90's/00's Mini/Micro/Separates Hifi - Worth a buy?

90's/00's Mini/Micro/Separates Hifi - Worth a buy?

Author
Discussion

Mont Blanc

Original Poster:

1,994 posts

58 months

Thursday
quotequote all
I have Bose and Sonos AirPlay speakers all round my house, and they work fine for whole house audio, streamed from my phone or iPad.

But there are a couple of rooms where I spend a lot of time, such as my home office (8 hours a day) and I would appreciate an upgrade in sound quality and some actual stereo separation.

What are your thoughts on the old mini-separates or mini-hifi systems as made in the 90's and 00's from the likes of Technics, Panasonic, Denon, Sony, etc.

I'm considering buying a couple of these as they can be bought in good condition, with speakers, for next to nothing: £50-150 ish. I'll need to add a bluetooth receiver of reasonable quality.

Are these mini systems actually any good or were they a compromise? Any brands to that are considered to be better than the others? Am I just better off buying a full size 80's/90's separates amp?

Thanks

tonyg58

407 posts

214 months

Thursday
quotequote all
The only one (series) that I am familiar with are the Denon DM series - they sounded pretty good and were also really reliable (sold a heap of them over the years and I'm pretty sure none of them failed).
DM41 had Bluetooth built in.

Mont Blanc

Original Poster:

1,994 posts

58 months

Thursday
quotequote all
Or, if all I really want is to stream bluetooth audio from my phone, to some passive bookshelf speakers, would I be better off with something like this:

https://www.richersounds.com/fosi-audio-mc351-blac...


LR90

317 posts

18 months

Yesterday (11:15)
quotequote all
In your shoes I think I’d be looking at a pair of active speakers, especially if you’re just going to be streaming. Nice and simple.

Deranged Rover

4,058 posts

89 months

Yesterday (11:29)
quotequote all
Most of them weren't all that great.

They'd be an improvement on Bose, though, obviously... wink