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Hello,

There to be a few of you out there. I have always loved music but in the past few years have been diverting funds from shooting to stereo gear; I've even sold a few guns to fund new audio gear. Thankfully I realized records weren't my jam, and I'm more into CD's, streamers, and dacs. The constant desire to upgrade I think is even stronger than with rifles and optics. I have 4 separate systems and wish I had another room to justify another. Lots of very affordable gear is available as a gateway drug. Kids (out of the house) think I'm crazy but the wife is good (and I think secretly enjoys it too).

I just ordered a RSL Speedwoofer 10S to replace a couple underperforming Sony subs in my basement home theater. Emotiva R,L, and center speakers with a Dennon 1700. NEEDED more boom. This purchase is going to delay replacing my old Paradigm Studio 10V 5's with a set of gorgeous Warfedale Linton's. It's a sickness but so much fun.

You have a couple of links to reputable companies as I would like to get a nice amp and some speakers.

Shit...and I thought I was cutting edge with Jabra 8 active.

not cutting edge but for my workshop I bought a Pyle Bluetooth receiverthat was some crazy wattage (supposedly) and some giant Fischer speakers. The whole thing shakes when I'm out there playing ZZ Top

I think used speakers are pretty easy to come by in my area - no one wants them anymore, they all have air pods

There are some really good reviewers on youtube like Cheap Audioman and Erin's Audio. I am more of a value purchaser than going for the true 'alpha' stuff but can make some recommendation if you give a price range. It is very possible to put together a really nice system for $350 -$600 total depending on what you use for source material (CD, streaming, records etc).

I still have my KEF speakers, a Hafler preamp I built and a Carver "cube" amp. All in a closet. My parents had Warfedale speakers, a Bogen receiver and a Girard turntable bought in Berkeley in '67 or so.

I got all my stuff off Facebook marketplace and have very little money in it. I've got maybe $600 in it and speakers alone were over $11K new. Maybe $7-$9K for all the rest if you include high end cables and such. It's possible to get some good deals used if you educate yourself a little about what to buy.

I'm running Meadowlark Blue Heron and Hale's Revelation 2 speakers.

The Wharfdale Lintons and a Leak 230 are a great set up for a smaller footprint. I have the 130 with some small Wharfdale bookshelf’s that sound great. Give the Leak some runtime and it’s a lot warmer than others, very tube like.

After a lifetime of chainsaws, dirt bikes, and gun fire, I can not tell the difference between a $100 soundbar and a $10,000 stereo.

Momma says I turn them all too loud.

I 'hear ya' (pun intended). I always have tried to use hearing protection when possible and have spent more $ on suppressors than guns the last few years to keep what I have left.

If a Cel phone is the base line for quality in listening to music, I definately am one of those Audio things. I think a CD is an abomination, but I do make them, just for my own use in my vehicle, the road noise cancels out any decent sound quility you might have gotten on a CD by accident. Perhaps a few hundred vinyl disks might do it, also.

No really, I do have a 700+ watt per chanel Yamaha amp with the Boston Acustic speakers setup with a sound meter for it to have 9 channels for surround sound and a switchable setup for some jam up stereo sound with a dozen or so amp sets.....If the shoe fits and all of that stuff.

McIntosh,vinyl and B&W speakers works

Alright audiophile MFers, tell me what to get.

Great sound, fairly loud, compact and all tube are my only requirements.

I'll be streaming music and maybe spin some vinyl.

$5k budget

I have a bunch of records I'd love to digitize, and a turntable that is capable. I also have bunches of cassette tapes and CD's.

No amp and speakers though. $600 for a system I can hear outside when the wife is gone and I turn some schiedt up would please me to no end. Hopefully with the audio quality similar to what we had in the olden days, as in some nice Voice of the Theater speakers and a good amp. Even a few steps below that would probably be OK.

i think this company does,, https://www.crutchfield.com/

I used to be somewhat into audio, but the ol' lady doesn't appreciate music enough to enjoy really hearing it so it's just nor worth upgrading anything I have.

Currently, for my PC sound I have a Carver "The Receiver" driving a small Yamaha powered subwoofer and a pair of Bose 201s. I can rock out a little from time to time and this system does well enough to satisfy me. I hope the receiver outlives me.

For the living room entertainment center I have a Denon AVR-3200, an off brand subwoofer amp (Techwood...anyone ever hear of it?) driving an old Phase Linear subwoofer (the thing is a beast!) and a Bose Acoustimass 5 (or is it 7?) speaker system. Again, way overkill for how we use a sound system.

I set the wife up with a PC sound system as well. The receiver is an Onkyo AV system her dad laid on us a while back. Since she's rather sedate when it comes to sound she's using a Advent bookshelf speaker system and a powered subwoofer I got her. She insists on keeping a Bose Wave PC system I gave her almost 25 years ago connected to her PC as well. I'll catch her rocking out on her tunes now and then and when I do I give her a big ration of schidt about "all that damned noise" just like she'd do to me.

Reading Geno's post made me remember...one of the nicest pieces of gear I ever had was a Dual CS-626 turntable. It had an Ultra Low Mass tone arm and an Ortofon ULM cartridge. The thing was soooo slick and smooth. I don't know if turntables ever got much further than that, but if they did they'd have to be awfully sweet.

I was designing and building speakers in 1971. I was living in sawdust.
I was subscribing to Audio magazine in the 1970s.
I sold lot of gear to get married in 1976, but the addiction audio gear came back later in the 80s.

I designed the audio selector panel for the Boeing 767 in 1981.

I am no great power amplifier designer, but I did design one for aircraft in 2006 that went into production.
The amplifier was computer tested in production and the data shocked me. The component tolerance errors in gain were mostly cancelling each other out, making very accurate gain. I had thought errors would add, not cancel.

I have two Sangean radio receiver speakers hooked up to this computer for listening to youtube in stereo.

I still have my Hafler 100w amp and a Hafler pre-amp I built in the late 1970's, along with a pair of Polk Audio speakers. I don't know what happened to the turntable and of course we gave away all the vinyl records years ago before they became sought after like they are today.

A big attraction - later necessity - going back to the pre-stereo days of 1956. Have bought no new equipment since 1995 - most of it bought in the 70s and 80s - and manage to have a decent system in just about every living space and work space - six in all. Material is mostly CD, vinyl and R to R tape at 7.5 or 15 ips, with some cassette stuff here and there. When we moved I did a lot of mix and match switching around to the current spaces.

No point in describing each setup - much of it is eclectic and some is not big name stuff - but amps are Crown, MacIntosh, Nakamichi, Marantz, Luxman, Sansui, etc. Turntables are Thorens, Technics, Transcriptor, etc. Speakers range from Klipsch Corner Horn, Sony, Wharfedale, LDC (sixteen 4 inch and a 15 inch aluminum cone woofer in each box), Advent etc. down to a 15 " Jensen woofer from an electric bass amp made in the 60s. R to R machines are Magnecord (2) Teac, etc.. Just about drowning in this stuff - about 300 vinyl - need to get busy and sell a lot.