On a very tight budget and wondering where my money can best be spent next. I love the Dahlquists but I know they need some real power to do their best. I'd like to find a reciever with pre-amp outs and use a good power amp to drive them. A sub would be nice as well. I listen pretty much exclusivly to CDs, mostly rock and some jazz. The biggest limiting factor I think is the fact that all this is in a corner of a room about 10'x12'.
when i was 18 i think i was listening to cassettes and records on a real cheap TT. i thought cass. were the greatest thing as a couple years earlier i was stuck with an 8 track player,and didnt even know high end audio existed.but i did manage to buy a used marshall 100 watt half stack,boy my nieghbors hated me!your off to a great start,you might want to check out an anthem mca 20 power amp,200 watts and great for rock and jazz,good strong bass to,you can find them used for aroung 500 i believe,best of luck!
One_shot- Great system! When I was your age(which was only 4 years and change ago) my system was so disorganized, I didn't put much thought into component purchases. It seems you are planning your moves wisely and it will make upgrading much easier and your system more enjoyable along the way. Listen to what the people here at audiogon have to say and you'll get the system of your dreams with minimal $$$$. I only wish I knew about audiogon when I was 17/18 years old, I would have saved a lot of money(and as you know at that age, that is a BIG deal).
Thanks for everyone's replies. I recently turned 18 so I updated the title there. Everyone's commenting on how its great that I'm getting started so early. It was my best friend's dad that got me into it. He used to rep for several different speaker companies, mostly car audio, but a few how audio as well. I don't know all the details but I know he spent a while with Blaupunkt, Orion, ADS, and M&K I think. Hes got a nice setup in one room with a pair of M&K bookshelves and a matching sub, and in the other room he has a later model pair of DQ-10's (with the original woofers, never refoamed). He noticed a pair of DQ-10's used at an Ovation here in town (hes friends with the owner) and called me up to see if I was interested, since he knew I was shopping around for a good pair of entry level speakers. Ended up getting them for $300. And here I am now. I wish I had a little more disposable income to fuel my new hobby, but there's too many other drains on that, like the $1200 I recently dropped on a new bass guitar amp and that whole paying for college thing ;-) I'm always anxious to learn more about all of this though, so I'll be roaming around the forums here some, and hopefully I'll pick up some good advice every now and then.
One shot: I'm always glad to see "young people" ( sheesh, do i feel old saying that ) getting into the hobby. As others have stated here, read and learn as much as you can. While experience is a great teacher, it can also be quite expensive. Others can teach you quite a bit, so long as you are willing to learn and they are fair and accurate in their appraisals of gear : )
The first thing that i saw were some pretty decent speakers that were horribly placed. I know that you don't have much room to work with, but honestly, spending more money won't resolve some of your biggest problems right now. While better electronics may drive the speakers with both more finesse and authority, the speakers themselves are severely handicapped in terms of placement and room acoustics.
As such, i would suggest looking at your room layout and seeing what you can do to work with what you have. My guess is that with a little re-arranging, you might be able to place the speakers slightly spread out and firing into the room rather than shoving them into the corner right next to each other. This may require some changes in furniture ( type or style of clothes dresser used ) but the sonic results would outweigh the work involved. From there, some simple DIY room treatments could go a long way for very little money, especially if you're willing to get your hands dirty. After that, i would look into electronics as the basics would have been dealt with and the results from a component upgrade would become far more noticeable and beneficial. As i've mentioned before, you can throw money at a system and make it "better", but that won't necessarily make it "good" in the grander scheme of things. Sean >
PS... Drop me an email if you like. I can recommend an amp that is far superior and less money than the Audiosource's that you're thinking about. I don't want to post the specifics here because others will end up competing with you to buy them when they show up on the used market : )
wow, great system for 17yrs old, i owned dq10's & they sounded ok by themselves but after i added the matching dq sub & xover they really took on a new life, you should be able to pick up the sub for 200$ or less & the passive xover for well under 100$
BTW, if your tweets dont have fuse protection you might wanna think about adding a fuse to them,regnar-dahlquist wants 100$ each for the tweets.
You could run an integrated amp for the L/R speakers. Use one input for 2ch direct, and use the pre outs on the receiver to annother line input for surround/video. The integrated amp drives the main speakers in both modes. Just be careful of gain in video mode, as the receivers preamp is driving the preamp in the integrated. How many speakers are you running? Does the receiver do dolby digital, or dts decoding? I can give better advice with more information. BTW, I am a classical musician, and worked at a high end dealer for a year, so I have plenty of information, if you care to hear what the magazines won't tell you.
Thats cool, I hadnt thought of using a switch to a different pre amp for the fronts. Two questions though: where would I find one, and how bad would it affect the sound quality.
I would hate to say i was in the same boat with a Sony STR-DB940 multichannel amp using the pre outs to a real amp and I have to say the sony preouts are the biggest Piece of S#$T. IF anything get a good integrated and a speaker switch for your mains and use that for stereo only and switch to the sony for HT. You will be much Happier for the same cost. You can use analog(rca) output to the integrated and digital to the sony. Just my two cents worth.
Basically, you are one step behind my setup. It looks very familiar just different speaks and such.
All Definitive tech speakers, L/R/C/SR/SL/SW
Right now i have a Technics SA-TX50 AV reciever, this has pre-outs. For movies, this thing really really rocks. It supplys a juicy 125w per channel. Problem is these things are rather hard to locate. They did not produce too many of them.
Ive been looking at amplifiers to basically do just what you said, use the pre-outs from my SA-TX50 and power the fron speakers with them. Im also on a pretty tight budget, so i have been looking at ADCOM
Here is my basic plan
1) aquire an Adcom amplifier 150w/5ch (i can immediatly start running my speakers off of this with my pre-outs, i expect a significant boost in preformance, my reciever's amplifier doesent sound as good as it used to)
2) Aquire a good 7.1 channel pre-pro, Probably Adcom again. I have not heard anything really negative about adcom in the forums.
3) Aquire a good quality 2ch amp, not sure what brand yet, maybe a cheaper bryston.
4) Get a pair of either small Martin Logans, or Vandersteens. Place those in the front and run off the 2channel aamp, the 5channel will run my Deftech BP2004TLs as surrounds, and my DT BP6's as rears.
Then i will probably listen to this for a few years before doing any more major upgrades. These upgrades will definatly give me more punch and clarity, and then i can get a couple small speakers and cd player and use the reciever in a setup in another part of the house.
I dunno if this helps you or not, but there are plenty of us in your same basic boat.
I'm only 26, but i wish i started this when i was 17. I would probably have a pretty killer rig by now.
Funny, I was going to suggest Audioisource amps before I saw your last comment. Check out comments on the Audiosource thread above. This is good-value gear.
You should also try some NAD gear. I did when I was your age and for the money it is quite impressive and can handle many types of speakers. You can look right here on Audiogon.
Good suggestions, but i was looking more for a straight power amp that i could run off a surround reciever (i watch a lot of dvds too and 2 seperate systems is out of the question) so i could power the mains from a good amp and run the other channels off the reciever's amp. I figure i need something in the area of 200w to really make the DQ's sing. The other thing i want to do is tweak the dahlquists, maybe with a new tweeter so i can drop the piezo horn. I was looking at some audiosource amps (audiosource.net), either the 150w stereo model, or two of the 200w mono ones. Ive not heard anything about these, im gonna post somewhere in the forums asking about them. The big selling point to me is there price. Also, does anyone think upgrading my source (a real cd player) would make a difference? Im thinking that it could help, but there are more pressing issues to attend to first. Thanks
Nice Setup! Budget used component for your speakers. Acurus DIA100 or DIA150 integrated amp with a passive preamp. $300-450 used.. and outstanding power output. Looks cool too!
My suggestion is that you start spending time here and espscially at Audio Asylum reading everything that you find interesting. You will find some good advice and very good deals. Start deciding what you components you want and in what sequence. While a subwoofer would be nice, your money will probably be better spent elsewhere. Move slowly and savor the progress.
