THE OBJECTIVE:
The objective here is to, on a continual basis, refine the best system, under £100, that can be achieved today, pre-owned.
A FEW GROUND RULES:
Please look at episode #01 for clarification
PLEASE NOTE:
Every item in the system has been purchased by me off the auction sites.
At this cheap-as-chips level, the individual prices paid are irrelevant. Focus if you will on the system synergy as a whole please. The experiment has only just got under way. From time to time I’ll purchase a pre-owned item, insert it into the system and see if overall the sound is improved. And then I’ll tell you the differences I have found – if any!
£100 COMBINATION #01 (as per previous episode)
- Amplifier: Cambridge Audio A1 V3 integrated
- Speakers JPW Minim
- Interconnects: Very cheap Black Rhodium
- Power cords: Only those hard-wired in
- Speaker cables: Very cheap anonymous
- CD player: Sony CDP XE530
October 1st 2020. Could I find a "better amp" in this system without taking the total above £100? Worth a try I felt and so last month I bought off an auction site the following pre-owned units, VERY cheaply:
- NAD 4020B
- Rotel RT 850L
- Sansui TUD99X
Nothing else in the system was changed.
STAGE 1: I compared all three to each other. Within the system, all amps were compared at the identical volume, in truth I could find very little to distinguish them sonically from each.
CONCLUSION 1: All are reasonable performers at an average price of around £35 each.
STAGE 2: All three were compared to the Cambridge Audio A1V3
CONCLUSION 2: Without any shadow of doubt, none of the NAD 4020B / Rotel RT 850L and Sansui TUD99X amps came close to replicating nor exceeding the superb performance of the Cambridge. ***
Episode #03 (sometime in the next few days) reports on my attempts to find "better" speakers without exceeding the £100 total system budget.
Watch this space / Thank you
••• My auditioning criteria will be clarified in a separate page here in due course.
Mr. A. Miser
