Inexpensive Music System

[tmazz]

I think that the level of quality you can now get in a inexpensive system is one of the reasons that we have a problem getting people into high end. Going back 30-40 years there was a huge gap between consumer and high end equipment. Or more correctly, most of the lower priced consumer equipment just sounded dreadful. How many of you remember Electrophonic? 18"x18"x36" cabinets with a singel 4' paper wizzer cone driver. They sound worse than a transistor radio. but nowadays with computerized design and the advances in material material science you can get quite a bit of sound at the low end of the cost curve. Think about what you can now get out of a Bose Sound dock and an ipod. No it doesn't have great imaging or transparency, but it has impressive dynamic range and decent timbre. What comes out of it sounds pretty dam good to the untrained audiophile ear. It may not be the best it could be, but unlike the cheap equipment of yesteryear, it at least doesn't get in the way of the music.

Back in the day, when the cheap stuff just sounded dreadful there was much more of a push to move up to better sounding  (high end) equipment. But now that you can get decent sound stuff at the lower end of the price spectrum more people are likely to say "yeah, that's good enough" and never look any further.

[stereofool]

^
You have a great point there. I can remember when transistor radios first came about. They were handy, very portable, but by 'our' standards sounded terrible. Also, had a few table radios, which were tubed and if they would have had anything but a small paper cone speaker, they probably would have sounded decent.

Later, in college, I obtained my first decent stereo system and it sounded pretty good by the standards of the day. Over the years, of course, that is where the original 'nervosa' started...and continues to this day.

There is no question that even playing music out of my computer, on a cheap pair of 'computer' speakers, does sound better than cheap systems of old. So, I guess the average person out there feels no need to strive for something that approaches the real sound of music.

Perhaps that is our job, before we leave this world, to introduce and pass along to those of the younger generations, the concept that one can re-create the musical experience which moves most of us to pursue what we do, through this hobby of ours.

I'll put forth the idea of a pair of 'active' speakers, which could be driven by a CD player, or a cheap computer system, and produce fairly decent sound quality. Plus, this could fit in a pretty small space. I've got a pair of M-Audio X5's and they sound amazingly good considering the relatively cheap price.

[rollo]

 I would start with a computer based front end using an inexpensive USB DAC. all feeding a NAD intergrated. Speakers may be car speakers mounted in the wall or open baffles. Or just a pair of Atoms.
  No headphones. You want your Kid exposed to that magnetic field all day.


charles

[tmazz]

You want your Kid exposed to that magnetic field all day.

You could always tie wrap some CBFs to the headphones..

[manaox2]

There are always lots of good midfi deals on Craigs List. Scrapped together mid-fi is probably where most audiophiles start.

Maybe the question itself is moot. If you love music you get whatever tool you can find to enjoy it. When you can justify something better, it's there.   

I would agree with that. If I were building an audio system on the cheap for the general person, the M-Audio or Quad active speakers (some even have built-in DACs) would also be my first stop. Computer/ipod input is the main source almost everytime today.

[mdconnelly]

I think what you target for kids vs for the elderly may be two different things, but the one thing both must have in common is simplicity of use.  Having gone thru this with my Dad a few years back when he was in his late 80s, if it wasn't easy to use, he simply wouldn't use it (and my father was someone who loved music, was surrounded by it all his life, wired whole-house audio in the late 50s, and was also a musician).  But in his 80s, he just wanted it simple. Of course, his hearing was kinda shot by then as well but he always wanted music playing from the minute he got up in the morning until he went to bed at night. 

He really liked my Squeezebox setup and I think would have really liked the idea of controlling it with the SB Touch or possibly an iPad.  Or, for that matter, perhaps just from a laptop computer screen although he never really got into using a computer.

Having raised 3 daughters - what they need most is something indestructible (hah! or easily replaced).  My youngest (now in college) wears headphones a lot - earbuds when she's mobile, and a headset when at her desk or in bed.  She also has a pair of AudioEngine A2s in her dorm.   I have successfully convinced her of the magic of flac and good sound which is great when she's not mobile, but she prefers mp3 on her portable player (even tho it can do flac) simply to have a much wider selection.  Of course, being mobile for her is active listening - exercising, walking across campus, riding in the car - so mp3 is totally fine for that. 

[JLM]

For old folks, that NAD C715 would work great (although non-audiophiles would gripe about $500).  They don't need it loud, will eventually be moving into smaller spaces so size/wattage is a good fit, and they need something simple (this thing has AM/FM/CD and can connect USB/MP3).  Omega makes beautiful, small, efficient speakers (but not all that cheap), but there are tons of average/low efficiency small 2-ways out there at $300-400/pair.  So you'd be in for under a grand.

NuForce has some nice, small, inexpensive options that are tailored to computer users that could be paired with decent speakers for under a grand too.

For younger folks, Audio Engine A5 with built-in iPod socket would be a low cost option.  A $1,000 40 wpc Peachtree iDecco with reasonably efficient speakers would be great if they have a bigger budget.