Solid state amps (digital?) are just as worthy as tube amps. Your advisor at the store is giving you some dodgy information.

I had that turntable. It is an excellent turntable - I know it seems expensive, but in the audiophile world it is a bargain turntable, but is thought to be an excellent turntable at a surprisingly low price.

I also agree that you should spend more money on speakers than on the amp or the turntable. The speakers make the sound, after all. Bad speakers will make a $100K amp sound bad. Great speakers can't make a crappy amp sound good, mind you, but you'll get more bang for your buck from the speakers.

Speakers first. You didn’t mention what you currently have. Also note there are different power requirements for 8 ohm and 4 ohm speakers. The lower resistance of 4 ohm speakers will require a power amp to be faster when power is required. Your 1812 Overture cannon shots will sound clipped if you have 4 ohm speakers and an amp that can’t deliver as quickly as needed.

Stereophile has great advice.
https://www.stereophile.com/

Also, "What Stereo?" out of the UK is pretty honest in that blunt British way.

Check the ads in Stereophile for some deals once in a while. Find a nice tube amp for her.

Vienna is a brand that makes wonderful speakers for classical.

I went shopping on eBay for the OP, looking for the speakers I bought when I was serious: Rogers LS3/5A's. These are bookshelf speakers, used by the BBC as monitors in their studios, and renowned for an extremely accurate, well-defined sound, but of course not for their base or ability to handle lots of power. My wife could easily tell the difference between them and our previous Dynaco speakers.
I bought them in the 80's for about $600. I see used versions, made by Chartwell or Spendor (but made to same BBC spec) for $2000 +. Wow.
But they are legendary.

I have three sound systems in my home - and on average I spend between 40% and 50% of my budget for that system just on the speakers

DO NOT fall for the speaker cable crap - wire is wire, copper is copper. I make my own speaker cables and they work just fine

my turntable is an Acoustics Research ES-1 and the McIntosh as inputs just for the photo

I have had my Mc about 6 months and it sounds so much better than a digital amp - better lows and a warmer sound overall. I am actually purchasing a new series of tubes to replace the factory tubes (placed the order today)

amps do make a different, analog is warmer than digital

you are about to embark on a long and perilous journey into the dark side of audio known as analog

welcome to the club

Here is some interesting info about blind listening tests of various audiophile equipment.

http://redspade-audio.blogspot...nd-test-results.html

Keep in mind that, although I am a cynic and very skeptical, I actually do believe there is a difference. I am disappointed that high-resolution digital audio formats have not become more standardized and popular.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
Solid state amps (digital?) are just as worthy as tube amps. Your advisor at the store is giving you some dodgy information.

Yeah... tube amps tend towards a "warm" or "pleasant" sound that results from harmonic distortion introduced by the tubes. Essentially, they "color" the sound in a way that some people like.

On the other hand, modern semiconductor fabrication techniques have resulted in inexpensive solid-state amplifiers that have vanishingly low distortion and noise.

There are integrated amp-on-a-chip semiconductor devices now that cost about $5 each and put out ~50 watts. With one chip and maybe $30 in ancillary parts per channel, you can put together an amplifier that beats almost any amplifier at any price level from 30 years ago in terms of accuracy of reproduction.

There are still bad amplifiers out there (even though there is no excuse anymore), but unless you have to have the tube sound, the amplifier is the LAST place I would spend money in an audio system.

The speakers are absolutely the place to spend the most money. Out of the entire system, they have the largest improvement in performance as you spend more money. The difference between a decent $200 solid state amplifier and a great $5,000 solid state amplifier is pretty minor. The difference between a decent $200 pair of speakers and a great $5,000 pair of speakers is HUGE.

After the speakers, for vinyl, the cartridge is very important, but great ones aren't super expensive. The phono preamp is important too, but again, you can get a very good one for not a ton of money.

For digital audio (CDs, streaming, from a computer, whatever), the DAC (the thing that takes the 1s and 0s of the digital representation and turns it into an analog audio signal) is absolutely critical - but you don't have to spend a lot of money to get a good one, you just have to avoid the bad ones.

Agree with maladat.

I have big Magneplanar speakers augmented by a custom 18" sub in the main stereo system. Definitive Technology bipolar speakers with Outlaw subs in the home theater setup. Bedroom has a classic vintage Nakamichi Stasis receiver driving home built Ed Frias designed speakers.

I employ Denon moving coil cartridges in my turntable and have a stand alone dAck! DAC with my Redbook CD player.

They work for me.

Also, if you want something small, simple, and reasonably priced that sounds very good, I'd recommend this:

https://www.psaudio.com/produc...ntegrated-amplifier/

I have the previous version.

It's a little 100W integrated stereo preamp/phono preamp/DAC/amplifier that is about the size of a hardback book.

It has a very good phono preamp and power amplifier built in - you can connect your turntable and speakers to it without needing any other equipment.

It also has an analog input you can connect another audio source to, USB and optical digital inputs (with a very good built-in DAC) you can connect another audio source to, and a pretty good Bluetooth receiver you can use for streaming audio from a phone or tablet (I say "pretty good" because there basically just aren't any great Bluetooth receivers - until very, very recently, the Bluetooth standard didn't even support really high-quality audio streaming, and although it kind of does now, there are very few devices that support it yet).

Dang that Sprout has everything the OP's Mrs. needs: built-in phono preamp for MM cartridge, decent power output, just need that and some speakers.
Must say it's tempting as a room full of my ADCOM preamp and amp takes up quite a bit of space.

Right now our family room has a pair of Audioengine HD6 wireless speakers on the wall on each side of the TV monitor. This is an alternative arrangement that minimized visible wires and components, as the speakers have their amplifier built in to the left speaker. They have line RCA and mini-phone-jack inputs as well as TOSLINK digital jack and Bluetooth APTx capability.

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
Dang that Sprout has everything the OP's Mrs. needs: built-in phono preamp for MM cartridge, decent power output, just need that and some speakers.
Must say it's tempting as a room full of my ADCOM preamp and amp takes up quite a bit of space.

It's a pretty compelling device if you want a simple 2-channel (or 2.1 - it has a line-level output for a powered subwoofer) stereo system for music listening.

It's small, it's simple (input select switch and volume knob - no menus to mess with), it has all the major input types, it sounds really good, and for serious audio equipment, it's pretty inexpensive.

I have the Sprout, a Music Hall turntable, and a pair of slim folded-horn full-range floor speakers in my bedroom. The Sprout, turntable, and a good-size TV all fit on top of a dresser on the wall opposite the bed, with the speakers on either side. The speakers have the same color finish as the dresser. It's pretty unobtrusive and it sounds really good, both with vinyl or over USB from a computer. The Bluetooth even sounds pretty good.

Holy cow tons of great info here, even better than I expected. That Sprout looks like the ticket and relativ lay easy on the budget, leaving more for speakers.

Looks like 8 ohm speakers are the top choice. I’ve not yet even begun to look into that. I’m going to have to edit my thread title to ask for speaker recommendations now.

I am the other side of the coin from bald1 as far as music taste goes. I listen to mostly big band (lots of brass), full symphony classical and some rock, think Pink Floyd and Chicago. Due to my tastes in music I have chosen a set of Klipsch Corner Horns with a Belle Klipsch center channel. Some folks look down their noses at horn speakers but there are applications where they shine and the efficiency, if tempered with good design, can make dynamic music come alive. This speaker array is driven by a 200 watt Perreaux power amp and Perreaux FET pre. The inputs are a Thorens turntable, an old Akai reel to reel and a Denon CD player. The power supplied the K Horns can be considered excessive (I think it goes to 12. 8^O) but it does not clip....EVER. This setup will not let you down when aggressive audio passages arrive. Cannon shots on the 1812 from a Mobile Fidelity disc...no problem. I was fortunate enough to have an income that would support my habit at a younger age and suspect I bought into the obsession about the same era as bald1. I would also recommend buying vintage higher end equipment when you can find it.

speakers are very personal in the way they sound to each person, I'd recommend visiting a showroom that has a listening room.

Many places want to turn the vol up, personally I want to hear them at a very low vol first. I look at it similar to the cam in an engine and where a power curve is. speakers like klipsch are designed to come alive when louder (not that its a bad aspect, just not my preference), I prefer nice warm, smooth curve since I mostly listen a moderate to low levels

^^^ LOL. <With great power comes great responsibility!> You do not have to turn it up excessively to enjoy the dynamics of the music.

I love threads on stereo gear!

Yes snwghst, were not head banging house party try to recreate a concert hall types. Low to mid level (unless she is gone and I have the house to myself ). Her / our taste is very eclectic. Her collection is primarily classic rock, folk, country, classical.

Yes I think visiting a few studios will be best and listen to them in person. Is it wise to try to have them try to match up the specs of what I plan on using for an amp (wattage etc) or is that not to big of a deal?

quote:

Originally posted by bettysnephew:
^^^ LOL. <With great power comes great responsibility!> You do not have to turn it up excessively to enjoy the dynamics of the music.

exactly my point

quote:

Is it wise to try to have them try to match up the specs of what I plan on using for an amp (wattage etc) or is that not to big of a deal?

I would say no. As long as they have a decent primary source (take your favorite vinyl records along) and electronics, the overwhelming difference you will hear will be with the speakers.

Enjoy the ride!!

quote:

Originally posted by hrcjon:
Nobody and I mean nobody spends 1700 (+700 turntable) on an amp and $500 on speakers. You have it totally backward. So start over. The speakers don't care the source. Any good quality amp will do fine at this point. Get the best speakers you can afford. Period.

Not to pile on, but ‘you have it backwards’ was my exact thought as well.

You can get a decent amp for under $1,000, but you should be shifting more $$ towards speakers.

I’m still reading this thread and so apologies if this has been mentioned. If not, audiogon.com is another good place to look for good used audio equipment.