Questions about Audio (Music) setup

hey dinyaar
that was pretty nice of you to offer to lend cables etc to a fellow member starting up

Thanks Afj.
Reason for offering is that i have accumulated a lot over two decades now and possibly cant use it all together in my set up so if the guy can use it till he buys his own its not a problem in the least. Secondly i believe a forum like this one should be a platform for members to exchange ideas,music and even peripherals if possible. Most often a new buyer exceeds his budget with the electronics itself and further stretches himself with cables, stands etc as he has read the importance and the improvements they can provide from all of us.

Dont want to sound wise but the way the things are worsening globally it makes sense to take stock and control the urge to splurge.

Best regards

Dinyaar, very kind of you to offer help. Thanx a lot.

Guys, will read some more relevant posts on the forum, will do lot of auditioning and then decide..

Thanx everybody.

Excellent reply to RahulP's query. It should help him; it sure did help me. My budget is much lesser. I have a SONY G88 3 CD mini compo system, the original McCoy bought in 1997 . Gave me wonderful service in the sands of Rajasthan and the snows of Leh.Today, the ole girl is tired; only the amp works, the cassette and CD is kaput. I play music, video and my flight sim (FS 2004, approx 3000 hrs on various types...) thru' my PC into the stereo and plan to leave this as the audio solution for the PC. Now, i want a pure audio solution for ACDs, my Zen Vision:M and mp3s CDs (strictly 320 kbps and higher).

Speakers: Diamond 9.1 Are the 9.2s substantially better in bass over the 9.1s? Please advise.

PPS: I will be really grateful to get advice on mvjoshi69@gmail.com Thanks, guys and oops, yes, gals!!!

Amp: Norge 1000? Will it do justice to the Diamonds? Any solutions with , say, 15k?

CD player: At a complete loss as to what to choose. I have not found any standalone CD players and am queasy about connecting a portable CD player to the rig. BTW, i am roughing it out as a bachelor and my wife and kids have the SONY HT + LCD hence the need for a separate CDP. Please advise.

Thanks a ton for the inputs and BTW, don't tell my wife that i plan to blow my interim relief on this rig

Hi Rahul

Wharfedale 9.1 is good choice. Really warm, deep vocals but slight recessed treble. Other great speaker is Tannoy Mercury Custom F1. Look for Cambridge Audio 540A. One Gutsy amp for your money. Cheers

Hi Guys (& Girls if any) ,

update from my side :
(might be useful for those sailing in the same boat - i.e. similar budget, music preference, room size etc.) :

Dealer 2 :

Auditioned Wharfedale diamond 9.1 and immediately fell in love with them .. Here are the details :
* amp was Marantz 4001
* it was not in a "demo room" as it was under construction.. but in a 12x30 ft. hall.. but the sound was enough "filling" even when we positioned it vertically (hall even had entraces to other rooms/cabins without doors - so in a way just like a typical living room !)
* after the intial 'wow' factor, i started getting worried about the bass overpowering the vocals somehow... but then we put in 'Ghar/Masoom/Ijaazat' CD to listen to 'tere bina jiya' - AND all the doubts vanished in first few seconds
* lot of sweetness to the sound.. it works - at least for me - didn't sound artificial
* i was impressed with the bass given the size of speakers.. but the dealer said its known more for vocals !!!
* Price quoted for 9.1 = 12 K

Also auditioned Quad 11L2 (on dealer's recommendation ). It was a bookshelf quoted around 27K. The sound was good but somehow the friendly sweetness of 9.1 was missing. Ofcourse the speakers were brand new and were just out of the box (will give better / real picture after a week). The bass was tight and felt 'controlled' meaning nothing more than what was feeded to it.. (just the way it should be but 9.1 was like that friend/cousin who may not be 100% pefect but still so lovable.. you feel like you can chitchat for hours )

The dealer / owner was a very friendly guy with lot of patience (& love for good music)

Questions :

1. Though the combination seem to work according to demo, isn't 4001 with 40W supposed to be underpowered theoritically (& therefore not the best fit) for 20-100W 9.1s ?
2. This dealer didn't have 9.2s... Now, if 9.2 are supposed be with little extra bass (and just little extra money) with bigger soundstage, doesn't it obviously make them superiror to 9.1s ? why they didn't get any award ... and why 9.1s are more popular & sold more probably (which btw, they absolutely deserve !)


Dealer 1 : (flashback)

was hoping to audition Tannoy F1 ... Unfortunately there was no electricity (& no backup) !!!! The owner was helpful and suggested F4 for my room size. The prices quoted : F1 = 18.5 K , F4 = 35 K .

Obviously , i wrapped up the meeting quickly and left after thanking him... waiting for the power to come back (with no fixed schedule declared) didn't look like a 'sound' idea


ciao
Rahul

Just wondering if a different and expensive source will make a huge difference? I have been using a couple of DVD Players I have, Sony DVP-NS50P and Philips DVP3986 that between them handle all formats, to play all my movies and music via the HT. How much more punch will a say Cambridge Audio or Marantz give? I am thinking of Cambridge Audio Azur 640H Music Server especially to handle all my music collection and the other option would be to do what I am currently doing i.e. play them on the DVD players mentioned above.

Please advice!

Doc, I would strongly advice you to rethink on MP3 CDs. Please buy a Redbook CD of a few songs that you already have on MP3, and listen to both versions alternating between them rapidly. If you want to store music as computer files, the best method are uncompressed formats such as WAV, FLAC, or AIF. Of course this would take huge disk space. But I would suggest you take that exercise I mentioned above and then decide.

The 9.2 has a larger frequency range - 45Hz-24KHz as compared to 9.1 50Hz-24KHz. In addition, the 9,2 has a larger woofer driver (6.5") as compared to 9.1s (5"). It will certainly sound fuller and would have a deeper bass as compared to the 9.1.

This is difficult to answer without auditioning the two together. If I were in your shoes, I would look at Norge's own speakers first for Norge amps, before looking at other speaker brands. As a company I would ensure that my amp and speakers would sound best together.

You should look at entry level CDPs from Marantz, CA, and NAD. The Marantz 5001 and the CA 540C should cost around 15K.

There have been large discussions on CDPs, so please do search and read them.

Cheers

The MRP of 9.1s is 11,500 according to the wharfedale price list. Most people are offering it for 11k, and some for 10.5k, don't pay more than 11k.

Your second question stumps me as well , but if you loved the 9.1s, you can happily go with them, or you can wait to hear the 9.2s and decide.

And to whoever was asking for an amp in the region of 15k, please consider the Cambridge 340A (14k) or the 340A SE (16k), or the NAD C315 BEE (16k?).

Thanks aston for the advice. I was hoping to do Tannoy F1 audition (especially after reading a review in AV Max Oct. 08.. but looks difficult in Pune.)


Thanks psychotropic. I will try to negotiate the price for wharfedale 9.1/9.2.. My next plan of action infact is to audition 9.2 .

CONCLUSIONS drawn from auditions/research/reading this & other forums & sites etc :

1. Choice for speakers seem to be : wharfedale 9.2 - hoping it will have the same impressive sound of 9.1 and something more - like extra punch ! Tannoy F1 is a competitor !. Ofcourse if i get to listen to other speakers, am doing that. But this is just to avoid listening to anything and everything.

2. Choice for Amp would be from :
* Marantz PM40001 (If somebody can kindly answer my question in previous post - " Though the combination seem to work according to demo, isn't 4001 with 40W supposed to be underpowered theoritically (& therefore not the best fit) for 20-100W 9.1s ? ")
* NAD 325bee (or 355)
* Cambridge Audio 340/540 etc. (have to do more research on this)

3. For dealers in Pune, so far i have had reasonably good experience, though its not directly helpful in making the decision. Meaning, considering my humble budget (gulp ! and i thought 30-50K is good for 'budget' audio setup), i got good attention and information so far... I was treated like a serious customer which i am, with enough enthusiasm (and some marketing ) ...

BUT, the problem is they are understocked. They have just one flagship model (or two) in stock/for demo - typically they have just one brand per component (speakers, amplifiers).
Now lets say i want to audition different amplifiers.. So the theory is then to keep rest of the things same (e.g. source, speakers) to audition different amplifiers (diff. models of the same brand ..... and ideally diff. brands also) But because of non-availablility of choices it remains only a theory !

I fail to understand why this is the scene.. Its not that they have too many choices available which are beyond my budget !

So, either they have enough customers with specific requirements who don't want to audition much but directly buy ('home theatre in a box' kind ?)
OR enough customers with very high budget to achieve their annual target very easily
OR they are super heroes busy saving the world and the dealership is there to fool the general public and authorities

I am hoping to find an answer in Mumbai (with designer audio / Lakozy / Alliance 4)


cheers !
Rahul