Who here is into Hi-Fi Audio?

[r3cc0s]

not your run of the mill JBL\Low end infinity Bestbuy\Futureshop\Visions junk

I mean actual hi-fi audio

i.e. B&dub, Totem, Monitor Audio, Rega, Focal, Kimber Cables etc?

I'm looking for a new CDP, as I'm running a cheapo NAD 542...
What do you guys recommend? I'm a fan of Musical Fidelity's stuff, but the price point isn't something I want to commit on

What about the rega jupiter?

[hellraiser456]

The ski is the limit when it comes to hi-fi audio...and you can drop A LOT of money into it....and still be unhappy.

they key is research and more importantly spending the time to listen to various speakers of different brands and levels.

However of the "good" brands there are knock off brands you must watch out for.

First and fore most....the very very first thing you should look at...in my opinion is your receiver and amp. there are tons of options. typically the best is the separate av receiver and amp setup...but there are some good all in one a/v receivers as well. I am a personal fan of pioneer elite....but once again it is based on opinion. Pioneer elite amps...you get a very good bang for your buck and will typically spank its competition. Harman kardon is something i would try to avoid.
my personal experience with them is very poor compared to its competitors. it bugs out a lot and the sound quality is sub par compared to other similar options, especially if you plan to buy good speakers. AS for a cd player...you will want to plug a few in and listen to them...they reproduce the sound differently....and thus you may or may not like something some else recommends...however if you drop a pretty penny on one you shouldn't be disappointed.

as for speakers....personally i love paradigms. They have great clean highs as well as pronounced but not over bearing lows. however u would fork over and get there second highest or highest brand they offer...i believe that is the studio series i think? don't quite me on that though....anyway...price wise these will hurt...simple bookshelf speakers will start at 900+. however they still sound amazing.

B&W speakers are awesome as well...though they don't quite perform as well in the highs as the paradigms would.....they dominate the lows...especially the ones that are internally amplified...it will blow you mind at what these speakers will do and will sound good on just about anything you hook them up to.

as for a sub...i love the big paradigms subs....however they are a bitch to tune and find a sweet spot for...once you do though...your neighborhood will know about it (yes neighborhood...not neighbors). i can't remember the model number but my buddy has a 12 inch sub from them...and it hits low and hard....it was one of the lower end paradigm ones too.

once again though it is a very opinionated market as all speakers sound different. they will typically accel in areas and not do so good in others (unless you spend shit loads of money). there are a few places in Calgary where you can find stuff like this.....one is on mc cloed trail by a computer shop...it is just south of 42and st i believe...i can't remember the name. there was also a place called General Audio...it moved since i was last there but they sell paradigm stuff...was a nice little shop...and if you show them money they will give you a deal.

anyway there's some insight....best advice i can give you is to look around and see what is out there....and make sure you do some research on the product before you by it as there are a lot of scammers out there for this particular industry....for example nuance..they claimed to have this awesome sound field...and they would show it to you...but it turned out to be digitally enhanced cds they used. they would say you wouldn't typically hear it on a mp3 cd or even real cd because the quality on most cds was crappy. ..any real distributor...they backs there product won't be afraid to let you use your own cds. most places also..if its a slow day will let you test all kinds of setup and different speakers and subs....all with your own music.

[RawB8figure]

if you are looking for a decent CDP at a fair price check out www.AV123.com. check out the Onix CD-5SE CD Player. There should be a ton of reviews on it also. If its anything like their speaker quality it should be really good. If you want to ask audiophile type people sign up on audiocircle.com, these guys are hardcore.

[07E92]

im running a jupiter 2000 about 3 years old now, absolutely love the thing. Really lets you hear how good cd can actually be.