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Today's Featured Head-Fi Blog: A Japanese headfier's monologue (Sasaki)
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This may be a strange answer, but if you have an extra computer sitting around.......$500 could send it into the "decent", if not "very respectable" audio realm with a quality soundcard and speakers. Then there's the added benefit of your daughter having a computer. Just a thought.
But what about a decent, vintage integrated receiver and some add-ons? e.g. If you could find an old silver faced Marantz for a good price, throw on some JBL bookshelf speakers. Plop a lil' mp3 player on top and/or a portable cd player and a bet the end result would be superior to anything in the Tivoli line. Granted, not as purdy, but it's money you won't be throwing away to fashion, either. Just another thought. OK, I'll stop thinkin'.
Congrats on the whole musical daughter thing. I have one as well.
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This may be a strange answer, but if you have an extra computer sitting around.......$500 could send it into the "decent", if not "very respectable" audio realm with a quality soundcard and speakers. Then there's the added benefit of your daughter having a computer. Just a thought.
But what about a decent, vintage integrated receiver and some add-ons? e.g. If you could find an old silver faced Marantz for a good price, throw on some JBL bookshelf speakers. Plop a lil' mp3 player on top and/or a portable cd player and a bet the end result would be superior to anything in the Tivoli line. Granted, not as purdy, but it's money you won't be throwing away to fashion, either. Just another thought. OK, I'll stop thinkin'.
Congrats on the whole musical daughter thing. I have one as well.
Yeah, she inherited my old laptop... it's an ok computer, but I wouldn't use it as the center of a system unless I got truly desperate. Laptops are fairly un-upgradeable, so that's not an option.
The vintage receiver thing may work out, although I typically like buying stuff under warranty, as I've been burned buying used equipment. Something to think about, however.
Yeah, she inherited my old laptop... it's an ok computer.
An OK Computer? Yeah, ditch that idea; it's giving me The Bends just thinking about it. If we could just give the Kid A decent system that meets Dad's audio standards- she'd be In Rainbows.
Out of respect for those lactose intolerant, I'll stop.
I went down the same path you are going down. She ended up with a little Technics bookshelf system she picked out at a local Circuit Chitty..ya know... since my choices weren't "cool enough". Her new system had blue lights and scrolling text...I mean..c'mon- That's cool!
Anyway, now she longs for music Dad only has on vinyl. She's starting to build her own record collection, but she doesn't have her own turntable. Aw...too bad. Seems her little Technics POS doesn't have a phono stage. Can you imagine!? She was actually surprised by this lack of feature. I died laughing. Still cracks me up.
She ends up begging me to put a record on the main system pretty much each night. I told her that the receiver I once had in her room had a phono stage....she coulda had her own turntable. The old sage wins (this round...).
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Several years ago my neighbor asked me to help him pick a small stereo system. We went to the local super store and listened to a few micro systems from different manufacturers. We both liked a Teac product but that may have been just a coincidence, so I'd say go listen for yourself.
One thing we did is replace the micro speakers with bigger units. You can get decent bookshelf or even slim floor-mounted speakers below $100 these days (check out the low-cost Polk products).
Overall, a $300 budget should do it. With the rest of the money you can buy her a decent keyboard. That would add more to her music appreciation...
You could also hit the used market and pick up an older integrated amp and add a tuner later. Rotel makes good stuff at an inexpensive price. Their new stuff has MSRP just above $500 ($699 MSRP for the integrated amp and reciever is around that ballpark too).
A decade old part should be able to be found within your budget, easy. The Polk bookshelves (R-15 or so as Ori pointed out) are excellent bang for the buck parts. I actually bought a whole bunch of those at Fry's for a mediocre secondary home theater setup in my bedroom. Wall-mountable, etc.
You could also go really cheap and pick up a Sony receiver. I have one from my teen days, which I got over 20 years ago at retail. I use it for my kids now, with the R-15 as well.
My kids are much younger, 3 being the oldest. You may want to look into Music Together, as a play time thing. They have songs and music that you can play with your instrument or on the CD player and sing and dance together. My kids love it. It's interactive and has developed an interest in music since they were infants. There is also an exposure to a broad spectrum of instruments.
The older integrated amplifiers are awesome because they're built like a tank. I have a beautiful yamaha A760 for sale, but shipping (depending on where you live) might kill the value. They definitely don't build them like they used to. I'll second the polk's as a budget set of speakers. My friend's Polk Monitor 30 bookshelf speakers were great sounding and only $160 a pair.
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I want to buy a used Original Master Headphone Amp. PM me if you have one for sale!
We use a Tivoli Model 2 in our bedroom with a portable CD player that has line-out. It's a very simple but very nice sounding system, small and easy to operate. Add the Tivoli Subwoofer for a bit more bottom extension and you're set, all for under your budget. We've had ours for 5 years and I gave another one to my wife for her office and she loves it. You could also do a TIivoli PAL radio and an IPod for well under your budget. She can take the very portable battery powered unit to Grandmas house or out in the yard, and always have her music with her. We have one of these in our kitchen and my wife uses it outside when gardening.
earwicker-
. Laptops are fairly un-upgradeable, so that's not an option.
Linear Mode
