Small Hi-Fi / CD system for home? Ideas?

Creed_Clicks

Hi guys and gals. I'm on the lookout for a small hi-fi system for home. Not too small, but nothing huge either. I'm thinking along the lines of the Onkyo CS-265 but maybe should consider something where I can connect via bluetooth as well. Budget would be around £200/£250. (Denon would be a bit out of my budget but I hear good things.)

Argos for example would suggest several options (any of them would potentially work)

I guess I'm trying to get the best sound quality for this budget but am aware that this budget will only give me only so much quality, which is ok.

On a side note, I'm also going to buy a regular turntable and may or may not try to hook it all up together... (or at least maybe plug it into the speakers)

scrumhalf

If you want to hook up a turntable you may need a phono preamp to get the signal to the right level. At your price range it's probable that the system you want won't have a phono input.

As ever, my recommendation would be to have a look at Richer Sounds: https://www.richersounds.com/

Creed_Clicks

scrumhalf said:

If you want to hook up a turntable you may need a phono preamp to get the signal to the right level. At your price range it's probable that the system you want won't have a phono input.

As ever, my recommendation would be to have a look at Richer Sounds: https://www.richersounds.com/

Yeah, I guess so. Maybe I should look at something with a phono input then. Any recommendations here? (I'll have a look at Richer Sounds)

darthed1981

Something like this?

https://www.richersounds.com/denon-dm41-dab-silver-q-acoustics-3010-matte-graphite.html

Grumpyrocker

Some of the entry level turntables by quality brands like Project and Rega now feature line-out options, so you don't necessarily need a phono-amp at the budget end yet keep the quality up. 

Rocker

At that budget, I would go for a file based music system. Buy an amp plus speakers. Source: an iPod, laptop or desktop computer. Rip the music from CD at as high a nitrate as possible, FLAC is one of the best. Ripping software is free if you use Exact Audio Copy. Music player: Foobar2000 also free. Connect the source to the amp with a standard stereo mini jack to stereo phono leads cable. 

Sit it back and enjoy the music. 

Ps. Vinyl is a very expensive way to listen to music. The TT is costly, the phono stage ditto and the disks are outrageously priced. Hence my suggestion to rip upon music to FLAC or similar files. 

Creed_Clicks

I have a collection of digital, CDs, and a small collection of vinyl. I'm keeping the "best of" my CD collection and getting rid of the rest.

Philly_Q

The last few days I keep seeing pop-up adverts for the Brennan B2.  It seems to be essentially a stand-alone hard drive and music player which can hold the equivalent of 5,000 CDs in FLAC format (depending on the size of the hard drive).

Sounds quite good, but I guess you can do the equivalent on a PC or laptop with the appropriate software.  Anyone tried one?

TTony

Philly_Q said:

The last few days I keep seeing pop-up adverts for the Brennan B2.  It seems to be essentially a stand-alone hard drive and music player which can hold the equivalent of 5,000 CDs in FLAC format (depending on the size of the hard drive).

Sounds quite good, but I guess you can do the equivalent on a PC or laptop with the appropriate software.  Anyone tried one?

You’d still want a back-up device (or two) to protect all that data.

Data on NAS with RAID 5, plus a separate unit in a separate location.  Then access NAS from players elsewhere on the LAN (or www if you want).

I’ve found that the connection side of that sort of set-up works reasonably well, but I’m still looking for a decent piece of player software that works on Win/OSX/iOS.

Creed_Clicks

The PIONEER XCHM51DAB could work as well right? (It would have a CD player and phono input too I think...)

duotone

https://www.whathifi.com/best-buys/all-in-one-systems/best-hi-fi-systems

Philly_Q

TTony said:

Philly_Q said:

The last few days I keep seeing pop-up adverts for the Brennan B2.  It seems to be essentially a stand-alone hard drive and music player which can hold the equivalent of 5,000 CDs in FLAC format (depending on the size of the hard drive).

Sounds quite good, but I guess you can do the equivalent on a PC or laptop with the appropriate software.  Anyone tried one?

You’d still want a back-up device (or two) to protect all that data.

Data on NAS with RAID 5, plus a separate unit in a separate location.  Then access NAS from players elsewhere on the LAN (or www if you want).

I’ve found that the connection side of that sort of set-up works reasonably well, but I’m still looking for a decent piece of player software that works on Win/OSX/iOS.

Thanks @TTony. ; I'll have to google all that stuff later.

Creed_Clicks

If I were to buy a standalone CD player and hook it up to something like the krk monitors, would I be compromising sound quality?

Rocker

Creed_Clicks said:

If I were to buy a standalone CD player and hook it up to something like the krk monitors, would I be compromising sound quality?

Assuming that the KRKs are active speakers, such a plan would work.  But you have little control of the output volume.  I gather each speaker has a volume control but in the arrangement you suggest, you have to adjust both equally to maintain a reasonable stereo image.  A passive pre-amp would work but the word on the street is that passives suck tone.  An active pre-amp between the CD player and the KRKs seems the simplest solution.  I never heard a pair of KRKs in action but I would expect the sound to be poorer than a CD player, amp plus speakers.

Creed_Clicks

I just saw the other thread on a budget vinyl setup, so will have a look in there too