Condo System - $3-$4k suggestions?

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I'm moving to a condo, so room size is about 22 X 14 - unfortunately we will be listening across the 14 foot side - so high SPL is not required nor desired. I'm looking for some recommendations and I'm starting from ground zero, a blank slate.

I've been looking to DIY a very modest system which has decent specs for the money, but I get lost when it comes to envisioning the complete system.

Digital front end? -> tube pre -> Aleph J -> 4-8ohm bookshelf (2 way, passive or amped?) speakers?

I say digital front end because it should take input from a CD player/DAC (or hard disk based player/ computer etc).

I'm open to any and all suggestions. Can this even be done with $4k?

Thanks all!
Don
 
This will be for music only.

I have a <gasp!> "sound bar" and small sub for my TV viewing, so no striving for "theater" sound - I just want to hear the flipping dialog, you know? :) Which gets harder every year older my ears I get. :rolleyes:

I'm thinking of going SE from end to end, if that makes sense? I suppose the sweet spot for listening, in terms of SPL, will need to be on the lower side. There is no desire to torture my neighbors, but I'm in an old condo with very thick cement floors and plenty of air space between levels, and I'm on giant cement "stilts" on the first floor - there is no one below me - only open air parking.

So it's a quiet building, acoustically speaking. I'll be listening to classical, acoustic singer/ songwriter artists, some rock/pop (60's, 70's, 80's),

Thanks your your response!
 
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You're welcome.

Well it deosn't sound too difficult, especially at that budget. There are some good little DACs on the market now. I've been very happy with 6.5 to 8" fullrange speakers in a small space. Tall TQWT types or similar. But you mentioned bookshelf. Not my area of knowledge, but there are plenty of people here who would know.

And you'd like to build the amp from scratch, right?
 
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Depending on the sort of music and spls you wish to attain maybe some of these ideas are worth checking out.

An Intel NUC i3 with J River media center, and a USB nice dac from Schiit (or diy) would do nicely as a source.

The ELAC Debut 2.0 B6.2 bookshelf sounded pretty good at the last show I attended, the F6.2 is a floor stander with the same driver complement as the B6.2 with two woofers. (They were the best I heard at anywhere close to the price point.) They're very reasonably priced, but not really efficient enough IMO for use with small SE amplifiers. I did hear them with an SE amp and they sounded quite nice, but it was a small room and they were not being played loudly.

If you wanted to diy an amplifier, there are PP boards from Tubelab and Pete Millett that are worth a look. The kits from Dynakitparts such as the ST-70, ST-35, and MKIV are another option if you want to assemble a kit with good assurance of it working the first time. (17W-40W per channel)

Dave Slagle has some really neat auto-transformer based volume controls that work great with solid state (and low impedance) sources.
 
music soothes the savage beast
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I'm moving to a condo, so room size is about 22 X 14 - unfortunately we will be listening across the 14 foot side - so high SPL is not required nor desired. I'm looking for some recommendations and I'm starting from ground zero, a blank slate.

I've been looking to DIY a very modest system which has decent specs for the money, but I get lost when it comes to envisioning the complete system.

Digital front end? -> tube pre -> Aleph J -> 4-8ohm bookshelf (2 way, passive or amped?) speakers?

I say digital front end because it should take input from a CD player/DAC (or hard disk based player/ computer etc).

I'm open to any and all suggestions. Can this even be done with $4k?

Thanks all!
Don

Dig front end -> tube pre -> F4
Just a suggestion, since you may not need extra gain. F4 will drive about anything and sound sublime. I got such set up righ now in spare room for small bookshelf speaker testing purpose.
 
Don't skimp on the dac. If you can afford the Buffalo III se or something comparable, it will make a big difference.

Also, in a digital only system the Buffalo has a special advantage: a really well implemented digital volume control that allows it to drive amps directly. Running it directly into a good tube amp driving Quad ESLs made for something really special.
 
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Thank you all for your responses. I have a bunch of homework to do. This is going to be a Christmas present to myself, so I have a few months to figure this out. I close on the condo at the end of Sept, so I've got a crap load of packing and editing (throwing stuff away) to do in the meantime.

Cheers!
Don
 
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