Stereo reciever and speakers help

[kirbenvost]

???? he just wants a simple stereo. CD technology has barely advanced in 15 years. In fact most people's affinity for sound quality has gone downhill in the age of MP3s. You don't need DTS 9.1 MATRIXXX DUPER AC-5 SURROUND when the CDs are encoded in 2 channel STEREO. An old 30watt receiver with carefully chosen $400 new speakers will sound far better than some lame Home Theater In Da Boxx

Yeah man, gonna agree with you here as well. All the guy's asking for is a stereo to listen to his music. For that $1000 is plenty. Sure if he wants the hi-fi 7.1 DTS/Dolby etc etc, it's gonna cost a lot more. But he said he wanted a stereo, not a home theatre. (fuck, do they have 9.1 already? Jeez I'm behin the times. )

Theatres in a Box are crap, plain and simple. Unless you find one with some crazy custom-selected components, but then that's out of the $1000 range anyway. And not really a Theatre in a Box.

[DaBestSpoona]

and not everyone has the room for a 9.1 ht setup

[readytoignite]

for 1000 you should be able to get a decent pair of loudspeakers and a receiver, maybe spend 500 each. (if you read the first post, all the music is sourced from the ipod so no need for a cd player).

audio advisor is a good place to go for budget and lower components. i'd be surprised if anyone would allow you to roll in with an ipod and audition their stuff to be honest so the mail order part is not that bad.

[poopie boy]

Here man, I'll build a good system for $1000 for you.

You can do these Mozart speakers by Vienna Acoustics. They have a very very sweet sound and great imaging. Set these up properly in your room and they will blow you away.

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?spkrfull&1193451797

Then you can get this Denon reciever, the AVR-1707. I chose this receiver because it can drive the Vienna Acoustics speakers just fine, and have high current amplification which gives it a fairly decent sweet and detailed sound. It also has the option of an ipod dock which seems important to you. It can be used later as a preamp/processor for a home theater system.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Denon-AVR-1707-7-1-Surround-Receiver-w-Auto-Set-up-NEW_W0QQitemZ150163523270QQihZ005QQcategoryZ14981QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

For your cd player I chose the Denon DCM-27. This is a good cd changer for the price that features a great burr-down D/A converter. Denon cd players are going to be the best for the money. There are also Rotel but the sound is a little more harsh.. and there aren't any for a good deal right now. Here's the link: http://cgi.ebay.com/DENON-DCM-27-290-5-DISC-CD-MP3-WMA-PLAYER-AUTHOR-DEALER_W0QQitemZ150163868231QQihZ005QQcategoryZ14975QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Now for cables, what you are going to want to do is go all analogue as the d/a converter in the cd player is going to be a bit better than the one in the reciever. Or you could maintain the school of thought that maintaining everything in its digital form until it gets to the amp is the best way to go. you can experiment with it, but if you really really don't care, just go all analogue.

For your Analog interconnects going from your CD player to your Reciever get these:

Audioquest Diamondback 1m/Pair

http://cgi.ebay.com/Audioquest-Diamondback-interconnect-RCA-cable-1m-pair_W0QQitemZ270169902009QQihZ017QQcategoryZ64591QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?cablintr&1194563965

For your speaker wire, you will want to go with good quality also, something terminated on both ends with banana plugs as those work best on these speakers and that reciever. Having cables that are terminated with banana connectors will prevent oxidization and ensure the integrity of the signal all the way through the chain from the bits on the disc to the coil of the speaker.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Audioquest-Type-4-Audio-Speaker-Cable-2-5m-8ft-x2_W0QQitemZ300155587103QQihZ020QQcategoryZ14966QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

That puts you at $1030 I think.

Thats a little over your budget, but I'd say that this system would be audiophile grade sound where you can make small upgrades over time such as a better amp and cd player and you would be very very happy with the sound.

[braid]

whatever you do, stay away from monster cables.....way overpriced.

i buy cables from here and recommend them

http://www.bluejeanscable.com/

[Brienneoftarth]

thanks for all the help guys! I'm gunna list some stuff on ebay, get my cashflow up, and start looking...those mozart speakers look really nice!