God this is overkill

I thought I was alone. The best sound in the house is now at the desktop.

DIY Epox/Intel Win2000Pro machine. Turtle Beach Santa Cruz card analog outs directly driving a Clayton S-40 which fuel my former main system speakers -- Ellis 1801Bs, at arms length, head headphone style.

I primarily listen to RadioIO.com's 128 kbps Jazz and classical streams and it is just wonderful. The main system is now a perpetual disappointment. Mush.

I record at 16/48 using Total Recorder V4.5.

Upgrade time! The old TBSC SC sounds wonderful, but I'm looking at an M-audio at al, or -- an Icon for its DAC and Pre capabiilites alone. Old TR and MP9 may need a good replacement as well.

It's a riot. ...

Dave
(I had a Mac-Mini, but am afraid I'm just not a Mac man. Sounded great though.)

Not laughing here either. I run Toslink (Audioquest) out of my desktop Mac into a Benchmark DAC1, then Audioquest Sky interconnects, then to a pair of Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 3 speakers & and a BeoLab 2 subwoofer. Awesome sound.

I use Mac itunes-Benchamark UBS DAC Pre-Dynaudio MC15-Dynaudio Sub250. The USB Cable makes a difference?

2 months ago ebay'd my Tannoy Reveal 5a's (one tweeter blew) and followed this path:

- the Icon and borrowed some Def Tech Promonitor 800's from the basement
- then decided they weren't good enough so found some Energy RC-Mini's (after deciding I'd get killed by buying Totem Mite's...) paired with Mirage 8" Sub
- Bass of speakers, even isolated on the desk was a bit boomy, so built some solid maple 'mini' stands for the speakers to get them at ear level and away from desk. Rearranged office. Eliminated boom, and now look cool as all hell.
- they (RC-Mini's) were good enough but mismatched with the Icon so introduced a higher noise floor than normal with the icon, perserved through numerous replacement boards on the icon, till it's apparent it just ain't going to work with these speakers
- discovered Audiogon and bought a Sophia Baby amp yesterday. Should be arriving shortly ..

Planning to do Mac > Icon > Headphone out > Kimber Kable Mini(maybe!) > Sophia > ? cable > Energy's (wired inline with Sub)

Also going to get a solid hunk of reclaimed timber as a shelf to mount the Sophia, Icon etc on above desk. Should look awesome.

Any more and I'm in serious trouble - my saving grace is that I'm pretty much 100% home office so it's somewhat justifiable.

The only problem after the Icon/Energy combo is I head to the basement and (I know I know, this is a journey of enlightenment) the ole Polk/Yamaha combination sounds exceedingly muddy.

Not only not laughing, but applauding. There are volumes to be said for the perseverence it takes to complete a complex task, and even more for doing it quickly and efficiently.

At least that's what I keep telling myself (and my wife). :-)

Congratulations on upgrading your system!

HC

Please add me to the not laughing crowd.

In fact, I would say not only is this not overkill, but I might even argue that you have only just begun.

Since first building the desktop PC system you can see in my system link, I have added an Audio Research DAC5 and new speaker cables all around.

Of course, I look forward to the next upgrade.

Cheers,

cwlondon

It's easy to get carried away once you have the Nuforce Icon. What an amazing amp and DAC for the money. I took mine out of my office and hooked it up to my Devore 8's and the sound was remarkable.

I upgraded my power cord on my PC to a Sunyata, plugged into a line conditioner, of course. I'm trying to not order the symposium platform for under the PC; already have fat padz under the speakers.

Nope. I'm not laughing.

TOTALLY!!!

I have managed to keep myself to only three systems on the home, but I had seriously considered a good system for the office that was PC based! Enjoy it!