Building a sound system from scratch.

[Woofer]

Hi Guys!
My first post in here...
About myself: Nothing interesting ;/

'Tell you what's the deal here. I have a big living room in central Sofia (66m^2 is comperatively large), loads of parties are going to be heading my way and I also like listening to good music when I am alone.

The thing is, that my ears are somehow still rather intact and I can easily distinguish the
nicer amps/speaker combos and good sources.

I was thinking to get a tri-amp stereo system. The source will lead out to a pre-amp then to
a 3 way stereo cross over and then to three stereo power amps. One amp will be for the high-frequency range, 50watts. One for the mid-range - 100watts, and the rest goes to the woofer. I think since 500watts is the limit for music to sound well (my opinion), then we are talking about 350watts of wwwoooooooooofffff! (I mean the lower range will get 350, making overall 500watts of music).

Anyway, I have no idea what to choose. All I need from you guys is a starting point, some brands and prices to get me started.

I am interested to know:
- Generally, what speakers am I looking for?
How much of the 1", how much of the 2", 3", 4", 5", 6", 7", 8", 9", 10", 11", 12", 13", 14" and 15" will I need?

- Do you think if I buy JBL I would be ripped off? What is their most close to professional line? I like my sound really good, but I also want some power for when there are like 120 people cramped in and blocking the waves.

Not related to this particular section, but still:
- Do you think pro amps have the same "problems" like pro speakers (the pro-speakers I hear, usually seem to concentrate more on power, price and durabilty, while the home speakers like quality and style more)? I know pro amps look like medical equipment, but all I care is that they produce sweet sound with a load of power.

Where can I start looking for brands? I need basically everything other than sources and music (cables, pre amp, amps, speakers, etc)...

Thanks!

BTW, my budget is around 4000-5000USD, but I'll be glad not spending it all and leave some for booze ;)

[Florian]

First i welcome you to audioreview :p

One question, whats in your record collection?

[Woofer]

Thought you might ask... Everything. I got like 60GB on music on my hard drive.
Basically, I listen to a lot of classic rock (Beatles, Lead Zeppelin, Elvis - You know, everything that's either dead or addicted to drugs).

I am not kidding about it, from some odd reason, I seem to like only people who are either dead, drug dealers or addicted.

Anyway what will play on that system mostly is RnB, Hip-Hop, Rap and the occasional techno.

[JoeE SP9]

Thought you might ask... Everything. I got like 60GB on music on my hard drive.
Basically, I listen to a lot of classic rock (Beatles, Lead Zeppelin, Elvis - You know, everything that's either dead or addicted to drugs).

I am not kidding about it, from some odd reason, I seem to like only people who are either dead, drug dealers or addicted.

Anyway what will play on that system mostly is RnB, Hip-Hop, Rap and the occasional techno.The first thing you should do is visit every audio store you can get to. You should choose your speakers first. Listen to everything the store personel will demo for you. If you have friends with decent systems listen to theirs and get their input. Listen to speakers in your price range and also listen to some state of the art references if you can. As a start, budget 30 to 40% of your money for speakers. Once you have chosen your speakers you need to choose amplification with sufficient power for your needs. The choice of seperates or reciever may depend on your speaker choice, room size and the volume levels you expect to use. If the music you have stored on your HDD is low bitrate MP3's you may find that the quality of the sound is compromised. Low bit rate MP3's show their deficiencies with higher quality equipment. Go listen to some speakers!http://forums.audioreview.com/images/icons/icon6.gif

[Woofer]

The thing is, that no friend of mine really cares about their sound. They still listen to Mp3's from... I have a hard time saying this... Generic PC speakers!

The same thing with stores. Once I come in, they start measuring me by clothes and by the car I came with. If they decide I am just a tire-kicker, then they will literally kick me out, if they see I am rich daddy's boy, then they'll rely on the fact that I am too rich to care and shuv me all sorts of cr@p I don't need.

They hate the one who knows what he is talking about (and it's not like they know what they are talking about anyway)
Nobody likes the smartass...

Besides, I wouldn't trust the opinion of one of the guys that sells Audio stuff in BG, they have no basic knowledge whatsoever.

How about you tell me the speaker setups you have and what kind of music you listen to?
Maybe someone here has a tri amp system and can tell me what's his experience with it.

[Florian]

Well you can triamp my speakers and go fully active with them, but they would be of no use to you. Why do you want to triamp? What crossover will you be using? What electronics do you currently own? Do you want 2 or 6 or more channels?

-Flo

[CharlieBee]

If you like that old rock why not go with the orignial, like a powerful receiver or amp like a Pioneer SX-1980 or SX- 1280 or Kenwood KR-9600 or Concept 16.5 or Sansui G-33000 and rock speakers like JBL-L100's or cheaper but at least as good Pioneer HPM 100's. Most of these receivers are near 200 and up to 300 real watts/channel at 8 ohms both channels driven. Sorry I do not know much about amps only but there are lots of powerful vintage stuff out there.

Most of those rock recordings were made with the use of JBL monitor speakers of which the L-100 is similar for consumers.

The bass will be all your house and windows can stand without use of a separate woofer system. Such a system will cost less than what you outlined.

If you need multichannel consider quads of the era.

Charlie

[point_and_shoot]

How about you tell me the speaker setups you have and what kind of music you listen to?
Maybe someone here has a tri amp system and can tell me what's his experience with it.

I am not sure a Tri-amp system is the way to go. Actually I don't think I have ever seem it done as you suggested. Anyway, you can click on the "MY HT Pics" link beside my signature to see my setup. I use Digital Phase loudspeakers. They are 2 way speakers with enoguh bottom end to shake your house good. You can read about them at www.digitalp.com