Hi all, was hoping someone in the know might point me in the direction of a good HiFi setup? I'm looking for something that has a CD player & iPod connectivity, preferably compact. No fancy features needed necessarily. Bluetooth might come in handy, as would DAB, but not essential. I'm more interested in audio fidelity. Any audiophiles please advise. It'd be much appreciated.
I see JB currently has a deal on audio but I'm not sure if anything is necessarily worth it.
All the best
"Any Audiophile is going to laugh at your budget…"
I have a feeling he is looking for a 'Hi-fi stereo', not a complete system deck. $300 is considered reasonable for this category.
Anyway I digress, try and get the Sony TAKUMI CMTG2BNIP, looks like all the other generic sets but it sounds much better.
Cheers guys. Yeah, I'm aware of audiophile standards (have a membership over at HeadFi). I'm not looking for audio nirvana, just something that's respectable and punches above its weight. Will have a look into the Sony. Any other suggestions? Specs I should lookout for?
Edit: Sony sounds good, but more expensive, and I'm having trouble finding stock?
Take a look at this one?
https://www.jbhifi.com.au/tv-home-entertainment/micro-hi-fi/…
My folks picked up one of these last week— their brief was simple, around the $300 mark, nothing fancy etc… Decent sound quality for the price.
If you don't mind not having an all in one system - go grab yourself a Pioneer SP-BS22LR ($200) along with a Lepai LP2020A amp ($20). That'll get you incredible bang for your buck - audio sq wise.
If you need any extras - just grab them from eBay. Need Bluetooth? No problem; just get a cheap $10 3.5mm -> Bluetooth adapter and stick a RCA converter on the 3.5mm side to hook it to the amp. Need a CD player? Just grab any of your choice - and hook it into the RCA jacks on the amp. Much more flexible than if you wanted to buying a all in one.
It's almost always the case that if you pick out what you want manually and do your own system yourself - you get much better sq and overall bang for your buck than what you would find in an all-in-one system.
Can almost guarantee the SP-BS22LR setup will blow all the other generic systems in this price range out of the water. They've got a very neutral tone - something I personally love in speakers.
Thanks for the reply. I'm really considering this as a setup. Sounds quite promising. Forgive my ignorance, but how would I intergrate an ipod? Is there a device I connect to the amp that acts as a dock/dac or whatever? Cheers.
Spot on.
You'd either integrate a Bluetooth-based system - or an iPod-dock based system. Your choice. (even both if you wanted!)
If you go down the iPod-dock based route; it'd be pretty much exactly what you mentioned. You can grab a cheap iPod universal dock with a 3.5mm out on eBay for $3.62 - and just hook the 3.5mm output straight to the amp input - however you would need to still somehow power the dock via USB (to charge it - confident these things still work with audio-out without power). Of course, there's much better looking universal docks out there - this is just one of the cheapies that do the job.
If you go down the Bluetooth route - similar concept. You just buy a RCA <- 3.5mm adapter and a 3.5mm <- Bluetooth adapter - the RCA adapter plugged into the input of the amp - and the 3.5mm <- Bluetooth plugged into the adapter. The Bluetooth adapter then essentially then pairs to your phone - and outputs whatever it gets from the phone to the amp - which then in turn plays out through the speakers in glorious audio.
Check out the aktimate micro from scorptec for $299 plus shipping. You will need standalone cd player but a pc/laptop with cd rom can also work via usb. Have no experience but the review is quite good.
Any Audiophile is going to laugh at your budget…
They wouldn't even consider a pair of headphones that were only $300!
For the best sound for the money, I'd be looking at a secondhand system. Standalone CD player, Standalone Amp/Receiver plus an iPod dock with Audio out (or just an audio cable for the iPod) and old but good quality speakers.