Old Vs New ..... Transport and dac.


Hi All,
I've been putting together a Vintage system based around a pair if Altec Lansing 604 duplex speakers in their big cabinets 620a , and a pair of Leak pre and power amps from the 50's / 60's.... Now, I was going to go for a turntable front end, but then I got to thinking I might put a decent digital front end together for a change. Ive been buying 50c second hand cd's lately like they are going out of fashion (which they are I suppose) Any way I was thinking of getting the latest shanling CD transport ET3 and a Denafripps mid range Dac. Like the Pontus or te one up from there. I thought that woudld be a decent attempt. BUT THEN... A local Transport and dac came up for sale for around the same money (3k) .... A Reimyo CDT - 777 Transport & Reimyo 999EX Limited Edition DAC. The Transport is running flawlessly and the dac was updted to this spec backi n 2018 by Kuichi San at Combak Harmonix in 2017 I thnk.

I lusted after then back when they came out, I love the form factor, the fact it's a SOTA classic transport and dac etc and the Tonal focus of Japanese design in audio( I know this is a horrible generalisation, but you know what I mean).

Soooooo. My question is do you think that the Japanese pair with their engineering / design and of course sound quality , would stand up to the more modern Chinese pairing. I'm more excited about the Reimyo Transport and Dac, than the Shanling and Denafripps. 

My main front ends have all been Vinyl in the past so this is something new for me. I enjoy a focus on Tone and overall performance in my systems, rather than the spotlighting and the search for the ultimate detail.

Anyway, I'd appreciate your thoughts on the above... Thanks for your advice and Help.  

 

borg7x9

Showing 3 responses by yoyoyaya

@OP - does it matter if modern digital would sound better?. Modern amps and speakers would sound better too, so in the context of the system overall the Reimyo is going to be plenty good enough.

Hello Borg 7x9. Thanks for your reply. For context, I'm an audio consultant and I get to hear a lot of systems of all kinds. I completely appreciate the positive qualities you find in SET amplification and vinyl playback. BTW, the Concept is a fine turntable. Just as a PS, it is possible to have highly resolving playback that is not analytical sounding - possible but not necessarily easy...

Hello again also Borg7x9. You are absolutely right about the economics of buying CDs v vinyl records. I'm sure you are sorry to see your Brinkmann/Kuzma go but the good thing with the Concept is that such "sins" as it has are those of omission and it sounds very balanced. The external PSU is well worth considering as it does measurably lower the noise floor. Best of luck and happy listening on both vinyl and digital. Y