First audio system setup: Integrated amplifier choice for future augmentation of subwoofers

[philomusique]

Hello everyone,

After years of living in audio caves with ANC ear buds, I finally decided to build my first modest audio system. I watched Darko’s video of building a beginner system under €1000 and would like to make my buying decisions based on his recommendations, with some modifications based on the pricing in the US. .

His suggestions are Topping E30 DAC, Rotel A11 Tribute integrated amp, and Dali Spector bookshelf speakers.

He also mentioned that to upgrade in the future, he would add a subwoofer connection to A11 Tribute’s pre out.

That was more than 1 year ago, and based on European pricing. So I have to make some changes. In this regard I am seeking some advice here.

Particularly Rotel A11 Tribute is discontinued. My plan is to replace it with Rotel A10 MKIi. However, A10 MKii doesn’t have pre amp output.

So if in the future, if I want to add a subwoofer, what’s the best way do that? Will using speaker level outputs on the A10 limit my choice of subwoofers?

In Rotel’s lineup, the one with pre out is Rotel A12 MKii, which costs a lot more than A10 ($600 vs $1250). I am curious if it is worth it to pay more for the future expansion and a slightly better spec?

 

[staticV3]

Hi @philomusique! Welcome to ASR.

You can find a review of the Spektor here:

Dali Spektor 1 Review (Bookshelf Speaker)

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Dali Spektor 1 bookshelf speaker. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $249 from Amazon including Prime shipping. With the grill, the Spektor 1 looks like a $30 speaker but take it off and it has some style to it: As soon as I took...

www.audiosciencereview.com

It's really quite a poor speaker and pairing it with a Rotel would be a terrible way to distribute your budget.

Instead, I would buy a WiiM Amp or WiiM Amp Pro, then pair that with a bookshelf speaker from KEF, Elac, Ascend Acoustics, AsciLab, depends on your budget really.

In contrast to Dali, at least these brands care about accurate and faithful audio playback (signal in=signal out).

 

[Mikig]

personally today I would make a different choice. I would throw myself on the used market for a pair of good speakers, staying around 800 euros. You can find good deals on speakers a couple of years old that on the price list were double. I would combine a Fosi V3 48V, which sounds really good, around 100 euros and the rest for a Dac, an E30, an SU1 or so. Then with all the calm in the world the advice is to listen and not rush! to change... learn to know the system, implement the position of the speakers in the room, adapt the listening room where possible, perhaps helping yourself with Rew. After all this work, you can sell a V3 in 5 minutes and maybe it will lead you towards an amplification with greater configuration possibilities, sub outputs, and so on. But the possibility with a good used one of putting a good speaker at home at a good price is priceless.

 

[kyuu]

Yeah Darko isn't really a great source.

If you're looking for something under 1000 Euros (roughly 1100 USD according to Google), definitely spend the bulk on the speakers and less on the electronics (true for any price bracket really, but especially important under a strict budget).

I'd second static's recommendation of a Wiim Amp Pro, which gets you a DAC, amplification, PEQ/room correction, bass management, and all the streaming features you're likely to need with good performance for only $379 (USD). That leaves around $600 for the speakers. I'd just reference this list maintained by one of our esteemed members and go for the Wharfedale Diamond 12.1, find a pair of JBL Studio 530s on eBay (they're no longer available retail), or if it'll fit under your budget go for a Polk R100 or Elac DBR-62.

Edit: Wanted to come back to mention another speaker option that isn't considered often enough: get two "center channel" speakers of the MTM (midwoofer-tweeter-midwoofer) variety and use them standing up vertically as your "bookshelves". The dual woofers allow for better power handling (lower distortion at high SPLs) than your typical 2-way bookshelf with a single 5.25" or even 6.5" woofer, and using two 5.25" woofers is actually about ideal for crossing over to your standard 1" tweeter. I'm actually considering building a little 2.0 system right now utilizing a Wiim Amp with 2 Polk ES30s. We don't have measurements of the ES30, but it appears identical to the older S30 for which we do have measurements.

 

[philomusique]

Thank you for your advice!

I forgot to mention that I also include a turntable in the system. So I'll forgo Wiim, which converts analog inputs to digital for further processing. (What's the point to have an analogue source then?). So I'll stay with an amplifier with no DSP applied to analogue inputs.

I upgraded my choice of speakers to Dali Oberon 3. I found testing results of both Dali Oberon 3 and the KEF Q350 from a German website. This allows some apple-to-apple comparisons of these two speakers. KEF Q350 has the highest preferred score (5.7) from the list referred by kyuu@ in my price range (~$600). Comparing Oberon 3's freq. response to Q350's, neither is perfect, nor can I tell which is better than the other. They have different strengths and flaws. I chose Oberon 3 based on anecdotal evidence from the German website's own listening reviews and other user-based reviews on various websites.

As to used markets, I'm pretty comfortable to buy used amplifiers. But as a newbie, I am not so sure about the speakers at this moment.

 

[A Surfer]

You also want a turntable for that budget? I'll just be a little blunt here, every dollar spent on a turntable is a dollar not available for the speakers, by far and away the most important part of a system. Mistake. Rookie mistake I'm sorry to say.

That is like building a house to look pretty, but building the frame really poorly.

It occurs to me that you may mean that you will add a turntable later, in which case you can ignore what I wrote. You can ignore what I wrote anyway.

 

[philomusique]

I understand that speakers are the most important. To my own defense, I also have a decent headphone that I purchased recently a month ago (Focal Clear OG). That headphone and the amp & DAC coming alone with it are the culprits that brought me down to this rabbit hole. I didn't anticipate to go up to build a system so soon until my wife complains that I alone enjoy all the good audio through my headphones. Plus, I can't tolerate anymore the lousy turntable that she bought on a whim a few years ago. So the turntable upgrade was my first decision.

 

[philomusique]

To clarify, the turntable is not included in that budget. And for the rest of the system I am already over the $1000 budget that I set out to do initially. Now I’m just trying to control the budget overrun.