Advice needed - Home office streaming-music setup from scratch

[roadfiend]

Esteemed Forum Members - newbie seeks your advice: Given the significant time spent in home office due to pandemic, looking for decent music setup to reduce the monotony.

• The room is not big: 12ft x 11ft x 10ft (length width height).
• Since home office is also the same room, I want to minimize expense (i.e., INR 20-30k speakers and whatever else is needed - amp\streamer).
• Have a large cavity in the mid of bookshelf (3ft x 2ft x 3ft), which should be able to house 2 bookshelf speakers and any equipment.
• I intend to play only from cloud-sources like Spotify Premium via Spotify Connect (I don't own any music - e.g., CD's etc, at all).
• Now, for the choices of components:
  1. As speakers, I'm eyeing a pair of the budget Wharfedale Diamond 11.1 bookshelf.
  2. What budget Amp pairs well with this?
  3. Given my exclusive dependency on cloud-source like Spotify Connect (and no local music files), how do I connect Spotify-in-the-cloud to my Amp? Do I need to buy a budget streamer? And a budget DAC? Are there budget combos of such?
  4. Being newbie I get to ask this - is there a single device, that's a budget combo of Streamer, DAC and Amp? (If that's a nonsense question, apologies, and I attribute that to my noobie-ness, not something I might be smoking).
  5. I'd love for every component to be fairly budget, that can still benefit from the 320 kbit/s of the Spotify Premium.

Looking forward to your valuable guidance !

 

[Nippy]

Hey! If you are primarily going to stream music and not planning to scale up to add new components in the future then I would suggest look for a receiver than an amp. In case you do plan to scale up in future then go for Marantz.. they pair rather well with wharfedales and would not brake your bank.

 

[Deleted member 15865]

How about a two box wireless sound system like KEF LSX? May have to stretch the budget a bit, but non-messy, elegant, chic looking and good sounding solution for a small office.

 

[roadfiend]

How about a two box wireless sound system like KEF LSX? May have to stretch the budget a bit, but non-messy, elegant, chic looking and good sounding solution for a small office.

Thanks for the input, got me thinking... I've an ethernet connection handy and would prefer that over using my wireless, which isn't robust in that room due to certain factors. So I'd look for a streamer\receiver\amp to which I can connect ethernet cable.

 

[roadfiend]

Hey! If you are primarily going to stream music and not planning to scale up to add new components in the future then I would suggest look for a receiver than an amp. In case you do plan to scale up in future then go for Marantz.. they pair rather well with wharfedales and would not brake your bank.

Thanks!! Any particular budget model of Marantz you'd recommend? Would it have Spotify-connect ability, or would I need to buy a network streamer to feed into it?

 

[roadfiend]

NR1200 pairs well with Wharfedale Diamond 11.1 bookshelfs ?

 

[Nippy]

My current setup is wharfedale diamond 225 with marantz pm5005 and pioneer n30 network streamer. Marantz pm5005 is entry level amp that you can get anywhere between 20k- 23K and sounds good to me and dont I personally dont feel like upgrading in the current setup... the next that you can think of is pm6006 which should be around 30k. The difference is in wattage.. pm6006 offering higher wattage, not substantial though. From the sound signature side marantz is towards warmer side of the neutral and when paired with wharfedales they make listening easy for longer duration. I cant really comment on their network receiver as I have not heard them personally, so would ask other FM to chime in with details. Having said that I think you would need to decide on the budget and long term plan. Getting seperates makes sense in longer run in case you want to expand but at the same time it will cost you! So my suggestion dont rush into buying things rather reseatch a lot and audition it before you take a plunge. Remeber one man's milk is other man's poison.. so you might not like the sound of an equipment that I or other FMs might suggest as all of us have different listening taste. Hope this helps.

 

[Kairos]

I wouldn't comment on the speakers as I'm not into Wharfs. Seems like your requirement is for streaming audio from the net(most of the times) you could consider the following :
a. Marantz pm8005 or onkyo a9010 + chromecast audio - very limited as you can stream from spotify and of course Google play music and other apps that support it
b. or yamaha rn-803
c. cambridge audio's CXA61 or 81 : this can do most of the streaming services plus offers USB for personal music BUT is a lot pricey
d . This might interest you . Denon DRA800 or Marantz NR1200 as they are not as expensive as cambridge audio and can do many streaming services via the Heos app PLUS handle 4k video. perfect for my man-cave-wfh set up roughly matching your room size.
I chose option D and got myself a DRA800 ( still waiting for it to arrive though). The DRA can do two zones and I plan to place my zone 2 speakers ( Pioneers BS 22s) close to the ceiling and zone 1s pioneer FS52 floor standing . Also ordered a MI 43 inch 4k tv for watching netflix , news and personal videos. Zone 2 (ceiling speakers) for listening to soothing music while working or to chill and zone 1 for serious listening or while watching netflix. Soon will get a sub to complete the picture. hope this helps.

 

[roadfiend]

I chose option D and got myself a DRA800 ( still waiting for it to arrive though). The DRA can do two zones and I plan to place my zone 2 speakers ( Pioneers BS 22s) close to the ceiling and zone 1s pioneer FS52 floor standing . ... Zone 2 (ceiling speakers) for listening to soothing music while working or to chill and zone 1 for serious listening or while watching netflix. Soon will get a sub to complete the picture. hope this helps.

Thanks, very unique and I'm inspired - I'll follow your footsteps!!! A question please - since it's in same room, is there a reason for bs22s in zone2 instead of zone1, along with the fs52s? Trying to understand why wouldn't you listen to the fs52s while working...

Also, can both zone1 and zone2 work simultaneously?

 

[COOLDUDE7808]

yamaha rn-803 is the one .since you do not have cd's and its mostly streaming .....this amp has all the features you need

 

[Kairos]

Thanks, very unique and I'm inspired - I'll follow your footsteps!!! A question please - since it's in same room, is there a reason for bs22s in zone2 instead of zone1, along with the fs52s? Trying to understand why wouldn't you listen to the fs52s while working...

Also, can both zone1 and zone2 work simultaneously?

sorry for the confusion, I shouldn't have said zone2 when I actually meant to say Speaker B . The receiver arrived a week ago and at the moment I've set up the bs22s as Speaker B on top of a bookshelf. Lots to explore but haven't got the time THB.

 

[hemya]

I just upgraded from the Marantz PM 6006 to the Denon DRA800H. Initially was looking for a streamer to pair with the Marantz. After much research settled on the Marantz NR1200 only to find out that it is not in stock and new stock will take a while.

Got a great deal from hifimart on the Denon and have been using it for a week. Haven't got enough time to explore it but it plays tidal, amazon music and spotify quite seamlessly.

 

[roadfiend]

sorry for the confusion, I shouldn't have said zone2 when I actually meant to say Speaker B . The receiver arrived a week ago and at the moment I've set up the bs22s as Speaker B on top of a bookshelf. Lots to explore but haven't got the time THB.

So, will the floorstanders and bookshelf-speakers play together - if so, curious as to how the sound turns out...

 

[Kairos]

So, will the floorstanders and bookshelf-speakers play together - if so, curious as to how the sound turns out...

Yes there is an option to play speaker A + speaker B but given that my speaker B set is on top of a bookshelf( 7ft from ground) I don't quite like the sound of both playing at once.

 

[dazzwilliams]

yamaha rn-803 is the one .since you do not have cd's and its mostly streaming .....this amp has all the features you need

Yes.
Cheaper option is Yamaha RN303

 

[captainsubtext]

Go with powered speakers in that budget and get a raspberry pi + dac for streaming

 

[roadfiend]

Thanks dear Forum Members. With your patient guidance, I'm now setup with a Spotify Premium subscription, Denon DRA800h and Wharfedale D330 floorstanders in my man cave.

Bliss !!!

 

[fLUX]

I just upgraded from the Marantz PM 6006 to the Denon DRA800H. Initially was looking for a streamer to pair with the Marantz. After much research settled on the Marantz NR1200 only to find out that it is not in stock and new stock will take a while.

Got a great deal from hifimart on the Denon and have been using it for a week. Haven't got enough time to explore it but it plays tidal, amazon music and spotify quite seamlessly.

How do you find the DRA800H vs the PM6006

 

[roadfiend]

Thanks dear Forum Members. With your patient guidance, I'm now setup with a Spotify Premium subscription, Denon DRA800h and Wharfedale D330 floorstanders in my man cave.

Bliss !!!

Attaching a picture - the walnut Wharfedales complements the wood theme quite well. The only kink is the white cable, will need to change that sometime... My man cave just turned super-premium luxury, I'm very stoked! I'd have never ventured into hifi if I hadn't come across this forum (looking for a TV years ago ) Thanks folks

 

[Deleted member 15865]

Wood is always timeless. Nice compact setup that. That Denon does quite a bit of multitasking, going by the specs. Important to keep components at a minimum in an office setup.

Have you considered routing the speaker cables from behind the cabinet? Also, did you experience the glass doors in the cabinet behind reflect sound and hence covered them?

Have you stated listening? How does it feel to play music while you work? Or do you take breaks to listen exclusively to music? What kind of music do you listen to here?