Post your stereo system!

brianlux said:

2-feign-reluctance said:

brianlux said:

reesdog said:

brianlux said:

Alright, all joking aside, my beautiful old Marantz tuner crapped out and I'm putting it aside until I can find a good repair tech so right now I've got these:



and these Polk Audio bookshelf speakers:



and this Project Debut Carbon/ red ortofon:



Anything higher end would be way overkill for me.

Nothing wrong with that set-up at all Brian, I used to have Polk bookshelves the RTia1's, they sounded so good, but I upgraded to some Monitor Audio floor standers. Parted with the Polk's and their stands recently on our version of Ebay here in NZ, sad to see them go really. I think you can't beat a decent 2 channel set-up...

I do have to say, the Marantz PM5005 only has bass and treble controls whereas my old 2220B has "mid" adjustment which I really miss! I'm a mid-range kinda guy sound-wise!

I am going to purchase a PM5005 in a few weeks. Been to a local place & done a lot of listening. Was thinking of going to the 6005 for more watts, but the 5005 is $200 cheaper at this shop. Figured the money I'd save with the 5005 goes into a Ortfon upgrade. Maybe red. But def something. The Marantz CD player does some stuff that my Sony doesn't but I can't afford receiver & CD player. So one or two upgrades at a time.

MedozK said:

I have the Marantz PM5005, and love it. I also bought the Onkyo C-7030 CD player... phenomenal player for $165 on Amazon.

I still miss having my old 2220B but the more I listen to the PM5005 the more I'm liking it. I've found that using the loudness button at lower volumes helps offset not having a mid-range. And it's working great with my other components. It's almost like their beginning to atune to each other- probably just the way I'm hearing it but I have read that in some ways components seem to seat themselves with time.

The PM is weak in the mid range? I've shopped Marantz before but always went away from it, in favor of true separates. But now I might need a true integrated amp for a new setup. Does it have 1. A pure/natural sound feature to turn off all other circuitry? and 2. a channel that can be used as sub out if you have bookshelves? I'm not a fan of daisy chaining through a sub to speakers.

the_don said:

mrussel1 said:

the_don said:

Is Sonos any good?

Sonos as what? Speakers, streaming music, etc? They have a few different products out there.

Their speakers?

I think a lot depends on the constraints in your system. If they need to be wireless, then Sonos is an option. If not, I would not go with wireless speakers or Sonos for that matter. There are better values and better acoustic options. Sonos offers convenient 'modern' options like easy integration with apple, wireless, and the like. But if you're most interested in sound fidelity, my rule is only buy speakers from a company that ONLY makes speakers.

brianlux said:

mrussel1 said:

brianlux said:

2-feign-reluctance said:

brianlux said:

reesdog said:

brianlux said:

Alright, all joking aside, my beautiful old Marantz tuner crapped out and I'm putting it aside until I can find a good repair tech so right now I've got these:



and these Polk Audio bookshelf speakers:



and this Project Debut Carbon/ red ortofon:



Anything higher end would be way overkill for me.

Nothing wrong with that set-up at all Brian, I used to have Polk bookshelves the RTia1's, they sounded so good, but I upgraded to some Monitor Audio floor standers. Parted with the Polk's and their stands recently on our version of Ebay here in NZ, sad to see them go really. I think you can't beat a decent 2 channel set-up...

I do have to say, the Marantz PM5005 only has bass and treble controls whereas my old 2220B has "mid" adjustment which I really miss! I'm a mid-range kinda guy sound-wise!

I am going to purchase a PM5005 in a few weeks. Been to a local place & done a lot of listening. Was thinking of going to the 6005 for more watts, but the 5005 is $200 cheaper at this shop. Figured the money I'd save with the 5005 goes into a Ortfon upgrade. Maybe red. But def something. The Marantz CD player does some stuff that my Sony doesn't but I can't afford receiver & CD player. So one or two upgrades at a time.

MedozK said:

I have the Marantz PM5005, and love it. I also bought the Onkyo C-7030 CD player... phenomenal player for $165 on Amazon.

I still miss having my old 2220B but the more I listen to the PM5005 the more I'm liking it. I've found that using the loudness button at lower volumes helps offset not having a mid-range. And it's working great with my other components. It's almost like their beginning to atune to each other- probably just the way I'm hearing it but I have read that in some ways components seem to seat themselves with time.

The PM is weak in the mid range? I've shopped Marantz before but always went away from it, in favor of true separates. But now I might need a true integrated amp for a new setup. Does it have 1. A pure/natural sound feature to turn off all other circuitry? and 2. a channel that can be used as sub out if you have bookshelves? I'm not a fan of daisy chaining through a sub to speakers.

It just doesn't have a mid range knob- just treble and bass. I had an old JVC that had a built in 5 band equalizer and I really like that a lot- It allowed me to dial in the tone I wanted on each record very nicely. Just have bass and treble controls seems very limited to me. Never-the-less, the PM5005 is good and clean sounding and I'm learning to dial in a good sound with the limited controls. I've read that equalizers can compromise sound quality due to more circuitry so I'll leave well enough alone and not add a separate eq. If I hide piles of money I'd buy one of those high end tube amps but that's out of my price range.

"2. a channel that can be used as sub out if you have bookshelves? I'm not a fan of daisy chaining through a sub to speakers. " I don't know what this means.

I think I figured it out. The Marantz appears to have two options. If your sub has speaker inputs, you can run them from the B (assuming you can handle the A+B ohm load) or it appears you can use one of the line level outs and run that to the sub. I'm not 100% sure that will work with this unit though.
What I am trying to avoid is the daisy chain process. That's where you would run speaker lines to the sub first, and then sub out to the actual speakers. I'm in the camp that degrades the source.

Along with the Marantz, I'm looking at the Music Hall A15 which has a dedicated pre-out and the Yamaha A-S500 which has a sub out, 'pure mode' and lots of flexibility. The phono stage probably is not as good as the other two though.

2-feign-reluctance said:

Ok, so I've settled on the Marantz PM5005 and Onkyo C-7030. Also going to connect my dual Sony tape deck and ATLP-120 turntable. I think it's going to be an improvement over what I've got now. So, onto a cartridge upgrade for my ATLP-120. Do you all suggest Ortofon Red? Bare in mind I've had the stock green ATP cartridge for years, never used anything besides that. Looks like I'll also have to pony up $20 for a headshell too. Sticking with my 23 year old Jensen speakers until I can afford some B&Ws I've always wanted.

I have a red, which I like. Bronze and black are better but pricey. They say red is good for 'rock' but who knows. My humble opinion is that you have good equipment, but your weak point might be the speakers. You may not hear much of a difference between a red to bronze to black to blue, etc.

2-feign-reluctance said:

mrussel1 said:

2-feign-reluctance said:

Ok, so I've settled on the Marantz PM5005 and Onkyo C-7030. Also going to connect my dual Sony tape deck and ATLP-120 turntable. I think it's going to be an improvement over what I've got now. So, onto a cartridge upgrade for my ATLP-120. Do you all suggest Ortofon Red? Bare in mind I've had the stock green ATP cartridge for years, never used anything besides that. Looks like I'll also have to pony up $20 for a headshell too. Sticking with my 23 year old Jensen speakers until I can afford some B&Ws I've always wanted.

I have a red, which I like. Bronze and black are better but pricey. They say red is good for 'rock' but who knows. My humble opinion is that you have good equipment, but your weak point might be the speakers. You may not hear much of a difference between a red to bronze to black to blue, etc.

Yep, they might be, but I've never driven them with nice equipment, ever. I think my speaker's potential has yet to be realized! : )

Well if they are some nice old school Jensen's, could be a different story! But B&Ws are really, really fine musical speakers.

Beautiful yellow Kevlar even today. Look great with grills off. I got my main set from an Estates sale. They were one third the price. Keep your eye on those things and Craigs list.

Coincidentally, I still have my first set of speakers, 1993 Boston Acoustics. Great rock speakers but lack the detail of Bowers. They are in my garage and get cranked every weekend.

mrussel1 said:

the_don said:

mrussel1 said:

the_don said:

Is Sonos any good?

Sonos as what? Speakers, streaming music, etc? They have a few different products out there.

Their speakers?

I think a lot depends on the constraints in your system. If they need to be wireless, then Sonos is an option. If not, I would not go with wireless speakers or Sonos for that matter. There are better values and better acoustic options. Sonos offers convenient 'modern' options like easy integration with apple, wireless, and the like. But if you're most interested in sound fidelity, my rule is only buy speakers from a company that ONLY makes speakers.

'To each their own as I'm sure most of you would agree. I've been building a Sonos system throughout my home over the past 1.5 years. I'm really impressed with Sonos speakers. I have some Play 1's and recently purchased the 2015 redesigned Play 5. I like really like the Play 1's individually in small rooms, and more so as a stereo pair. The sound produced by the new Play 5 is impressive. I checked countless reviews about the Play 5 before purchasing - I'd say 95% of said reviews were great..... I now share this same opinion. Fortunately, I had a significant amount of Amazon points saved up to help defer some of the cost If you have a turntable, you may also connect it to the Play 5 with a line-in cable; I haven't done so since I've never bought a record. I stream all my music through a Google Play Music subscription $15 for any 6 'family members' - $30 a year for streaming anything you want - including your library - where ever you may be with an internet or WiFi connection - I consider to be a decent deal.

Enjoy the music

Marantz arrived yesterday! Going to wait on the Onkyo CD player. Might shop for something else this summer. Going to set up the TT and tape deck this weekend. I'll try to find a way to post a picture!

2-feign-reluctance said:

Oknyo arrived a few weeks ago. Everything set up and sounding really really awesome - the Onkyo is amazing I have to be honest. I am holding off on a new cartridge for my AT-LP120. Not sure it will be worth the investment when the Marantz really jumped the overall sound up in a major way!

Glad to hear you are loving your Marantz stuff. I have the PM8004 along with the CD6004 CD player powering a pair of Klipsch reference RF-62 floor speakers. My turntable is a Denon DP300F with the Ortofon red cartridge. I would like to upgrade the tt at some point but having a fully auto tt when you have small kids is the best way to go right now. I'm no audiophile by any means but I really get a lot of enjoyment out of my system and it sounds great to me. I'm sure you'll get the same enjoyment from your components. Congrats on a really nice set up!