Recommendations
These recommendations are aimed at someone who likes precision and
clarity (I'm not into euphony -- I want to hear what the musicians were
getting up to), and disposable income. I wasn't recompensed for this list; this is unadulterated opinion.
Bryston makes
great amplifiers: and they offer a 20 year warranty. You cannot go wrong
with Bryston. If you have more cash and don't care about warranties in the
decades, look at Mark Levinson gear, or Krell. If you have less cash, look
at Outlaw, Sunfire, or if you like a warmer sound, Aragon.
I like (and sell) VMPS speakers:
wonderful value for the dollar, and a glorious clarity of sound. I also
like the sound of Dali's Megalines, and if you need to spend well upwards of $35,000 on speakers, give them a listen.
I like honest cable manufacturers. A manufacturer that tries to sell you a
silver plated power cord isn't on a quest to produce anything but profit,
at your expense. If they'll lie about a power cord they will lie about
anything. But a manufacturer that will provide specifications on the
resistance, capacitance and inductance of their wire, is worth doing
business with. Look at Blue
Jeans Cable.
If you go the Home Theater route -- 6 or more channels of sound --
consider building it out of components and saving money on the back
channel amp and speakers. Not much happens back there. If 5.1 channel
music becomes more popular, you can always upgrade the rear channels
later.
I've had a good experience with a Denon universal player (their 2900
model), upgraded by ModWright, who redid the signals paths of the unit.
Not cheap, but the sound is quite good.
It's all about the room. Put your stereo in a room that has unequal
dimensions -- a 12'x12' room is a disaster, acoustically; it will resonate
off of all the walls at around 50 and 100Hz. The bass will sound bloated
and it will be difficult to fix. The bigger the room, and the more uneven
the dimensions, the easier it is to solve acoustic problems, to a point.
Remember that ceiling height is one of the dimensions!
High price doesn't always mean more quality. Plenty of high end
manufacturers charge $10,000 and up, for $500 of wood and $20 worth of
speakers. Some people get so disgusted they end up building their own
speakers -- and some get pretty good results. (VMPS sells kits.)
It's about the music. Never forget this. It's easy to get lost in the
hype and the numbers.
Listen to the music, not the stereo, and you'll be
happier with this madness in the end.
Poor, but happy.
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