For the past few months, since getting out on my own, I have been very intrigued on setting up a nice little home sound system. Nothing over the top but something to listen to vinyl, cd's, and movies through. I have no equipment yet and nothing to base anything off of really. I have a small vinyl collection alot of which was passed down through my parents and a whole lot CD's. I've made up my mind on a beginner turntable but would like to first get speakers and a reciever then start adding from there. I've browsed around a read alot of stuff on here in the past few months but still feel pretty lost. Can anyone point me in the right direction on what reciever I may need to run a basic 2 channel setup with a nice pair of bookshelf or standing speakers. Also, will I need a pre amp to push sound from the TT no matter what reciever or is this something that is built in on some recievers. Thanks for all your help in advance. -Tifore
If you don't want surround sound and the main focus is on music, a 2 channel receiver is the way to go. There are some pretty good ones on the market, and the quality of them depends on how much you're willing to spend and what features you need. NAD, Marantz, and Outlaw (to name a few) make some good 2 channel receivers.
If a radio tuner isn't essential, you should look into an integrated amp. They're basically stripped own receivers - no radio, most of the time have fewer inputs, and lack the bells and whistles that most people either don't use or don't know how to use.
There are far more high quality integrated amps at pretty much every price point than there are 2 channel receivers. If radio would be a niceity, you can always add a seperate tuner down the road.
Some receivers and integrated amps have phono pre-amps. It depends on the manufacturer. Some have very good ones built in, and some leave something to be desired. There are a few very good external phono pre-amps that don't cost much money. Just make sure you add that extra expense and another set of cables in when you deciding what to buy.
So basically, you'll need an integrated amp/receiver, 2 speakers, your sources - CD player, turntable, video player, and all the cables that connect them. Depending on which way you go with the amplification, you may also need a phono pre-amp and/or a radio tuner.
We can help you narrow down some choices, but we need to know budget, room size, etc. before we can steer you in any direction.
Stu- Thanks for your response and all the help. Surround sound isn't something that I am looking into, I'm a big music player and when I do watch movies or TV, I'm not looking for anything over the top. My main use for this whole system would be my TT, CD player and Tuner, followed by my Xbox, if even possible to hookup, and a DVD player. The room that all this would be set up in is 12' x 12'. It has a small bookshelf and couch and my TV, other than that its open, if that effects sound quality at all. My budget for the reciever is around $400 or $500 range but if saving towards the $600 budget is something you would reccommend than I suppose I could save a little longer and do that. I am looking to piece together a system that is going to still be good and reliable in many years to come. I am doing one piece at a time and just trying to research it all as I go.
You may want to go audition whole systems. I've done the piece together routine and sometimes it doesn't work as planned. Find a real audio store, if possible, and ask a few questions. There is a Little Italy in Cleveland.....is that home? Should be a shop in town.
I've tried looking at all the music stores around here, that I know of at least and I haven't had much luck. Only been to the typical, Best Buy, Guitar Center, Sam Ash to name a few. I haven't checked in Downtown Cleveland but I'll venture that way soon enough. Yes Little Italy is home for me here in Cleveland. Its about 15 minutes outside of Downtown. I'm also not really really familiar with this area yet as I have just moved here four months ago from Southern California.
Nuck - Haha. Thats what I get from most people. I really don't mind it here. Call it weird but I actually enjoy the snow and going out and shoveling my thirty foot driveway. DM - I wouldn't say a downgrade, but a big social environment change, hell yes. I am not adverse to buying used but I really don't know what to look for and I get a comfort kind of in knowing that a brand new piece of equipment hasn't been used or abused by anyone. I will check Audiogon.com out to see what they carry. I am still kind of looking for some sort of direction as to what exactly I should be looking for in a reciever. Alot of the posts I read on here talk about products using acronyms and that just down right confuses me. In the price range of $400 to $500 for a reciever what kind of wattage per channel should I be looking for. Also having a phono input / pre amp built in is some what important to me. I mainly listen to classic rock, some hair metal and metal and a good amount of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin-esque stuff.
I enjoy shovelling snow too, for the first 2 or 3 snowfalls.
Like Stu mentioned, if listening to the radio isn't very important, I would look into buying a used integrated amp. But it seems you want the tuner option, and if you're not comfortable buying used, I think the Outlaw receiver would be the way to go. I haven't heard it myself, but it gets some pretty good reviews.
DM - Yea, I think its just fun to me for now since its my first time having to do it and living in snow. Ask me how I feel about it in three or four years and we'll see if my answer is still the same. Haha. I would say radio listening is something I would be able to go without for a while. Is the amount and sound of the amplification worth it to go with a integrated amp instead of a reciever with all the built in do-dad's? I'd like to get the most sound clarity that I can for around my price range and like I said earlier, if that means saving more because it just won't be worth it in the long run then I am OK with that. Regarding the Outlaw's, which product number are you guys referring too? I went to their website to see what it was all about and the cheapest reciever I can see is like $700.
I've got the same advice everyone has - go out and hear some gear. Get a sense of what different realistic price points get you. You may feel a $700 integrated amp or receiver gets you a lot more than a $400 or $500 one. You may find its not worth the extra cash.
As far as radio goes, do you have a cable box that does radio stations? Radio tuners are pretty cheap and there's a good amount of them on the market. If you limit yourself to receivers, you're cutting your options pretty short and adding a good amount of cost, as there are few on the market worth having.
Your room isn't very big at all. You can get away with not much power. In your price range (give or take a little bit), you can get great integrated amps from NAD, Cambridge, Rotel, and Marantz. Try to track down dealers for those. You can probably find dealers on their websites. They all make phono pre-amps too, either internal or external.
If you can stretch to $700 and have a Rega dealer near you, check out the Rega Brio. Its a great integrated amp with an excellent built in phono stage. It doesn't have a remote though. Rega also makes speakers, and their discontinued R1 can be found new for under $400. That's an excellent combo that sounds so much better than its price implies.
Do you have speakers yet? If not, what is your budget? Don't think in terms of $X for the amp and $Y for the speakers, try to think of overall budget instead.
Anything with RCA outputs can be hooked up to your integrated amp. An easy way to get the XBox, DVD player, Cable box, etc hooked up is if you have RCA audio outputs on your TV. If so, you'd only have to run one set of cables from the TV to the stereo, as opposed to each component individually. There's a few different ways to do things, and we can get to that later on.
Stu - Thanks for all the great information. I will check into some retailers around me, I never thought of going straight to the website and seeing what the companies had listed. Now that I think of it, I do get radio on a few things around the house and would even suffice to listen to radio through the Xbox for now, since I hope to have that hooked up. As far as hooking everything into my TV and using the audio out on my TV, I don't think thats going to be a option since my TV is pretty old and is also on the list to be replaced. I have started to research, on these forums and just online, more of the integrated amp's and Rega's Brio is one of the ones I have been hearing alot about and would probably work well with my system since I will be getting a Rega P1 here in the next few weeks. Not sure if this will help you narrow it down some for me in your ideas but I'd like the music to be warm in listening, not cold and hallow and also fast to hit all the guitar and drums that make up most of my music that I listen too. Bass isn't a huge concern to me, I don't want a super thumping system, just some speakers capable of allowing you to feel it and know that the bass is part of the song, if that makes sense. I do not have speakers or any part of my system as of yet. I would say that my overall budget for Reciever / Amp & Speakers is right around $1000 give or take a hundred here or there. Hopefully on the lesser side but I am willing to save like I've mentioned.
The Brio may very be something you'll really like. The only downfall of it is that it doesn't have a remote IMO. I know it sounds stupid, but to me its a make or break thing. I don't want to get up every time I need to adjust the volume. If you're connecting your TV to it, it matters more. If your cable is like mine, you need to turn the volume down every time commercials come on, then back up when the show starts. And somehow, I could never get the volume right even when listening to music - I'd get up, turn it down a bit (the speakers are closer), sit down, and realize I turned it down too far, get back up, and on and on. It drove me crazy when I didn't have a remote. You'd think a $700 integrated amp would come with one. And no, you can't add a universal remote like a Harmony.
If it'll be at arm's reach away, that's not an issue.
You can connect pretty much anything by using its analog outs. Depending on what cables you use for your XBox, you could connect the video cables to the TV (ie composite or component), and the audio parts of the cable to the integrated amp.
You could get the Brio and R1 speakers for right around $1100 if you get lucky. I'd try to hear it if at all possible, and hear some other stuff too. Rega's US distributer is The Sound Organisation. You have to call or e-mail for dealers near you. They are very good people to deal with.
Stu - Thanks for all the help on this. The Brio 3 is something I have been looking at after digging a little into the Integrated Amp stuff. Does sound like quite the powerful amp, but like you, I am very shy of it because of the remote issue. The amp would be sitting across the room from me so it would be a big pain in the long run. I recently found a store around here that is a Rega dealer so I hope to pop my head in there soon to hear some equipment. Call this a noobie question or what have you but how does this reciever compare, or is it apples to oranges? http://www.needledoctor.com/Harman-Kardon-3485-Stereo-Receivers?sc=2&category=66 4 I don't think I've even seen Harmon Kardon ever discussed on this forum so forgive me if I'm bringing in some subpar components. When I was originally looking into gear with out making a thread and reading much on here that was one piece that had stuck out to me. I haven't listened to it so I don't know how it performs but based off reviews it sounds pretty well accepted. Based on Specifications what are you guy's thoughts to all of this.
Its no where close to the Mira or Brio. Or even NAD or Rotel integrateds IMO. Others may disagree. Its very good compared to mass market stuff like Sony and Pioneer, but not a worthy contender to hifi brand gear to my ears.
Stu - I figured as much. All in one's will never be as good as piece by piece systems. I guess I'm just so drawn to that one since it doesn't throw my head in a whirlwind like all the piece by piece systems do. Hopefully when I head to the Rega Dealer around here they can help out with the piece by piece stuff a little more. Phono Pre-amps, Integrated Amps, Recievers, Power Treatments.... etc. Its all so carazay! Haha.