chuckles2000
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2014
- Posts
- 12
- Likes
- 1
I have recently jumped into vinyl. I bought a Project Debut Carbon and Cambridge Audio Phone Pre, a Schitt Vali all feeding my Mad Dog headphones. It was a bedroom/headphone system for me to really get into my music without disturbing others. Well, now the "others" want in on it too. So they want me to move the turntable to the living room. For that I'm going to need to add some amplification and some speakers. Because I already have some stuff (Pre and phone amp) the possibilities are immense....and it's driving me insane. I have gone around and around on my options. My criteria:
1) Size and budget are definite constraints. The speakers need to be bookshelf sized and they are going to be on a shelf...the shelf is about 15" in depth, so they are going to have limited breathing room from the wall. I have space for a sub, but I'd like to avoid that as much as possible as my ability to locate the sub is limited. My budget is really about $750 for whatever I get.
2) My goals are to have quality 2 channel music system and to be able to listen on my headphones. The Mad Dogs seem to be pretty power hungry. I DO NOT want to compromise my headphone enjoyment.
3) I'd rather avoid a ton of cabling. That gets ugly really fast. So if I'm going to my pre from the turntable then to an amp which then hooks up the schiit because it has a poor headphone out...that's just too damn many cables. I can repurpose the schiit to computer room or work, so I'm totally fine with replicating the headphone amp. THe phono pre....I have no use for another one of those.
So, the options I've looked at:
1) Audioengine N22 - Does what I want...maybe. I'm just not sure if the 22wpc amp or the headphone amp are good enough. It seems like it would be close. Really limits my speaker choices. This seems like a very clean option though. Small, etc.
2) Teac A-H01 - Little more juice. More expensive. Not at all sure on headphone quality. If its not good enough it only has the one set of "outs".
3) Maverick A1 - Looks like a pretty good choice....but the feedback on it has dried up over the last few years. Really haven't seen anyone talk about it for quite some time. I have to admit that the small company is worrisome. If I have issues, my confidence is not high.
4) 2 channel integrated amp - Marantz 5004 or Yamaha AS-300. Little more bulky. And I just can not get info on the headphone out. Will it drive my mad dogs?
5) Cheap 2 channel amp and some sort of Pre amp switching thing that I simply can't find. My knowledge of the products is getting overwhelmed at this point.
6) Just get powered monitors/speakers and forget about an amp unit. SImilar to option 5, but I still need some way to get from the pre amp to both my headphone amp and the powered speakers. What does this cheaply and quality?
After I decide all this I need to figure out what speakers to get. So many moving parts and I know the speakers are by far the most important part of the equation in terms of the sound. SHould I start here and let the speaker choice dictate the rest? What speakers make the most sense. My brother is getting those Pioneer Andrew Jones things, but I think I want something a little more attractive. I was thinking the Audioengine p4, but that was when I was thinking of having limited amp power.
As you can see, I've tied myself into knots with the analysis. Help please. 2 channel sound from turntable. I have some pieces, but too much cabling gets ugly.
MIke
1) Size and budget are definite constraints. The speakers need to be bookshelf sized and they are going to be on a shelf...the shelf is about 15" in depth, so they are going to have limited breathing room from the wall. I have space for a sub, but I'd like to avoid that as much as possible as my ability to locate the sub is limited. My budget is really about $750 for whatever I get.
2) My goals are to have quality 2 channel music system and to be able to listen on my headphones. The Mad Dogs seem to be pretty power hungry. I DO NOT want to compromise my headphone enjoyment.
3) I'd rather avoid a ton of cabling. That gets ugly really fast. So if I'm going to my pre from the turntable then to an amp which then hooks up the schiit because it has a poor headphone out...that's just too damn many cables. I can repurpose the schiit to computer room or work, so I'm totally fine with replicating the headphone amp. THe phono pre....I have no use for another one of those.
So, the options I've looked at:
1) Audioengine N22 - Does what I want...maybe. I'm just not sure if the 22wpc amp or the headphone amp are good enough. It seems like it would be close. Really limits my speaker choices. This seems like a very clean option though. Small, etc.
2) Teac A-H01 - Little more juice. More expensive. Not at all sure on headphone quality. If its not good enough it only has the one set of "outs".
3) Maverick A1 - Looks like a pretty good choice....but the feedback on it has dried up over the last few years. Really haven't seen anyone talk about it for quite some time. I have to admit that the small company is worrisome. If I have issues, my confidence is not high.
4) 2 channel integrated amp - Marantz 5004 or Yamaha AS-300. Little more bulky. And I just can not get info on the headphone out. Will it drive my mad dogs?
5) Cheap 2 channel amp and some sort of Pre amp switching thing that I simply can't find. My knowledge of the products is getting overwhelmed at this point.
6) Just get powered monitors/speakers and forget about an amp unit. SImilar to option 5, but I still need some way to get from the pre amp to both my headphone amp and the powered speakers. What does this cheaply and quality?
After I decide all this I need to figure out what speakers to get. So many moving parts and I know the speakers are by far the most important part of the equation in terms of the sound. SHould I start here and let the speaker choice dictate the rest? What speakers make the most sense. My brother is getting those Pioneer Andrew Jones things, but I think I want something a little more attractive. I was thinking the Audioengine p4, but that was when I was thinking of having limited amp power.
As you can see, I've tied myself into knots with the analysis. Help please. 2 channel sound from turntable. I have some pieces, but too much cabling gets ugly.
MIke