Looking for a setup that also allows thrash metal, punk, and music with a lot of treble to sound good. I listen to a spectrum, but would like my early jams to sound as good as possible! I’m in my 40s ready to buy, but have no idea where to begin. Information overload every time I start going down the rabbit hole. I’m not rich, but not poor either. Decent bookshelf speakers to start? Decent amp with a DAC? Something like that? Thanks.
As a fellow metal head, good luck. Also in my 40’s so we probably listen to similar things and the recording quality of most of it is hot garbage.
Short of changing what you listen to I would look for a vintage or semi-vintage receiver with something called a Loudness button or even better a variable loudness dial. This is not really “audiophile” but really helps these recordings sound better. You can leave it off most of the time but flip it on when you’re playing some especially terrible recordings. Don’t be afraid of the treble dial either, nothing wrong with adjusting that dial.
Marantz or Pioneer SX (like the SX-850) would be worth considering IMO. Don’t be scared of wattage ratings, 50wpc out of one of these should be more than enough for almost any speaker. Getting a well priced external DAC like a Schiit Modi is very simple.
Avoid Klipsch, horns won’t help at all despite how generally well reviewed the RP-600M are reviewed online. I’ve had some luck with Monitor Audio (Silver 200 5G) and slightly older Dynaudio (Focus 110a) and Paradigm (Studio 20 v5) speakers but you should take some songs to your local dealer and give some different speakers a listen.
Worth it maybe to buy a couple of sets of used speakers and trying them out in your house and then flipping the ones you don’t like.
As always your mileage will vary this is just my personal experience. If you have a hard concrete room with clay tiles there’s not going to be much hope for you.