perfect hi fi partners

Andyf33

Hi folks

Ive put together a budget hi fi system for my spare room from units I had in the garage (Denon PMA255UK amp plus Mission m71i speakers) plus a second hand arcam alpha 5 plus cd player off ebay. Ive got good interconnects (circa £30 a few years ago) and speaker cable (circa £6/metre a few years ago).

This is not my main system but i wanted something in a different room for when the wife wont let me in the living room (but thats a different story altogether).

Anyway, sound is ok, bass from the amp is ok (ive tried it with different speakers in the past) but i think the speakers are letting me down. The cd player was £500 when new and has been serviced. Im thinking of upgrading speakers first. Any thoughts on whether I should upgrade speakers or amp first?

Budget is upto £200 for either amp or speakers and dont mind buying a second hand amp - but probably wouldnt want to buy second hand speakers. Listen to everything from heavy metal to stevie wonder.

Also, in that price range what are my options - was thinking wharfedale diamond 9.1 speakers but the choice of second hand amps is huge in this price range.

Thanks

Sput2001

How big is the room?

worried_jim

Have a look at these - £179
http://www.kelkoo.hughesdirect.co.uk/showproduct.php?cda=showproduct&pid=MON-BRONZE-BR1-CHERR
I thought something small rather than large floor standers would be better.

Andyf33

thanks

room is approx 4m by 4.5m

isofa

The speakers you have should be ok, if a little old, a little smaller but good are the m31i (a bargain price now) also there is a Wharfdale of similar "monitor" size that gets very good reviews, can't remember the model - but potentially the ones you mention above.

I agree smaller rather than floor standing speakers would do a good job.

Have you got the speakers on a good stand? This can make a world of difference, got my Missions on a pair of glass and steel Optimum stands, sound is superb, very clear, room behind for the airflow and bass is clear without being boomy.

aliEnRIK

Id go for the diamond 9.1s too

Make sure theyre as stable as possible (On decent stands or connected to the wall). Blu tack is awesome for fixing the speakers to stands. FILL the stands if you have any (And can do)

Take into consideration though that speakers are the one component in hifi that REALLY changes how it sounds. The Monitor Audios are fantastic speakers for the price (I have the old SILVER series ones and they are AWESOME). You really should audition some before buying to make sure your happy with them (And they need to be RUN IN when auditioning them too)

Voyager2002

Firstly, try each of the components in your living room with the rest of your main system. Try them one by one so that you can identify the "weakest link". Do be aware that using good speakers with a poor amp and/or CD player will expose the inadequacies of the signal being fed to them and might actually sound worse than using lower-grade speakers in such a system.

You mention a problem with bass: do you simply mean that there is not a lot of it? Mission speakers are pretty good, but don't have much bass. I once had a similar problem, and used a sub-woofer to provide the bass along with my over-bright speakers, and this worked pretty well.

Do look at second-hand speakers: if they are working when you look at them, there is not that much to go wrong. You should be able to get a good pair for well under your budget.

tomsutton529

my dad would love get involved with this but i fear he would bore you all to death. in my eyes and from my personal experience i would upgrade both the amp and speakers as they work together. but generaly going for better speakers with a decent range will sort you out. the room sounds like a nice size for some monitor sized speakers. sometimes playing around with position of the speakers (moving them as much as an inch) can make a huge differnce. also look at the quality of the recordings as theese days the quality is very poor becuase the people rush them, just look at metallicas death magentic album, stupidly high amounts of clipping and fuzz.

i would google for a profesional audio forum sort of thing and see what you can come up with on there as if you are serious about the sound quality then thats the place to be.

Fifer

Before spending any money, have you experimented with speaker mounting and positioning? Decent speaker stands are pretty essential to get a decent, realistic low end from most small speakers. Distance from the wall can be critical, especially for the low end and experimenting with 'toeing in' can reap dividends with bass response.

aliEnRIK

tomsutton529 wrote: »

my dad would love get involved with this but i fear he would bore you all to death. in my eyes and from my personal experience i would upgrade both the amp and speakers as they work together. but generaly going for better speakers with a decent range will sort you out. the room sounds like a nice size for some monitor sized speakers. sometimes playing around with position of the speakers (moving them as much as an inch) can make a huge differnce. also look at the quality of the recordings as theese days the quality is very poor becuase the people rush them, just look at metallicas death magentic album, stupidly high amounts of clipping and fuzz.

i would google for a profesional audio forum sort of thing and see what you can come up with on there as if you are serious about the sound quality then thats the place to be.

Its a little nieve to think that there are NO hifi buffs on the forum. I post on whathifi forums quite a bit (Amongst others)

Im WELL up on my hifi and could probably give your dad a run for his money

Agree with the rest though (Especially the metallica album and the fact theyve squashed its 'dynamic range')

Sput2001

Your CD player is certainly worth keeping, and (from memory) your amp is competent enough.

The advice above about trying weighted speaker stands is well worth a try.

Are the speakers bi-wireable? If so, are they bi-wired?