Al & Alex’s Rig

Our daughter (Al), son-in-law (Alex), and new granddaughter (Wren) just moved into their first house in St. Louis Park, MN. As a housewarming gift, we got them an integrated amp, streamer, and speakers (our daughter already had a turntable). For the last six years, they have been living in Manhattan, where space was a premium and a “stereo” meant a small Bluetooth speaker. They now have a nice 16’ by 28’ room that was begging for a real stereo.

Amp

A few years ago, I purchased a Douk Audio X1 amp for our Minneapolis condo. The appeal was that it had a phono amp, Bluetooth, an aux input, was tube-based, had a small footprint, had enough clean power to drive speakers at low to moderate volume, and, most of all, was cheap (under $150). The Douk has served me well and seemed like the perfect Chi-Fi* solution for the kids.

Speaker

A good starter speaker is a bookshelf-style speaker. They will be useful forever – they always have a role. A safe choice is an audiophile-quality brand’s entry-level model. I chose the British speaker company KEF’s Q1 Meta because it is well reviewed and reasonably priced ($400). I have been auditioning them in Al & Alex’s new house, and they sound great! They fill the space easily and offer a nice range from punchy bass to crisp highs. Good sound stage, even when not sitting in the sweet spot.

Streamer

Once you decide to go even slightly HiFi, Bluetooth will not cut it. So I got them an inexpensive streamer from WiiM. I have been using Bluesound devices for several years and was curious about their competitor WiiM. The WiiM works great and is priced much lower ($150) than Bluesound’s Node ($550).

Rather than “broadcasting” your streaming service via your phone’s DAC at low resolution (and at short range) to your amp (the typical Bluetooth), you use a streamer. A streamer is an audiophile network device that communicates directly with your streaming service and converts high-resolution files (typically up to 24-bit/192 kHz FLAC) to analog. You control this through your streaming service’s app on your phone – so it’s easy to use (for the true audiophile, you can use Roon). A streamer sounds way better than Bluetooth.

Turntable

My daughter already had a turntable that she used before they went to NYC. It is a solid entry-level audiophile table. See the link below for the backstory.

I am satisfied with this setup, and the kids seem delighted, too! They now have a high-quality entry-level audiophile rig. They can listen to high-resolution digital audio and fully appreciate vinyl. They are both musicheads, so it will be interesting to see if they get bitten by the audiophile bug. All part of my mission to sustain the audiophile hobby by passing it on to the next generation. Having access to a decent stereo when I visit the kids is part of the motivation, too 😉.

*Chi-Fi (short for Chinese High-Fidelity) refers to affordable, high-performance audio gear—specifically IEMs, headphones, and DACs/amps—produced by independent Chinese brands. It has gained popularity for offering premium features at low costs, often acting as a budget-friendly gateway for audiophiles.