I’ve had my 8c for almost a year, replacing a big rig of shindo a23 and Aqua. The whole point and beauty of the 8c is you can dump all your other shit; this point is proving exceedingly difficult for many to wrap their heads around.
You have to Ethernet the Dutch to communicate with your network (no streaming), and then everything is controlled from your Roon (my laptop wirelessly). That’s it.
When everything is implemented together like this, the results are ear opening. I also have a TT; you’ll need an XLR from your phono to the Dutch for that. For those wanting to integrate into HT, it will add complexity; mine is 2 channel audio only.
Did I loose some “musicality” switching from high end multi box costing 5x? MAYBE 5%. But now I also actually have real bass and full treble (and can easily alter it on the fly as I please), the room correction addressed the awful acoustics in my listening space (most listening spaces), and the massive reduction in complexity, physical size, and greatly diminished chances for system failure are a much needed sigh of relief. About once every 12-18 months there are new software updates that keep improving it.
There’s certainly a sex appeal to glowing tubes and an altar of beautiful electronics, but these speakers represent next century offerings that run circles around it. Plus I still have my TT (which surprisingly sounds much better on this new “tech” rig than it ever did before).