Can RM500 Buy You an Amp & Speakers?

What can I get if i budget RM500 for a set of amplifier and speaker?

Offer me, not need a new set but MUST in good condition if used.

Thanks.

Hello sitizak,

Well sitizak, for Rm500 if your're talking even entry level hifi, you can get
pretty much nothing.
Maybe someone will sell you some beat up stuff & then you really regret.
Maybe a trip down Pasar Road may open up some possibilities, but I can't see myself going there for anything remotely HiFi.

My suggestion is to raise you standards a bit to around R,1,500 and maybe some kindhearted forumer may come to your rescue. That's entry level hifi we're talking about.
and then you'll have started to work up an itch that you will have to keep
scratching like the rest of us here at the forum.

Just my POV .

teleman51

Thanks mate!

yup, i remembered paying rm690 for my denon pma260 back in 2000
until today, it still happening with the amp, pair them with kef coda 6, nice & superb!!

u can try these combination on second hand condition
just my suggestion.. i've done that

atleast Rm1000++

uhmmm maybe a 2nd hand set of Aego M.

For RM500 i think that's it la.. no cd player.. no nothing else... use the Aego M and hook up to whatever u have.. ipod, dvd player or whatever first.. i guesss.... that's the least RM500 could do.

Aego M is a joke lah.

RM500, minimum would be like an old NAD 3020, plus an old pair of bookshelf speakers.

JPW mini monitor + NAD3020 is possible for this price

I agree that RM500 is a very tight squeeze, maybe near impossible to get a reasonable entry quality complete system based on used components. But IMHO, double the budget and you might be able to get a good 'starter kit'. For e.g. currently there is a NAD speaker in the for-sale forum for RM380. I think perhaps RM350 or even as low as RM300 might nett the sale. My dealer once had an ONYX integrated that he sold for RM600. Together they are still less than a thousand bucks !! As for source it will have to be CD and there are PLENTY of cheap but reasonable sounding DVD players which can do an adequate job. E.g. a Pioneer basic DVD player for RM199. I am sure there should be plenty of people letting go their older CD player (for e.g. the Pioneer above) for more modern players with HDMI and up-scaling. Those can literally be bought for a song, the owner probably ecstatic someone will actually pay money for it, no matter how little ! For a starter kit, just go to places like BEST DENKI or ACE and get one of those generic interconnect/speaker cable lar. They can be had for as low as RM50 to RM100 depending on the level of quality, acceptable in the worse of case.

So for just a tad over a thousand bucks, you are all set with source, amp, speaker plus useable cables as well ! I think one just needs to have patience and shop around a lot. I think there are good choices in the for-sale forum. Or perhaps a listing in the WTB forum might be fruitful as well.

the topic title is just asking for amp and speakers only mah .....
so el cheapo ancient amp + el cheapo ancient bookshelf speakers, RM500 can just about squeeze it through... maybe ?

Fear not sitizak. I manage to buy a few cheap but good condition secondhand stuff for my younger brother who lives in Kelantan. He'd always wanted to own a system but had a very limited budget. I managed to assemble him something quite good all from Cash Converter. It took some time though and you'd have to be patient. I managed to get him a Pioneer A400 amp, then an NAD 521i CD all for exactly RM500.
Cheers

Wow ! now thats what i call "bang for buck!" .

Cheers & have a happy raya weekend celebration.

Cheers Mugen. Have a nice holiday yourself.

I think it's harder to get a good cheap 2nd hand loudspeaker compared to a CD player and an amplifier.

mrsquared wrote:I think it's harder to get a good cheap 2nd hand loudspeaker compared to a CD player and an amplifier.

Most likely to be above RM1000 for a decent pair.

I suggest you look around for secondhand stuff. www.mudah.com.my is a good place to look. Sometime you can really find good deals there.

I don't know why prices of most old used items even in Mudah or lelong website are quite high. Nowadays most sellers are seeking to earn a profit when disposing most of their junk in those sites.

Gone are the days when good bargains can be had as prices of used items nowadays don't seem to be as good or inviting as before. It is possible to get something decent in the used market with RM500 several years ago but with the rising costs and inflation sadly it is somehow quite impossible now. It also depends on the seller as well. I have previously sold a 5 years old Yamaha DSP-990 amp at RM200 to a buyer back in 2002 or 2003 and the sound quality is better than most budget amps today costing up to RM1.5k. I bought the amp brand new at RM2.4k. There are several other more items I sold at giveaway prices and sometimes regret selling those gears away when I see prices on the net nowadays.

Maybe you can check out some pawn shops or something to see if there are anything that you can salvage from there. Some folks may have discarded their old but good condition amps and speakers there without much interest of making money out of it.

I got a NAD 312 and a pair of Celestion Ones for the total sum of RM600. Decent set up.. you betcha. Not as good as my Quads and Harbeth but hell for RM600 set up fed by my Ipod in the office.. more than decent.

p/s Just got a Cyrus III at a bargain to replace the Nad 312. Hmm..shall I horde it like a rat or sell it on...decisions. decisions..

unless u plan to build a 2nd system, sell lah ... benefit the hifi community a bit

(fanning the fire... )

personal opinion is i will wait, save until have enugh budget for entry
level gadget ( ~ RM3K ) then only spend the $. honest speaking by spending RM500 it is difficult to get a decent system ( source,amp, spk).

Can why not RM500? Get a mini hifi or midi hifi. Some have good sound. Just hunt around you might be surprised! Or vintage gears reciever with gigantic speakers. But be realistic the price you pay match the sound you get. All in all! You just wanna hear your favourite song or music to brighten up your days. Right! If the equipment sound good to you why not?

When i first started my hifi journey, it all started with an old transistor radio my friend gave me. The small one that runs on 2AA size batteries. Later not satisfied with the plastic sound, built my own speaker box, common for those days, people building their own speaker. I have something about radio till date, dun know why. I still listen to my old radio, look at my avatar....

OT: Thats a really nice looking radio, is it one of those tubed telefunkens? Tempted to try one but shipping from Germany (easiest place to find one) is a killer.

RM500 can get you very decent sound these days.. I'm using a tripath amp <RM100 with Insignia speakers US$35 (coaxial, even gloss piano finish) - both heavily modded and they sound sweet together.. they sure beat those commercial low/mid-fi stuff.
D

a place to start.. from a local forum...
http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopic=763968&hl=tripath

for yr consideration as well..

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/archive/index.php/t-690556.html


http://www.gr-research.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=132

I remember posting here a few hours earlier, it went missing and it upset me coz it wasted my time.

Anyway the is not a Telefunken radio but a Saba see this link here
http://www.hifi4sale.net/audio-video-equipment-for-sale-f1/saba-freiburg-14-radio-used-t3027.htm

Thanks for the compliment!

That is RM5000, it's no RM500

If it is RM500, i'll go for it liao

maybe a better figure would be RM1K for real basic entry level system.

Some NAD 3020 or really old Creek or CA amp: approx RM500

Bookshelves like a JPW Sonata, Wharfy Diamonds, Rogers or similar, and a length of bare minimum cables (ie. Monster XP): approx RM 500.

Front-end would probably have to be be an existing iPod with a stereo-jack to RCA cable for now.

I just bought a 2nd hand 20 years old NAD 7240 Stereo Receiver Amp from here two weeks ago for RM400, partner with the unuse old Mission 771E spks, sound good and works fine for me. in fact, my main purchase purpose solely for FM music, but now after browsed some for the analog thread, i felt like KENA analog music fever liao.

utellme wrote:I just bought a 2nd hand 20 years old NAD 7240 Stereo Receiver Amp from here two weeks ago for RM400, partner with the unuse old Mission 771E spks, sound good and works fine for me. in fact, my main purchase purpose solely for FM music, but now after browsed some for the analog thread, i felt like KENA analog music fever liao.

Congrats on your hifi journey ... plenty more to come.

BTW, what do u mean by "analog music" Do u mean sound from LPs, or what?

But then, all sound is analog. Even CD players , iPods, etc etc ... all gets converted to analog so that the human ear can appreciate the sounds being made.

So r u looking to add a decent CD player, or some tech-savvy network music player ? or a Turntable?

Mugen, It's analog source, turntable indeed. but still a bit hesitat to move forward due to ease of usage CD player over turntable, also limited LP title available in Malaysia. currently I've almost reaching 300 CD title in collection and almost all the music I like is easy available in CD in Malaysia and Singapore.

btw, I using the old faithful desent Marantz CD63SE CD player.
Anyway, the new lower Rega range offer damn really attractive, I wish I can play Dave Grusin "mountain dance" and Earl Klugh "crazy for you" on the Rega P3-24 now.

utellme wrote:Mugen, It's analog source, turntable indeed. but still a bit hesitat to move forward due to ease of usage CD player over turntable, also limited LP title available in Malaysia. currently I've almost reaching 300 CD title in collection and almost all the music I like is easy available in CD in Malaysia and Singapore.

btw, I using the old faithful desent Marantz CD63SE CD player.
Anyway, the new lower Rega range offer damn really attractive, I wish I can play Dave Grusin "mountain dance" and Earl Klugh "crazy for you" on the Rega P3-24 now.

OK, if u ever go for the Rega P3-24, please make sure u get at least the Elys2 cartridge or some other brand of your choice. Budget Grado cartys are a real bang for buck. Available from Music-by-Design at jaya-1 Complex in PJ.


Avoid the Rega Bias2 cartridge like the plague. I recently set up a P3-24 with Bias2 , and after aligning it up to the letter, it was absolutely horrible sounding. OK so it wasn't run it yet .. but still, the sound was just downright atrocious. (and no, don't blame my phono stage either ... coz it's a F|R|A|N|K Acoustics Pipit phono stage)


Also, the Rega P3-24 tends to run "too fast" with the stock PSU. Maybe the upgrade power supply might correct this issue.

But if you're in the market and exploring something along the lines of a Rega P3 .... do also give Pro-Ject a try. Ample units at Tong-Lee (low yat plaza) to try out. Just something different for a change.

BTW, Pro-Ject (company is from Austria, factory is from Czech Republic [aka cheap labour!] ) is the largest manufacturer of Turntables in the world today and they only got into the market about 10+ years ago. So they must be doing something right in the industry.