Kane

Read lots of magazines etc and look out for the kit you want then shop around for the best price.

Go around sevenoaks, audio excellence etc speak to the guys get an idea of what they have for a "starting" system then look in the back of the mags for a company called sound & Vision. Call them and they will beat the lowest price..saved me £500 on my setup.

What i wil say is this - dont think you will get a system that you will keep as you will want to upgrade as you get used to the power/quality so will keep spending..LOL i thought i wouldnt but i have also..:-)

RobJenks

whatever equipment is selected , these components can be enhanced by treaking.
Lots of discussion on the merits of making own speaker cables using fully shielded solid copper core co-axial cable.Shielding of opposite cable soldered to core of other .
Also look at pure silver wire interconnects-not sterling silver which is not pure.Silver wire is cheap to buy .Lots of web sites explaining what to do.
Freezing of interconnects,cd's - Lower temperature the better.
Paint outer edge and inner hole of cd's with green pen.
Dedicated earth for equipment .
Clean power supply - Turn off all other electrical equipment in home while listening.
Optimise position of speakers - on stands , away from walls , decouple from floor with spikes - In fact spike everything.
Dont permit power supply cables to cross interconnects/speaker cable.
Experiment with the location of cables.
Discard as many bar codes in the home as possible - The ones that remain cross out with red pen.
and try this:
Play some music you are familar with.
Get a photograph of yourself when you were young and a photograph of yourself now.Put each photograph into a separate plastic folder and place into freezer.
Play the same piece of music and be aware of an improvement in the perceived sound.
Take out the pictures and the sound will appear to have deteriated.
Put the pictures back in and hey presto ! It sounds better!
Wierd ?

New To Scoob

Not as much as an expert as some of the other people that have replied but here goes my 2p worth.
Demo everything, try different units mixed together to see what YOU like best, I heard great things about Eltax speakers but when I demo'd them I hated them.
Speakers; what size is your room? a large room will require large speakers to fill it and sound proper (unless you spend mad money on smaller ones) take measurements of your room to your dealer and ask his opinion, dealers are used to helping newbies and they are friendly.
CD; personnally I prefer UK models as to me they sound better not as harsh as some of the JAP/etc stuff, ok so the JAP stuff comes with loads of gizmo's but DO you really need that? generally speaking I say no.
AMP; Once again UK models are my personnal choice as I prefer the sound from them.
Tuner; dunno as I don't have one but no more than £100 you can get DAB units now for that price from Richer Sounds.

When it comes to buying the gear decide if you want to stay with your local dealer or go mail order, local dealer is good due to the fact sometimes they 'help you out' with package deals etc or ex-demo gear. I got my Arcam Alpha 1 CD player for £190 ex-demo only about a month old when the retail was £300. Or demo what you like then order over the net from Richer Sounds.com much cheaper than most shops and a good selection but they don't do all the makes. IMO interconnects are worth buying a decent set as are speaker cables.
My set-up,
Cyrus 3i amp (lovely and serious punch for its size downside was £600)
Arcam Alpha 1 CD player, bought ex-demo for £190 instead of £300 hardly any gizmos (I think it does repeat and shuffle and thats it)
Mordaunt Short<sp?> 602 (I think) floor standing speakers bought from Richer sounds.
Cables, KLIEN interconnects directional bought on offer £25 instead of £50 big speaker cable 80 strand stuff can't remember the make.
Heres some stuff I found on Richer sounds web-page.

Amp; Marantz PM7200 rrp£330 for £239
CD' Arcam CD60 rrp£400 for £299
Speakers
Mordaunt Short MS904 (floor standing) approx£300 for £250
MS902 (Stand Mount) £200 for £150
MS902 sig (SM) £??? for £200

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

ProperCharlie: Are your CLS70's on the Tripod Stands?
If not, what are they on?

My wife will let me have some new speakers, but HATES those stands:

Alcazar

ProperCharlie

alcazar - sorry mate, they are on the proper triffid job tripod stands.

tell her they are cult classics, just like the film Day of the Triffids

The speakers have screw threads in the base and they bolt on to the top of the stands. I should thing that any solid, mass filled stand would be ok though. Partington Dreadnought maybe.

Daz34

IMHO the only problem is that if you take it too seriously you end up listening to the sound quality & not the music. This is after all what you bought it for in the first place.

Darren

civictyper

I'll second the Equinox's. Superb loudspeaker IMO and one that packs a punch too for a standmount. Never quite had the money to get a pair so bought the Templars instead.

One thing a standmount generaly has over a floorstander is imaging and pace/timing. Having a large cabinet hampers dispertion and tuning all that bass as well as having a large cone can hamper speed. Best overall compromise IMO (as long as your room is not too small) is to get a compact or mid sized floorstander.