tk21
Responses from tk21
| Has the cost of HiFi gotten a bit too much? Around 1985, I bought a Harman Kardon integrated amp (the 645 vxi) for around $250 IIRC. It's still hooked up in a bedroom system. These days, NAD sells a similar product (the C316BEE V2) for $479 (Crutchfield price). So the price hasn't doubled ... | |
| Speakers for string Quartets IMO "String Quartet" is not a silly constraint. I take it to mean that the OP is interested in speakers that do an excellent job with small-scale, intimate arrangements emphasizing the mids. He isn't so interested in deep bass, a super wide soun... | |
| streamer Lumin U1 or Aries G2.1 In addition to the Lumin and Auralic products, also have a look at Matrix Audio's line. The Matrix Element X and X Sabre Pro get excellent reviews (as Lumin products do). FWIW, the Element X measured a little better in ASR testing than the Aurali... | |
| Wanting to upgrade my streaming sound quality. I appreciate all the recommendations and thoughts, however I think I’m going to stay with a one box solution and I’m leaning toward the hifi rose 150b. Very interesting feature set. Looks like a worthy competitor to the new Lumin P1, for about ... | |
| Wanting to upgrade my streaming sound quality. I agree with @rbstehno about MQA. If you invest in a new streaming DAC, try to find one that does MQA decoding and rendering (esp. if you plan to use Tidal). FWIW, a couple of Matrix Audio products perform much better on ASR measurements than t... | |
| Speaker shootout question -- do you position the same or differently, depending? To manage room effects, several methods of speaker placement (such as Cardas) depend almost entirely on the room geometry, without necessarily taking into account a speaker's characteristics. However, chances are, a near-flat frequency response ... | |
| Benchmark DAC Thoughts If you have a ps audio preamp, why wouldn’t you go for the ps audio DS jr or DS sr dac? These dacs are far superior to the benchmarks in sq, Ethernet and i2s capability, and fpga based. Have a look at the ASR review and measurements of the PS ... | |
| Weakest digital link: DAC - Streamer - Server? If I had to pick one, it'd be the DAC as the weakest link. But in fact it's hard to generalize. It really comes down to how these functions are implemented, integrated, and set up within the context of a complete sound system. | |
| What are you using as a streamer? Constructive feedback please. @david_ten , I agree that phones are "overlooked and vastly underrated as a front end streaming/player platform". First, most of us already have one. Second, you can carry them with you wherever you go. Third, you might be surprised at the sound ... | |
| Bully pulpits @hhscott , you might want to look for another HiFi discussion forum that better suits your needs/tastes. I've found the Roon community forum to be more consistently civil and on-topic than some others. The focus is on Roon, but it still covers a w... | |
| What are you using as a streamer? Constructive feedback please. I've tried several components to support streaming in my system, at various times. Roughly in order of preference (most to least preferred): 1. Matrix Audio Element X Pros: Roon ready; combines DAC+streamer+preamp in one box; excellent SQ; fun... | |
| a remarkably basic question about Roon Moving to Roon from other music-management applications is a little like moving to a Macintosh (in its early days) from a DOS computer. Like Apple, the Roon engineers have developed a music ecosystem that integrates hardware, software, and data i... | |
| Next best exponential DAC quality level? Devices using the ES9038PRO chip include the ~$99 Khadas tone board, the ~$14,000 Lumin X1, and many others at price points all over the map. Same DAC chip (or different versions of the same DAC chip) with many different implementations and collat... | |
| Lumin X1 dont see many virtual audiogon systems with this? In terms of functionality, the X1 is an odd product. It integrates a streamer, a DAC ... and half a preamp (volume control, but few source selection options). To me, the new Lumin P1 makes more sense (just in terms of functionality/usability). Fo... | |
| Streaming 102 For my money, there's hardly a better value in HiFi than the Bluesound Node2. Expect to spend at least 5x-10x more for an equivalent feature set with better SQ. Sure, the new Lumin P1 looks wonderful. At ~$10K, it ought to. Although it doesn't e... |