New house! stereo set up help

Just bought my first house and have set aside about 2-3 grand for a dedicated listening room set up. This would include the amp, turntable, and speakers. Just looking for a 2 channel set up, the speakers have to have some punch on the bottom end, and need to be able to be played loud enough so they can be heard around the house not just in the dedicated listening room. room is about 10x11.

 

This is probably not the forum to seek this kind of advice. You should try audiocircle.com and you will probably get some good advice there for this kind of open ended question.

Congrats on the house purchase though! That's a big step in life.

 

Just how "loud" are you looking to get here? PA gear will really get you cranking at the cheapest, but that's probably not the direction you want to go.

 

right on, thanks, i'll check that out. I'm seriously looking at the GoldenEar triton 5's for a full range tower speaker.

 

At this price, it's not a bad idea to think about Bookshelf/Subwoofer systems. Depending on the music, room, and how long you're willing to spend on setup it's my experience that you can better just about any tower setup with a sat/sub setup in he under $1500 range. Can be more space friendly too.

Of course, what's best is if you can try out some gear at nearby shops, see what you like, etc.
reviews and advice from audio circle, audiogon, etc. are good too.

In terms of gear that's nice that I've heard and is in your price range, here are some suggestions and thoughts from me. Take them with the usual grain of salt, etc. feel free to PM me or ask questions. I do quite a bit of two channel listening.
This is of course only a tiny fraction of what's out there. Just a few names to get you started. Hope it helps!

Wharfedale Diamond 220's + DH subs
VERY detailed, a little on the warmer side, punchy, dynamic, musical and nicely balanced.

Monitor Audio Bronze or Silver series
A little colder, but similar even, neutral "British monitor" sound. Imaging is not as tight as some systems.
Pristine finish. Like seriously pristine.

Goldenear.
Big soundstage. A little too big for my tastes (seems artificial sometimes) generally even sound. A little colored/boxy midrange. Not as much bass without sub (cheaper models) imaging not as good as bookshelves. More dynamics than some bookshelves.

PSB/Focal/Paradigm, all decent fairly neutral to slightly bright.

KEF
Personally not a fan. Find the sound boring, but it's generally quite refined. Go for R series or higher Q series.

Philharmonic Audio/Salk Sound.
Nice direct sales made in US. Musical sound, just warm of neutral. Not the greatest imaging or top tier refinement, but punchy, dynamic and musical. Comes in cool woods/paints.

Vandersteen
Bookshelf/sub system is nice. 2ce is nice, but power hungry. These are BIG speakers. Some people think they're ugly.

ELAC
New Debut stuff is decent budget stuff. I think you can spend a bit more and do better though. New concentric driver models aren't bad for the price. Dynamic, punchy. Image ok. Kinda big and pretty inefficient. Finish is cheap.

B&W
Clinical sound on high end models. Sorta warm and syrupy lower end models. Very refined and BIG soundstage and dynamics though. Not my cup of tea.

Magneplanar/Martin Logan
Electro starts and orthos. Airy soundstage, very tactile, transparent soundstage. Smeared imaging, lacks focus or precision. Big. NO Bass. Like none. Doesn't move enough air. Opposite of dynamic.

Spatial Audio
Direct sales, big dipole open baffle speakers. Space hungry but very lively, sweet sound. Very transparent, plenty bass, kinda weird looking.

In terms of amps, NAD and emotiva make nice stuff. NAD is lower power but higher quality, Emotiva is higher power but usually at the cost of quality. I prefer NAD. Your preference will depend on taste and volume. Used stuff will have some good deals (audiogon, usaudiomart, etc.)
Schiits also coming out with some new 2 channel stuff around August I think.

 

The choice of amp / speaker match is more important than JUST a speaker or JUST an amp by itself. The suggestions above all well regarded speakers, but have to be matched to the choice of amplifier for proper synergy.

That said, the Golden Ear Tritons are actually fantastic speakers. I would look at a good solid state amplifier to drive those. Best to research what current owners are using and try to read in between the lines as to what kind of sound they like. Also a good idea to MSG them and politely ask for their experiences, thoughts on the matchup they are using.

One speaker that knocks my socks off is the Silverline Prelude!
http://www.silverlineaudio.com/main/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=51&Itemid=65

Find a nice 35 watt tube amp and call it a day. Maybe EL34 based on 6550/KT88. Go for a push pull design to have a good control over the woofers.

 

ive noticed a lot of people are pairing seemingly underpowered tube amps with speakers that are rated at 100w+. Does an amp like a 35w tube actually push as much power as a 100w ss?

 

No. 1 tube watt is just potentially better sounding than 1 ss watt

Look up your speaker sensitivity per watt, then for every 2x power you apply +6dB additional SPL per speaker.
91dB per watt at one meter with 30W amp is plenty loud, well maybe not in the other side of the house.

 

The power ratings on speakers only matter for the pro audio world where we're trying to fill huge rooms. As Priidik said, the sensitivity rating is the far more important number.

 

^ all the above are great advice.
We all hear and listen differently of course, which is part of what makes this hobby so great (and sometimes so divisive) that said, ther are a few generally held opinions that can be good starting points.
Matching low efficiency speakers to underpower tube gear is generally not gonna yield the best low bass performance for example.
Matching and your own preference are super important. Low watt tube gear can sound very refined and pleasant. Some find it colored and lacking dynamics. Impedance matching between a pre-amp and amp, and making sure your amp is rated to handle the impedance of your speakers is important too.
I personally prefer higher powered Solid State or Hybrid amps as I find tubes underpowered and less versatile for different musical (colored) but many here love tubes too. A good implementation no matter whether tube or SS can be spectacular, so try whatever you can and pick what you like. The differences between tube/SS ported/sealed, etc. aren't something to get overly hung up on, as long as it's well implemented.
I'll recommend again trying out some gear if you can go see what you like.
Best of luck in your search, two channel can be a very fun adventure
^_^

 

In smaller rooms, as with your 10' X 11' room, speaker placement can be critical and options fairly limited. In small rooms I've had the best luck with small monitors on stands. And lots of patience.

 

went to my local high end audio shop today (actually walking distance from my place, who knew?) they had some magneplanars on display, the 1.7, I think. Awesome technology and very clear, but they really lacked sub bass so while they're great for a lot of genres, they didn't have the oomph that i'm looking for.

Shop had golden ear triton 5's but they weren't hooked up atm and the guy running it had his arm in a sling, he said if i call him when i'm ready to come back he will get someone out to hook them up.

Wharfedale Diamond 220's + DH subs sounds like my personal preference, it's hard to pull the trigger without a demo though.

 

The Wharfedales are offered on Amazon and music direct, both of which have a decent return policy if you want to give them a try. Certainly a sub will give you the best sub-bass for price and in your small room.

 

in 10x11 room, anything can get loud...

 

Also a 11 x 10 is close to a square so you may get standing waves causing a possible bass boost.

 

I am very much in favor of transferring all bass and sub-bass duties to dedicated subs. When using only full range tower speakers you usually optimise placement for best soundstaging, which might not be the best choice for bass. Bass is largely placement and room geometry dependant, hence a lot of experimentation is usually needed to dial it in. For smaller rooms often EQ is extremely useful to battle room induced peaks.

 

well the store by my house had a huge price drop in infinity reference r152 bookshelfs, 99 for the pair, amazon lists for 350, so i went ahead and bought them. Still have my eye on those diamonds for the future though for sure. Has anyone listened to or heard anything about the decware high efficiency speakers? they definitely make a statement in the room

 

resurrecting this thread, all moved in, used the infinities for a 5.1 surround for the theatre area. just bought a project debut carbon esprit from a local store and am pretty sure i'm going with the Wharfedale Diamond 220's now. I'll probably just go with a budget tc750 phono-preamp for now. Can anyone recommend a good 2 channel amp to power the wharfedales? preferably ~$300?