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which HiFi companies make simple, good value products?

Rockmeister said:
I mean new, for the sake of this thread. Which company making new HiFi is honest VFM? That's the question. Your question will be, well what kind of price is reasonable...we are all different, so my answer is, less than £1500 for any one unit of kit, cables excluded.
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Value for money is a moving object depending on the depth of your pocket, but in the hi-fi world there is no such thing as value for money if measured on the cost of the components & assembly. With 40+% margins for the retailer, 20% VAT for the government, design/development costs & marketing being the biggest items of spending for the manufacturer - selling prices are determined simply by what the market will stand & vary considerable from country to country.
A figure of £1,500 for any one unit is again a moving object. My main hi-fi system consists of Arcam CD37 sacd player, CD31 pre-amp & pair of P1 power amps, all of which retailed at £1,350 each - but all bought ex-dem or used. Add to that £600 for Arcam T32 radio tuner, £800 for Audiolab M-DAC+ and £1,000 for Apple Mac to stream from BBC i-player (all bought new) the total comes to £7,800 before adding cables & speakers. How do you compare that with £1,500 for an all-in-one piece of kit?
Earlier this year I paid £1,200 for a 55" Sony smart TV - admittedly poor sound quality on its own but decent with a £180 Sony sound bar with sub-woofer, so I keep within your £1,500 figure for this system. Remember my £7,800 hi-fi system produces absolutely no sound without speakers (or headphones) & no picture either. No wonder the general public think we are all mad - & I think they are probably right.

P.S. Relative to other manufacturers whose kit I have bought I think Quad, Rega & Oppo would top my list with Arcam being some way behind & both Cyrus & Naim trailing by some distance. Strangely the things which are most significant to sound quality, i.e. speakers, are not being mentioned in the thread - so to add my 2 penneth on them, ProAc & Spendor do it best for my ears.
 
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New hifi with highest VFM. To me, VFM doesn't matter much if it doesn't sound good or great. No doubt some of the gear possess great VFM but they may not work out in some systems. I tried a Rega Elicit Mk2 integrated about 8 years ago bought new which appears to be great VFM but unfortunately it didn't work out in the context of my system at that time, so it had to go. I then tried a Naim 202/200 bought used. Although used, the Naim was costlier than the new Rega Elicit but it's great VFM to me since the amps matched the system much better than the Rega. Loudspeakers used at that time were the Harbeth SHL5.

So yeah, to me the Naim 202/200 is great VFM. If talking about less than £1500 new or used, some of the Naim gear fall into this category. Though I can understand the costlier Naim gear usually get slated a lot for poor VFM.
 
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I'll give it another day if anyone wants to add to the list as outlined in the OP....Rega currently way out in front, but 2nd place up for grabs!
 
ATC make exceptionally good value products. Not remotely influenced by the whims of fashion or marketing, solid engineering, long lifetime, serviceable, upgradeable. And they work very well.
 
I got the chance to test a Primare I30. Normally I'm the Rega, Naim, Exposure, Croft listener. I really like the sound of the Primare, semidry, full bass, very nice midrange, not bright, not dull, PRaT and Power. If you consider that it is sold about 700-800€ used it is a bargain IMHO.
https://www.whathifi.com/primare/i30/review
z100000428-innen.p1140x855.jpg
 
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The little Denon all-in-one's are design classics: solidly built, great sound and amazing value for money.

Q Acoustic speakers are also excellent value.

Moving up the price hierarchy, I have a lot of time for Quad and Harbeth's low-foo engineering-based approach.
 
droodzilla said:
The little Denon all-in-one's are design classics: solidly built, great sound and amazing value for money.

Q Acoustic speakers are also excellent value.

Moving up the price hierarchy, I have a lot of time for Quad and Harbeth's low-foo engineering-based approach.
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I recently bought a Denon DM41 and Q Acoustics 3020 speakers for my mother-in-law. Got it on a combined deal from Richer Sounds for about £250. I was shocked how good this system was that cost about one tenth of the price of my own.

Annoying thing is she doesn't even use it. I linked her TV up to the toslink on the Denon but she seems afraid to use it. I went round there and she was still listening to her crappy Roberts mono radio. If this carries on I will have to nab the Denon and Q Acoustics for a second system!
 
I haven't bought new NAD in a really long time so my opinion is probably out of date but I really love my Monitor Series preamp, amp, CD and tuner from back in the day.

Hopefully there's still some gems in the lineup.
 
Emotiva amps and Eminent Technology speakers in the States, Rega sources in the Europe and SMSL DACs in Asia.
 
Del monaco said:
Buying second hand has been a revelation for me. The best VFM in my opinion.
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Well, yes, but that's pretty much everything in life. I can buy a working car for the price of a set of tyres. My current Mondeo cost £300 and a dead Saab, 4 years and 60k miles ago. I did 20k miles between MoT tests last year, it cost me a bulb and a new screen. That's second-hand for you. Try to sell a used TV. You can't give them away.
 
Big finals day, so thought it appropriate to finalise this thread:)

In order of vote numbers:

1st Rega. 14 mentions.

2nd = with 6 mentions each
Cambridge
NAD and
Q Acoustics

5th Arcam with 5 mentions

6th = with 4 mentions each
Avondale
Creek
Project
Rotel
Yamaha

11th = with 3 mentions each
Audiolab
AudioTechnica
Denon
Marantz
NVA
Roksan

17th = with just 2
Beresford
Croft
Emotiva
Heed
Quad
Schitt
Soneteer
Tisbury
TeddyPardo

I didn't include the single mention things.
No special conclusions, no Science intended or involved. Just for fun, but some companies do, IMO, keep on 'getting it right'

cheaper equipment is available second hand.
 
You could always go for a UE Boom 2 speaker & stream, this thing is ridiculous value for money, I changed my Bose soundcore 2 to this, in a different league, played nothing else since, don't let the title fool you either, boom & tizz it is not, rich, tight, crisp & expressive it is, with excellent texture, vocals are wonderful, sounds huge too.
 
Bob McC said:
90% of the population would think £1500 for a single item of hi fi to be utterly ludicrous extravagance.
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How dare to suggest such - I've just bought 9 continuous cast sliver plated copper screws for my MK mains plugs for £150 each so under £1500! I have a serious personality disorder - hence my (non)-obsessional interest in Hi Fi.
 
Mobile Fidelity Original Master Sleeves, the replacement inner sleeves. I've been gradually going through my collection and replacing all my inner sleeves with the MoFi versions and I'm amazed at how some old and that I thought worn records, sound one hell of a lot less worn now. Genuine value for money "upgrade" as far as I'm concerned.
 
  1. Parasound
  2. NAD
  3. Audio Technica (cartridges)
  4. ELAC (speakers)
  5. SVS (subwoofers)
That about covers it from personal experience. I'd add Rega to the list but a) just about everyone else has b) i've only ever owned one of their turntables. :)
 
Old Shatterhand said:
I got the chance to test a Primare I30. Normally I'm the Rega, Naim, Exposure, Croft listener. I really like the sound of the Primare, semidry, full bass, very nice midrange, not bright, not dull, PRaT and Power. If you consider that it is sold about 700-800€ used it is a bargain IMHO.
https://www.whathifi.com/primare/i30/review
z100000428-innen.p1140x855.jpg
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Good credentials to come from (especially Croft) when moving across to an amp like this - you make me want to audition it.
 
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