Highly praised budget parts coming together.

This is for fun. All of these components have received numerous favorable reviews. All have been described as performing far beyond expectations at their respective price points. All probably have minor deficiencies/ compromises compared to costlier counterparts.

Source: Via Epia Mini-ITX, fanless, quiet HDD $300.00
Soundcard: Chaintech AV710 $28.00
Amp: Sonic Impact Class-T amp $30.00
Front: Paradigm Atoms (also reviewed here) $140.00
Sub: Vance Dickason DIY Titanic MKIII, 10" $350.00
Media: CD Ripped to Lossless Format (EAC) $0.00
Total: $848.00


I have the Paradigm Atoms already and they do indeed sound very nice.
The $30 Sonic Impact amp is on order. It was raved about a few weeks ago on 6-moons saying it was preferred over every solid state amplifier the reviewer had listened to (IIRC). Amazing for $30, if it's true. The Via Epia based music server idea came from the PC-transport review by Francis Vale. He said his Via Epia based system "put out a digital signal so clean, so tight, so jitter free that the Sunfire and MBLs were vaulted into audio territory normally reserved for $3000 and up high-end CD transports." I won't be using the same $500 sound card, but the benefits of the mini-ITX format should be applicable to other soundcards. Finally, I think the whole thing would benefit from a nice, tight, 10" DIY subwoofer.

Suggestions? Substitutions?

Do you think this budget system may end up sounding greater than the sum of its budget parts, or will it be pretty average, or disappointing?


P.S. This system is going in a bedroom, not a large entertainment/ media room.

I too am hoping the Sonic Impact can drive the Atoms to decent volume levels given all the raving over how clean and nice-sounding it supposedly is.

The Atoms are slightly above average sensitivity @ 89 dB, but from what I read, the SI performs even better the higher you go. If I don't think it drives the Atoms very well, I'll just buy a Panasonic SA-XR25 digital receiver and be done with it. I'm driving the Atoms right now with a decade old pre-Pro Logic Pioneer 100w/channel receiver and they sound pretty darn good, especially with some added bass from my cheapo 66-watt unknown woofer size $50 PC subwoofer, so it can only get better from here :-).

I see several Paradigm subs on Ebay that would work well in a bedroom ranging from $175 to $300, so perhaps I can skip the DIY part of my plan. It will be awhile before I have the time to build the Epia music server, but I expect that to provide a dramatic improvement. Finally, I'll probably spend a few extra dollars to go with an EMU 1212m instead of another AV710. I think it will sound pretty nice, especially for spending so little.

Good to hear. I have heard no feedback/comparisons prior to your statement. Given a room size of approximately 15 x 15 and my primary interest being music (not movie fighter jets and truck wrecks ), do you think the $350 10" Dayton sub would be a good choice?

Thanks, but unfortunately I'm getting an authorization error loading that page.

Excellent. Got it. I'm persuaded--I'll go with my original plan for the Titanic 10" kit.

Very nice review. I don't see an adjustable low pass crossover or high-level outputs. Would you recommend an external crossover control, like the Paradigm X-30?.

I bet either would be a good choice. I think the Titanic is not ported (correct me if I'm wrong), so perhaps it would be better for music. I don't need (or want) 20Hz at sound pressure levels that shake things around in the room. I do want it nice and tight and musical--those are the main issues. From the Dayton review, it sounded like you could screw in a couple cross braces to reduce damping times even further if necessary. It would also be easy to double-layer the enclosure with another layer of particle board. But I doubt either mod would be necessary.

Oh, sorry. I scanned through the (photo-less) archived review pretty quickly (I'm at work) and assumed it was talking about the Dickason-Dayton sub. I hadn't paid attention to model numbers.

I bet either sub (Dickason-Dayton or PB10) would work fine for me. I don't think I'd push either very hard. Which one would you choose? They are pretty close to the same price.