constraints are:
- Where I live....Portugal. I sure wish I'd bought this stuff before I moved to Portugal a few months ago! Hard to source things, nearest hifi store is over 3 hour drive, 23% sales tax. So trying a few things out and seeing what works is not really possible. So I need to try and get this right first time - no pressure!
- The Room....my office and it needs to share the space with my sim racing setup (that's a bunch of electronics, 8020 aluminum and 3 x 32" screens. I also have 2 x 27" screens on my desk. I've attached the room layout. Open to ideas on how to move things around, but I don't want my back to the door and I don't want to be staring at the 3 x 32" screens all day long.
- Budget...about €1000 which is around $1200 (as sales tax is included here).
I mainly listen to classical music, opera, piano and violin concertos, symphonies...pretty much anything classical. Getting some sense of 'scale' and 'weight' of the music is important, as is the separation of the instruments so it doesn't sound muddy.
I'm really looking for help on two of the basics.
1) Active vs passive speakers. I've been lurking on forums and doing my research. Lots of people recommend actives for more modest budgets and smaller rooms. But there are very little actual comparisons I can find to an active vs passive setup and in particular how they would cope with complex classical music.
To give some examples in Portugal, I could get a NAD amp (3020v2 or C328) for around €450, then add some Elac b6.2's for €300, giving me around €200 for some stands/DAC etc. If I feel bass is lacking I can always add a sub later. If I'm pushing the budget I could stretch to the Elac Uni-Fi UB52's or Dali Oberon 3's which are €450.
Or for Active's, I could get something like a pair of Focal Alpha 65/HS8/Kali Audio IN5/Eve SC205 for €700 and have some change for....a sub, stands, etc? My instincts want separates, because other than familiarilty of brand names and a spreading of the 'risk', I don't have a real basis for that.
2) Speaker location. I'm sat behind 2 monitors so any speakers at ear height behind the screens and going to hit the screens before my ears. Doesn't sound ideal. Options I can think of are:
a) To give the most distance between my ears and the speakers (to create a soundstage?) I would need to wall mount them on the front wall, so they are angled down to my ears over the tops of the screens.
b) If I didn't want the speakers with the rears so close to a wall (or far from me..about 9 ft), then I could wall mount them on the side walls closer to me, but they'd have to be angled more aggressively downward.
c) If I got slim enough speakers/stands I might be able to squeeze them on stands by the side walls either side of the desk, but I'd have to have them quite far forward so definately not an equilateral triangle
d) I try and squeeze monitors onto my desk. I could do this with my old Klipsch computer speakers but they were very small. Also not sure about how much sound stage I can get with them this close
