Designing a CD based separate system for under £800
Apr 10 '01
The Bottom Line Shop around and you’ll find the best deal, buy magazines and research, and then listen.
Pre Intro
Before you start reading this opinion, I should say what I am helping you with. Since I am living in England, all the products I recommend are possibly not available else where, and the magazines I quote are probably only sold in the UK too. In this opinion I say how much you should spend on each component for three price groups, such as how much for the CD player, then amplifier then speakers. If you need a dollar estimate, multiply the pounds number by 1.4 to get a rough conversion.
INTRODUCTION
If your thinking of buying a Hi fi but have no idea of what you want you should consider what sound you want, below I will inform you of how to buy the best kind of system based around a CD player. Building a hi fi from separate components, not only leaves plenty of upgrading, but also entertainingly good sound too. First things first, to make it simple I’ll separate it into section for ease of reading and for a look at an area in detail.
CD player
This is the most important part as the all the sound will start from here, choosing one is easy but to match it with the rest of the system is even more important. First though, you should target a maximum price for you whole system, there will be a total of three prices in this system and the CD player is the source:
£300; Very simple, spend £100 on the CD player, they are quite a few good ones around, such as Sony’s CDP-CE235 player costing a bargain £100, and others such as the Technics SL-PG480A, both of these will provide a great sound and plenty of connection options. But the Sony wins over sound quality as it gives a smooth and detailed sound, compared to the Technics.
£500; I say that about 100 to £150 on the source, again go for the budget players like the Sony’s CDP-CE235 as it gives excellent sound for the cash.
£800; Say about £300 on the source for this high-end setup. Again the best option would be a single disc player, as they give the best sound per £, possibly even the mid priced Marantz CD-5000 for £150, or for added sound quality the Arcam Alpha 7Se at £300, which also won Product of the Year in What Hi Fi 2000 awards. The Arcam has the edge in sound, but the bargain Marantz, is still a good sounding piece of kit.
of each section I give a target price, use the prices as a boundary, and buy some hi fi magazines to look for the latest kit at the boundary price.
Amplifier
Again here are a number of sectors for the system price use the same price as with the source component. Amplifiers are important; they take sound and control and amplify it from the source. Amps have inputs at the rear, the more the better, for a LP player, you need a phono connection which amplifies the almost silent output from the LP player. Then you need some other inputs, most are CD, Tuner, Aux and Tape, tape loops are a input and out put signal, so you can hook a cassette deck to the amp to record incoming signals and play too. Really, more of the ‘input’, the better. Also look out for ‘Pre out’ as these are you way to a power amplifier and upgrading. Oh and don’t go for looks as most are horrible to look at but can have a brilliant sound such as the NAD range. Also look for power rated in RMS, the more power the more you may have to pay for speakers; as speakers go they have limits in power and pick a amp which will go to almost the max power of the speakers (more later).
£300; As I said £100 on each piece. Look for the Cambridge Audio A1 (30 wpc) or NAD 310, each costing no more than £100, and offer a great sound. The Cambridge may win over the NAD here.
£500; So you have paid 100 to £150 on the source, pay about 150 to £200 on the amp. The NAD C320 (40 watts output) costs a good £200 and also won the 1998 award in What Hi Fi, also consider the Marantz PM4000 (30 watts output) costing only £150 it has a long feature list and good and looks very stylish.
£800; I say £300 on the source so about £300 on the amp, leaving some £200 left over, a few amps are: the Sony TA-FB940R (60 watts output) or the NAD C350 (60 watt output). Each of the amps are very capable and were reviewed highly in What Hi Fi, each won 5 stars!
Loudspeaker
The final part, what you should look out for is the max power handling, the impedance and the size. The power handling is the max power input it can handle without blowing, from the amp, the impedance is the resistance measured in ohms, a low ohm rating means a hard load for the amp, and anything higher than 6 ohms should be fine.
£300
Simple, a pair of £100 speakers, but wait there are hardy any at this price? Wrong there are a few goodies at this price, such as the Kef Cresta 1s (70 watt max), or Mission 70 (50 watt max power), at £100 each per pair, each had good reviews, the Kefs got 5 star and the Missions got 4.
£500
For the best results a pair of speakers here should cost at most £200, but if you paid more for the electric components, go for £150 speakers. At £200 you can get the Mission 771e (100 watt) which won numerous award for the excellent sound, or try the Mission 702e as these are larger floorstanders and offer more bass and similar sound. For £150 some Kef Cresta 2s (100 watt) or Tannoy MX2s (80 watt) would sound great with any amp, or for £130 the Mission M71s (75 watt) offer even better sound!
£800
With at least £200 spare go for the Award winning 702e’s (Standmounter) or 771e’s (floorstander) from Mission. Or if you pay a little less for the electric components then the Mission 780s (£300) are the best you’ll find, especially as they wound the 2000 awards in What Hi Fi.
By now the system will have a source amp and the speakers, what you need now is to spend 10% of the total on wires and cables; for the source to amp, phono/RCA cables, for amp to speaker you need to find what type it is and buy the correct type of wire for the two.
So for each price group my opinion of the best combination (NOTE: These products are taken from the UK only):
£300
Sony CDP-CE235 – Source (£100)
Cambridge Audio A1 – Amp (£80)
Kef Cresta 1s – Loud speakers (£100)
TOTAL= £280
£500
Sony’s CDP-CE235 – Source (£100)
Marantz PM4000 – Amp (£150)
Mission 702e – loudspeakers (£200)
TOTAL= £450
£800
Marantz CD-5000 – Source (£150)
Sony TA-FB940R – Amp (£300)
Mission 780s – Loudspeakers - (£300)
But I can’t say what is the best let you own ears be the judge, most large hi fi stores will have demo rooms where you can try kit out with your own CD’s. So getting the combination right is most important.
Setting It All Up
Once you have all these new piece of equipment you must now set it all up when you get home. Before you even step outside the shop door, you need to buy cables for the components. To connect your CD player to the Amplifier you need interconnects, use Phono (RCA) leads, and get some which are of high quality. It definitely makes a difference what cable you use. Now to connect your speaker to your amplifier, you need some speaker wires. If you have a pair of 'biwireable' speakers and an amplifier with two sets of speaker outputs, you will need to buy two pair of leads for the best possibly sound.
Now for your equipment and speaker you need a solid stand to put them on. If you have a pair of stand mounting speakers, you will need a pair of speaker stands to raise them to ear level.
For a guide spend roughly 10% of the whole system cost on cables and divide it equally, between the speaker wire and interconnect. If you want to buy an equipment rack, spend as much as you want, but if you have a £300 setup and buy a £200 rack the results won't be as clear as if your setup cost £800.
As prices increase the sound quality improves dramatically as you change to more expensive racks or cables.
Speaker Setup
The first thing you should check is if the speaker has a port, these allow more bass to flow into the room. They can be anywhere from the front to back to bottom of the speaker. So you need a setup for each type:
Front Port
These are very easy to setup, you can mount them almost next to the wall without sound stress.
Rear Port
A little harder to setup, you need a fair amount of space between a rear wall and the back of the speaker, other wise the bass driver will be driven hard forcing an unwanted boomy sound, not good.
Bottom Port
These are only for standmounting speakers, you can place then near a rear wall, but you need a stand with a large top plate to give them space to breath. The speakers should have 4 spikes on the bottom.
Toeing IN
This is where you turn the speakers in towards you to get a better stereo image. Whereby the front of the speaker almost is directed directly toward your ears.
Final TIPS
Try to keep the speakers away from the amplifier and CD player, vibrations affect the sound. Also keep power wire away from interconnect and speaker wire, or else you get sound inequalities or distortions. Keep the speakers at ear level, standmounters need stand, but floorstanders can be raised at all. For your choice, try to test the equipment, or buy dedicated magazines for reviews and system matching setups and guides to help you get the best for your money.
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MichaelHatton
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