Buying advice - Ascilab / Audio First / Genelec

[Bwaslo]

"As far as tweeter poking kids are concerned, just teach them"

That works fine until there's a play date at your place and the neighbor's kid makes a beeline to your listening room! Ask me how I know.

 

[low_art]

@TubeNoob I think you are unlikely to have much (if any) time for critical listening in the near or medium term, at least in that room. If you have any other space set apart from your common living area, I'd focus on a system for that space and not the one that is sure to be dominated by the full time requirements of caring for a new child.

Secure wall mounting, with speakers well out of reach, is a necessity if you want your equipment to remain in good condition. Stereo listening over speakers is mostly going to be for whatever your kid enjoys and finds interesting. You're not going to be blasting EDM for a newborn (or a toddler, or a five year old).
If you want to spend some money on a rig for that room, a headphone setup is more practical for someone with new or young children. I have school age kids and still find that any listening I do in the American "living room" is via a not exceedingly expensive, but still remarkably good used Stax system. Otherwise it's on a different level of the house in a dedicated listening room where my "real" stereo is located. Putting a lot of money into a "SOTA" stereo now is going to be a disappointment, not least because by the time you truly have a chance to use it, the SOTA may have advanced. Not to mention that the warranty period will have passed before you've even had a chance to put more than a few hours on your gear. Then you're stuck with, in the best case scenario, 5 or 6 year old equipment that has lost value, is out of warranty, and that you still haven't gotten a chance to use. While I wouldn't be too concerned with warranty on a modestly priced set of passive speakers, a lot of what you're considering here are close to endgame powered units that are a substantial investment, and I'd want to get my use out of them in the warranty period to shake out potential issues.
Briefly, I would spend very little on a system for your current situation. You're not going to get a chance to enjoy it to anywhere near its full potential for years.

 

[Marc v E]

@TubeNoob I think you are unlikely to have much (if any) time for critical listening in the near or medium term, at least in that room. If you have any other space set apart from your common living area, I'd focus on a system for that space and not the one that is sure to be dominated by the full time requirements of caring for a new child.

Secure wall mounting, with speakers well out of reach, is a necessity if you want your equipment to remain in good condition. Stereo listening over speakers is mostly going to be for whatever your kid enjoys and finds interesting. You're not going to be blasting EDM for a newborn (or a toddler, or a five year old).
If you want to spend some money on a rig for that room, a headphone setup is more practical for someone with new or young children. I have school age kids and still find that any listening I do in the American "living room" is via a not exceedingly expensive, but still remarkably good used Stax system. Otherwise it's on a different level of the house in a dedicated listening room where my "real" stereo is located. Putting a lot of money into a "SOTA" stereo now is going to be a disappointment, not least because by the time you truly have a chance to use it, the SOTA may have advanced. Not to mention that the warranty period will have passed before you've even had a chance to put more than a few hours on your gear. Then you're stuck with, in the best case scenario, 5 or 6 year old equipment that has lost value, is out of warranty, and that you still haven't gotten a chance to use. While I wouldn't be too concerned with warranty on a modestly priced set of passive speakers, a lot of what you're considering here are close to endgame powered units that are a substantial investment, and I'd want to get my use out of them in the warranty period to shake out potential issues.
Briefly, I would spend very little on a system for your current situation. You're not going to get a chance to enjoy it to anywhere near its full potential for years.

This is exactly my experience.
Have had more joy out of some sennheiser hd650 and especially bose qc35 than anything else.

If I would advice myself from a few years back, just before I had kids, I would say an avr with good enough wall mounted speakers and wireless noise cancelling headphones for late night listening or movie watching is what gives the highest satisfaction and hifi experience.

 

[low_art]

This is exactly my experience.
Have had more joy out of some sennheiser hd650 and especially bose qc35 than anything else.

If I would advice myself from a few years back, just before I had kids, I would say an avr with good enough wall mounted speakers and wireless noise cancelling headphones for late night listening or movie watching is what gives the highest satisfaction and hifi experience.

@Marc v E same here. My old Yamaha Aventage with YPAO room correction/ parametric EQ and a pair of wall-mounted NHT 1.3A along with a Velodyne SPL-1000R sub are distinctly "good enough" for my purposes. And If I don't feel like going downstairs to the big stereo or pulling out the Stax setup, I'll often use a JCALLY JM20 MAX dongle, a pair of Zero 2s, and my phone as a source- another exercise in cheap and good enough.

 

[Hipster Doofus]

Headphones anyone...