OT: novice home stereo question

[jh_on_the_cape]

I was in a similar situation and was overwhelmed by choice.
I bought a UE Megaboom bluetooth speaker and it works fine. No cables. Not even for power.
It's the wiring of speakers and power that give me pause. I don't want to snake wires and I don't want wires all over the place.

You can run two UE megabooms in stereo with an app. I wish they offered a subwoofer that needs to be plugged in to power and has bluetooth. Then I would be all set. I will get a second megaboom if I find a deal.

Nice to learn about those Lepai things. I might get that and a chromecast thing if I find some speakers on CL or something.

[jh_on_the_cape]

Is there something like the Lepai that has a subwoofer out?

Originally Posted by likebikes

for a cheap bookshelf stereo system, i'd do this:

amp:

http://www.amazon.com/Lepai-LP-2020A...keywords=lepai

for speakers, the above mentioned/linked dayton audio ones or a used set off of craigs/ebay. something like the realistic minimus-5 would be great.

then something like the chromecast audio to stream music from the internet to the amp & speakers.
https://www.google.com/chromecast/speakers/

total around $100.

don't forget speaker wire also.

[IJWS]

I have to go back on my earlier statement and third the Andrew Jones Pioneers (http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-SP-BS2...s=andrew+jones)
I think, for what most people want, the integrated solutions that are so cheap and so available are astounding. BUT, for an additional 10 minutes of setup, and another $100 in equipment, you could have sound that would really sound like...sound. Hyperbole aside, The aforementioned speakers, this guy, an airport express and cables and you would be in a such a better place. If you're not into the effort. Say so, people have good advice to give on this forum. If you want the cheapest possible thing, also say that

best of luck!

[likebikes]

Originally Posted by jh_on_the_cape

Is there something like the Lepai that has a subwoofer out?

a subwoofer isn't really necessary with decent speakers. crappy speakers usually come with a sub becuase it compensates for the shortcomings of the speakers...
just imo. also why highend setups usually don't have subs...

[jtakeda]

Late to the party but econo jam in Oakland has these nifty little tube amp things with a headphone connection possibly usb as well.

Personally I wouldn't buy it because i run analog but I've heard they sound decent and are pretty cheap.

I feel like you lose a lot of the audiophile properties of tube by making this digital but it probably sounds better than an all in one unit. Never used or heard it, just throwing it out there because it's local and you can give it a listen at the store.

[echelon_john]

the subwoofer that goes with the andrew jones BS speakers makes a HUGE difference. they sound great without it, but adding it was an enormous enhancement. it may well compensate for their shortcomings, but i'll take it for ~$250 all in! ; )

Originally Posted by likebikes

a subwoofer isn't really necessary with decent speakers. crappy speakers usually come with a sub becuase it compensates for the shortcomings of the speakers...
just imo. also why highend setups usually don't have subs...

[jmoore]

Originally Posted by likebikes

just buy a lepai or similar off amazon or the like.

That Lepai is super slick. Ordered.

Now I just gotta find an inexpensive CD player and I'll be done.

[Ken Robb]

Originally Posted by jmoore

That Lepai is super slick. Ordered.

Now I just gotta find an inexpensive CD player and I'll be done.

I think any DVD player will also play CDs.

[giordana93]

have some higher end stuff in the house but gotta say that when we bought a few "zones" of the sonos stuff, it changed the way we listen to music. mostly for the better. the user interface is great, can get pandora, rhapsody, amazon music, internet radio stations, and as noted you can dump your entire cd collection to a hard drive or nas drive and never get off your arse again to change music. does require an internet connection though and the compressed formats give up musical quality (but pretty sure you can still stream your own lossless). a great way to do a whole house and still be able to move it with you when you change addresses (unike a wired system which would actually be more expensive). the portable boom boxes weren't out when we got ours, they look pretty awesome too

http://www.sonos.com/system

not the cheapest buy-in, but well engineered and constructed stuff, mine has held up close to a decade already and the ease of use has been great for technophones

[eddief]

sounds great to me. Small room and nothing to compare it to...two good things. Not like having 4 bikes in the garage.

Yamaha micro receiver:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ilpage_o00_s00

Dayton Audio speakers:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ilpage_o01_s00

[jh_on_the_cape]

Hi. Reviving an old thread.
I want to replace an old bookshelf system with something similar but with a subwoofer and bluetooth. Speakers are on either end of our mantlepiece.
I had my eye on the Bose Acoustimass 3 or 5 and then would need a small amplifier.
I like Bose stuff but it tends to be overpriced.
Do any of you audiophiles have a recommendation for a 2 small speaker plus powered subwoofer and a small amp that would sound nice in a living room?
Thanks!

[benb]

I have a really nice Yamaha receiver.. sitting in my basement right now. 7 x 90w amps or something, hookups for iDevices, Bluetooth, tons of HDMI inputs, blah, blah blah.

A lot of it is overkill now when we all want to just listen/watch on iPads. The pyle linked looks like it is also overkill for bookshelf speakers.

We reorganized our living room around socializing with people instead of watching TV, so the stereo equipment is sitting in the basement. I am hoping to plug it in with just the 2 main speakers (I have big floor standing speakers) in our finished basement as that is kind of my man cave type area. (Got my trainer down there, weight bench/squat rack, an area set up to play guitar, etc.. The beginning of the end for the home theater stuff for us was our son getting to toddler age really.

Anyway the Yamaha stuff works real well with all the new iDevice type stuff and/or android. You plug it into the network and there are apps that let you control everything without the remote control. Quite nice. Mine connects to various internet services by itself but that is of somewhat dubious value. I only really used it with Pandora, and it always seemed like Pandora was trying to break 3rd party clients. Plugging something like an Xbox or Home Theater PC is much more reliable at which point who cares about the fancier features in the receiver.

I have all my music on a NAS too.. so again the iPad or whatever can take the music anywhere in the house, it does make the Sonos type setups or Bluetooth speakers (I have a couple of those) work in ways big fancy stereos can't. And then there is the world of nice headphones...

[pjm]

Check out this stuff
http://audioengineusa.com/

[denapista]

If anyone is looking for a really nice receiver, I have one brand new in the box.

My buddy is a barber and one of his clients runs a home theatre store here in LA. He cuts us deals on stuff and last year I bought a Sony STR-DN1030 from him, to setup with Harmon Kardon wall mounted speakers. I already have a nice setup, but I wanted the bluetooth and wifi option to run itunes through the Sony system. With this receiver, you can control the music via itunes with your phone or app on your ipad. Pretty slick. Just add some speakers and a sub.

It's still sitting in the box and could use a good home.

https://www.cnet.com/products/sony-str-dn1030/review/

[soulspinner]

Originally Posted by Ray

I'll third the recommendation for Sonos unless you're a really hard-core audiophile, which doesn't sound like the case. We converted our whole setup about a year and a half ago when we did a pretty big remodel. Got rid of all of our previous stereo gear, all of our CDs, and the few remaining tapes and records we had. If you have a music library on your home computer and/or smartphone/tablet, it'll play that. If you're into streaming music, it'll play that (with the exception of the new Apple music service, but that should be available within a month or two).

You can do a single speaker in a single room, any numbers of speakers in however many rooms you want, even stereo and semi-surround sound in a room with a TV and soundbar. You can control every part of the system from your computer, smartphone, tablet, or anything else that runs apps. You can play different stuff in different rooms or combinations of rooms, or you can play the same thing through the whole house.

Again, a hard-core audiophile would no-doubt be disappointed, but most folks would be more than happy with the sound. We have pretty good sound in three of our upstairs rooms and very good sound in our main floor great room, with a soundbar at one end for the TV and a stereo pair at the other end. Which when you play them all together actually sounds REAL good. Add their sub-woofer too if you want and it would be that much better. My wife and I both have a lot of stuff we've bought in the past on itunes and it plays all of that. For the moment we subscribe to Spotify so we can listen to almost 99% of anything anytime or anyplace, but will switch to Apple music as soon as it works on Sonos...

And you can plug a traditional stereo into it if you want to and listen to CDs or tapes, but there's honestly not much point anymore...

-Ray

What Ray said. I like my simple Sonos set up.