ideal8592

Responses from ideal8592

Why are People Dumping their Audio Research Gear and What Does it Say about them?
Please feel free to dump ARC. I need a lot more of it :)  
Please rank these amps
Room is medium sized, speakers are along the long wall roughly 8 feet apart and 7 feet from listening, music runs the gamut from acoustic jazz and vocals to orchestral, have SVS SB-3000 sub for the lowest notes   
Suggestion for $10K soup to nuts digital?
Start with Auralic… the Altair G series is exceptional as a Streamer/DAC  
Changes to older system
I’ve been listening to the Auralic Altair G1, NAD 2200PE, and the Zu ODWs, and it sounds pretty damn good now to me. Added a Musical Fidelity X10-D tube buffer, which I believe improved the highs and the dynamics. At a minimum it was a good impeda... 
OMG. What now?
Apologies for not having included system details. The system I’m using now is Auralic Altair G1, NAD 2200PE, and Zu Audio Omen Dirty Weekend Mk IIs. Was previously using the 2200PE with NAD 1600 preamp/tuner, Cambridge Audio CXN, and B&W Ma... 
OMG. What now?
I’ve gotta say the biggest improvement in my system was the Auralic Altair G1. I’d never heard musical definition like that before.  
Fed rate increase = lower hifi prices?
@soix excellent points. You make far more sense and have much better logic than the talking heads on the financial/business news - and most all on the Street. Please feel free to update on your economic insights and analyses as you see fit.  
Changes to older system
I’m so conflicted about keeping or getting rid of the Matrix 3s. Placing them as @jasonbourne52 recommended helped mitigate the highs. Tube preamp recommendations make sense. I’ve heard the NAD 2200PE sound awesome with them with the right preamp.... 
Changes to older system
@2psyop glad to hear your experience with the Freya+, definitely one I’m considering.  At the risk of losing any credibility I may have ever had among “serious” audiophiles, I’ve had some fun playing around with two items from Parts Express on ... 
Changes to older system
Just ordered an Auralic G1 Altair at the recommendation of a guy at Zu. He also recommended some tube integrated amps - one Luxman and two Icon Audio in my price range of $2-4k. Just picked up a used Audio Nirvana EL-84 to get a sense for the soun... 
Changes to older system
@16f4 I’d be surprised if you didn’t love the ODWs… I certainly do.  
Changes to older system
@soix @audphile1 @mesch I’d suspected I would replace the speakers, so I’d ordered a set of Zu Audio Omen Dirty Weekends that recently came in. That said, I put those upstairs while the other system was downstairs, and now I’ve decided both to upg... 
Changes to older system
@holmz @audphile1 You’re spot on with the sub recommendation. Got a used SVS SB-3000, and it’s helped with bass extension and seems to help the balance overall. The SVS website and app were enormously successful in setting it up and getting it int... 
Changes to older system
@jasonbourne52 Thanks for the placement recommendations - extremely helpful!  
Changes to older system
@ghdprentice I also thought a tube preamp may help, and I’m currently looking at an Audio Research SP-8. Unfortunately I’m only using digital sources, so the phono stage would be wasted, but I always loved that preamp nonetheless. Thoughts on that...