Speakers for music

[theokkid]

Hi, i am very, very new to the audio world and have been listening to music over my panasonic sc-pt460 sound system up until now. I plug in my htc desire through a 3.5mm jack to phono cable and listen to it through that. The sound quality is not brilliant so i am looking for an upgrade as far as that goes. I have been trawling the internet for weeks trying to find the best speaker and amplifier set up and have got a £400, maybe £500 budget for everything. I have seen the wharfedale diamond 9.1 and 10.1 going for £100 and £170 as two front speakers. For amplifiers, i have seen the NAD c315bee or Pioneer VSX-820-K 5.1 amplifier. I am not sure whether the equipment will compliment eachother so that is the reason i am asking. To be honest, i am open to anything because i am a beginner and don't have a clue what is out there! I listen to a range of different genres of music from drum and bass and dubstep to indie and pop.
So my main question is, what sort of set up should i have and if there are no bookshelfs that can pump out some bass in my price range, should i get a seperate subwoofer and which one?
Oh, and can i get a cable for my HTC Desire that will make it sound good, or is the Desire not capable of good sound quality and need to burn some CDs?
Thank you very much in advance!

 

[davepuma]

You would be better off moving this to the hifi forum as this section is for AV Receivers. You mention two amps inc. one 5.1 AV Receiver. If this setup is for music and you don't intend going 5.1 for movies/gaming in the future, I would discount an AV Receiver and concentrate on a hifi stereo amp and a decent set of bookshelf speakers and some stands. Your phone is exactly that, a phone. Yes, it's really a small computer with a built-in phone but it's a portable audio device at best so if you're chasing good sound quality, I would forget using a phone as a source. Obviously your mp3s on your phone need to be a good bitrate to sound good. Are they? Do you have a lot of CD's? Is your music ripped to a PC? You could stream from your PC using a wired/wireless network using something like a Logitech Squeezebox, Sonos or Apple Express. There is a separate subforum for these devices. Clicky. I use a Squeezebox to stream my music, which is stored on a small HCPC in FLAC format. I use E.A.C. to rip my music to FLAC and Foobar2000 to convert to mp3 for use on my portable devices. You can control the likes of Squeezebox using software such as Squeezecommander or the Logitech App on your HTC phone. I prefer Squeezecommander. Alternatively you could get an external DAC and hook up your PC straight to the stereo amp.

 

[theokkid]

Thank you for the feedback
The bitrate of my songs on my phone are 320kbps which is obviously good, but i am guessing they are lossy and i am wondering whether, with a good cable, the whole 320kbps could be transferred to the amp.
And yes, i have transferred the music from my phone to my PC and i am considering whether to buy a soundcard, internal or external to improve sound quality if i just use a cable because the two are next to eachother.
Sorry but how do you transfer a thread?

 

[dwhite]

You ask a mod.

I've moved it for you

 

[cksam]

It is hard to know where to start. Of course, you could go in to Richer Sounds (if there's one near you) and see what they can do for you. Another option is to pick up some second-hand stuff on these forums. You could post a 'Wanted' add asking for a beginners hifi set-up, and see what people offer you.

Good luck!