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So my old speakers and cd player bit the dust. Without breaking the bank...any recommendations for a cd player ($150-$300) and speakers (up to $1,000) that would match up with my amplifier? Also... any thoughts as the best way to hook my iPod up to my Rotel? Thanks so much for any input!
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CD Player - The $349 Marantz CD5004 can occasionally be found as a refurbished model for $249. http://www.accessories4less.com/inde...m&id=MARCD5004
Speakers - This is harder to recommend as speakers are the most different sounding component from each other compared to sources and amplifiers. The Rotel RA-1060 is a 60W/ch @ 8 ohms amplifier which is useable down to 4 ohms, so there are a lot of speakers that will work well with this amplifier. In new speakers, beyond the often recommended B&W 685 ($650) and the B&W CM1 ($1000), a few models to add to your list that have a high sound to cost ratio are the Ascend Acoustics CMT-340 ($570) and the Usher S-520 ($480)
If you're shopping used, you can save money (30% - 60%) or get into a more expensive speaker for your $1000 budget.
iPod Connection - You will get a bit better sound using a line-out connection from the bottom docking connector as opposed to using the amplified headphone jack output. This can be an actual dock that also charges and provides remote control like the Apple Universal Dock ($59) http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC746LL/A or an inexpensive Line Out Dock (LOD) cable (~ $10 - $15).
An even better sounding solution would be to use an external DAC that will directly take the digital output from the iPod dock connector like the HRT iStreamer ($200) http://www.highresolutiontechnologies.com/istreamer/
Steve -
Thank you!
I'm going to check out your recommendations.Comment
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