If you really don’t need video capability, there are a ton of used receivers out there for really cheap. Hell, I’ve taken receivers to the dump after the video circuitry blew, because I couldn’t find anyone who wanted a $1000 receiver if it couldn’t be used for video.
As others have said, invest most of your money in speakers. Not only does that have the best bang for the buck, but good speakers will last decades, while technology in receivers advances quickly and they become obsolete.
I like Paradigm speakers. A couple of SE Atom bookshelf speakers will set you back about $300. Another $300 would get you a modern receiver with bluetooth, all kinds of other streaming options, subwoofer output, etc. Stick with receivers from Onkyo, Denon, Pioneer, or Yamaha and you really can’t go wrong at that price point. Just pick the one with the features you need - they’ll all sound great.
Don’t invest anything in fancy cables. Every stereo store will tell you to budget hundreds of dollars for cables - because they make huge profit on them. You shouldn’t spend more than $50 for cables. Get speaker wire by the foot from Home Depot - it will sound exactly the same as a crazy $100 speaker cable. Audio cables for connecting DVD players and the like should 't cost more than $20 or so. Expensive cables and accessories are the biggest scam in audio. Monster cable is a joke.
or would be if it didn’t cost so many people so much money.
As people have said, speakers are the key to any system, and you can’t pick them out based on specs, reviews, or recommendations by anonymous web posters. The speakers that are best for you depend on your ears, your tastes, and your musical preferences (and other factors like the room, which will be harder to factor in).
So the best way to pick speakers is to listen to the kind of music you like on a number of them and pick the ones that make your music sound the way you like it. Speakers that make orchestral music sound good may not do so well with heavy metal, and vice versa. If all you listen to is classical guitar, you may not need the subwoofer everyone here seems to be pushing you toward.
So if possible, I would suggest you head to a brick-and-mortar audio store with a few of your favorite CDs and see if they’ll let you compare various speakers. A hundred years ago, when I frequented audio stores, they actually had walls of components and speakers and selection switches that allowed you to do A-B comparisons. I haven’t been in an audio showroom in decades, but I doubt that will be easy to find now.
You also probably won’t be able to find the precise models you might prefer. But if you can at least compare brands, you might find you generally prefer the sounds of Polk over Cerwin-Veva, for instance. Not that you asked, but my personal preference for 40-plus years has been JBL.
If none of this is possible, buy online from someplace that offers free returns and audition a few sets.
I suggest spending at least 75% of your budget on the speakers. Apart from features, the sonic differences between receivers will be vanishingly small. The differences between speakers are enormous by comparison, and that decision deserves much more care and deliberation.
Yeah, as a guy who makes due with the speakers that were given to him 20 years ago: if I were shopping today, that’s what I would be testing in person. Again, it’s where the rubber meets the road. You can go all kinds of fancy with your EQ or power amp, but the speakers have to reproduce it.
commasense is right on the money. As I said earlier, speaker selection is both critical and highly influenced by personal taste.
OTOH, I probably wouldn’t spend more than $500 of your $800 budget on speakers. Also, I would definitely not try to get by with just a power amplifier (as opposed to a receiver). A receiver will give you a lot more flexibility in terms of both digital and analog inputs, as well as feature sets you might find very helpful in the future. Sure, you can probably adjust EQ on your digital source, and even switch between sources, but it will be a whole lot easier if you get your receiver set up exactly the way you want it and then simply switch sources (DVD/CD, BT, streaming, etc.) as you choose.
I forgot that the OP said he wanted bookshelf speakers, so my 75% figure is probably out of line considering the OP says his budget is $800-1,000. If you are committed to bookshelf speakers, I suspect you can spend a lot less, and the spend ratio between the receiver and speakers will be closer to 50/50.
However, we really need some more info from the OP. You still haven’t answered jnglmassiv’s question about the size of the room. Also, you say you want to listen to online sources and possibly CDs. Do you already have a music player (e.g. computer, phone) that you expect to connect? How? Wires? Bluetooth?
I’ll assume, as I think most here have, that you want the new equipment to include the player, and that you’ll want some flexibility with what online sources (Napster, Spotify, etc.) you can access. If so, I’ll agree with the others that the Yamaha R-N303 is probably a pretty good choice. I’ll point out two things: 1) It’s $30 cheaper at Amazon than Crutchfield. And 2) if you can go to $330, you can get a Yamaha AV receiver with the same online music playing features, plus it can serve as the heart of a home theater system at some point in the future, if you want to.
Let me say a word about Yamaha electronic products. I have been a loyal Yamaha customer for decades. I’ve owned several Yamaha receivers (a Yamaha AV receiver is currently the center of my home theater system) and a Yamaha Disklavier acoustic piano. (I also owned a Yamaha motorcycle, but I don’t think that’s relevant to this discussion.) Yamaha products have excellent sound quality and are very reliable and well-made. That said, their user interfaces are not always as simple or intuitive as one might like. If at all possible, see if you can check out the R-N303 in person and see how it actually functions IRL before you buy. I’m not saying it is bad: I have no idea. But if you don’t find it easy to use, you may not enjoy having to use it on a daily basis.
That leaves the speakers, and since others have recommended their favorite brands, here’s a set of JBLs for only $200 a pair. I have a similar pair, and they nicely fill my family room/kitchen, which is about 15x30 feet. Like most JBLs, they are quite neutral, and handle everything from classical to hard rock.
If you listen to heavy metal or other forms of music with deep bass, you could toss in a subwoofer, but I’d suggest buying the basic speakers first, and adding a subwoofer later if you really feel it’s necessary.
Hah! Can’t be any worse than my Denon A/V receiver. I’m convinced it was originally designed by the Great Old Ones using non-Euclidean geometry, hastily re-designed in some Japanese lab, then had the manual run through five Babelfish translations before arriving at English. Even the remote is virtually impenetrable. And I was an audio enthusiast for decades :p.
Yeah, I thought after posting that that I should probably say that the same goes for other brands, it’s just that I’m more familiar with Yamaha. Thanks for making that point for me.
I’m going to bump this thread to mention that the bookshelf Klipsch R-51M is now on sale for $125 (50% off). I just picked up a pair for an office system. I’m pleasantly surprised how good they sound to me. I might try them with a subwoofer before I take them to the office, but I won’t be needing one there.
Thanks, everyone. I haven’t responded to any individual posts, but I have kept track of all the responses and recommendations, and I will consider all when I get around to shopping for this setup.
And if you have to prioritize that, spend more on the speakers. Any decent amp will have enough power to drive “bookshelf” speakers loud enough to fill a room with sound, no matter how big your bookshelf is.
I am in total agreement with that, Kent, I was merely trying to point out that relying on the numbers (especially with amps) requires careful scrutiny. Speakers are the same way. Klipsch K-Horns will run on far less power due to their efficiency, which is something you most definitely can’t do with a set of Magnapan MG-12s, which love more power!
As far as advice goes, I’d second the Home Depot wire suggestion. Would add that, while unnecessary, banana plug connectors make moving equipment easier and provide a nice, “finished” aspect to your stereo. Don’t obsess over distortion or wattage. If you are even considering the possibility of adding a subwoofer, get an amp with a dedicated input. If you want 2 channel, get 2 channel. Maybe a phono input for vinyl? A music-only system begs for vinyl capability, if you ask me. Speaker stands that put your speakers’ tweeters at ear level would be in order. Now then, here’s the infomercial sales portion…
AMP: Cambridge Audio Topaz SR20 ($400) 3 digital inputs, phono stage, sub output, well-regarded DAC (Wolfson), tuner (with RDS!), 4 ohm capable. (Important for running some- not all- higher-end speakers), there’s even a convenient jack on the front to connect a cell phone as an audio source.
SPEAKERS: ELAC Uni-fi ub5 ($350) or Wharfedale Diamond 220 ($250)
Feel free to ignore any of this except the Home Depot wire part!
I’m thinking of using the PC or a laptop with a DVD drive and music files in lossless format, with a USB DAC connected to it (if the sound from the computer built-in DAC isn’t good enough), and a pair of active speakers (probably with a subwoofer included) connected to the DAC. That way, I can replace and use components for other devices easily.
If I go for the budget line, I can probably get the DAC for around $100 and another $100 for the speakers.
ralfy, maybe consider something likethis setup form Orb Audio as well. The sound from these things are amazing and if the price is a bit much scale back on the sub, and buy one later unless you have one already.
There is an incredible sale on the Polk LSiM line of speakers from adorama.com. They are Polk’s top of the line speakers which they are replacing with a new line. The LSiM 705 bookshelf speakers are probably better than anything else you can find for less than $1000 and you can get them for $450.
fwiw, here’s my budget system that sounds pretty fantastic compared to most of the normal consumer systems i’ve heard. all pieces were bought on CL using the audiokarma forums as a body of research. i have a context menu search function that loads the search string [audiokarma forum selected text] into google so i can use the google search engine to search the forum. i’ve found that when looking for older units, audiokarma will have a thread on most audiophile or mid fi components and if there’s nothing on AK, then the piece is too new or too generic-for-the-masses to be of bother.
everything was bought in the bayou city metro area in the last year.
onkyo p301 preamp $110
yamaha m45 power amp (125 watt/channel) $150
polk audio monitor 7b speakers $130
the only thing i will ever need to upgrade is the speakers but IMO it would take a pair of $1000+ speakers to top what i have currently.
one thing to watch out for when buying vintage audio is the condition of the circuit board. the original deal for the power amp was $200 but the watt meter lamps are burned out so i negotiated down to $150. it’s an easy fix and doesn’t affect sound quality. also, my yamaha has a certain type of glue on some parts that will need to be replaced at some point, but that is trivial when i consider that i’m listening to what was a $1000+ msrp system when it was new in the late 80s.
after this little project, there’s no way i would buy any new equipment. CL and FB marketplace in any major city will be overflowing with vintage audio and if you’re adventurous, you can hit the estate sales yourself and take a chance at buying something amazing for $50.
just want to add that i use my laptop as the source for the majority of music and audio that goes to the system. i have a Lexicon Alpha usb interface. it allows me to send a digital signal out of the laptop, bypassing the computer’s DAC and sound card because most stock sound cards are lower quality than the dedicated interface. it also allows me to use Audacity to monitor the sound or record from another source.