Ok, well I was an audio addict a few decades ago and I have the hearing loss to prove it. After spending way too much money on the hobby, marriage and kids finally broke me of the habit. I've resorted to listening to a factory stereo in my car.. ack.
Fast forward 25 years... I was digitizing my entire media collection, movies, CD's and stumbled across a stack of my old DCC and MFSL discs. That's all it took; now I have the bug again.
My problem is I don't even know where to begin with home audio gear.
So, I thought I'd throw something out there and see if anyone has pointers on gear. I'm unwilling to post on the audiophile forums, they are mostly a pretentious bunch and get too hung up on the "purity" of their hobby. Most of them are quite arrogant too so I'm not comfortable I'll get good advice that won't have a 10,000+ dollar price tag attached.
My total budget will be around 1500 bucks, so I have to be willing to make compromises, but I obviously want the best I can get for the buck. I would rather buy used gear and get more mileage out of my money so...
I'm starting my hunt trying to figure out a decent amplifier/loudspeaker combination. I won't be doing any video or anything like that, ever. Initially, I will be using all digital sources, CD and digital media, then eventually, as time and patience allow, get back into vinyl a little bit too.
I'm in a 12 x 16 room with a low dropped (grid and tiles) ceiling, 6 1/2ft. Heavy carpeting and the walls are pretty busy with framed items, doors, etc. It is my basement office so there is a lot of furniture and things too, very little open space.
Anyway, I don't even know if I want to do 4 channels, or 3 with a modest sub so I'd really like to hear suggestions from people who have experience with any particular gear that they were impressed with. I'd like to keep the amp/speaker combination as close to 1,000 as I can so that's sort of my target. I like pretty warm sound, but decent tube amps are past my budget threshold right now. Due to hearing loss, I also usually need loudspeakers that are slightly brighter than what most people prefer; I have trouble picking up high frequency.
It would be great to hear from any closet hobbyists here. Thanks for reading!