phild
Responses from phild
| Help a newbie with low-cost system suggestions I think Tobias may be right. You might be better off replacing the speakers first and THEN see how the integrated sounds. There's no point trying to match your 30 year old JBLs unless you really love them and don't plan on replacing them. | |
| Budget Phono Preamp -- Under $250? If the integrated is tube, I wouldn't worry about a tube phono pre (especially for less than $250). Used Lehmann Black Cubes occasionally pop up in that price range and they are very good SS units. | |
| DAC for 500 Recommendations? I also second the Millenium 2 if you can find one (maybe a Millenium 1 too). If not, you can buy a new Ack dACK! for that same amount. They are also excellent with a different feel and design approach. I am not familiar with the Adcom, but the dAC... | |
| Tube Pre w/ Ex. Phono Stage The Counterpoint SA-3000 and SA-5000 (which may be too expensive) are in that general range and have good phono stages in them. | |
| Which speaker cable? I can't speak for your system and synergy, but there is a pair of used Luminous Renaissance for $85 or so and another for $150ish (new price is $200-$300, I think). They are extrememly fairly priced (considering how ridiculous cable prices can be)... | |
| anyone heard of Luxman amp.pls help Like mentioned above, Luxman never left. Even when they were selling less robust stuff here in the late 80s thru mid-90s (less robust than before, but still often better sounding than Yamaha, Denon, Onkyo, HK, NAD, etc), they were building very hi... | |
| Any live music plans for New Years Eve ? Hey Sean...forget all about being an audiophile that night. The sound at the Aragon is godawful. It is a great old ballroom though, so all is not lost. My friends saw the White Stripes there a few months ago and enjoyed the show quite a bit. I've ... | |
| Any comments on upsampling? I would worry more about the design and sound of the piece than the technology. There are no absolutes. Everything depends on how the technology is implemented. Either design has the potential to sound great or like crap. I just compared a well re... | |
| Is an hibryd amp solid/tube a good choice ? I can't speak for the amps you mention above, but I use a rebuilt Counterpoint hybrid amp and I love the combiantion of tube and SS characteristics. I would assume that the AR is better than the NAK, but I could be wrong. | |
| Starting a classical library is BMG an answer? The above is not true. The quality of the BMG pressings is not going to be different than the quality of an average mass-produced CD. The quality of individual plants can vary, but that's the case with all CDs and labels...not just the music clubs. | |
| What are all these different output jacks for? Like you said, the digital outs are for use with outboard DACs or receivers with built in DACs (3 different types of connections). The RCA analog outputs are standard, unbalanced and the XLR are balanced. If your Unico has XLR inputs, you could tr... | |
| Can speakers be too good? It probably depends more on the particular speaker design than the cost. Used Merlin VSM-M speakers would be in your price range (and they are excellent), but they would show the limitations of your system and that's not what you are seeking.I hea... | |
| Its all in the DAC? Hi Tfee, the DAC is important, but the transport is equally important. The actual DAC chips in that Pioneer unit are good...the problems are due to the cheap parts and crappy implementation. If the DAC or transport you replace it with is not bette... | |
| Phono preamp advice. I'm not sure, but you might be considering spending more than you should for your TT and cartridge. I'm not sure if it makes too much sense to upgrade the phono stage, when the money might be better spent on upgrading the TT, arm, and cartridge in... | |
| Pioneer Elite DV-09 as a Transport... I think people got the impression that they were amazing transports a few years ago when Dan Wright, Stan Warren, Ric Schultz, etc. were modding them as transports for various DACs. I believe those people modded them because they had a lot of pote... |