I am looking for opinions on low cost gear. It's easy to make a great sounding system when the budget is $10K+. What about budget gear? What are your favorite cheap speakers, amps and players? DIY is OK.

David

Another good source for budget equipment, including speakers, is AV-123. I have their $299 Oniz XCD-88 CD player, and it sounds as good as anybody else's $500 one. The latest model, the CD-5SE, sells for $399. I also like their X-Series speakers, especially the $699 Xstatik dipoles. No mainstream speaker selling for under $2K will have that quality in the crossover parts.

I also recommend the Oppo Digital universal players. I recently bought the $170 DV-980H to watch music videos. It sounds very good for the price, and its HDMI output upconverts to HD, but with CD's it doesn't sound as good as the Onix XCD-88.

If you're going to need high efficiency speakers for use with a low power tube amp, and can build your own enclosures, the Pi speakers are hard to beat. I have the Studio One Pi's and the Theater Three Pi's, and they're hard to beat for the price.

• AV123 Xstatik Speaker

I will look at those and may ask a few more questions later.

David

• Hagerman's site