Novice Audiofile Recommendations

[JackB]

Hi All,

I am a college student on a budget looking to enter the world of great audio shortly and was looking for some advise.

I am huge into music and I watch movies fairly infrequently which is what led me towards a 2.1 channel set up. I love listening to music loud, but every speaker I've used until now distorts at high volume, has poor construction, and very little instrument separation. But, I'm getting a bit hung up what what components to choose.

Amp
As of now I don't have the budget to do a proper separate pre-amp and power-amp system so I am looking into integrated amps. Most of my music is high quality lossless audio files so I need a great DAC and clean amplification. I was doing research and the amp that kept hitting all the marks was the Cambridge Audio CXA 80 as it has ample digital inputs and clean punchy power delivery.

Loudspeaker
I am looking for a great pair of bookshelf speakers over tower speakers because I would rather have the sub woofer do all the heavy lifting and if I ever migrate to a 5.1 setup I can transition the bookshelf's to the surround speakers and pick up nicer towers. This is where I really can't decide, some of the bookshelf speakers I was looking at include ELAC, Martin Logan, and more recently SVS's Ultra Bookshelf Line.

Sub-Woofer
SVS SB-2000. SVS is a great name in subs and I planned on picking one of them up.

If anyone has any recommendations or experience with any of these products it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[rojo]

Hey Jack, and welcome!

Since movies are in your plan, infrequent as they may be, consider powering your speakers with an AVR. Besides offering adequate power (a 200W dedicated amp only provides 3dB more output than a 100W AVR, assuming both are fairly rated), an AVR also gives you the ability to correct the room response of your speakers, as well as providing a path to add more speakers should the need arise. Besides, not all music is 2-channel. And watt-for-watt, an AVR is generally cheaper than an integrated amp. You can save more by buying refurb. (My Marantz is a refurb from A4L. It was indistinguishable from brand new, and it's been operating flawlessly for going on 2 1/2 years so far.)

If you want higher sensitivity to play louder without straining the speakers, maybe towers wouldn't be the worst idea, even if you do intend to use a subwoofer. Towers generally offer higher sensitivity, offering more dB per watt than a similar bookshelf. If you're married to bookshelf speakers, then the Hsu HB-1 MK2 comes to mind as having a reasonably neutral timbre with higher than usual sensitivity. See this review for a set of measurements. Or MTM speakers would be another option for higher sensitivity, such as the Ascend Acoustics CMT-340 SE with matching pedestal stands.

A ported sub will offer more output than a sealed. It's false to assume that sealed subs are more musical than ported. Both sealed and ported can be well or poorly designed, chasing the -3dB numbers game with little attention paid to the sort of control that is rarely documented by subwoofer manufacturers. If you have an aversion to vented but you still want high output, perhaps a vented Rythmik servo sub would put your mind at ease. Not that a servo sub is required for tight response from a vented sub, but it might help to ease your tainted perceptions; and Rythmik subs do offer very good performance for their price.

What is your budget for amp / receiver + speakers + sub? If you have a particular room in mind for this stuff to live, can you tell us its cubic footage, as well as your intended distance from seats to main speakers?

 

[JackB]

Thanks for all the valuable advise. Knowing my exact room size is a ways off as I'll find out when I move into an apartment. But my goal is to have an apartment with few walls and lots of open space. My budget is probably around 3k for speakers, sub, and receiver.

I see what you're saying with the AVR. The only reason I was shying away from them was because of the limited budget. My thought process was in avoiding "feature packed" AVRs I could allocate my limit budget towards a greatly engineered stereo receiver, but I could be wrong. If any AVR I would be looking for one without bluetooth, wifi, apps, and all the extra bs the package into it and focus on the quality of the internals.

Thank you for the recommendations.

 

[rojo]

Well, bass management in a 2-channel amp or a stereo receiver will add to your cost, so you might as well go for an inexpensive AVR. If $3000 is a hard ceiling, here are a few high sensitivity options:

refurb Denon AVR-X2000 -- around $300
Ascend CMT340 SE -- $568
stands -- $178
Rythmik FVX15 -- $909
total: $1955

refurb Denon AVR-X2000 -- around $300
XTZ Sound 95.44 -- $1000
Rythmik FVX15 -- $909
total: $2209

refurb Denon AVR-X2000 + KEF Q900 * 2 -- around $1700
Rythmik FVX15 -- $909
total: $2609

refurb Denon AVR-X2000 -- around $300
Hsu Hybrid 15 2.1 -- $1332
glass stands -- $75?
total: $1707

If you can exceed your budget a bit, you can go a step or two up in revealing transparency of sound.

refurb Denon AVR-X2000 -- around $300
Salk SongTowers -- $2200 shipped?
Rythmik FVX15 -- $909
total: $3409

A similar sound could be achieved with the Philharmonic BMR's or the Salk SongSurround II's, just with less efficiency. They might not play as loud as the SongTowers, but both (like the SongTowers) would certainly qualify as "audiophile". If shaking the floors and frightening the neighbors with your bass isn't a priority, you might find the output of the Rythmik LV12R adequate (and it ought to best the sealed SVS SB-2000 in any case).

Hope this gives you some ideas! For sound quality, if you can afford it, the Salk solution would be best. Since you're looking at apartments, the less expensive LV12R would probably be better than the windowpane-flexing FVX15 anyway.

Regarding your original speaker choices, the SVS Ultra bookshelfs would probably be the best of them. They are a worthwhile option, although for your preference to listen loud I thought you might prefer options with a sensitivity of 90dB or greater.

You might also send @AcuDefTechGuy a PM and ask whether he has any RBH Sound recommendations within your budget. He's an authorized dealer, and might be able to offer you a bargain.