ILX, please help me build a stereo system, from the ground up.

http://www.michell-engineering.co.uk/pic/tur/michell_gyrose.jpg

(Probably out of my price range, but beautiful.)

southall post in 3-2-1

I built my machine at pawn shops for... I think $300. Canadian. When our dollar wasn't even good. I've got a vintage Sony receiver ($75) and two walnut 4 tweet/2 sub speakers ($80), a gemini DD turntable w/ dj skratch needle ($55 thanks ebay!), i completely forget who made my crossfader (free, from a friend).

I guess what I'm trying to say is find a good pawn shop where the guy actually likes stereos, and have him SHOW you how good the receivers and speakers there are before you buy them. And use decent cables. Right now I'm suffering because my cables are REALLY hodgepodge... in fact, I think one of my RCA cables goes to minijack and then FROM minijack before it gets to the source.

Is it near your video system? If so you can skip the CD player in favour of a decent dvd player and/or video game system. I've got an xbox 360 running tversity so I can stream music off of the computer (as well as video). Actually I should take some pictures of my "entertainment unit"-- it looks kind of like dr. frankenstein went into electrical engineering but got really drunk one day and built a weird as hell sound system.

And don't skimp on the headphones.

southall has written entire stylus features on this

I need to replace my receiver, and will probably upgrade to a home theater from my old stereo (which is no longer stereo, hence the need for upgrade.) I am pretty chintzy when it comes to this stuff, but I figure I can go $250 if I must. Sony, Panasonic, Denon and HK are presently front runners, but if I can find an Ebay deal on NAD, I'll go for it.

No video system. I prefer to see movies in the theater; I hate what's on television, and I don't play games. I have several sets of headphones I'm pretty happy with, so that question is moot.

I've had a few bad experiences with pawn shops and secondhand markets, so I'm loath to go that direction unless the dealer is reputable.

i don't even know that you can buy a cd-only player these days without paying a bunch of money for some specialized deck with features of negligible worth. almost everything is a dvd/cd player and they all cost about $100 now.

I guess I can deal with a combo CD/DVD playa. What might those fabled features of negligible worth be, pray thee tell?

they burn their own cds, or have a 300 cd changer, reading off the internet or whatever to tell you the track names, jog dials, "20-Track Music Calendar" (i did not make that up)... etc

hi i am your new 100,000 dollar turntable and i am going to eat you

http://www.needledoctor.com/core/media/media.nl?id=11384&c=ACCT106601&h=6a89053dd4bef8a2a4cb

i'm thinking i might just buy a new rega or thorens turntable. they sound really nice and they aren't expensive at all. plus, they are simple for simpletons like me. nothing to worry about. and they come with decent cartridges.

thorens for 400 bucks:

http://www.needledoctor.com/core/media/media.nl?id=4809&c=ACCT106601&h=cf24a52a7ed58a730e0d

rega P1 is 350 dollars:

http://www.needledoctor.com/core/media/media.nl?id=10507&c=ACCT106601&h=d50b754ed35353333188

those are so much more beautiful than the clunky weird high end ones.

but where are the controls (pitch adjust, arm raise, etc)?

wow, i didn't realize people paid thousands of dollars for speaker cables

what happens when you play shitty dollar bin records on 100k$ record players?

course if i had money to burn i would go up a rung on the thorens ladder of fanciness

http://www.needledoctor.com/core/media/media.nl?id=4793&c=ACCT106601&h=3f6fee22b30f0fc677c8

Libcrypt, that's my turntable at the top of the thread. My MC25FL cart is bust and I did revive an old hi-fi thread to ask about budget replacements, but it sank without trace... I don't want to hijack your thread, but if anyone has any recommendations in the £50-70 range (moving coil preferred, but I'm not sure it matters; NVA can internally modify my phono amp to deal with anything for about £20 plus two-way P&P). There's no way I can afford £250 for another MC25FL (or a retip/trade-in) and while it's a little sad to kiss goodbye to the high-end, it's been a long time coming...

As to yr question, well, contrary to what some others have said, you certainly can still get CD-only playback devices and it sounds like you'd get some worth out of one. Going by your preferred brands, I don't think you'd go far wrong with a matching CD/amp combo from Denon or Marantz. I had a Marantz CD-63KI for years and it was great. Here in London, Denon are very definitely Tottenham Court Road mid-fi territory, and probably the sort of gear the specialist shops sneer at, but sod them.

If you lived here, and you were intent on buying new, I'd probably steer you towards the sort of system I helped assemble for a friend at Xmas: NAD CD/amp, Pro-Ject turntable/NAD phono amp, Q-Acoustic speakers. That came in at about £700, incl stands/cables. I think the US equivalent to Pro-Ject is Music Hall (they're actually built in Pro-Ject's Czech factory). Speakers I'm not sure about, as there's not a lot of transatlantic crossover in brands. B&W have a presence in the US, I'm sure, but I'm not sure whether it's just their high-end stuff.

Let us know how you get on...

"what happens when you play shitty dollar bin records on 100k$ record players?"

the turntable eats them. it eats anything deemed unworthy.

i have never actually owned a cd player, but if i bought one it would be this one:

http://www.vincent-tac.de/pic/big/CDS6front_3.jpg

Dollar bin? We've got loads of 25p thrift-store vinyl LPs and the Gyrodec nutures them like wayward orphans.

Here's the MC25FL in happier times, when the stylus cantilever wasn't bent like a boxer's nose:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1436/683315364_72b7ef360a.jpg

why don't you just buy a cheaper ortofon cartridge? they have quite the range:

http://www.needledoctor.com/Online-Store/Ortofon-Cartridges

i've never owned a 500 dollar needle before! so anything above dismal sounds okay to me, i guess.

plus, the u.s. dollar is weak. take advantage!

Ortofon is a European brand, so the UK prices are actually kinda similar to Needle Doctor's (£85 for OM20Super vs $149, for example); and then there's shipping (ND charged me an outrageous sum for my Grado earpads once) and possible Customs charges. But good call, anyway - the OM range are pretty tempting (as much as it galls to have a DJ deck needle on the Gyro!).

Thanks for the advices, guys. MJ: Yeah, my admirations of yr t'table is what got me thinking again about buying a stereo. I s'pose I should have mentioned that.

What % of my monies do I want to go toward each component?

If you can do the speakers justice by siting them correctly (good stands, plenty of space, proper stereo configuration), then I'd spend more on that end of the chain than on the CD source. I know others disagree - GIGO, they say - but while I reckon you can get very close to the best Red Book digital playback available for a few $hundred, the same is simply not true of speakers. Spend a little more on the amp than the CD source. Turntables, as you probably know, are a law unto themselves in that, outside of the DJ direct-drive realm, they're not really mass-produced any more.

hi folks. i'm moving in with my girlfriend, and she has the world's crappiest boombox rather than a proper system. i have a system, but it's old and i plan to keep it in my office.

we plan on integrating our video and audio systems eventually. meaning we will get a HDTV and a blu-ray and all that crap. so i need a receiver/tuner that can accommodate that. plus a cd player, a few speakers, and a decent turntable. here's the trick: i have no money. well, not NO money. but precious little. so i've been trawling craigslist looking for used stuff. the problem is i don't know what i'm looking for.

so if anyone can recommend stereo components that might be found used on the cheap -- not high-end brands but standard brands -- let me know.

man, looking through this thread made me wish i had money. but i don't.

(i guess i'd need a receiver with enough inputs for: DVD player, Blu-Ray player, TV, CD player, turntable, AirTunes Express, maybe one other...)

the cloud, dude, the freakin cloud.

Maybe something like the Marantz NR1501 would suit your purposes? It's got a shedload of inputs for cd/dvd/etc and 4x HDMI switching for yr blu-ray to HDTV etc. It'll decode and output HD audio from blu-ray, is half the height of a standard AV receiver and reviews see it as very good value for money. As it's a couple of years old I'd guess they show up on craigs, ebay etc sometimes. I'm on the cusp of updating my old 5.1 receiver and this is top of the list.

Caveats: if you go for an all-in-one receiver then you're not likely to get audiophile sound quality from vinyl and CDs (but at the price of the Marantz I wouldn't expect to). You'll also need a surround speaker kit with sub, but again plenty of decent bargains on those (esp. second hand).

so i'm really short on space and am tempted to place my turntable on top of my receiver, rather than on the table to the side of the other components. the turntable has large feet so it won't be resting flush w/ the top of receiver. but is this a terrible idea?

I don't think that's a terrible idea at all. I'm assuming your receiver is solid state and doesn't give off a ton of heat, and hopefully isn't throwing off any weird vibration so what's the harm?

dumb question, but how do i know if it's solid state? most are, i know. but mine is made of a thin metal (not much wood), so i worry that'll vibrate/wiggle a bit too much.

If it was made after say 1970 it's almost certainly solid state. If there aren't glowing tubes you can see inside, and if the top doesn't get hot to the touch I wouldn't worry about it. The only thing I could think of that would make it vibrate would be a bad power transformer or something? But you can probably just put your hand on it and feel if it's a problem. But most likely you have a belt drive turntable which also helps dampen any kind of vibration compared to direct drive, so I really doubt it would be a problem. The vibration of the turntable motor is probably far worse than anything the power amp would generate. At any rate you could give it a try and see what happens. It's for sure not going to damage anything.

i actually have a direct drive turntable. but i'll give it a try and see if there are any problems.

btw what the hell do you call those little cables you plug into your tuner then place near a window to get better AM/FM pickup??

thanks btw for the advice.

actually i have a DJ turntable i got cheap, a Stanton STR8-80. it's a nice machine but not optimal for audio quality I suppose. can anyone recommend a turntable better suited for playback (also for transferring to MP3)? maybe one in the $200 range?

btw what the hell do you call those little cables you plug into your tuner then place near a window to get better AM/FM pickup?

that's an antenna

i know, but is there a more specific term for the little wire? i'm looking to replace it, but search "antenna" and all you get are big bulky plastic/metal antennae!

you can use regular speaker wire for that

really? insulated speaker wire? isn't that overkill?

I'm moving and can't be bothered lugging my pretty bad and pretty broken midi hi-fi system with me, so I guess now is the time to put together a new stereo system? I have a Pro-Ject Debut III turntable and, um, whatever pre-amp I got with that, but besides that I'm starting fresh and clueless - what do I need and how do I get it for pref under £200? (Not really looking for anything but the basics, but basics of reasonable quality would be good.) Would a DVD player suffice as a CD component?

question mark question mark question mark.

(also I'm sure there's a much longer thread on this topic than this one, but I couldn't find it, so if that has the answers please just point me there.)

I have a pretty basic question that I've needlessly complicated because I'm kind of an idiot and paranoid about damaging my stuff:

I have a simple stereo system set up, with a receiver, single pair of speakers, and a turntable with built-in preamp hooked up to the MD/tape inputs. I picked up a 3.5mm to RCA adapter to hook up my PC to it as well, but I don't have any inputs specifically designated as Aux; just an additional pair of RCA inputs for CD. Is there any actual difference with line levels I should care about or will I probably be fine just plugging it right in?

CD inputs are line level and can be used as aux inputs no worries

Awesome, thanks!