Hi-Fi advice

[arno]

Hi,

I would like to start building up a good Hi-Fi system. I want to spend around 800-1000 pounds for an amp and a pair of speakers, is this reasonable? At the moment I have a Sony HT-SF1100 5.1 system and a Pioneer DMR EX-85 DVD/HD player. I was wondering if I could plug the Hi-Fi system to my existing Sony HC for watching DVD, and play audio CD on my DVD player at the moment while I am saving to buy a dedicated CD player.
From what I have read on the web it will be better to go and listen to systems at dedicated stores but if you have any recommendation/advice it will be greatly appreciated.

[Paradigm]

£1000 is just about enough to buy an entry-level hi-fi all in: amp, CD player, speakers + stands. Something by Rotel or Cambridge Audio would fit the bill for amp/CD and then speakers by loads of manufacturers would come in to play, though Quad, Monitor Audio and B&W spring to mind instantly for me. And yes, you do need to go listen. One pair of speakers can sound vastly different to others when paired with a certain amp/CD setup. Some produce a very clean sound, some are a bit richer/warmer... depends how you like your music. I like mine fairly accurate but with a little bit of richness.

[djjimbob]

By all means, read the magazine reviews, browse AV Forums, take advice etc etc but until you rock up to a hi-fi shop and spend a good hour demo-ing different kit - you are never going to know whether you love it or loathe it.

[kernow]

I bought my system without listening basically, I just did a lot of research into what I wanted, .. months of.

[Champloo]

Cambridge Audio seem to be renowned for their budget gear (and higher end as well). I recently picked up a cheap set-up with a CA amp and CD player. Already had my speakers and what have you so I spent about £500.

Might be worth picking up a copy of What Hi-Fi ultimate guide if you can get it in smiths. Costs a fiver. As I said in another thread, they throw out 4 and 5 stars left, right and centre but it'll give you an idea of what's worth looking at and then you can research more online, test different machines out etc.

Wish I had the money for a proper Hi-Fi set-up but i've got my eyes on a iMod now. There goes the rest of the gaming collection...

[arno]

Thank you all for the feedback. However I still don't know if it is posible to connect the sony HC to a new Hi-Fi system, does anyone know how to do that?

[Brad]

Magazines are useless as proven by their HDMI cable reviews. I have 2 HDMI cables. 1 a £50 Cambridge, the other was £5 from play.com or somewhere. Absolutely no difference in quality yet What HiFi would have you believe it's worth spending > £100 on an HDMI cable.

Your own ears are the only thing to use when buiy hifi gear.

[Brats]

However I still don't know if it is posible to connect the sony HC to a new Hi-Fi system, does anyone know how to do that?

I'm not 100% clear, but what I think you want to do is to get the sound from your DVD player whilsit it's still connected to your Sony HC amp to your Hi-Fi so you can use the DVD player as a temporary CD player?

If this is right, there are a few ways you might be able to do this depending on how your current equipment.

Method 1 is to use the pre-outs on your Sony Amp to run to your new Hi-Fi amp. That's assuming your Sony amp has preouts which is might not have.

Method 2 is to use the phono outs on the DVD player (again, assuming it has them) to go directly to your Hi-Fi amp (presuming you are currently using the digital out for the sound going to the Sony amp). The only issue here is that your DVD player might require you to manually switch between digital and analogue out.

[charlesr]

My cheapy Toshiba DVD player made for a shockingly good CD player. Easily as good as, if not better than my (far older, but a lot more expensive) Marantz CD67 Special Edition. Technology marches on.

All done via my squeezebox now though.

[concretesnail]

I used to sell hifi for a living and the only way to buy is to go and demo as many systems as you can afford to. If it was me buying i would look above what you can afford, have a listen to it and then listen to models below. I know that sounds nuts but try it. By doing that you will see what companies take away as you come down the range.

NAD and Rotel are good places to start as they are more Hifi orientated rather than gadget focused. With that budget, if it was me i would go and have a listen to the LINN Classik music. If you have a look at LINN's web site they will tell you where the closest dealer is. With speakers it would be a little over the budget but it is a stand alone unit which can be up graded as you want more. You can also plug your dvd and other sorces into it if you wish. One thing i found insuring was that they give a 10 year warranty, how many electroincs manufacturers give that now.

[gIzzE]

Does it have to be new??

Speakers have not really changed over the last 20 years let alone buying some 5 year old ones, and some of the 2 channel amps that can be picked up used have massive savings.

You want to have a look on www.hififorsale.com in their freeads section.

There is a Unico amp on there at the moment for £450 and someone selling some Neat Petite 3 speakers for £300, that is a grands worth of hybrid amp (valve pre section and solid state power for loads of grunt) and £800 worth of speakers that beat most speakers under £2k.
Then buy a decent CD player for £250, again some decent Meridian CD players for around that price, that were £1200 4 years ago.

So you have a nice £2500 system for a cracking price, and I can assure you nothing for £2k new will be any better, and probably not as good.

If your amp has pre outs for a seperate power amp you can hook the front left and rights into the aux on the 2 channel amp and use that to drive the front speakers.

[kernow]

its good to buy used, I bought my system second hand, got about 1/3rd off

[arno]

Ok thanks for the replies. The thing is I do not know anything at the moment about good Hi-Fi systems. I have started to look around on the web about 2 weeks ago because I wanted to rip my CD colection to a lossless format and play it on a Hi-Fi system using an airport express or a squeezbox. But then I realised there was no point doing that if I had no good Hi-Fi system to start with... So maybe I should try to listen to good systems in shops first. But then if I do that it would not do to go and shop around on the web for the same hardware or second hand material, would it?