Have your say & ask the experts

It is time after 30 years to buy some decent kit to replace my 1970's JVC separates.

We live in a rather strange house, a converted barn with a massive living room. 70 feet long, 20 feet wide and 25 feet high. Don't even think about the heating costs! 

Want to start from scratch, so all I have is an ipod. I think the quality of speakers is critical as it is a huge space to fill.

 Budget of £5,000 or a tad more. Please tell me what to buy. 

Very carefully!

You are right - the speakers are going to be very important to fill a room like that, and so is the amplification to drive them properly too.

What items other than amp and speakers are you looking for? CD? Turntable? Are you buying once and that's it or would you like some sortof upgrade path open to you?

The biggest thing here is going to be getting a few demonstrations - it's you who has to live with the system, so you're the one who needs to enjoy it, not those who are recommending it.

Any answers to your post are going to be guesses. The best answers to a 'I am at the begining and I dont know what to do' come after a bit more of an input from yourself.

If I were you I would visit dealers and at least get some ideas yourself and then post back.

Otherwise my complete guess would be ipod - Wadia itransport - Benchmark DAC - a nice amp and big speakers, since you say you have an ipod.

Haven't got any speakers, just using a basic ipod dock.

Will listen to mostly classical music and brass bands. 

My wife thinks we should get a pair of Bang & Olufsen Beo something 9 speakers, but they will eat the entire budget. Not for the first time, I think I need a lower maintenance wife. 

well .... today, visited a client at home ... he has just intstalled a bose system connected to his tv,,,,.    top of the range Bose with a giant TV....

tiny little speakers (looked like 2 joined tohether, about the size of a 2- 20 cigarette boxes, with a tiny subwoofer smaller than the size of a beer pint can)

He was baragging and said he paid a lot for this setup,,,, asked him for a quick demo ... he played the Kings of Leon cd ...

 Hmmmmm .... lots of bass and volume ... sounded a bit distorted to me ... must say, windows were rattling and was amazed at the volume produced from these tiny speakers ... all I told him was that I was amazed! (think it would be good for tv which it is also connected to)

so .... not sure what I'm trying to say, or if this is related to your post, but did not wish to start a new thread about this  .... so after today, I will not comment on the latest gear/technology as all I can say is that when I first looked at those timy speaker. I thought ,,, Yea right!

Another really interesting set up! As Dave says a demonstration and ideally a home demonstration is the best bet.

From our line up of products I would be looking to put PMC OB1's with the new Exposure power amps as a first port of call. The main issue you are going to have is getting a big enough sound without having to push the system so hard that it breaks up. A big coherent speaker with a good amount of push should do it.

Coming at the system from another angle would be the Harman Kardon HK990 amp. It can happily control two subwoofers digitally and offers room correction as well. The effortless sound from this amp will suit your music and it has the authority to drive the room also.  

sonus faber cremona or better speakers

electrocompaniet or unison research  amplifier and cd player

JONATHAN HAZZAN:

It is time after 30 years to buy some decent kit to replace my 1970's JVC separates.

We live in a rather strange house, a converted barn with a massive living room. 70 feet long, 20 feet wide and 25 feet high. Don't even think about the heating costs! 

Want to start from scratch, so all I have is an ipod. I think the quality of speakers is critical as it is a huge space to fill.

 Budget of £5,000 or a tad more. Please tell me what to buy. 

Advising on your room size is a problem. The only thing that immediately springs to mind is a combo of older stuff as well as current. Here goes:

AVI Laboratory Series amp (200 watts per channel). RRP £1500. You can probably pick up a deal on this tremendous little amp.

Leema Antila CDP. RRP £2,500 approx.

ART Stiletto 6. RRP £2,000.

Word of warning: This is just a guess, as I've only heard the AVI.

Firstly, whatever you choose, fire it across the 20 foot length, not the 70 foot one! This will give your system a fighting chance of being heard 

I'll assume you'll only need a CD player as a source, but if different, please let us know. For larger rooms, I'd be looking at the Dynaudio Excite X36, ATC's SCM40, PMC's FB1i, ProAc's D18, and Monitor Audio's GS60's. As I've mentioned, it's one thing having the speakers, but you need the amplification too. Try Quad's 99/909 pre power amp. The 909 will pretty much drive anything, and there's always the option of adding another one later on, or two in the case of the PMC's and ATC's. If you do want a CD player, there's also the 99CDP2, which is a CD player with a basic, built in digital pre-amp - allowing you to pick up an i-pod dock with a digital ouput like the Wadia, and stream it into the CDP2. Quad also produce monoblock versions of the 909 power amp, which will also be worth a look. Quad's smoother sound may suit a larger room as they tend to be quite reflective, so the last thing you need is too much treble energy in the first place.

As HCC mentions, a sub or two at a later date may be a good addition if the system is lacking in this area, which i most probably will. Personally, I'd be looking at putting in a £10k system, as it's going to take a pretty serious amp and speaker combination to do it properly.

I agree with Frank Harvey HiFi in that you want a cdp with digital input for streaming. Radio, Spotify, last.fm etc etc as well as CD. Also in a room that size you need some good floorstanders and a powerful amp.

In your situation, with £5k to spend I'd be looking at buying second hand/ex demo

CDP - Unison Research CDE

Amp - Pathos Logos

Speakers - PMC Db1i, ATC SCM40, Kudos C2, Spendor A6

And many many more.

You need to find somewhere with a good range to demo. Sensitivity of speakers will also be key.

here's a cheeky suggestion that will pop you over your budget but is powerfull,

try and get a ex demo arcam avr 600 for £2,700 for 7 channel amplification and ex demo (check sevenoaks) Monitor Audio PL300's for £4k.

 Bi amp the speakers 4 channels driving the speakers instead of 2

Use the Arcams DAC instead of buying a CD player - use computer stored music and an xbox or PS3 to stream music and output over optical. 

both are WHF winners in the ultimate guide to hi end hifi, and the amp can be upgraded to go full on surround later on. You can also set zone 2 music and hook up speakers for a zone at the other end depending upon where you are sitting

forgot to mention the AVR 600 has ethernet connection so no need for xbox or ps3 etc

AVR 500 which is a lot cheaper (£2,500 new) doesn't have one, but if you have an xbox or ps3 it could bring you within budget