[JayEm]

Hey folks,

I'm thinking about replacing my Logitech 17 watt 2.1 system with an entry level amp and a couple of bookshelf speakers. What should I be looking for? Total budget is around £75 - £100. Also, are there any other shops apart from RicherSounds online?

Thanks

[AT82]

No at that price you're stuck with Richersounds. People might not like this sugesstion but I my sister has them and they are brilliant. Them £10 Bush speakers they sell, they are actually a lot better quality than the price suggests. The mid range is very very open and detailed, the downside is the bass is lacking but as longs as you have good supports you can easily fix that. It depends on the room size basically.

As for the amps you have two choices. This

http://www.richersounds.com/showprod...id=TANG-AMP100

It sounds good with a very good bass, but it sounded too edgey and fake for me.

Or the is the Cambridge Audio A1 which is more basic and more expensive at £70, but it does sound a lot better.

http://www.richersounds.com/showprod...=CAMB-A1V3-BLK

The problem is the speakers, they no longer sell the Bush ones and you will struggle here.

http://www.richersounds.com/productl...up=STAND-MOUNT

[Asclepius]

I don't know where you are, but if you have a Richer Sounds store nearby it might be worth having a look there, they sometimes have in-store only offers, end of the line stuff etc. And the staff are generally very knowledgeable and helpful too

[AT82]

I would be tempted to get an old Cambridge A1 on Ebay, which should then free up money for the speakers. The A1 is a good classic amp, but I think the £70 RS sound is too much.

[JayEm]

What about those £20 Eltax ones? Any good?

My current speakers are really unbalanced: Too much bass, not enough treble.

Thanks

[AT82]

They are just so small, so you may have a bit of a problem with lack of bass depending on how you position them. Personaly though I prefer open mid range compared with too little bass .

Get the £20 Eltaxes then when you can afford it spend £100 on a pair which will last you for life

[gbduo]

(Original post by AT82)
They are just so small, so you may have a bit of a problem with lack of bass depending on how you position them. Personaly though I prefer open mid range compared with too little bass .

Get the £20 Eltaxes then when you can afford it spend £100 on a pair which will last you for life

Definately! it is where your song is basically!

[Minardi]

I have a Hitachi AX-M69 Hi Fi for my music needs, both playing through PC and TV/CD's etc and the speakers on it are ace. Got it for £90 a year ago. Seen them for less on eBay.... 100w I beleive.

[bodybuilder22]

(Original post by Minardi)
I have a Hitachi AX-M69 Hi Fi for my music needs, both playing through PC and TV/CD's etc and the speakers on it are ace. Got it for £90 a year ago. Seen them for less on eBay.... 100w I beleive.

I recently bought a Cambridge Audio A5 Amplifier and Cambridge Audio S30 Speakers, and they sound amazing!

[AT82]

There is no way your Hitachi will be 100w, again marketing conning people .

A very expensive HIFI amp will give 70w per channel if that and will sound a trillion sounds louder and more controlled than any mini system.

Bodybuilder - the A5 is not a bad budget amp, with the right speakers like you I can imagine they sound brilliant. You would have to spend £100's to get better and that is why I am such a fan of Cambridge Audio.

[gbduo]

Plus the volume or watts of a system is pretty irrelevent in a bedroom environment!

I worked The Hoosiers gig at Keele last saturday, they brought 16x9kw amps (8subs and a 8 piece line array (7 stacked, 1 on stage)). That was fairly loud. Required a 63amp 3 phase supply (3x 63amp) to work tho!

[AT82]

Ouch the electricity bill to run that lot! My amp is 70w RMS into 8 ohms but that is not what matters, what matters is how tight and controlled everything is, which is what the power is for.

[gbduo]

Haha, yeh it was pretty expensive, especially as we didn't have the power to run that so had to hire in a generator to do it. Cost something £2000 a night, the generator hire itself was only £400 a night, but unfortunately it weighed about 5 tonnes and for some reason, required its on truck to move and maneuvore it!

Didn't help that it was really late notice too! Doors were meant to open at 7:30pm, we didn't get the genny till 7:45 and powered by 8:00. Of course this meant, no sound checks and all done live...was impressive!

I completely agree with your other sentiment tho, you can have all the power in the world, pump it into crap speakers or have a crap source (like a laptop sound card) and it is not going to do you any favours!

[Minardi]

(Original post by AT82)
There is no way your Hitachi will be 100w, again marketing conning people .

A very expensive HIFI amp will give 70w per channel if that and will sound a trillion sounds louder and more controlled than any mini system.

Bodybuilder - the A5 is not a bad budget amp, with the right speakers like you I can imagine they sound brilliant. You would have to spend £100's to get better and that is why I am such a fan of Cambridge Audio.

I'm not an audiophile, and I've not had it up at full volume for anything more than about 5 seconds yet! To me it sounds good, and a darn sight better than anything else I have/had.

Graham - I noticed the Genny was there the other morning (wasn't it still there monday?). Wondered what it was for like, why would the union have a baby genny outside?!

[BluesMan]

I have a pair of Behringer MS40 speakers. Theyre pretty expensive but sound nice. Have digital inputs, multiple inputs, bass and treble controls, and are a combined 40 watts.

Work ok as pc multimedia speakers or cheap audio production speakers.

[gbduo]

(Original post by Minardi)
I'm not an audiophile, and I've not had it up at full volume for anything more than about 5 seconds yet! To me it sounds good, and a darn sight better than anything else I have/had.

Graham - I noticed the Genny was there the other morning (wasn't it still there monday?). Wondered what it was for like, why would the union have a baby genny outside?!

It was still there until Thursday last week.

It was nice little genny that, so quiet!

[Minardi]

They are suprisingly quiet. Some 11kV lines came down near us, and they brought in 2 shipping container sized generators to replace the lines a bit further on. Also very quiet!

[AT82]

(Original post by gbduo)
Haha, yeh it was pretty expensive, especially as we didn't have the power to run that so had to hire in a generator to do it. Cost something £2000 a night, the generator hire itself was only £400 a night, but unfortunately it weighed about 5 tonnes and for some reason, required its on truck to move and maneuvore it!

Didn't help that it was really late notice too! Doors were meant to open at 7:30pm, we didn't get the genny till 7:45 and powered by 8:00. Of course this meant, no sound checks and all done live...was impressive!

I completely agree with your other sentiment tho, you can have all the power in the world, pump it into crap speakers or have a crap source (like a laptop sound card) and it is not going to do you any favours!

Indeed I really want to invest in a DAC but I can't afford it, so I am making do with my M Audio Delta 24/96. I have my Marantz CD6000 OSE LE for CD playing duties though .

[gbduo]

I blew my student loan and a Quad HiFi which sounds amazing, but now when i have no money, the HiFi ain't helping me!!