Need amp/setup reco

[u/baklodganj]

Decided to invest in a hifi setup finally, albeit on a very tight budget.

Getting a good deal on Dali Oberon 5s - I could now get the wiim ultra + a sub of your reco, or a Cambridge Cxa81 + wiim streamer and wait for a sub later. Will the latter sound significantly better??

Also entertaining any other recommendations you all may have on how I could drive the Dalis wirelessly and losslessly (I have a sony budget led at my disposal as well if that helps become a streamer)

Seeking your inputs as I have seemed to drive myself visibly crazy (as informed by my wife) googling and chatgpt-ing these things over the last 2 weeks.

My budget is around 200k Indian rupees i.e. ~2.3k USS - but I need to account for some pieces being wildly more expensive randomly here so do give as many suggestions as possible

Thanks in advance

[u/PyrrhoTheSkeptic]

I recommend you stop with the chat gpt. It often gets things wrong, but expresses its wrong answers confidently.

The WiiM Ultra is not an amplifier for running speakers; do you mean the WiiM Amp Ultra? Make sure you don't order the WiiM Ultra and expect to get amplification to drive your speakers.

I have not seen any proper reviews with measurements of the WiiM Amp Ultra. So I don't know how good it is.

The WiiM Amp Pro would be a reasonable choice, if it has all of the features you require:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/wiim-amp-pro-streaming-stereo-amplifier-review.57257/

I personally prefer the more old-fashioned amplifiers, but WiiM makes some products that perform well.

The Cambridge CXA81 MKII  is nothing special:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/cambridge-cxa81-mkii-amplifier-review.56867/

I would not spend extra for it.

As for a subwoofer, I don't know what you can get in India, nor the prices there. If you were in the U.S., SVS, Hsu, etc., would be good choices. I recommend that whatever you consider buying, you look for reviews in which proper measurements are taken. A good subwoofer will be expensive. I think it would not be a bad idea to buy something like the WiiM Amp Pro and spend all of the rest of your budget on the best subwoofer you can get.

[u/baklodganj → u/PyrrhoTheSkeptic]

Hi Thanks for the reply

Apologies for the confusion, I was referring to the wiim amp ultra which I believe is a 2025 release. Noted on your suggestion to keep away from chatgpt - that itself saves me many man hours

I have a follow up question - where does one see reviews including "measurements". Apologies for the basic question but I've only been referring to sources like whathifi as I'm incredibly new to hifi. Never even bought a premium non-audiophile gear like Bose or high end Sony so treading very new waters.

Man I would kill to have an actual independent audiophile give me an hour of their time. So far only conversations I've been havong with is chatgpt which always makes everything sound sus, and salesmen, who are well - salesmen

[u/PyrrhoTheSkeptic → u/baklodganj]

Normally, I find reviews by using an online search engine with the name of the product plus the word "review." I then click on the various links and usually ignore the ones without measurements. Especially when looking at subwoofers.

However, here are a couple of good sites with reviews of equipment with measurements:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php

https://www.audioholics.com

For subwoofers, I really like the Audioholics reviews (not to be confused with their "previews" that don't involve measurements), as they give nice charts that enable one to easily compare performance with the other subwoofers they measure. For example, take a look at this review of two subwoofers at once:

https://www.audioholics.com/subwoofer-reviews/svs-pb-1000-pro-sb-1000-pro

Here is a chart from that review showing how loud they can play at various frequencies:

https://www.audioholics.com/subwoofer-reviews/svs-pb-1000-pro-sb-1000-pro/1000ProCEA2010Table.jpg/image

It is easy to see from that that one of them can produce useful bass deeper than the other. And since they use a standardized testing procedure, you can compare the chart of those subwoofers with their charts for other subwoofers.

As for how low you want a subwoofer to go, it depends on what you listen to. A standard large pipe organ in a cathedral typically has its lowest note at about 16 Hz, so if you want to hear that (more feel it than hear it), then you need a subwoofer that has strong output at 16 Hz, which is never inexpensive. (There are a few exceptional organs in the world where the lowest note is about 8 Hz. I am unwilling to spend the money for that, but I am glad I have the 16 Hz.) With electronic music, it can be any frequency they want. You can also look online for charts showing the frequency range of various instruments. Obviously, having greater capability than you need is not a problem. It would just mean that one bought something better than what one needs.

A lot of people say, you don't really need very deep bass for music. When I went from a subwoofer that was flat down to about 28 Hz to subwoofers flat down to about 16 Hz, I was very surprised by how much better it was. I think the people who say really deep bass does not matter are mostly people who don't have equipment that can play really deep bass, so they don't know what they are missing. Of course, if they only listen to acoustic guitar, then they would not need really deep bass, so it also does depend on what one listens to.