In Reply to: Mejias' budget system posted by Bill the K on October 3, 2012 at 20:40:18:
He writes for Stereophile so at least he BOUGHT the stuff he has.
Owning expensive things does not equate to having good ears or being able to be moved by music - music is the key - I can be moved with my $40 AKG headphones and 128bit MP3. I simply prefer to listen to it on something much better because it renders more of everything and in a much better more resolved manner.
I have heard both the Alpha B which I almost bought against the B&W DM 302 way back and the Diamondd Series has always been under appreciated in my view. The 10.2 sounds quite a bit better than the 10.1 and Wharfedale makes a powered version of it for about the same price (exactly the same price in Canada) so my suggestion would have been rather than have two inexpensive speakers to combine the budget for one step up. Either way the Wharfedales and PSB Alpha are excellent budget speakers. I have not heard this Tannoy but I own an older inexpensive standmount which sounds quite good - CM 150 or something (I don't recall the exact number).
NAD sounds like most budget SS amps. My NAD dealer and I compared the Bee amps to competition in the same price and the Bee was underwhelming. I would suggest he A/B and level match a Rotel integrated. Rotel isn't perfect either - little hotter but overall the NAD came off as a dull dead flat sounding bore. I've generally preferred Arcam, Rotel, Cambridge Audio to NAD. I would try not to buy any of them though unless I had to have SS and an integrated. If I am going to buy budget SS amps I would sooner buy a receiver - at least then I'd have Feeeetchers.
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Follow Ups
- RE: Mejias' budget system - RGA 01:55:14 10/05/12 (5)
- RE: Mejias' budget system - soulfood 07:24:49 10/05/12 (4)
- RE: Mejias' budget system - RGA 22:14:29 10/06/12 (3)
- RE: Mejias' budget system - soulfood 06:18:23 10/07/12 (2)
- RE: Mejias' budget system - RGA 02:57:55 10/09/12 (1)
- RE: Mejias' budget system - the old school 22:14:38 10/26/12 (0)