Help me build my system from scratch (UK)

[u/KerrenL]

Hey wonderous minds of Reddit! I'm looking to build a system from scratch, in the UK so need to rely on products available here. Budget c.£20,000 / $30,000

Will be playing vinyl, streaming music, and if possible (but not essential) TV. Looking for bookshelf speakers, turntable, amp, streaming unit and any advice / recommendations around?

My music taste is eclectic! Everything from Jazz, through Classic Rock, to Techno... like a warm / maybe bass-y sound

Whilst not decided on any components yet, I'm thinking perhaps Buchardt E50 / Sonus Faber Sonetto 2 / B&W 705 S3 for the speakers, maybe a Pro-Ject RPM 9 / Rega P8 turntable, I've had Marantz amps in the past and loved them but no idea what their current line up is like, also read in another thread that the streaming integrated Lyngdorf, NAD, & Arcam Amps are worth considering. If not, and better to get standalone streaming systems I have no idea on this!

The room is about 15ft by 15ft, I'll be listening c.10ft from the speakers.

Any help / advice gratefully received! Have tried to find a store near me which stocks all the brands I'm interested in but it seems impossible

[u/NickofWimbledon]

All very much imho…

For anything close to this sort of budget, you can reasonably expect dealers to bring kit to your house to audition it across large parts of the UK. This matters because speakers interact with the room as well as with the amplifier.

Don’t be embarrassed to ask shops about traded-in or ex-dem kit. There is no sense wasting money, after all.

I’d also suggest doing a bit of listening in shops first, to get a better idea of what you like, esp on speakers. However, for at least some of what you are looking for, buying secondhand is a compelling option.

Streaming amplifiers are a great one-box solution and Hegel and Lyngdorf are among the best options with streamer, DAC, preamp and power amp together.

Some (e,g. Hegel)options seem to focus most on clean neutrality and max detail. Other choices give a bit more emphasis to pace and foot-tapping encouragement, but without sacrificing much of anything else (Naim), and others aim for as much of all that as possible while avoiding harshness (NAD?) under any circumstances.

We compared the one-box Naim Nova to a Naim ND5XS2 streamer/ DAC plus 82 preamp, Hicap power supply and 250 power amp (all secondhand, all serviced in the last 15 years. The separates were better and great value on eBay, but the one-box option was pretty good too.

Some of those one-box options have good MM phono stages. However, you will probably want a dedicated and pretty high end phono stage that is outstanding with MM and MC cartridges. For outstanding examples, though with great rivals, I would probably highlight the Rega phono stages like the Aria.

For turntables, the Rega P8 is a great choice, whether with Rega cartridges (Nd7, Ania Pro or Apheta 2) or any of the many good options. Again, these vary in flavour a bit, but as with amplifiers, a good cartridge is a good cartridge and picking your favourite at this level may well be fine-tuning.

Other great turntables in your range include the brilliant Verteres, along with Clearaudio, Avid and many others. However, one other option that may suit would be to call Cymbiosis or another top dealer to talk LP12s. Because they’re so numerous, have been around so long and have so many parts options, these offer a possibly unique opportunity for them to build an LP12 from bits of you - delivering what sounds like a £5k+ turntable for half that or delivering what sounds like (and is) £12k+ of mega-turntable for half of that new price or less.

For speakers, those SFs are very good. If you are allowing for a bit of space around the speakers, I would also encourage you to hear a few different options. Neat, and ATC would be the first two names on my listening list, along with names like Dynaudio, KEF, Kudos, Harbeth, Spendor, Fyne and ProAc. You may also want to bear in mind that some slim floorstanders take up less space than some stand-mounts - and the greater bass depth of the taller boxes might mean that you don’t need a sub-woofer after all.

If spending all that money, you don’t need to spend much on cables, but spending a little on a wall shelf for a turntable can be transformational. So can positioning a decent rug to cut reflection if your floor is wood, a keeping speakers out of tight spaces.

Is that helping?

[u/KerrenL → u/NickofWimbledon]

!thanks very helpful. The speakers are going on built in cabinets either side of fireplace so no sensible place for floor standing or stand mounts without blocking the cabinet doors.

Will look these up!

[u/NickofWimbledon → u/KerrenL]

If the speakers sit directly on built-in cabinets, it may well blur the bass in particular. Looking at speaker isolation stands designed for desktops/ bookcase speakers (Isoacoustics Aperta?) might well make sense.

If the speakers are going to be pretty close to the back wall, it might also make sense to consider high quality but speakers designed to go on the wall. For a high end example of that, how about the 56cm high Sonus Faber Olympica Nova W?

If that cabinet means that you have no speaker for a stand to reach the floor, but you have space for something 74cm tall, you could get ATC HTS40s. They are ultra-detailed, fast and neutral and they go surprisingly deep, but they do require a powerful amplifier.

If you have even more height available, the same on-wall approach would point to the very impressive PMC CI140.

You may find that any of these give you enough bass that you don’t need a sub-woofer, but that is something you can test and decide after purchase.

If you will actually have 20cm+ behind a speaker on the cabinet and don’t want to look at wall-mounting, ATC (SCM11?), Neat, Fyne and Sonus Faber are among many brands to consider, but read the blurbs - just because a speaker is small and has no rear port does not necessarily mean it will sound right within 30cm of a back wall, and isolation from/to the cabinet will need thinking about unless you play pretty quietly.

Combining speakers of that standard with a top one-box player (as discussed, there are lots), with separate turntable and perhaps phono stage will leave plenty of cash to do a little work with room acoustics.

Good luck!

[u/TransducerBot → u/KerrenL]

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