Help a student on a budget.

M

MadPanda

Guest
Well I recently got a new system for £100 at Richer sounds which consists of:
Cambridge Audio A4 integreated amp
Cambridge audio CD5 Cd player
And a pair of Gale Gold Monitor Speakers.

Now im on a tight budget and am looking for a few things to add to my system in order of preference here it goes:
1)A minidisc recorder preferably under £100
2)A Sub allthough im not sure how i'd link it in
3)A turntable

any help finding those items at low prices would be msot appreciated.
 
Hi,

In terms of the minidisk recorder, you'd be well advised to buy secondhand - they seem to be going/have gone out of fashion, thanks to ipods etc., so you should have no problem finding one a lot cheaper than they were new...take a look on ebay (just search for 'minidisk', and you'll find a few options), or I think someone was selling one with a load of disks on forum.hifichoice.co.uk. Minidisk recorders (at least the Sony ones) seem a bit more robust than most CD players, so a bit less of a risk to buy secondhand (it seems that the MD walkmans, at least, can take a fair few knocks before giving up the ghost...)

That said, there are reasons for these going out of fashion... Minidisk walkmans are very good for recording 'live' if you add a decent microphone (I mostly use mine for recording lectures, now, and the sound quality and length of time you can record on one disk are great) and can be pretty good for portable music. However, the minidisks to record your music on aren't cheap (at least compared to CD-Rs) and I'm not sure I'd buy a minidisk player to use with my hi-fi: the sound quality of minidisks tends to be slightly lower than audio CDs even if stored at the highest quality, and compression to extend the amount of music you can fit on a disk degrades this further. If money's tight and you already have a computer, you might also want to look at a buying a CD-writer (you could use this with cheap CD-Rs - assuming these are compatible with your CD player).

All the best,

Jon
 
I've seen Rega 3s on Ebay for silly money, these make for a very good budget deck with the RB300 arm. Goo d Hunting
 
Why do you want to add a sub?

As for minidisc - i love my lowly sony MDS-JE330 - not the most features of any seperate, but the sound quality is quite nice indeed!
 
Committed, didn't mean to suggest that MD players sounded bad (I still enjoy my MD walkman). It's just that, with CD-Rs and CD writers selling for peanuts now, it's not something I'd make a priority if I were on a budget unless I needed a specific feature of the format...

Jon
 
For an MD unless you really have to have a full size deck I'd look out for a Sony MZR900 or 909 walkman on ebay £40 should get you a nice one but remember to get some new headphones. Still very easy to connect to your amp at home and you can record digitally if your CD player has an optical output.

If you haven't already got them I would get some speaker stands and better cables before thinking about a sub.
 
If u were planning to fork out £100 on your system why didnt you put it towards your system in the 1st place, doubling your budget and perhaps ending up with a better all round system? If it was my money it would of went towards these budget gems

Cambridge A1 mkIII (£30-£40 ebay)
cd6000ose/le (£100+ ebay)
Mission m71i (£60 richersounds brand new boxed)

Garunteed to give more bang for buck than what you have now. I too am a student and funds are also tight but i started off with a system similar to what i listed and it was cheap but fun-was 16 at the time :smashin:
4 years on i have spent considerably more as funds from modelling and part time job allow it :D

Zoo

p.s, a sub for £100??? more importantly for music? :rolleyes: mind you you could get a decent pro-ject debut1 turntable for that price but i think you'll need to get an offboard phono stage which can be had for around £20.
good luck dude
 
You'll need to check if your amo has a phono input before you get a TT. If it has then yo wont go wrong with a Project Debut II or III of feepay. Loads of cheap, decent vinal out there.
 
Comitted said:
Why do you want to add a sub?
The speakers give really poor bass and most of the music I listen to is quite bassy(is that the right word?).
Bassbin said:
If you haven't already got them I would get some speaker stands and better cables before thinking about a sub.
Yeah, Im currently looking for some wall brackets for the speakers as I dont ahve a lot of florr space, and once I get them i'll get some new cables.

zoolander said:
If u were planning to fork out £100 on your system why didnt you put it towards your system in the 1st place, doubling your budget and perhaps ending up with a better all round system? If it was my money it would of went towards these budget gems

Cambridge A1 mkIII (£30-£40 ebay)
cd6000ose/le (£100+ ebay)
Mission m71i (£60 richersounds brand new boxed)

Garunteed to give more bang for buck than what you have now. I too am a student and funds are also tight but i started off with a system similar to what i listed and it was cheap but fun-was 16 at the time :smashin:
4 years on i have spent considerably more as funds from modelling and part time job allow it :D

Zoo

p.s, a sub for £100??? more importantly for music? :rolleyes: mind you you could get a decent pro-ject debut1 turntable for that price but i think you'll need to get an offboard phono stage which can be had for around £20.
good luck dude
I did'nt get the system, my brother got it to take to Uni but hes found out that his roommate has a much better set up so he's given this to me as its to late for him to return it.
 

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