Stereo Setup For a budget of 100K. Please Help

sandip_d

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Navi Mumbai/Pune
Hi,
I am Sandip from Navi Mumbai. My current setup is Denon DRW 695 cassette deck, Denon Dp-29F turntable,Technics SH-E65 & Kenwood GE-891 digital graphic equalisers,Monster 200 & 400 MkII Interconnect,Profigold Interconnect & Bandridge LC1259 Speaker Cables with vintage Sansui S-950 speakers and AU-X501 Amplifier. The denon deck is 4 years old and bought new from Profx mumbai. The Monster Interconnect & turntable were sourced from US. The Profigold interconnect & Bandridge Speaker Cable were bought from Chroma. The amp, speakers & equalisers were bought from a second hand dealer in Mumbai against the wishes of my wife @ 2 years back & costed me @ 20K. I was on tight budget at that time . Previously I had Norge 4242 amp with DIY speakers. The second hand stuff changed the my music experience totaly as compared to that of Norge and DIY speakers combo. I am no audiophile and don't understand the technical aspects of sound but as everybody my ear responds to well sounding system. After getting hooked to Sansui Sound, when forum member Mr Akshay Zha wanted to sell his Sansui AU-517 I wanted to get it and we had almost finalised the deal, but my wife strongly resisted. I apologised to Mr Zha and had to forget my purchase. Her stand was save and purchase new equipment as the second hand equipment will have less life will give problems later. She was right. The sansui amp is giving me problems now. It is going in protection mode all the time. Meanwhile I followed her advice, curtailed my personal expences & saved @ 100K over @ year and half.
Now friends please help me in finalising the stereo setup. I wish to have a new CD player, Integrated amp & Speakers all within 100K(Max). I can retain my deck,turntable and equalisers(may not actually need them), interconnects and speaker cables. I listen mostly to Hindi Cinema Music(old as well as new), Gazals, Country stuff. I like warm sound. The size of room is @ 15ft X 10ft. I am also in dire need of some good engineer/technician who can repair Sansui amp which I want to retain as standby amp. So friends guide me on both fronts, Thanks in advance,
Regards.
 
Your wife is absolutely right. I took the used route as well cause I could not afford anything more or rather the equipment I really want.. My stereo sounds alright & I put up with it but there is much better sound out there.

Are you willing to head to Pune to fix your Sansui? I can guide you to a person who runs Madonna Electronics on MG Road. Please do not mistake this company for Sony Authorized Service. Madonna Electronics is run & handled by 1 individual person who is trust worthy & does a good job. He has serviced by 11 year old Technics Amplifier, Equalizer & Tape Deck. All work great & have not needed any attention since. Let me know if you are willing to go the distance. Madonna will take anywhere between a month to 2 months to fix your amplifier. Its cause the chap needs a ton of reminder calls to attend to your job but take my word that it will be handled well & no parts will disappear from your amplifier. However electrical parts that need replacement will have to be replaced.

I am not sure what 100K means? 10lacs or 1lac?

For a lac you can start with Marantz CD Player CD6002 paired with Pulz RS250DM Power Amplifier, Pulz RS100 Pre Amplifier & Pulz Status 203 speakers. These are mid tower speakers. You can listen to the speakers & amplifier at Pulz Head Quarters itself. Their office is in Andheri West on Veera Desai Road. This combination works well for your music.

For a lac or more the options are never ending.
 
Sandip - though I can afford some new gear, I have chosen the used route to learn more about equipments and music without spending a fortune first and then having buyers remorse.
I think your current sources should be fine as you must be having cassettes and records that you should not be throwing away. Buy a decent CDP. Buy new only. Used is just too much trouble when it comes to CDP. I have first hand experience - haven't shared yet with the forum, waiting for dealer to take corrective actions (currently delay is at my end).

Regarding amp - I purchased a used HK6550 some time back and it looks new, sounds clean and doesn't look/ sound like problem in near future. So if you get your amp repaired/ recapped - it should be good for next 10 years. If you like the sound, why throw it away?

Spend most of your fortune on speakers.

There is another option, that I have suggested to a number of people. Buy a complete amp+speaker package from Lyrita. You can still keep your sources, but can dispose the amp+speakers (or maybe move them to another room).
There are more such options, but can't recommend as I haven't heard them personally - audire and cadence.

regards
 
Your wife is absolutely right. I took the used route as well cause I could not afford anything more or rather the equipment I really want.. My stereo sounds alright & I put up with it but there is much better sound out there.

Are you willing to head to Pune to fix your Sansui? I can guide you to a person who runs Madonna Electronics on MG Road. Please do not mistake this company for Sony Authorized Service. Madonna Electronics is run & handled by 1 individual person who is trust worthy & does a good job. He has serviced by 11 year old Technics Amplifier, Equalizer & Tape Deck. All work great & have not needed any attention since. Let me know if you are willing to go the distance. Madonna will take anywhere between a month to 2 months to fix your amplifier. Its cause the chap needs a ton of reminder calls to attend to your job but take my word that it will be handled well & no parts will disappear from your amplifier. However electrical parts that need replacement will have to be replaced.

I am not sure what 100K means? 10lacs or 1lac?

For a lac you can start with Marantz CD Player CD6002 paired with Pulz RS250DM Power Amplifier, Pulz RS100 Pre Amplifier & Pulz Status 203 speakers. These are mid tower speakers. You can listen to the speakers & amplifier at Pulz Head Quarters itself. Their office is in Andheri West on Veera Desai Road. This combination works well for your music.

For a lac or more the options are never ending.

Insted of Pulz go for any international brand ...frankly one of our forum members had a bad expereince of PULZ demo and it's rechinical person's high headedness ( unfortunatly I started the link)

I think in mumbai your sansui can be repaired why not try this first? anywayI am too frm navi mum -send PM is further help required

I am not agreeing with your wife;s view - in electronics -esp things like amplfiers SEcond hand gives EXCELLANT value IMHO...esp new 2 channel stuff has limited availabality and stuff like tuner .tape decks & turntables is not available!

if you want raw power try behringer Reference Amplifier A500 power amp -but you'll neec apre amp .It has dealer in Andheri and you can audition it ( Indian price is around 20k) the net reviews are good...
 
for a system within 1 lakh imo you should go for a good pair of bookshelves. check out the monitor audio silver rs1. theyre launching a new model so you should be able to get some deals on them. another speaker to consider in bookshelves is usher. the nad pairs nicely with the ma - and its warm too
 
For the kind of music you listen Lyrita or Audire will be good options. Venkatcr will be able to provide you with more info on these brands as he has heard both and reviewed them
 
Since you like the warm sound I suggest you try the nad 355 amp with a nad cdP & for speakers try the quads or the tannoy f1 custom.
All the best
Cheers
 
Hi friends,
Sorry for late reply, shifted the residence on weekend. I am going through various threads to arrive at a combination( on paper first). I plan to shortlist 2-3 combination and then listen them & make a purchase during AV exibition to be held in 1st week of Oct 09 at Mumbai. I expect to get some good deals & discount there. Meanwhile I definately want to get the old sansui repaired.
sandeepmohan I can come to Pune for repair, but as suggested by rikhav let me see if Mr Akhay Zha can help me on this. I have already sent PM to him.
The amplifiers I have shortlisted are NAD 326BEE/355BEE and Marantz 7003/8003. I am waiting for Oppo 983 which my brother in law had bought in US long back. I hope it will perform good on music front as well. I am clueless about Speakers. My family members are pressing me hard for 42" TV this diwali. I am afraid new TV will eat most of my savings.(Panasonic G10 @ 63k now, may be 60k in diwali). Hence will be left with 40k only, means the budget route.
Regards
 
Hi Sandip
I think its a good idea to get your sansui repaired. As it is you wont get much if you go to sell it. If it can be repaired it can add up to become a second system and everyone knows that vintage sansui amps were well made
I suggest you call Akshay as I have never seen him online. His contact number is 9867359109
 
Hi friends,
... I plan to shortlist 2-3 combination and then listen them & make a purchase during AV exibition to be held in 1st week of Oct 09 at Mumbai. ....
Regards

Hi
Its the best approach to getting feedback on your planned purchase as otherwise you will get a whole lot of opinions and responses. If you propose about 5 combinations that you have preferably auditioned before it will give the readers a good gauge to provide constructive feedback for a quick decision.
 
Mars, the OP is looking at a 40K budget now, am I right? We don't have too many options at that budget, do we?

Cheers
 
Re: Stereo Setup For a budget of 100K/Any input on Marantz PM8003. Please Help,

The purpose of starting a new thread was to hear the experiences from the forum members who have bought the setup of my budget previously. For example Dinyaar/Ronnie and many forum members have a very nice and expensive setup. Any of their help will be very much appreciated. But say when Ronnie (for example only Sir) speaks of his Usher experience my heart will be eager to listen what he wants to say about MA RS6 which he owned previously since my budget allows me to aquire them. There are so many threads where members have put their heart for configuring a setup. But there are very few after purchase review/experience threads which would be helpfull to the info seekers like me.
The magazines and the threads are enough for doing homework for any budget combination and the forum members are always there for any further guidence. There is nothing wrong in giving in to wishes of family members and reducing the budget Venkat. At 40k I can get Marantz PM8003, use existing speakers/setup, save again and aquire speakers later. Have you released your review of Oppo 983 as music player? I am still waiting for your comments on your Oppo 983 + Madbullram's Plasma.
Regards
 
Last edited:
Re: Stereo Setup For a budget of 100K/Any input on Marantz PM8003. Please Help,

There is nothing wrong in giving in to wishes of family members and reducing the budget Venkat. At 40k I can get Marantz PM8003, use existing speakers/setup, save again and aquire speakers later. Have you released your review of Oppo 983 as music player? I am still waiting for your comments on your Oppo 983 + Madbullram's Plasma.

There is certainly nothing wrong in changing the budget. Only thing is the you get different beasts at 40K and completely different beasts at 100K.

I will be posting the review of the 983 as a music player today/tomorrow. I am not sure what comments you are looking for on Oppo 983 + Madbullram's Plasma. This has already been posted and discussed in detail. Have you sent me a PM or something? If so please send me a pointer.

In short, as a video player the 983 is top notch. As a music player will be on par with most CD players up to say 20 to 25K. After that it may start losing out in clarity and DAC. In comparison to a few other CD / DVD Players, the Oppo is soft on the ears and is easy on the high frequencies. It is not as brutally transparent as I have heard some of the other players.

Cheers

Cheers
 
Re: Stereo Setup For a budget of 100K/Any input on Marantz PM8003. Please Help,

I am not sure what comments you are looking for on Oppo 983 + Madbullram's Plasma. This has already been posted and discussed in detail. Have you sent me a PM or something? If so please send me a pointer.
It was regarding the discussions we had in the thread....
http://www.hifivision.com/television/3487-hd-ready-full-hd-confused-pl-help.html
Originally Posted by sandip_d
I am waiting for Venkat's comments reagrding performance of Madbullrun's Panasonic PV8 on his Oppo 983H. It will give the correct comparision. I guess Venkat is using full HD panel at home.
Venkat's reply was
Sandip, I am out of station till 15th. As soon as I am back I shall contact Madbull and set up a time when we can watch his TV together using my 983.

Venkat, I guess you have posted it and I missed. Waiting for my Oppo 983 to arrive from US.
Regards
 
Mars, the OP is looking at a 40K budget now, am I right? We don't have too many options at that budget, do we?

Cheers

I understood the 40K for speakers only as he is getting the Oppo for transport, TV to come up shortly and Sansui as the amp since he is getting it fixed. Did I misinterpret?

If on the other hand it is for the speakers & an amp, there are slim pickings.
 
No Mars 40k is not budget for speakers. May be more or less also. But the Amp is already given to Akshay for repairs. Had talked with him before but had a chance to meet him in person today. What a nice person he is! I am sure he will set the Amp right. Oppo is expected in next month. So that gives me an opportunity to take source and amplification together for auditioning speakers. Somehow I am considering to offer my appologies to those forum members who might have felt irritated since I deviated form the intial requirements. They might have prerferred not to spend their time on lesser budget advices.
Regards
 
Somehow I am considering to offer my appologies to those forum members who might have felt irritated since I deviated form the intial requirements. They might have prerferred not to spend their time on lesser budget advices.
Regards

Hey
I think we are all willing to offer advice if we genuinely have something to contribute - even if your budget is only 20K. Expensive budget is not a qualification to solicit advice on this forum :)

Cheers
 
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