Dining Room Audio Setup

[foofighterjim]

Hi everyone

 

I am as always mooching for a little advice, I know quite a number of you are au fait with sound setups.

 

I am about to redecorate my dining room and as part of this I am looking to have a decent sound setup. Most of my music I own is on CD but I have a number of vinyls and a handful of downloaded albums. I'm not really bothered with how loud it will go but I do like to hear a decent amount of the bass in my music. So what do I need?

 

• Vinyl deck
  
• CD Player
  
• New laptop
  
• Amp
  
• Speakers
  
• Furniture?? - really struggling here, can't seem to find any furniture for these setups anymore but I suppose it also depends on the dimensions of the equipment I get.
  

 

Anything else? All suggestions welcome but please be gentile as I am a novice with audio setups, I don't really have a budget in mind but lets put it this way I can't afford a £500 vinyl deck.

[hallb15]

Get yourself down to Richer Sounds. They give good advice and in the two stores I've been in, they do know what they are talking about. I've bought all my home audio and TV stuff from them. They have demo rooms so if you have a look around their website to get an idea of what you can afford, then ring them with your thoughts, they'll be able to get that equipment setup for you to have a listen to. Take your favourite CD/Vinyl with you. If you join their VIP club (its free and they only send a couple of emails a week) they'll even arrange a late or early demo so you can fit it around work.

[danelliott87]

Get yourself down to Richer Sounds. They give good advice and in the two stores I've been in, they do know what they are talking about. I've bought all my home audio and TV stuff from them. They have demo rooms so if you have a look around their website to get an idea of what you can afford, then ring them with your thoughts, they'll be able to get that equipment setup for you to have a listen to. Take your favourite CD/Vinyl with you. If you join their VIP club (its free and they only send a couple of emails a week) they'll even arrange a late or early demo so you can fit it around work.

 

+1 for Richersounds!

[unixman_again]

My Hi-Fi sits in a custom build rack, which is spartan but rock solid, which is what you need if you play vinyl. You can just see it in the pic -2m tall, cassette drawers on the bottom, two shelves of equipment, three shelves of LPs and singles.

[LeMarchand]

I must agree that Richersounds are very good. Their warranty is refundable if you don't use it, too. Well, if you can find the paperwork. I've already forgotten where I put mine!

 

If you only have a small amount of downloaded music might you be better off with a tablet that you can plug in/stream from rather than a laptop?

Edited November 12, 2014 by LeMarchand

[foofighterjim]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

 

@hallb15 - I will give my local Richer Sounds a call during my lunch today, they seem to have everything you could think of on their website.

 

@unixman_again - Interesting thought on the custom build, not sure if I'm up to that task but may know someone who is.

 

@LeMarchand - I was thinking laptop with decent built-in speakers so I can have it around the house without the need for dedicated systems in each room and still (hopefully) have decent quality. Plus my Zoom G7.1UT effects board also has a USB connection, so I could also use it to record my awful renditions of modern Rock and Metal classics. However if there is something else that fits the bill I'm all ears.

[hallb15]

My Hi-Fi sits in a custom build rack, which is spartan but rock solid, which is what you need if you play vinyl. You can just see it in the pic -2m tall, cassette drawers on the bottom, two shelves of equipment, three shelves of LPs and singles.

 

I've got the same Kenwood amp as you! Brings back memories - mine's in the loft somewhere along with the Wharfedale Delta 30s I used it with. I bought mine as a teenager from the tape recorder center in Halifax many, many years ago. Its not there anymore, and I suppose it would have to have changed its name by now to keep up with technology!

[Gibson335]

Hey, why not cough up for a really expensive digital signage rig and then just use it to play Radio One at lunchtime - oh, sorry, was thinking of our school dining room not your own!

 

;-)

[maniac]

I have a reasonable audio setup which is quite old now, but still sounds great. Most of the kit in it is 10yrs old plus, the speakers are nearly 15 yrs old!

 

Mine consists of;

 

NAD C320 amplifier

Bowers and Wilkins 603 S1 Floor Standing speakers.

NAD C541 CD player

Rega Planar 3 turntable

Sony DAB radio tuner

Laptop with external USB audio and ground loop isolator

 

Various good quality interconnects.

 

Furniture wise however, it's just on a pretty bog standard set of shelves.

 

Apart from the DAB tuner the rest of this kit is years old, but sounds superb. You could replicate that entire setup for under £500 these days, I paid quite a bit more than that to set it up. If you're working on a budget I would strongly suggest looking at second hand kit as you can get some absolute bargains out there, especially if you're not bothered about size as everything has shrunk a lot lately so the older more 'traditional' kit is selling for peanuts on places like e-bay at the moment.

 

Even thou you say you like Bass one thing I would say is I'd strongly advise against having a sub on an audio setup, it never sounds right in my opinion. A good set of floor standing speakers should offer more than enough bass response for an average sized room if they are connected up to a properly suited amplifier.

[unixman_again]

I have a reasonable audio setup which is quite old now, but still sounds great. Most of the kit in it is 10yrs old plus, the speakers are nearly 15 yrs old!

Almost brand new compared to my equipment :

Turntable - Kenwood KT2033 - 1974

Tuner - Kenwood KT5300 - 1974

Amp - Kenwood KA5020 - 1990

Deck1 - Sony TC134SD - bought 2nd hand in 1977 possibly 1972 vintage

Deck2 - Denon DRM 500 - 1990

Graphic - Kenwood ge29 - 1990

CD - Denon DCD-685 - 2003 (almost brand new!)

Speakers - Morel MLP201 - 1990 - 4 ohm too!

Short Wave Receiver - Realistic DX100 - 1979?

[Andrew_C]

Get yourself down to Richer Sounds. They give good advice and in the two stores I've been in, they do know what they are talking about.

Hmmm...

 

Depends a bit. I've had several of their salesmen try to bull sh!t me to get an up-sale. I walked out on one who was trying to tell me that an MD player with fewer physical buttons on the front would "sound better because the signal didn't have to go through as many connections".

 

Spend money on "moving parts"; speakers first, then turntable. The rest is easy to get right, those two items will give you the biggest "bang / buck" improvements, every time.

 

And DON'T buy expensive cables from them (or anyone), especially for digital!!

Edited November 13, 2014 by Andrew_C

[foofighterjim]

Even thou you say you like Bass one thing I would say is I'd strongly advise against having a sub on an audio setup, it never sounds right in my opinion. A good set of floor standing speakers should offer more than enough bass response for an average sized room if they are connected up to a properly suited amplifier.

 

Absolutely, I like to hear the bass but don't want it shaking my walls to bits. Thanks for the recommendations so far, looks like it will be at least a week before I can get to Richer Sounds. At least it gives me time to look at all the very shiny things I probably can't afford on the website!