soix
Responses from soix
| Counterpoint Hybrid Amps: How do they sound? I just heard about Aria(?) amps and was on their website the other day. Thought I read the designer was the original guy from Counterpoint, but I could be wrong. Was Counterpoint bought by Red Rose? Anyway, the website was www.ariaaudio.com(or som... | |
| preamp w/ cinema bypass / SSP loop for about 1k If you're looking to inject a bit of tube warmth and fullness into your system the Rogue may be a good choice, and they offer great customer support. If you're looking for something that walks the line more between tubes/ss I'd look at Sonic Front... | |
| Upsampling the way to go? ? Zaikesman--I certainly don't mind this point being prolonged because I think there are a lot of CD players and DACs out there that claim to upsample to 24/96 or 24/192 and really don't increase word length in the more strict and proper sense(whate... | |
| Pass x250, Talon Khoruses , what now ? I've been using a Marsh P2000b(solid state), which is balanced and at a little over $1000 new is definitely an overachiever performance-wise. For a few hundred dollars more they offer a tubed version that may also be worth checking out, but the so... | |
| Upsampling the way to go? ? Zaikesman--I'm not an engineer and I could be wrong, but upsampling is upsampling and is totally separate from increasing the word length, which I believe is done via an interpolation algorithm. I was told this by Rick Schultz at EVS who has desig... | |
| new speakers/used/demo- 4K- 6K Given your preferences and room I think the Silverline Sonatas would be a very good choice. Large 3D soundstage, dynamic, transparent, deep and tuneful bass(but not overbearing), and nicely detailed without brightness(silk dome tweet). They also d... | |
| Pre-amp decision If you're set on tubes and are looking to inject a little warmth into your system I'd say the Rogue is defitnitely worth looking into. If you're looking for a more neutral sound I think you may do better elsewhere.I've been playing with a Marsh P2... | |
| Upsampling the way to go? ? The upsampling is only as good as the implementation. If the implementation isn't done with care the added circuitry can easily overwhelm any benefits of upsampling. Better to buy a well-executed non-upsampling DAC than a mediocre upsampling DAC. ... | |
| Cheap Sony SACD players: best STOCK/MODified For anyone who may not have seen it--Ric Schultz at EVS(www.tweakaudio.com) has done a nice little overview of what's possible with various CD, SACD, and Universal players. Go into the "What's New" section and work your way to the "Players" sectio... | |
| Modified McCormack DNA 0.5 vs. DNA 125 At a B-mod level I'd probably take the DNA-225 as Steve McCormack has said that for the most part he's incorporated that level of parts in the new amps, although my choice would change if I found a serious bargain on a DNA-1 Rev. B(same holds for ... | |
| Speaker Placement Info Needed With your speakers only 20" from the back wall you're probably getting a lot of room reinforcement, which is not necessarily a bad thing depending on your room, equipment, and tastes. I'd first try moving them out about 4' from the wall just to se... | |
| stuck in a quandry -what's best solely on quality? You pretty much hit the nail on the head. A lot of stereo preamps these days have a "video" input that you can use for this purpose, but any line-level input will work and you're right that the preamp will need at least two inputs(or one input and... | |
| Best used amp for around 500 You can probably find a used McCormack DNA-0.5 for around that price, and you have the flexibility to have it modded through SMcAudio by Steve McCormack in the future if you want to turn it into a real killer amp. Best of luck.Tim | |
| stuck in a quandry -what's best solely on quality? I'd keep the Stratos powering the front 2 channels, buy a relatively inexpensive Denon receiver(or similar) with preamp outs to handle processing and power for center/surrounds, and put your money into a high-quality stereo preamp for critical 2-c... | |
| Best used DAC 500 or less, need help Just to fill in a couple pieces of info. from the Kana's post above, the EVS DAC II does not use op amps(Ric doesn't much like them so designed the DAC to not use them--I believe it uses a FET output stage). Also, although I'm sure the CAL DAC is ... |