Budget HI-FI help

Hi Abbas

Have you auditioned the Audire range?
Please post your impressions.

Regards
Rajiv

hello Rajiv,

Yes, I auditioned the Audire range! I've to thanks Dr. chandrasekaran, Mr. Sarath and Mr. Sandeep for that. Was a very good experience. My audition was largely limited to thier speakers only. I checked two different speakers both powered by thier own amp, the pre-power setup. The room was quite big and the acoustics pretty reasonable. it seems they manufacture speaker cables too, using gold alloy conductors.

First, they played thier single 3" (2 & 3/4" i guess) full range driver speakers. The source, i think, was a marantz CD17. The sound is too good for drivers that size, especially at lower volumes. Im not sure if it'll go really deep into the lows at higher volumes without compromise. But at low volumes i felt the bass is really smooth. Its ideal for small rooms i believe.

I also heard the bigger one, the 8" single driver unit. My impression was that its louder than the smaller speakers, but nothing special. I noticed the bass a bit curtailed than the smaller speakers where i expected it to play lot more extended. May be the design of the cabinets, and may be its more appealing to some others, but not me. Both the speakers play mids excellently, but i felt both had limited ability to produce those ear piercing high frequencies. But then again, i liked the treble it makes, its sweet and adequate.

Lot of these may be attributed to thier amps. By the looks of it, they are monsters. But Dr. Chandrasekaran assured they will work just as fine with any other amp. Over all, the effort is excellent, on any day they will sound better than most of the imports. Its finished good too. I would suggest anyone a try.

Disclaimer!: All the above are my impressions from the audition and with my limited experience, and as such is inconclusive!

Regards,
Abbas

Hi Abbas

Thanks for posting,your impressions on the forum.

I agree with you that Audire products are excellent and very good value for money.

Some of our homegrown products from the likes of small specialist companies like Audire,Corrson,Lyrita etc. are far better than several high priced imported name brands.

Regards
Rajiv

Dear Rajiv,

Defenitely, they are underrated. I forgot to mention how true and detailed they sound and very good at creating the stereo dimension. Real value for money.

Abbas

Don't get offended , it is not my intension to rain on your parade but your listening room size (16 x 16, perfect square) is acoustically challenged! It is quite difficult to get the right acoustics at this room dimensions.

Your budget of 50K for 2 channel stereo itself suggests that you are serious about this hobby and as it happens with most audiophiles you will pretty soon spend almost double the amount even before you knowing it!

And for an investment of 50K-75K and counting I sincerely feel that that you should give a very serious thought on acoustic treatment of the room before anything else and keep some money aside for the same.

After trying several components at my place, I am now getting more and more convinced that acoustic treatment of the room and speaker placement makes 25% of the sound!!

If these things (acoustic treatment and speaker placement) are not taken care of then regardless of investments made, you will always be short served.

Hope this helps.

Regards

SUhas

Suhas,

You are right mate. I have already extended my budget to around 75k! wat i originally thought was i will get some good used stuff for a budget (better than buying the lowest end of brand new) in a hurry and then upgrade the components one by one within an year or two. I have not heard many of the things you talk about here, so better research it and get new (not entry level) components later. Meanwhile I need something as a bench mark and listen to, so the strict budget. As far as the room, I cannot do anything as its rented and I will be shifting anytime. Thanks for you advice.

Abbas

Good that you liked those products. But what sounds good at Dealer's demo room may not sound the same in your listening room. As you and the manufacturer , both are in the same town , it is quite possible to get a home audition. Request for it and see that you get the same experience at your place and then decide.

By the way , music interests ( Rock, Pop, Jazz, Classical etc) must be considered while selecting audio compoents.

Don't pick anything just because it fits within your budget, have patience , audition as many brands as possible , there is no harm in auditioning even some expensive gears, at least you will get a fair idea about prices/performance etc.

As I suggested in some other thread on this forum, consider pre-owned gear as an option. You might find a far better pre-owned system within your budget which otherwise way expensive to buy a new.

Hope this helps

Regards

SUhas

Very true. These are among the most important considerations in setting up an audio system, but unfortunately also among the most ignored.

Hello. finally i got something set up. almost all of it used. neverthless..sounds ok to me. Please someone comment on the set up by this starter. dont expect great things anyways.

CD Player- Marantz CD4001 (New)
Pre Amp- Nad C160 (Used)
Power Amp- Nad 208 THX (Used)
Speakers- Acoustic Research 312H0 (Used)
Interconnects- Profigold
Speaker Wire- Straightwire Waveguide2 (AWG 14)

This one sounds ok to me. But not fully satisfied. Please point out the weak links in the set up.

Regards,
Abbas

Hi Abbas,
Congrats. U liking the sound is most important.
Is the cdp 4001 or 5001?(to my mind DV 4001 is the entry level DVD spinner and CD 5001 is the entry level CD spinner)
Pre/power is very decent. IMO better than the current Nad integrateds.
Speakers i am not familiar with so cant comment.
Cables is never ending and u can go on and on. though Straight wire does make some good ICS /speaker cables.Initially spend most of the budget on the electronics, listen to the set up for a while then go down the long cable road. Introduce one cable into the set up at a time and hear the differences.

When u say u are not FULLY SATISFIED what do u feel is lacking?
Regards