[Bombo]

I'm building my first speaker system. I travel between cities a lot, so Bookshelves which sound decent without a sub are a must, and ideally an amp which is not a monster though this is OK. I will be using my laptop to feed my Beresford TC-7510, so need a USB transport, amp, speakers and cables. I'm new to quality audio and am looking purely for the best bang for buck entry system I can get. Budget is ~$1k, and can stretch a little, but only if there is a really sizeable step up in quality (i.e. Clearly noticeable to a non-audiophile).

I'm close to pulling the trigger on this configuration. I'm pretty set on using the UD-10 as a transport, and absolutely love my Beresford, but am unsure about the rest. Are there better choices than the Axioms and TA-10 in this price-range?


USB Transport: Trends UD-10 ($180 AUD)
DAC: Beresford TC 7510 M6 (already own)
Amp: Trends TA-10??? ($200 AUD)
Speakers: Axiom M3 v2 ($510 AUD)
Speaker Wire: No clue really. BlueJeansCable.com?

 

[robert1325]

Looks quite good, but the speakers aren't really efficient... You should look at 8 ohm 93db + speakers .... Klipsch maybe? or some fostex driver based monitors.... I'm not very knowledgable in speaker world .

 

[skullguise]

Quote:

Originally Posted by robert1325 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Looks quite good, but the speakers aren't really efficient... You should look at 8 ohm 93db + speakers .... Klipsch maybe? or some fostex driver based monitors.... I'm not very knowledgable in speaker world .

Depending on the size of room, music types, and volume, higher efficiency may not be needed.

I listen to more acoustic/folk/vocals, and used the Trends TA-10.1 to temporarily drive a pair of Eminent Technology LFT-16 monitors....listed as 84db efficient!

The sound in my 14 x 14 room was loud enough at 11 o'clock that my wife often complained from the other room for me to turn it down.

This may be one extreme, but the Trends is quite the little amp....

I agree with what you said, too, it's a quite nice setup.

 

[jp11801]

Omegaloudspeaker.com makes a smaller hempdriver speaker that sounds outstanding. They are 93db efficient, I have their bigger brothers and have not thought of upgrading since.

 

[Bombo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jp11801 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Omegaloudspeaker.com makes a smaller hempdriver speaker that sounds outstanding. They are 93db efficient, I have their bigger brothers and have not thought of upgrading since.

Ummmm, I checked their site, and the cheapest speakers they sell are $800USD not including shipping (which would need to be to Australia). Sorry but no thanks. =)

 

[mriguy2]

As for the speaker cables... I would suggest Signal Cable. Check em out at www.signalcable.com. The best price / performance / build quality ratio available, IMHO.

 

[robert1325]

you might want to take a look at : http://www.tektondesign.com/order.htm

( see links for their ebay site)

I think they have some efficient monitors around the 300dlr mark.

klipsch is also in the same price range if you look around for bargains.

 

[LowPhreak]

Try a pair of Quad 11L's or 12L's with a set of XLO Ultra 6 speaker cables. For the combined price I doubt you could do better.

 

[fjf]

I just got these:

They are around 1K$, are amped monitors and sound very good. I feed them from my corda HA2 as preamp, but you can feed them directly from your soundcard. Those ribbon tweeters sound very real and the 6.5'' woofers give decent bass. Nice (and small) speakers!.

 

[infinitesymphony]

BJC's best terminated speaker cables are less than half the cost of Signal Cable's least-expensive speaker cables, and they specify the actual cable manufacturers (Belden and Canare). Most of their cable materials are made in the U.S., too, so my vote goes to them.

Otherwise, the system looks good. I'd advise listening to the speakers before you buy, if you can... They're the most important part of the system.

 

[uzziah]

you want to travel with a speaker system? or just something you can easily pack in the car when you move?

 

[neilometer]

Bombo,

I have a pair of the following speakers and am using them with a UD-10 and TA-10.1. I think they go really well together.

Ascend CBM-170 SE