Thanks @kota1 @spenav
I have had full systems with various dacs including Esoteric K03xs, Lampizator Amber and PS Audio Perfectwave my best results were with the Esoteric F05 integrated at the time and all of these have been sold.
My current main(?) system is a fully balanced all ARC system comprising Ref CD9 SE, LS10SE pre and D240 Mk II SE that is the best sound I’ve had feeding some large horn speakers (L’Instrument from Viking Acoustics). Still even this can sound a little hissy too, my wife commenting the other day its sounded too treble.
In part it is the rooms, for example, when I stand up between the PMC’s the bass is stronger than when I sit, so I tried tipping these speakers forward and backward about 5 degrees, with cork under them. No that didn’t change the acoustics much. I tried measuring the bass using my phone and a dBm meter app and it seemed like yes the bass is stronger at the standing height than sitting height.
This context is very new to me. I have lived overseas for more than 25 years and each location had solid walls (concrete blocks typically with more or less concrete render on top) and now I am back in Australia in a wooden frame and plaster board (acoustic batts insulated walls) construction with overall smaller rooms, the PMC’s are in a 4.3 x 5.5 x 2.7metres (14’ x 10’ x 8.6’) HT/Office room with carpet floor. The horn speakers are in the living room (with a big rug) roughly the same size with one side open.
The finicky handshakes are just plain annoying. Randomly disconnecting music destroy listening enjoyment for me just like pops and clicks on vinyl. Hence my not rushing to wire up my tt yet. I tried completely eliminating the tv and wiring direct from Oppo to 8805, still the 8805 oscillated and routinely turned off. It seemed most stable fully connected via eArc with the tv. But then in this situation the tv remote takes over volume control and responsive to the Marantz remote using any function becomes sporadic at best. Its like the remote is pushed out.
I was hoping that the 8807’s would be strong enough for the PMC’s and they are, but the 8805 that has lovely tonality for movies is being stretched too far for music. Logically, my options are
1. Replace the function of the preamp 8805 with something else to drive music. To test this I can move the LS10SE into the system and indeed the CD9/LS10 set into the system but this seems silly. Still having a better music streamer preamp combo might give a better result/synergy.
2. Somehow fix the bass to seating position issue, so as to better balance the treble perceived there now.
3. Regarding bypassing the 8805 dac, I am already bypassing it using the Pioneer N70ae as I am currently running this via XLR Out/In to the Marantz pre. And best signal audio is via UPNP from mConnect Lite Tidal to Pioneer or the Marantz direct (back to the Marantz dac in this case). Much better than AirPlay though. It seems the XLR stereo input is not stopping the Auto off and its cycling through power on/off...
Just to give some pleasure back here, this track seems amazing... Paper Trails by Darkside of their Psychic album.
The system seems to have stabilised. No idea why, just grateful.
Analog via the Pioneer XLR set seems to really lift the bass. Like I want to turn it up and disturb the entire house! Ok this is good sign...music is activating. dB meter is showing peaks at 50-63Hz 90dB lol, now we’re talking...furniture is vibing...
