During the heyday of cassette culture, the respected home audio magazine Hi-Fi Stereo Review published one of its occasional overviews of new-model tape decks. The 1988 feature was […]
Steve Guttenberg The Audiophiliac’s Complete Audiophile System for $1,500 or less
Build your first complete audiophile system for under $1,500 with the best entry-level equipment from JBL, Klipsch, ELAC, Magnepan, Onkyo, and more!
Steve Guttenberg aka The Audiophiliac is one of the hi-fi community’s most beloved personalities. Formerly a high-end audio salesman, Guttenberg has worked as a professional audio reviewer for the past two decades writing for his Audiophiliac blog on CNET.com and freelance for various hi-fi publications including: Stereophile, The Absolute Sound, Audio, Listener, and Home Theater magazine. His YouTube channel contains a wealth of knowledge for both the beginning hi-fi lover and the seasoned vets. We especially like his beginner’s “Audiophile stuff you should know,” interview with Devon Turnbull, deep dive on horn speakers, Decware Zen Triode tube amplifier review, and his room treatment ideas.
The most popular video on his channel is a guide to building a complete audiophile system for under $1,250. We’re sharing it here today as it contains some great choices for those looking to build their first audiophile setup on a budget. Of course, prices have inflated a bit since this video was posted 2019, so these recommendations will actually allow you to build a complete audiophile system for around $1,500 or less. Alternatively, there’s another version of this series for building a system with $500 or less.
JBL Stage A170
Price: $600/pair
Steve Guttenberg” “The A170 made very ample bass, and it wasn’t just the quantity of the bass, but also the quality of it. The sound took me back to the heady days of the 1970s when JBL was nearly every rock music fan’s dream speaker. Those roots run deep.”
Tekton Mini Lore
Price: $700/pair
User Review: “The sound is aggressive, fast, and punchy. I can’t get much past 11 o’clock on the Sansui AU-719’s volume control. (Super efficient) Imaging is clear and wide. Bass is spectacular! I experienced no distortion. Buy these TeKtons and don’t waste your time like I did with the other brands [Klipsch, Bowers & Wilkins].”
Klipsch RP 600M
Price: $650/pair
Steve Guttenberg: “The Klipsch Reference Premiere 600M might startle you. It definitely shook me up, and I’ve heard a ton of speakers at all prices this year, and sure some of them sounded better than the RP 600M. So I’m not claiming it’s the best sounding speaker I’ve heard, just that it’s the one I can’t shake loose. I kept coming back to it, prolonging the reviewing process precisely because it sounded so alive and visceral.”
ELAC Uni-Fi UB5 (Updated to UB52)
Price: $655/pair
Steve Guttenberg: “The ELAC Uni-Fi UB5 loudspeakers offer the best performance of any speaker we’ve seen for the money. They deliver deep, tight bass; an effortless midrange and sweet highs. The soundstage is wide and unexpectedly deep.”
Emotiva T1+
Price: $699/pair
Steve Guttenberg: “The Emotiva Airmotiv T1 is a large, affordable three-way speaker featuring high-end appointments including a folded ribbon tweeter. The T1’s sound quality offers close to the holy trinity of sound quality: full punchy bass, expressive midrange and airy highs. The bass response is deep enough to forgo the need for a separate sub in smaller rooms.”
ELAC Debut F6.2
Price: $530/pair
Reddit User Review: “A good 3 way speaker with two dedicated mids sounds so much fuller than a 2-way bookshelf + sub. It’s like you can feel the sound washing over you. And you don’t lose accuracy or responsiveness in the low-mids/upper-bass as you often do with a sub.”
KEF Q350
Price: $500/pair
Steve Guttenberg: “The relatively affordable KEF Q350 speaker sounds good with almost everything, and offers an excellent sense of depth and space in decent recordings. Fit and finish are superb. The KEF Q350 bookshelf speaker looks exquisite, and sounds bigger and more expensive than it really is.”
Magnepan LRS (Now Available as LRS+)
Price: $995/pair
Steve Guttenberg: “There’s something especially satisfying about the way the LRS reproduced the sound of Pascal Rogé‘s piano on his Satie: 3 Gymnopoedies album. The instrument’s transients and rich harmonics were rendered with incredible beauty. Rogé’s phrasing and touch are extraordinary, and the LRS brought them to life.”
Klipsch RP 5000F
Price: $549/pair
Steve Guttenberg: “The Klipsch Reference Premiere 5000F makes a strong case for speaker buyers trying to decide between bookshelf and tower speakers. Small speakers can be good, but great towers like the RP-5000F handily trump the smaller ones in terms of power, deep bass, and dynamics. Listen to a pair and you’ll see what I’m talking about.”
Onkyo TX 8270
Price: $599
Steve Guttenberg: “This fully loaded 100 watt per channel receiver can happily drive 4-, 6- or 8-ohm speakers. It has ultra hi-resolution 384 kHz/32-bit digital converters, a moving-magnet phono input, Bluetooth , Chromecast , DTS Play-Fi, Spotify and AirPlay. The receiver boasts HDCP 2.2-compliant HDMI inputs that support pass-through of 4K/60 Hz video, 4K HDR in HDR10 or Dolby Vision formats, as well as the BT.2020 4K video standard. Stereo home theater has finally come of age!”
Yamaha A-S801
Price: $900
Steve Guttenberg: “The Yamaha A-S801 recalls the look of a traditional integrated amplifier from the 1970s or 1980s. I love its clean lines, minimal controls, and the build quality of this 100-watt-per-channel amp is at least on par with the best specimens from the glory days. Nice, but it also sports features the classics lacked, like a built-in digital converter, and a remote control!”
Vista Spark Made
Price: $389
Steve Guttenberg: “The Vista Spark is exactly what the audiophile world needs: a small, no-frills, no-nonsense, high quality and affordable integrated amplifier. Spark is super basic in functionality, you get two stereo analog inputs, but no digital inputs or even a remote control. Spark’s prime directive is all about maximizing sound quality, and it does that very well.”
NAD C316BEEv2
Price: $399
Part-Time Audiophile: “The NAD remains king of the entry-level integrated amplifiers by offering the distilled experience of true audiophile performance. Uncluttered by features that will likely go unused, the unit’s cost is kept low and focus on sound is squarely kept high. The addition of the phono stage only corrects the course as NAD intelligently navigates the changing markets.”
Cambridge AXA35
Price: $349
“The first thing that strikes you about the Cambridge Audio AXA35 is just how confident it sounds. There’s no wavering over the placement of notes, no blurring of lines. Whether it’s carving out a bassline, delivering the leading edge of a drum thwack or positioning a vocal inside its stereo image, the AXA35 delivers them all in a precise and assured manner.”
Outlaw Audio RR2160
Price: $999
Steve Guttenberg: “The Outlaw Audio RR 2160 stereo receiver flat out sounds better than any receiver or amplifier I’ve heard for its $799 asking price. In listening, the RR 2160 really clicked with my KEF LS50, Zu Druid V, Magnepan MMGi and .7 speakers, but its styling is really going to polarize people.”
Schiit Mani phono pre
Price: $149
Twittering Machines: “For my tastes and moods, the Mani 2 offered shockingly good sound considering it costs a buck shy of $150. The fact that it made a great partner in a much more costly system is a testament to some really good Schiit. I have no reservations, none, recommending the Mani 2 to anyone looking to unlock the world of adventures laying in wait in vinyl’s grooves.”
https://www.schiit.com/products/mani $99
Schiit Modi digital converter
Price: $129
Future Audiophile: “In my time with the Schiit Modi 3e, the DAC enhanced the sound of nearly anything I connected to it, yet maintained a neutral sound. I appreciate Schiit’s no-nonsense approach. Things like remote controls and visual displays can be nice at times, but at the end of the day you are likely buying a DAC in improve the sound of your digital devices or extending the life of your preamp or amplifier and the Modi 3e does a great job of accomplishing either or both of those jobs.”
Fluance RT80
Price: $200
Forbes: “If you’re in the market for a first turntable, or an upgrade to a basic record player, the Fluance RT80 is tough to beat — especially in the under $200 price range. It looks great, it’s solid and it offers higher end components compared to much of the competition. It even offers an upgrade path so you can improve the sound later without having to buy a new turntable.”