I have a stereo system, but its components all date from the 1980s and 1990s. And the tuner has died. So I figure it’s time to start over, and build a stereo system that doesn’t have to be top-of-the-line or up-to-date, but is at least within 5-10 years of being up-to-date.
But I’m totally ignorant on what’s out there now. I haven’t been in a shop that sells stereo equipment since sometime in the 1990s. Early 1990s, probably: I was buying a 5-CD changer.
My newfangled stereo will still need to play oldfangled 20th-century media: LPs, CDs, and even cassettes, since I still have a metric ton of all of the above. But increasingly, my stored music is on thumb drives and whatnot, so it’ll need to play them too. (My WAG is that nowadays, that’s the easy part.) And while I don’t yet subscribe to a streaming service such as Spotify, I expect it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have that be something that can easily be included if I get the urge.
Remote speakers are a must.
I don’t have any need to hook it up to any video device. Its main use will be to play music in my living room, and we don’t even have a TV there.
In terms of cost, I figure somewhere between economy and middle-of-the-road. I’d say definitely keep it in three figures. I enjoy music a great deal, but I’ve never been the sort to argue over whether we were losing something in moving from LPs to CDs, for instance.
Anyhow, that’s what I’m looking for in terms of what it should do. So what do I actually need to buy to do these things nowadays? And what haven’t I even thought of because I don’t know the territory, that I should be thinking about?
I think, unless you’re an audiophile who wants top-quality sound, or you have a lot of obscure, hard-to-fine music in your CD/LP collection, the whole concept of a ‘stereo system’ is a bit anachronistic. I too still have lots of CDs and LPs, but they are gathering dust; I haven’t owned a ‘stereo system’ or played a record or CD in years. I have a subscription to Amazon Music Unlimited, which has almost any kind of music I can think to play-- I’ve been let down very infrequently by Amazon not having something. Spotify, I think, has an even larger music selection. No more searching for an hour for a CD of something I feel like listening to, and I know is somewhere in my house or vehicle. Or did I leave it at work? I call up the music on my phone or iPad and cast it out to any number of bluetooth speakers, noise-canceling headphones or TV soundbars we have in the house. And to my unsophisticated ears the sound quality is just fine.
Again, you may have specialized music needs, so a more old-school setup may be better for you. Or, a music subscription, a phone and decent bluetooth speakers may be all you really need.
What do you mean by a substitute for a “stereo system”? I think a pair of affordable monitor or hi-fi speakers for stereo sound (maybe plus a subwoofer?) is not a bad investment unless you are positive you will only listen to music through headphones. Then you need an amplifier for those, and an adequate digital-to-analogue converter for all that music “on thumb drives and whatnot”.
I agree that any gear specifically marketed to “audiophiles” is probably expensive woo. You know one group that does not include any audiophiles? Musicians.
This is the sort of question that whomever you ask will give you THEIR preferred setup, rather than yours. Ask an audiophile, it will cost you $50K +. Me… I might get a little Apple or Bose speaker that works off my iTunes and just put all my CDs into ITunes. What’s stopping me? Fear of new tech, lame but that is me.
Nowadays everyone streams off Spotify, Pandora, Amazon, or YouTube and you can make playlists but you get some ads even if you pay to subscribe. Also the tunes on your playlists can disappear. And there’s no provision for privately collected music, as in stuff you recorded yourself, or stuff you got off of antique Greek 78s that isn’t on any official music database in the sky.
Good thing about these streaming services is sometimes you can train them to suggest new music that you actually might like. Thus far I haven’t had the patience to really train anything so my music suggestions are mostly crap. YouTube in particular seems to suggest low-quality DJ mixes that are sort of fake-ethno but nothing like the real deal, or even the few great DJs from times past… Cheb i Sabbah did great things with world music but the stuff on YouTube seems shallow and mostly superficial borrowings, appropriation, rather than actually understanding what it is that they are mixing together.
Less than 1K with a turntable and remote speakers shouldn’t be too much of a problem. I wonder if one of the Crosley “entertainment centers” might fit the bill, but I don’t know if they have remote speaker options.
I was thinking the question of whether all your music is being streamed from your computer or phone, or you are also plugging in actual record players, tape players, etc. doesn’t really matter, it all still connects, one way or another, to your “stereo system”, even if the latter just consists of a pair of headphones.
I kind of like this “all-in-one streaming processor” with both analog and digital inputs:
[ETA oops, looks like it’s labelled “audiophile” ]
but it looks like it’s $1200 bucks. Then again, if you already have a power amplifier, speakers, etc. from your old setup, that same page has a “miniDSP 2x4 HD” with analog + digital inputs for $205, the only obvious problem with it seems to be a lack of wifi so you would need to connect it to your computer via USB to stream stuff, though if you’re like me you have half a dozen spare laptops, Raspberry Pis around
NB one thing I use sometimes is just a Bluetooth pair of Bose speakers. But the problem with something like that in your case is the lack of analog inputs.
I hung on to my stereo system until the last possible minute, but then we moved into a pretty small house where it just isn’t practical. So now we have Sonos, which actually has pretty good sound quality. I digitized all of our LPs with an ion turntable and software and basically replaced all cassette tapes with CDs or just threw them away. Also digitized all the CDs. So now everything is in my computer library and backed up to iTunes. With Sonos you can stream radio stations or your library to Sonos bluetooth speakers.
You could connect directly with your phone or use the RCA outputs from the preamp connected to something like this:
enabling you to place the speakers whereever.
Your total for all three would be roughly $800. If you can find a preamp/processor that transmits via Bluetooth you could eliminate the BIC adapter entirely.
It would be helpful is we knew what components you have now. Even if your old receiver no longer has a tuner, you could still use it to drive your speakers. Adding a Bluetooth adapter could give your receiver new life, and you could simply stream radio stations from your phone or tablet (using TuneIn radio) to your receiver using Bluetooth. That solution is about $30 or so.
New stereo receivers that have streaming utility built in start at about $300, and most can play music over your network (wired or WiFi) so playing files from your computer is easy. And even though these are not meant for multi channel home theater, some are starting to include HDMI inputs since that is becoming a more common input, even for sound only. They will also have the usual RCA inputs and digital inputs (coaxial or optical, sometimes both), as well as a phono input.
There are some great sounding bookshelf speakers in the $300 range.
Not sure what you mean by remote speakers. Do you mean speakers in a different room than the reciever? If so, can you run speaker wires or do you need a wireless capability?
The tuner/receiver/whatever is dead in the basic sense that when you push the power button to turn it on, nothing happens, nothing lights up. It’s dead, Jim.
The wired speakers died many years ago. I replaced them with a pair of wireless speakers that lasted about a decade, then died. I replaced them with another pair of wireless speakers that didn’t even have the right connections to plug into a 1980s tuner so I had to get adapters and shit for that, and then they didn’t work at all well - good fidelity, but max level of sound was very weak. (Maybe in retrospect a symptom of the tuner dying?)
The CD player doesn’t have a remote, and only had a 5-CD capacity anyway. I’d been meaning to replace it for years, and just hadn’t gotten there.
The old 1980-ish turntable was hard to find new needles for 15 years ago. I got a new digital one that I could use to digitize my albums if I wanted, right about when the tuner died, so I have no idea how well or poorly it works as part of a stereo system.
Nothing wrong with the cassette deck, but it is 30 years old.
Really it would be simpler to start over. I can’t imagine wanting to build a new system around the remnants of the old.
There’s a weird musical divide in my life, about a quarter-century back. Prior to that point, I’ve got a shitload of albums, CDs, and cassettes that contain most of the universe of music I’d want to listen to from that period. How I want to listen to music from that period is to rummage through my collection and see what strikes my fancy.
On this side of the divide, I have very few CDs, let alone any other physical media. I hear new music on the radio (mostly courtesy of a good local alternative radio station), and occasionally buy tracks to share with my sixtysomething friends who like the occasional dose of new music in their lives, but haven’t listened to anything besides classic rock in eons. But really a streaming service would work just fine for listening to music on this side of the divide.
Can’t tell you exactly where the line is - somewhere in the 1990s - but Counting Crows is pre-divide, and Third Eye Blind is post-divide. That probably gives you a pretty decent idea.
What I really need a traditional stereo system (or, rather, its 21st century equivalent) for is to listen to all that old stuff. Herman’s Hermits through Counting Crows.
The rummaging-around through albums is essential. While looking for one thing in my collection, I want to be reminded of other things that I would likely forget to even ask a streaming service to play. For the pre-divide period, I don’t need suggestions from a streaming service; I’ve got pretty much what I need already. I just need something to play it on.
I realized I would not want to have only a pair of cheap Bluetooth speakers. But there is nothing wrong with a good pair of wireless speakers, obviously it doesn’t always have to be wired speakers, and some wireless speakers may have analogue inputs as well as all the bluetooth + chromecast + airplay + spotify + digital and USB and Ethernet connections.
Anyway, it sounds like you want to at least have the possibility of listening to something from your cassette player or whatever that outputs analog audio. I don’t know what your CD player/turntable/cassette player have? RCA connectors? XLR? But note that you always have the option of adding a analogue-to-digital dongle to a device that doesn’t have digital output, they are under $20. So even a purely digital receiver could be OK. But something like a Yamaha R-N303 has all the usual analog inputs (turntable, CD, and line level) as well as digital, Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth, and streaming.
Yes, something like that is what I would recommend. Moving up to the R-N 602 doubles the price (from approximately $300 to $600) but gets you much better amplifier section. Sony, Denon, and Onkyo make similar units, but the Yamaha is a good choice. The 602 also has a subwoofer output, which might be useful.
Which brings us to speakers. Lots of great stuff out there these days. Are you looking for smaller bookshelf speakers or larger floor standing speakers? What volume do you want to listen at?
And from RTFirefly’s description, I have pretty much the same music divide (I’d suspect we probably have many of the same CDs). I ripped all my CDs to FLAC files, but didn’t bother with the tapes, the fidelity from those where pretty bad anyway. Never had much vinyl to start with, don’t have any now so I can’t help you there.
As for streaming services, I recommend Tidal HiFi. This is their premium service that streams at CD quality or better. It’s great for discovering new music, and after using it for a bit it will create custom playlists for you based on what you listen to. Now, the issue with Tidal HiFi is the cost at $20 per month, but somewhere (maybe elsewhere at SDMB) someone pointed out that if you buy it at Best Buy they have a great deal - $90 for the first year and then auto-renew at $120 per year. So that’s 50% off. IMHO, worth it for the CD quality.
OK that changes things quite a bit. I had assumed you at least had the analog devices to hook up to…
The Yamaha reciever or the Emotiva I posted is a good starting point (although an amp section in a wireless speaker setup seems kind of a waste) and if you want to stay in budget you’re going to need a cassette deck and a turntable. Honestly, I’d have a look on Kijiji or something like Canuck Audio Mart (or its US equivalent) for those. I picked up a Thorens turntable for $25 with an year old Ortofon cartridge that needed a new belt. Period. I’m not a huge fan of all in one one solutions as it’s easier to upgrade or replace something when it dies.
Having said that if you want new:
Fluance RT-81 is a great turntable that won’t sink the bank (completely) for $300. Or the AT L120 for about $150.
Pyle PT-659DU dual cassette deckwhich also converts to mp3. $170
Emotiva BasX100 preamp $300
Edifier S1000Mk2 bookshelf speakers $400
Tots up to more than three figures I know and you could run with less expensive speakers but it still remains the truth that they should be roughly half your budget. This also gives you the option to run their sub if you need more bass.
I am still curious as to why you need wireless speakers, though.
Yamaha R-N303 stereo reciever $300
Audio-Technica LP-60XBT turntable $149
Yamaha CDS-300 CD player $300
Cambridge Audio Minx Min22 and X201 Subwoofer $650 (Not wireless but tiny and incredible sound for the money), or a decent pair of larger bookshelf speakers and buy a sub later.
I’m trying to stay focused on budget but this is tricky without getting into questionable componentry.
If your cassette player is still good keep using it…
Keeping it under $1000, I’d go receiver + speakers + streaming service. Most of your existing music collection is likely available on a streaming service. If you need the separate players, you can pick those up later, but if you are like me you won’t be missing playing CDs. If you want to play them or have something not available to stream, rip them to FLAC files and play them on the stereo on a memory stick or on you computer over a network.
So I can listen to what’s on the living room stereo if I’m upstairs in the bedroom or down in my basement workshop, without having to run wires all through the house.
FWIW, when people start talking about subwoofers and shit, my mind shuts down. The speakers just need to be everyday quality, not audiophile quality.
Ah, got it. You need a multi room system. Good sound but not audiophile level.
The lower price Yamaha R-N303 receiver fits the bill. The key thing about this is that it has what Yamaha calls MusicCast, which is important for the multi room wireless part. Pair that receiver with a set of decent bookshelf speakers for your living room. I’ll suggest the Klipsch Reference R-51M - I have a set of these and I think they sound great, but there are many others at this price point ($300). Unfortunately, finding places that have speakers that you can listen to before buying is getting rare, but some places like Crutchfield have liberal return policies which helps.
Last bit you’ll need is the wireless speaker for the other room, and the Yamaha MusicCast 20 will probably fit your needs. They are $230 each.
So, receiver at $300, speakers at $300, 1 wireless speaker at $230, 1 year subscription at $90 for the first year - $920 total. Add another $230 for each additional wireless speaker for other rooms. I’m assuming that you have decent WiFi throughout the house, and a smartphone or tablet (an app controls the MusicCast).
That’s not a somewhat up to date system, that’s completely up to date. The biggest hurdle you’ll need to overcome is letting go of the old media and relying on streaming. You can always add the tape deck, CD player, and turntable if you wish, but with the huge amount of music (both old and new) available on a streaming service I doubt you would want to. But you could.
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