Hey tung,
Saw your response in the other thread and came here.
Depends on how audiophile you wanna go. You mentioned NAD and Rotel, so you know your stuff. I used to get Stereo Review (now Sound&Vision), High Fidelity and that dreaded Stereophile for years. Stereophile was a love/hate relationship for me, dangling all those astronomically priced amps, preamps, turntables, etc...for the average man to drool over. Remember the Krell Mono-Blocks!? I finally quit Stereophile in the 80s, drove me mad!
You can still check out Sound&Vision at
www.soundandvisionmag.com and Stereophile at
www.stereophile.com for the latest news on what's hot for the audiophile on a budget (S&V) and the insanely rich and anal (Stereophile). I haven't really kept up w this stuff for years, since SACD and DVD-A failed and MP3 and downloads became de rigueur.
About 10 years ago I decided that the state of the art of hi-fi reproduction had maxed out, what w all the latest technological advances being pretty much incorporated in most brand name stuff available in the local mall.
I have been quite happy w my stereo set-up since 1986: Thorens turntable w Signet cartridge, Sony 5-disc carousel CD changer (w SACD decoder onboard), NAD preamp, NAD power amp (w the original Power Envelope tracking circuitry; it's rated 100w/channel w minimal THD, but the power envelope tracks transients and has headroom to 600w/channel for brief spikes - as you probably know, most stereo music, even LOUD, is usually galloping along at around 4 - 6 watts, with transients that can hit 100 times that - so the NAD, for all practical purposes, is a 600w/channel amp, but runs much cooler). Finishing off my system are THE best three-way speakers I have ever heard: Boston Acoustics A400s. I compared MacIntosh, B&W, KEF, Polk, Bose 901s, Klipsch and others costing up to 10 times the price of the Boston A400s ($1000/pair in 1986!) and none of them sounded better, and some not as good.
I would highly recommend the NAD and Rotel that you mentioned, and also Denon. All excellent. Denon seems to be king of the hill these days for excellent build and specs, and value. But, I've been out of the loop for so long, a look at S&V, Crutchfield and Cambridge Soundworks (I use their high-end surrounds for my home theatre set-up) would probably give you the answers you want, since you know electronics so well. Another up 'n comer was Outlaw Audio, a direct sales company of their products thru the net. Also depends on if you want a receiver or separates. I've found that the state of the art is SO good these days in relatively inexpensive receivers that separates are unnecessary, unless for some personal reason.
For speakers, Definitive Technology gets raves, as does Canton, some of Cambridge Soundworks models, Paradigm, B&W, Magnepan (planar electromagnetics), KEF, Jamo, MB Quart, Klipsch (horn-loaded)...that's abt all that come to mind at the moment. Also depends on if you want floor-standing towers or stand-mounted/bookshelf size. But all this info should give you a pretty good start!
I hope this is of some help. It's not well organized, more stream-of-consciousness as things came to me. Check out the sites mentioned and I'm sure you'll come up w exactly what you're looking for, at good value and fidelity for money spent.
PM me if you have any questions...
