Old Separates Vs New Mini Hifi
Discussion
I currently have a 20+ year old separates hifi system consisting of:
Rotel RA820BX Amp
Rotel RT 820L Tuner
Dual 505 TT
Marantz cd 52 cd player
Yamaha KX 390 Tape deck
Monitor Audio Speakers
Back in the day, this system cost around the £500-£600 mark so a reasonable quality budget system which I have been very happy with but now it just seems too big and bulky and I am keen to reclaim valuable space by getting a mini system and copying all my cds on to a USB stick and reluctantly buy and download MP3s to replace a 50 or so vinyl lp collection.
I have my eye on the Denon DM38 DAB+ and cd player which is recommended in What Hifi (together with a Marantz which I don't like the look of so has been dis-regarded)which can be had for around £170 - £180 excluding the speakers.
So my question really is how is the sound quality likely to compare between the new Denon and an old separates system? Am I being a bit naive to think that a relatively cheap modern mini system would be as good as a 20 yr old separates system?
Thank you in advance for anyone taking the time to give an opinion - Over to you PH Hi-Fi gurus!
Rotel RA820BX Amp
Rotel RT 820L Tuner
Dual 505 TT
Marantz cd 52 cd player
Yamaha KX 390 Tape deck
Monitor Audio Speakers
Back in the day, this system cost around the £500-£600 mark so a reasonable quality budget system which I have been very happy with but now it just seems too big and bulky and I am keen to reclaim valuable space by getting a mini system and copying all my cds on to a USB stick and reluctantly buy and download MP3s to replace a 50 or so vinyl lp collection.
I have my eye on the Denon DM38 DAB+ and cd player which is recommended in What Hifi (together with a Marantz which I don't like the look of so has been dis-regarded)which can be had for around £170 - £180 excluding the speakers.
So my question really is how is the sound quality likely to compare between the new Denon and an old separates system? Am I being a bit naive to think that a relatively cheap modern mini system would be as good as a 20 yr old separates system?
Thank you in advance for anyone taking the time to give an opinion - Over to you PH Hi-Fi gurus!
swiveleyedgit said:
A new mini system will sound much better than all that old tat,. Now, give it all to me.
Or me! 
Spend some time cleaning connectors and checking cables...warm up that old kit and let it sing! If it sounded good to your young ears all those years ago...it will still be just as good and your ears less discriminating!
Keep your MP3 and its ipod cousins for those car, train and aeroplane journeys...where a bit of noise from a handy little box will do...
telecat said:
To replace what you have would cost in the Thousands and you think a £170 Mini-System would be able to replace it???
MP3 is crap. You would need a better file player using FLAC or similar to get near the quality you would be "throwing" away.
Do what I did and get a sonos. Put all your old music into flac format on a separate NAS and then plug the Sonos into your amp. Works an absolute treat and bizarrely sounds clearer than cd's (could be I'm using the optical connection from the sonos to the amp vs phono's from the cd player to the amp).MP3 is crap. You would need a better file player using FLAC or similar to get near the quality you would be "throwing" away.
Ewan S said:
telecat said:
To replace what you have would cost in the Thousands and you think a £170 Mini-System would be able to replace it???
MP3 is crap. You would need a better file player using FLAC or similar to get near the quality you would be "throwing" away.
bizarrely sounds clearer than cd's ).MP3 is crap. You would need a better file player using FLAC or similar to get near the quality you would be "throwing" away.
What Monitor Audio's do you have? I got my old 852MDs out of the cupboard the other day, wired them up and was very plesantly surprised. If you've got a pair of them, be sure to audition them against whatever else you're considering, assuming you're not going to spend thousands on the speakers.
Funk said:
Here's a tip for old speakers. Over time, larger drive units can start to 'sag' on their surrounds. Unscrew them and rotate 180 degrees.. You may find the sound improves significantly. 
Another tip is to tighten the drivers up from time to time, can make an amazing difference.Along with checking the spikes are tight too and cables.
Wow, I have to say that I was not expecting these answers! I had wrongly assumed that there had been advances in technology to make my old system seem pretty poor/average by todays standards together with the added bonus of being smaller. So maybe there's life in the old dog after all.
The speakers I have are R252s and still seem to sound ok. When I get a moment, i'll investigate turning the drive units and tightening up all the screws - Thanks for the tip!
So what would a sonos do? Sorry, I'm very low tech these days and don't know what they do. I had a quick google and their web site was all about wireless music in every room. Is it like a HDD which can transmit the music to speakers? If so, why would I need to put it through the amp? Are they very expensive for a decent one? I've two kids and a wife these days - my money isn't my own any more
The speakers I have are R252s and still seem to sound ok. When I get a moment, i'll investigate turning the drive units and tightening up all the screws - Thanks for the tip!
So what would a sonos do? Sorry, I'm very low tech these days and don't know what they do. I had a quick google and their web site was all about wireless music in every room. Is it like a HDD which can transmit the music to speakers? If so, why would I need to put it through the amp? Are they very expensive for a decent one? I've two kids and a wife these days - my money isn't my own any more
You have a PC i presume or laptop as you are on here.
The 'Sonos' device connects to your amp and to your PC where the music is stored.
There are many different options available, personally i have a 'Squeeze Box 3', you should be able to buy one of these for well under you £170 budget.
You get then either use the remote that is supplied, your PC / Laptop or an iPhone to control your music.
And as someone said earlier don't go anywhere near an MP3 file for home use, they are pretty dire. Always use 'Flac' as the file type.
The 'Sonos' device connects to your amp and to your PC where the music is stored.
There are many different options available, personally i have a 'Squeeze Box 3', you should be able to buy one of these for well under you £170 budget.
You get then either use the remote that is supplied, your PC / Laptop or an iPhone to control your music.
And as someone said earlier don't go anywhere near an MP3 file for home use, they are pretty dire. Always use 'Flac' as the file type.
The_Burg said:
You have a PC i presume or laptop as you are on here.
The 'Sonos' device connects to your amp and to your PC where the music is stored.
There are many different options available, personally i have a 'Squeeze Box 3', you should be able to buy one of these for well under you £170 budget.
You get then either use the remote that is supplied, your PC / Laptop or an iPhone to control your music.
And as someone said earlier don't go anywhere near an MP3 file for home use, they are pretty dire. Always use 'Flac' as the file type.
The 'Sonos' device connects to your amp and to your PC where the music is stored.
There are many different options available, personally i have a 'Squeeze Box 3', you should be able to buy one of these for well under you £170 budget.
You get then either use the remote that is supplied, your PC / Laptop or an iPhone to control your music.
And as someone said earlier don't go anywhere near an MP3 file for home use, they are pretty dire. Always use 'Flac' as the file type.
Oh, I see. I think. So copy all the cds on to the pc and get these Flac files of my vinyl collection downloaded on to the pc as well. Then I can put the turntable, records, cds & cd player in the loft and the PC transmits music via the wireless dongle thing to the Squeeze Box or Sonos which then plays via the amp. Thanks for that, sounds like a great idea! I'll have a look into it.cod man said:
Oh, I see. I think. So copy all the cds on to the pc and get these Flac files of my vinyl collection downloaded on to the pc as well. Then I can put the turntable, records, cds & cd player in the loft and the PC transmits music via the wireless dongle thing to the Squeeze Box or Sonos which then plays via the amp. Thanks for that, sounds like a great idea! I'll have a look into it.Pretty much any old PC will do just need a big enough hard disk. Also has he ability to 'backup' to a USB hard drive and automatically create MP3s so you can use them in the car, walkman etc.
Fabulous piece of software, i've had it running on a near 10 year old PC in a cupboard for a year or 2 now.
HDD - Hard disk drive.
NAS - Network-attached storage. Idea being to hold all of the music, films, whatever in one place and then stream the files to where ever you want them to go.
Flac - free lossless audio codec. File format which, unlike mp3, is not compressed (lossless). Files are obviously a lot bigger than mp3s so not really suitable for portable use but a much better choice than mp3 if you are playing through your hi-fi.
NAS - Network-attached storage. Idea being to hold all of the music, films, whatever in one place and then stream the files to where ever you want them to go.
Flac - free lossless audio codec. File format which, unlike mp3, is not compressed (lossless). Files are obviously a lot bigger than mp3s so not really suitable for portable use but a much better choice than mp3 if you are playing through your hi-fi.
I run my Squeezebox server from my desktop PC (just program you install)
10,000 tracks in FLAC = 200GB (took a while to rip though)
SB touch in the lounge plug into my amp.
SB Radio in the kitchen (stand alone unit)
Depending on your CD player the tracks can sound better, I think my digital copies do than direct from the CD. Number of reasons for this are
1. The DAC might be better in the SB/PC than the CD player.
2. The CD player decodes in realtime, the ripped copy is decoded from the CD and error correction done prior to being played so the copy is as perfect as it can be. This is especially true on CD's my wife has had in her car (foot well, no boxes grrrr)
10,000 tracks in FLAC = 200GB (took a while to rip though)
SB touch in the lounge plug into my amp.
SB Radio in the kitchen (stand alone unit)
Depending on your CD player the tracks can sound better, I think my digital copies do than direct from the CD. Number of reasons for this are
1. The DAC might be better in the SB/PC than the CD player.
2. The CD player decodes in realtime, the ripped copy is decoded from the CD and error correction done prior to being played so the copy is as perfect as it can be. This is especially true on CD's my wife has had in her car (foot well, no boxes grrrr)
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