New HIFI

[Tonberry]

I'm after a new system and was considering the Marantz MCR610 with some decent floorstanders.

After a bit of research, it would seem the 610 doesn't have the man power to drive said speakers to their fullest whilst playing loud and low.

Sadly my only reference point is a decade old Sony CMT CPX1 which is actually pretty damn feisty. It needs to blow this out of the water.

Should I be looking at a component system or will the mini HIFI meet my needs?

I listen to every genre going but have an addiction to bass so a lot of deep house and dub step etc.

Will also throw in some home cinema use eventually.

[Tonberry]

Spotify on extreme quality so about 360kbps.

Does the job well via phono from the laptop.

Slightly OT but would the sound card within the laptop be a limiting factor?

[Tonberry]

Thanks guys.

After a bit of research I'm going down the Amp / Receiver + Speakers route.

The R-N500 highlighted or R-N301 look like good contenders with decent connectivity and in built tuners.

The setup should shake the room it's going into nicely.

[Tonberry]

So I've purchased the following;

Yamaha R-N500
Monitor Audio BX2 (can't justify floorstanders in the space available)
AudioQuest FLX-SLiP 14/2

Pretty darned beefy to say the least.

The laptop has no digital out so I'm looking at USB sound cards or DACS. The reviews all seem to be pretty poor for the cheaper jobbies (noise / interference etc). Any suggestions?

http://www.turtlebeach.com/product-detail/sound-ca...

Surely the quality of that little device should be pretty good over SPDIF rather than analog?