This article comes from last Thursday's Age Green Guide, Google wasn't able to come up with a link to the article on the web for me so the text is quoted below thanks to KNFB Reader <smile>> <Snip> > Headline, Listen and learn, by ROD EASDOWN. > > In the bedrooms of most teenagers in the 1960s and '70s you'd find a record > collection. In the '80s the favoured mode was a CD collection, and in the > '90s it became a collection of home-recorded > CD-Rs with music ripped from the internet in MP3. > In today's teenager's bedroom you're unlikely to find a physical music > collection - it's all on their phones, computers and iPads. > It means that if you want to buy a good stereo music system for a teenager - > or yourself, for that matter - good enough to do justice to fine recordings > and generate a love of music that will last a lifetime, there's a new level > of complexity at work. Turntables, tape players and CD players probably > aren't the right tools. > The basics are still the same: every system needs an amplifier and speakers. > You can get a good quality, great sounding amplifier with enough inputs to > allow plenty of expansion for about $400. Yamaha's AS201 is a great little > performer offering a lot of power - 100 watts per channel - for the money. > It has some most worthwhile features. There's a pure-direct mode that > bypasses the tone and balance controls to enhance sound quality; a phono jack > for a turntable; a headphone plug; and the ability to drive two sets of > speakers. What it doesn't have is a radio tuner. If you want that, go for the > RS201 at the same price, but you won't find a pure direct mode. > Speakers have a profound effect on the sound of a system because the sound of > one pair can be quite different to the sound of another. > Most young people are into plenty of bass but people preferring classical > music will appreciate more accurate speakers with better high range > reproduction. > We found some speakers from a company called Q Acoustics that impressed us > mightily for $399, with good reproduction across the full sound spectrum; and > Australian-made Krix Atomix at $499 are great value. Personally I think the > best sound for dollars equation comes with Focal's Chorus 705s at about $700 > a pair, but B and W 686s, also $700, are also well worth listening to before > you choose. > If you have a CD collection, or any music on disc, for that matter, a CD > player is probably needed. Make it a dedicated CD player, not a DVD player or > a Blu-ray. Players made for movies put a lot of emphasis on picture quality, > usually at the expense of sound quality, especially lower down the price > range, but CD players are all about quality sound. Yamaha has the CDS300 CD > player for $499, which is extremely impressive, and we like Marantz's CD5004 > for $490, coming from a brand with a long heritage in great sound quality and > selling at a good price. > It's compatible with MP3 and WMA formats and handles home recorded CD-R and > RWs and it has an optical-out if you want to bypass its internal > digital-to-analogue converter (DAC) and send the digital signal to a better > one. But it should be said the Marantz's DAC is a very good one for the > money. The DAC is where it starts to become complicated. If you have stored a > lot of music electronically, a good DAC will improve its quality markedly. > That's because the DACs inside iPads, computers and phones are basic and > mostly crappy. > You can spend heaps on a DAC and the more you spend, the greater its > flexibility to handle multiple inputs and offer features like Bluetooth. > Cambridge Audio's DacMagic 100 at $299 is a good all-rounder and takes up to > four devices simultaneously. If you want something more basic look at the > DacMagic XS, at $199. This takes music from a computer to headphones, > bypassing the computer's soundcard. > It's possible you'll want a turntable for playing vinyl records - lots of > people are into them, partly because they look cool and partly because so > many good records are available cheap at garage sales. Good turntables start > at about $400 to $500. Look at models from Pro-Ject and Rega. > The essentials are the amplifier, the speakers, and either a DAC or a CD > player - other components can be worked in later - but the sound quality for > dollars equation here is arguably the best available. > If you love your music, a system like this is not just brilliant value, it > could be a game changer.
<Snip> ********** Dane Trethowan grtd...@internode.on.net Skype: grtdane12 Phone US (213) 438-9741 Phone U.K. 01245 79 0598 Phone Australia (03) 9005 8589 Mobile: +61400494862 faceTime +61400494862 Fax +61397437954 Twitter: @grtdane
