My old Cerwin Vega sub gave up on me a few months ago, rendering itself irreparable according to available local tech. Hesitant on spending big bucks to replace it, I decided to make use of a long forgotten 400 watt car amplifier from the storage coupled with an old computer PSU, also coincidentally just laying around. Bought the most basic Pioneer sub driver, MDF board, some PVC pipes and built this by hand to itch my artsy side of the brain a bit (I am a practicing lawyer by profession otherwise and this was purely my passion project). The output stays mostly flat throughout the bass sweep and the sub can go as low as 22-23 hertz without dropping on volume. The design looks straightforward but it’s custom designed according to the room acoustics to deliver the ‘punchier’ bass frequencies right at the seating area. Next project would be to add a DSP to the sub setup in order to further fine-tune the output. Hope to find some DSP board which can help me do it without causing substantial delay in signal from the AVR to the Amp.

Hey all

I picked up this receiver for $13 at goodwill. I get that it is not the hey day of Naka, but it was a price I couldn’t walk away.

Any thoughts on it ? I’m running it into klipsch R-200.

Anyone try the status between anc headphone?

I’m liking my second pair. First one rattled, buzzed, bad quality…,

Seconds pretty cool.

Locally I found these subwoofers inside my budget, not sure what to choose

Jamo S808 - $345 Polk MKT10 - $320

Hi everyone! I'm new to the audio world and am finally moving away from a lifetime of sound bars. I was hoping I could get some advice on the right kind of receiver to look for with my new setup. I'll be using a Boston Acoustics VR-MC for my center channel and am looking at 2 Miller & Kreisel M&K S-1B speakers for my front left and right. The Boston Acoustic is 8 ohms and the MKs are 4. What receiver should I look for if I eventually want to add a back left and right and will support the speaker setup I have? Thanks for any help or advice!

Its between these or a 150€ HTIB (yamaha or onkyo)

I have been looking to upgrade my Polk owm3s and polk Blackstone tl1 for my home theater.

I found these for $250.

2 Polk RTi38 Front Speakers 1 Polk CSi40 Center Speaker 2 Polk FXi50 Surround Speakers 1 Onkyo Powered Subwoofer SKW-530

He won't piece them out. Thoughts? Thanks!

Over the years I have ended up with 3 sets of bookshelf speakers. I'll be driving them with a Sonos Amp, as the main left+right in a phantom center surround setup, and also as my living room's primary listening speaker. Not looking to debate the merits of the Amp itself, I know it has some *severe* limitations. But I could use help deciding which speakers to run with :)

Obviously the answer is to do some A/B testing and just decide what I like the sound of more. Which I will do. But, I'm kinda not sure what I should be listening for. What are some of the strengths of these, what are some of their weaknesses? Do I need to put them on stands before I demo them to have a useful A/B?

Definitive Technology SM-350:
1" aluminum dome tweeter
5 1/4" (plastic? silk? aluminum? paper?) woofer
8" passive radiator
Sealed (small) cabinet

Infinity P162:
3/4" aluminum dome tweeter
6 1/2" aluminum woofer
Front ported cabinet

Boston Acoustics CR8:
1" soft dome tweeter
7" (paper?) woofer
Back ported cabinet

Thanks all!

So I lucked out and bought a nice pair of Wharfedale Diamond 225s from a guy on Marketplace for $100 with some cheap but nice Pyle stands. The same stands as here: https://www.amazon.com/Pyle-Speaker-Stand-Black-PSTND35-5/dp/B07PCSQHG9

My wife is really digging the speakers, we've been enjoying ourselves. So now of course I need to get more.

I have:

• Wharfedale Diamond 225s on stands

• Aiyima A07 pro and a Fosi BL20C

• I also have an older Boston Acoustics 5.1 system that I've taken the main speakers from and am using them for my computer speakers along with the Aiyima A07 for an amp. The BA are Boston CR65, Boston Micro80X, and a center channel I don't remember the model of, but they all came as a set. They aren't as nice as the Wharfedales of course.

My wife kind of wants me to setup a 5.1 system for the TV in the bedroom, but I also need computer speakers and a decent sub for the Wharfedales. Whatever I get, I'll need a remote for the 5.1 system.

I need to setup 3 systems:

• A nice 2.1 system for the living room for music. (I'm thinking the wharfedales I have plus an RSL 10E for the sub.

• A decent 2 channel for the computer, although a small sub would be awesome.

• A decent 5.1 for the bedroom TV.

Should I try and make the Wharfedales into the 5.1 system and match them with other speakers? If so, what do I use to match them?

Should I just get some decent bookshelves for my computer?

Should I use the Boston Acoustics for the 5.1? I'll need a new receiver for the 5.1 whatever I get.

Could I use the BA center channel and satellites for the 5.1 with the wharfedales as the main side speakers? Will it sound weird? If I did that I could keep the BA main speakers as my computer speakers.

How bad is it to mix and match speakers? I see decent Elacs, Monitor Audio, Paradigms, Kefs, etc coming up for sale occasionally. Can I mix them all together? I'm thinking no.

I'm in the USA, PNW area, and my budget is maybe $500. I mostly look at used stuff, but I'll go with new if I have to.

Oh, also someone has a Marantz SR6006 receiver for $100 around here. I could probably get it cheaper. Is that a decent amp?

I'm new to higher end audio gear and very much still learning. I bought A fosi audio BT20A pro amp, a pair of Klipsch r-41m and Klipsch black label sub-120 12". I was wondering if it would be possible to run a 2nd pair of r-41m in parallel and if the amp would be powerful enough? Or is there a better way to this? I want speakers on all 4 corners of my room. Not planning to use this for surround sound but if there is a way to use it for that as well I'm willing to look into it. Any feedback is appreciated thank you.

Had an AT-LP60X and some Pioneer SP-BS22 bookshelf speakers for a long time. Recently started researching upgrading the system and sprung on a Fluance RT85 with the Ortofon 2M Blue and a pair of Dali Spektor 2 passive speakers. Still running the old Sony STR-DH190 receiver. Think I’d get much out of upgrading the receiver as well? Or any other recommendations here? I know ideally the speakers would be set out a bit further to truly create that equilateral triangle but I’m a bit limited on space. Thanks everyone! This community has been a great resource!

My first post here, been following the subreddit for some time and learning so much, decided to share my set. Not my first but my latest update. Onkyo dynamic four 700 turntable and tuner, Rotel RA-971amp, arcam alpha 8 cd player and Sony TC-KE230 (needs repair) Yamaha ns-bp110 (what to upgrade) I have noticed a good improvement from my last setup having a Denon PMA 480r as the amplifier and now using the Rotel, also very happy with the arcam. What speakers would you use with the Rotel?

Pretty good day at the Goodwill, $30 flat for the two of them

Sooo my Marantz MCR 611 sadly went up in smoke today, seems not repairable. Therefore I am looking for something else to drive my pair of NuLine 34. My Budget is something around 400€, less is better. Spotify Connect is important to me, should I look for an receiver with WiFi or buy an amp and hook it up to something like wiim mini? I’ve read about Yamahas A-S501 and Wiim Amp, maybe that would be an option? I’m also open to buying used second hand, if there’s a good deal. Have you got any recommendations for me?

Wonder if they finally ran out of their stock? They seemed to have had them for sale for a long while after Wharfedale "officially" discontinued them - I wasn't sure if it was a special SKU that Music Direct was selling or if it was really old new stock. I LOVE my 225s, was hoping to get a set of 220s for a smaller listening space - bummer!

I'll watch for a while and see if they return. Anyone happen to know for sure if it is a Music Direct "exclusive" model or anything like that? Trying to manage my hope!

Was looking at the Denon SCN10 bookshelf speakers but wasn’t sure if they were any good, I was also looking at edifier speakers.

If not these does anyone know any good ones for around £100?

Hi guys! Maybe someone had a similar problem and a solution. I have a bru5 amp that can be tuned with its dsp via acp workbench. I know how to use it because i used one of those small 2.1 receiver bp1048 boards from aliexpress in one of my other projects. With the bru5 i have the problem, that any setting changed in acp workbench gets reset after a power cycle or even if you change the input (press the front button shortly). Of course i selected downloader -> save configuration to flash in acp workbench but i didnt get any errors indicating why it wouldn‘t write. Changing input or power cycling resets the settings. Is there something i‘m missing? Any help is greatly aprecciated.

Hi folks,

I'm dipping my toes in the world of vinyl and I picked up a brand new Project Debut Carbon Evo for an excellent price (20% off) that I'm looking to pair with a decent set of speakers. I've done a lot of research, almost overloaded with so much information but based on what people have recommended to others, I've decided to go with passive speakers and a budget amp (thinking of the Sony STDH190), to see if it's something I'll continue with more seriously or just simply spin some records a few times a week.

These are a few speakers I'm looking at, after doing my own research over the last few weeks. Have I missed any obvious ones here? Is this the right tier I should be looking at, given the player I went with? My Budget is ideally about $500-700 CAD. A few of these below are on sale (BR03 and the ELAC are at least, though I'll probably search for more deals when I narrow it down).

SVS Prime Satellite Speakers - $550 CAD

KEF Q350 Bookshelf Speakers - $600 CAD

Polk Signature Elite ES20 - $550 CAD

Triangle Borea BR03 - $500 CAD

ELAC Debut 2.0 DB6.2 - $480 CAD

Are there any others I should research? The room I'll be using this in is fairly small (600 sqft) with low ceilings, if that at all matters. Unfortunately, I don't live in a place to be able to listen to these myself and I know sound/music is subjective, most of what I listen to are instrumental/orchestra, though of course there's going to be times where I'll listen to most anything.

Any advice is muchly appreciated.

I have these old fisher speakers from the 80s so I have to assume they might need refoamed. Do these fronts simply pull away? I want to double check before causing any damage.

Hi! I'm currently using the Klipsch Rp600m II with my 300B amp. I'm thinking of changing the speakers. What will be an improvement over the Klipsch? Thinking of the KEF R3 Meta but they have low sensitivity?

I have a living room of about 25m2

Budget up to €2,500

🙄🙄🙄🙄

Started my audiophile journey in 2024 and became kind of obsessed with IEMs. I was able to get to a store in South Korea and try a bunch of budget sets, eventually landing on Moondrop Aria 2 ($89). I also remember really liking the Truthear Hexa ($89) but it was lacking bass. I returned the Aria 2 and upgraded to Pula PA-02 ($138) and then returned that too, eventually landing on Moondrop X Crinacle Dusk ($359). Decided to keep this set because I had never heard anything better in my entire life.

I know that $359 is a lot of money, and I had to sell virtually all of my belongings to be able to afford the Dusk. It’s a great IEM with very capable drivers and a modern tuning.

I thought my audio journey was pretty much over until I won some studio monitors in a giveaway: a set of Adam Audio T7V. It really pains me to say this… especially after selling all my belongings to buy the Dusk, but the studio monitors blow my IEMs out the water.

If you close your eyes listening to a live recording, you literally feel you are there in the concert venue. I don’t really know how else to describe it. The tonality was 100% on point and I didn’t need any time to adjust. It feels they were made for my ears. The tweeters are basically like when you eat food and it’s perfectly seasoned, as in there is not a single thing you would change about it and the spice is the perfect complement to the dish.

They are only $249 for each monitor which I know is a lot, $500 for a set.. but I had already paid $359 for IEMs, these are just a tiny bit more and I could have gotten these instead I think. The experience has been eye opening for sure.

I don’t know what you all consider as a “budget” but for $500 you can get an amazing experience. I don’t think I would ever upgrade from these for any reason. I hope they last forever.

Greetings! My turntable stopped working randomly. I ran my Pioneer PL-512 turntable with a Pioneer SX-780 stereo to a pair of Klipsch KG 4.2 speakers. Not sure the turntable is worth fixing when I know I will want to upgrade. A diagnostic for it is going to cost almost as much as it is worth. Any ideas for a new table? Open to suggestions, a few hundred bucks at most is the budget. (Side note: turntable still spins, can still hear sound coming off of the needle, but it just doesn’t make sound in the stereo. Am almost certain it is the turntable and not the stereo because CD player makes some sort of noise when plugged in the phono input. If there are any easy checks / ideas for fixing turntable, that would be ideal!). Thank you tons everyone

basically the title, is this a solid deal?

Looking to replace an older, but fully rebuilt and updated, Carver C-1 BillD mods with remote control preamplifier. I unfortunately sold off an Onkyo P-3000R preamplifier a few years ago that did a great job but thought I needed to sell off my Onkyo Reference 2 channel setup as I wasn't thrilled with the amp and didn't care much about owning a CD player anymore. I do miss the Onkyo preamp as it did all I needed. I'm pretty simple with my system anymore. Current setup is the C-1 to a pair of Fosi Audio ZA3's I run in mono to either a pair of highly modified Speakerlab SK cornerhorns, or Klipsch Epic CF-3's, or ads L1230's. I also use a Dynaco ST-35 on the Speakerlabs and sometimes hook up the modified Carver M-1.0t MkII Opt 002 amp or my Rockford Fosgate RF2000 home amp to the other speakers. I also use a WiiM Pro for streaming and a Schiit Modi Multibit for my DAC.

But this is where I'm ready for something different. I'm pretty simple now at 58 and I've had tinnitus for about 18 years and is sometimes worse, sometimes better. (my fault from my first 25 year career in home A/V and car audio plus all the concerts in the 70's and 80's) My hearing isn't what it used to be and my point of diminishing returns is where I don't care to spend big bucks on stuff as I can't tell major differences like I once could.

Is there a decently priced preamp that has a decent DAC where I can tie in my WiiM Pro in, USB in for my computer, optical from the PS4 (rarely used) and also phono input for my rebuilt Pioneer PL-518 turntable? Or is this going to jump into high dollar stuff? I rarely listen to the 1000+ LP's I own that some have been with me since the mid 70's when I started buying them. But would really like a central spot where all the digital inputs could come into one spot and not require having to get up and switch the DAC. But, not that it's a major deal.

I've even thought about getting something like the little Fosi Audio ZD3 pre/DAC or even the WiiM Ultra
as it could do multiple things for me like alleviate the WiiM Pro, the Schiit DAC, and give some EQ stuff. I'd add a separate phono preamp since the built in pre sucks apparently. Or maybe one of the new Schiit Saga 2's and keep my Modi Multibit and add their preamp.

Is there anything else? I've been out of the loop for awhile. lol

Took me a few years to find the matching sub for this little JVC unit but man, I'm glad I kept looking.

Hey all,

I have the opportunity to buy a Forte Model 3 amp for 300 USD. I’ve read that these amps were designed by Nelson Pass and are an upgrade from the Adcom GFA 555 series. Can anyone corroborate these claims or offer firsthand accounts of this amp’s performance? Is this amp a good deal?

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance, and have a great weekend.