Please suggest a good music system

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Ratna333

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Hi,
Well, I need a good music system only for listening music. I would love if you all put your feedback for an audio system for an approx 30K budget. Tape mechanism is not essential for me but the sound must be pleasurable and should not distort. Also a sound output of not less than 200 watts RMS is desired. I have narrowed down my search to two Panasonic models - SCVK-92D and SCVK82D, one SONY - DHC-AZ5D, one Philips - FWD876/98. If any of you own these products kindly give your suggestions. If you think of any other model that may be better kindly give the model no and make.
Please do not give suggestions for a home theatre as I have one from Sony (I personally feel movies sound better than music on home theatre). Also do not give suggestions for speaker systems - I have one 5.1 from Creative and one from Altec Lansing both attached to my two comps. I am not a hardcore audiophile and I don't think I can lay my hands on the Wharfedale speakers or on products of Onkyo, Yamaha etc specially due to their limited availability and my ignorance and lack of understanding about them. I want to avoid assembled system as I have one ... Philips dvd player, JBL speakers etc etc.
I am inclined towards Panasonic hifi rather than Sony .. as I feel the recent products from Panasonic are sounding far better than Sony. Sony used to be fine in the past but now the Chinese ones (my home theatre - 25K) is not upto the mark in quality. Correct me if I'm wrong. The sound lacks punch and easily distorts; the loudness is also low.. Though I do not have an experience on their touch panel AZ series and do not know how they sound, the unique facility of playing music from USB devices have forced me to consider them.
So guys, please give your views and help me out in choosing. :(
Thanks in advance for your much needed help. Ratnadeep. Kolkata.
 
^^ brilliantly specific question :hap2:..that will filter more than half the usual replies :P

As for your choices, i have sampled both the sony and philips models and i personally feel that the philips is miles ahead in terms of SQ.

The Panasonic on the other hand looks evil and it seems to be built for loudness.

I feel sony can be eliminated from ur choices.
 
Sir, judging by the fact that you can discern that the 5.1 speakers you have are crap, and that you are willing to spend a good amount of money for sound that won't distort, you are hereby branded an audiophile :bleh:

your "claimed" ignorance /lack of understanding .. we can fix that ;)

PS: what JBL speakers do you have , and why dont you like them?

A normal CD player + a basic stereo amp + bookshelves are MUCH simpler to operate than any of these 30K sony/panasonic systems. for them, most of the cash is spent on making extra useless features like flashing lights and buttons which frankly bewilder me :( . You can afford something better , why not get it :(

please do tell us why you dont like the setup you have ( plus what amplifier do you use?)

you're in kolkata right ? is it hard to get stuff there? I'm in trivandrum , and we have a good dealer :)!
 
Are you looking for a system to listen to music or to watch movies? In simple words do you need stereo or mono?
 
Well, you said music, and we had a long thread from gmano on this forum, read through that.

30K is a pretty decent budget to start with - I would stay away from minicompos and mass market brands, since you already have a few of those, and that money, you can actually get quite a decent package.

And Cal isn't that bad, you can get some pretty good stuff there. Japonica is a good place to start looking, they have Polk, Denon and some other brands. The problem is after sales service, I have some real horror stories.

The problem is I would urge you to reach a bit higher. NAD has a lovely stereo receiver for just about 25K, and at about 14k you can get a pair of Tannoy bookshelves. That is a kick-ass system that will keep you happy for a long time, plus saves you from having to buy a separate player and amp, which costs money.

If your budget is not flexible, a mini-system from a good manufacturer would be a much, much better bet. I know Onkyo has a few compact premium systems, and so does Denon (available from grey market), all within a 25-30K budget.

Go read gmano's thread, you'll get a lot of ideas.
 
I would advice not to go for that sony system mentioned. I am having their DHC-AZ3DM model.
To start with, the model SONY - DHC-AZ5D does not support playing from USB sticks, that feature is there in AZ7DM model.

Again all these touch functions are not really used on a daily basis, you will tend to use the remote more. And the remote funtion is also crap, you can't even skip to a particular track on your usb stick with this. Feature wise I love a philips dvd player with USB input (this even plays your divx files store in USB stick).

Sound quality is also not that great, For me the ATP-3 on my computer sound better on near field listening.

Simply put, these mini compos are not value for money. Better of taking advise from experienced people in TE and buying a good stereo amp + speakers for that budget and hooking it to your dvd player.
 
Hi,
Thank you guys for all the inputs. Now for the replies... Thank you ms_mahu for clarifying about the Sony model. I also think they are not upto the mark. Also a Sony engineer pointed out all the issues and they matched perfectly with all you said. The Sony models do not recognize every USB sticks as he clarified and the touch panel also is very prone to breakdown. So I am discarding the Sony model as of now. Also I have my personal bitter experience with their audio products in relative to their price which I mentioned in my first post. As of Sangram, I feel good after sales service is essential and after spending nearly 30K I do not want to be a part of the horror stories. I have infact bought a lot of items from the grey market - a Canon digicam, a Nikon FM 10 film SLR, a Canon DSLR, my Panasonic Camcorder etc etc but those were smaller items (in size). A large music system would be difficult to carry and take home as cops tend to be everywhere outside the market and if misfortune beholds I would be in serious trouble without a cash-memo. Also if some problem occurs, the seller would lend a deaf ear. So, grey market is out of question for this particular product. I have never experienced NAD, Onkyo or Denon systems and if at all I do find them at the showrooms, I have to completely depend on the sellers for the compatibility issues with amps etc which I think will sound either Greek or Hebrew to me. Also do you think the Wharfedale speakers sounds very good? I am a bit skeptical as the price of them is far more cheaper than any high end 5.1 speakers available today from the big manufacturers. With regards to Greenhorn I can say that though assembled systems can blow out loud, the melody and sweetness of songs misses out. You can take an experimental test by listening to Ghazals which sound much more finer and melodious in branded hifi single systems. But that notion is of mine. You all may not agree. This happens as the systems manufactured by Sony, Panasonic, Philips etc pass through stringent sound tests at every step of the manufacturing process.. thats what makes them pricey. Also patented technlogies like Dolby, Trusurround etc all adds to the price tag. In case of assembled systems we tend to connect parts not regarding the compatibility infrastucture. All we get is sound not music ...ofcourse not always but most of the time. You must conduct tests or consult a sound expert to make the assembled system worthy of music (as Bose sound engineers do everytime - but that is a different issue). As for example, same can be said in relation to comps.. you will find that sometimes branded PCs made by Dell, IBM etc outperform, in some basic applications in relation to a heavily advanced assembled system even if their basic configuration is lesser of the two. So no more assembled system and bookshelves speakers as of now ... had a plenty of them right from childhood days! As for Smith all I can say is thank you. But why did you say that Panasonic system looks evil? To me it looks like a true sound system. Do you have any experience with the Philips model - FWD876/98? If yes let me know. The system looks truly gorgeous but I do not know about the sound quality. As of Panasonic, the SCVK82D and SCVK-92D looks quite similar the former has 5600 watts PMPO and the latter 8000 watts PMPO and an extra woofer. 82D sells for 18.8K and 92D for nearly 28k (MRP). Do you think the latter is worth of buying in respect to the cash difference with all the features essentially same?
Do post your views and do tell me what you all think...
All the views expressed by me are of mine alone and I do not intend to hurt anybody. :hap5: Thanks all the same...Ratnadeep. Kolkata.
 
Then talk to anindo and ask him to get the NAD for you. I personally am not in love with the Sonus but they're the best I've heard come from an Indian manufacturer, even if the drivers are fully Indian (made in Calcutta, actually). The bass is a little bloated but that's a very subjective and personal opinion - you need to sit and listen. It can also be easily fixed with regulating the amount of stuffing.

His amps are actually kick-ass (at least when I heard them three years ago). He's also got a lovely listening room which can show off his systems well. I think it's on Elgin Road. You can refer the Sonodyne website for info and contacts.

As to the wharfedales - they get by. I'm not particularly fond of them, but within the budget you are quoting they are one of the best you can get.

I would still urge you to not consider the minicompos. They have paper cone tweeters (which is not nessecarily bad in itself) and the woofers are the cheapest that can be squeezed in. Ten years back they weren't built to the same shoddy standards and would have sounded passable, today it's about lights, features, and an RMS figure.

I personally think a 25 watt RMS NAD amplifier will leave a 100 watt RMS Sony hifi in the dust, but that's just me. The days of mass market manufacurers making quality products is over, make no mistake. If you think 'the systems manufactured by Sony, Panasonic, Philips etc pass through stringent sound tests at every step of the manufacturing process', you have been taken in by advertising my friend (trust me, I'm in advertising). The QA is quite basic, and if you hear three different units of the same model, they will sound different.

The other option is the mini hifis, some of those sound pretty good, their power ratings are much more honest and the build quality is good, but you sacrifice a lot of lights and glitzy features which the micros offer. I'm not aware of what models are available as I'm not in that market anymore.

And I wasn't suggesting you buy from the grey market.

Japonica is an authorised distributor. I've never bought from them, I did buy from the then authorised Jamo dealer. When he replaced a driver, he fit a driver repaired in Chandni Chowk. I wrote mails to Jamo and the dealer for an upgrade, and then the dealer stopped dealing in Jamo so I was basically left high and dry. I swore never to buy a Jamo again. That is my personal horror story, and it was the first time I was buying hifi. I later imported drivers for the speakers, but have sworn off the brand forever.

Since then I learnt to do things like take referrals from people you know have good systems. That way you touch base with the person/dealer and not the brand. Dealers will not lose customers even if they drop brands, they will ensure you get service even if they don't deal in the brands anymore.

Also don't be in a hurry to buy, the dealers will push you mercilessly but you need to listen to a lot of options before you buy - there's a partial list of things to listen for in that thread I mentioned earlier, there's a lot of audiophiles on this forum who'll be able to help.

Last is prices. No prices in this industry are fixed. Be good at negotiating, it may help you get a 15% reduction in prices, which still leaves the dealer with enough profit so they'll be happy to provide you after sales service, upgrades and get you good resale value when you upgrade. This hobby is expensive, and knowing the right people helps a lot.

All the best in your search, and let us know how it turns out.
 
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