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Your current audio equipment..


Josh500

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43 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

The Decca, or the Intrada?

I'm assuming it's the latter.

 

 

The former.

 

R-10884760-1505928556-5472.jpeg.jpg

 

 

43 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Floorstanders, or bookshelf? Single, or bi-wired? Passive, or active?

 

Castle Warwick (bookshelf). Single wired. Passive.

 

1251370-8ab09f29-beautiful-pr-of-castle-

 

(took this photo from the internet)

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On 7/26/2019 at 2:48 PM, Alan said:

Has anyone heard of or been using Audirvana?

 

I came across it when I was looking for ways to stream music in high quality from my computer to my hi-fi system using an Oppo 203 as the DAC. It came highly recommended by audiophiles so I give it a go on a free trial. Really impressed! It's nice to be able to stream high-res Tidal and Qobuz stream to my system and access everything in one place.

 

Music sounds much much better than it did when I had a cable running between the laptop directly in to the amp. Basically the DAC in the MacBook Pro sucks and streaming via my home network to the Oppo means I bypass it completely.

 

Audirvana also has this cool feature that allows you to upsample to DSD. I was sceptical at first, thinking the whole point of the "audiophile" way of life was purity and not processing music. Turns out it works beautifully and some high-end systems convert to DSD by default. As I type this I'm listening to 'The Firebolt and End Credits Suite' from the LLL Potter set. Streaming my CD rip and upsampling to DSD and it is filling the room that much more. In addition to having a wide soundstage where the speakers more or less disappear I now seem to be getting more 3D depth to the orchestra. Weirdly, it almost sounds more analog.

 

Am I getting a placebo effect? I won't rule it out completely but I'm definitely enjoying my music more!

@Alan, I just discovered Audirvana by accident myself and look forward to trying it out this weekend. It certainly looks to have the nicest interface of any of the high-res music player apps the Crutchfield website told me about, and I like how well-received it is by audiophiles. Now that you've lived with it for some time, what are your thoughts about the app? I'm especially curious if you think it can replace iTunes/Apple Music as a person's default music library app.

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5 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

So... @Jurassic Shark, has your Marantz hi-fi arrived, yet?

 

Sound is good and punchier than with my previous amp, but the input selector (the large knob at the left) is wobbly and feels way too lose. I'm sending it back so they can have a look at it.

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On 10/3/2020 at 7:25 PM, Bayesian said:

@Alan, I just discovered Audirvana by accident myself and look forward to trying it out this weekend. It certainly looks to have the nicest interface of any of the high-res music player apps the Crutchfield website told me about, and I like how well-received it is by audiophiles. Now that you've lived with it for some time, what are your thoughts about the app? I'm especially curious if you think it can replace iTunes/Apple Music as a person's default music library app.

 @Bayesian it has become my only library/player app! No complaints at all.

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12 hours ago, Alan said:

 @Bayesian it has become my only library/player app! No complaints at all.

That's terrific to hear! Now I'm definitely looking forward to playing with it over the remaining 27 days of my trial

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That's the amp I want, Drax! Someone in my area is selling his black Yamaha A-S2100 but I really want the silver one. It just makes more sense with the vintage design.

a-s2100_main_1200x480_7b8fbbbb905c56b280

 

And in silver, the black side panels really look great.

 

 

 

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I don't really give a hoot how it looks, just how it performs. And it handles those James Horner transients (the ultimate torture test) on my Australian-made Krix Mains V3s beautifully. My amp is second hand too. Only two and a half years old since its initial purchase - the bloke gave me his receipt.

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8 minutes ago, PuhgreÞiviÞm said:

I don't really give a hoot how it looks ...

 

Whether it's a camera or hi-fi gear, I always care about the way it looks, especially when you have a choice. Everything is aesthetics, even the performance.

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Not quite. The amp is too large for where it's sitting temporarily, so I need to rethink where everything goes and probably refurnish the entertainment unit for something bigger. This will take some time depending on availability of items. I might even need to have one custom-made.

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9 minutes ago, PuhgreÞiviÞm said:

Not quite. The amp is too large for where it's sitting temporarily, so I need to rethink where everything goes and probably refurnish the entertainment unit for something bigger. This will take some time depending on availability of items. I might even need to have one custom-made.

 

At first I thought it had typical amp dimensions but I was surprised how much bigger it was. That's going to be a problem.

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1 hour ago, PuhgreÞiviÞm said:

It might even be slightly too big for my Quadraspire hi-fi stand that's presently being used to house my Rotel power amps, which are standard size.

Put the Yamaha on the top of the Quadraspire, then put the Rotels on the lover shelves.

 

Ps, I love Quadraspire stuff.

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Just now, Naïve Old Fart said:

Put the Yamaha on the top of the Quadraspire, then put the Rotels on the lover shelves.

 

Ps, I love Quadraspire stuff.

 

Nah. The plan is to put it at the bottom of the Quadraspire, then custom build a new TV unit that'll fit the Rotels.

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8 hours ago, PuhgreÞiviÞm said:

And it handles those James Horner transients (the ultimate torture test) on my Australian-made Krix Mains V3s beautifully.

Could you tell me more about these transients (where they occur, in which albums)? I like the idea that there are specific musical moments or tracks or whatever that can test the quality of an audio setup.

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2 minutes ago, Bayesian said:

Could you tell me more about these transients (where they occur, in which albums)? I like the idea that there are specific musical moments or tracks or whatever that can test the quality of an audio setup.

 

Have a listen to the OSTs to The Missing, The Mask/Legend of Zorro, Sneakers, Deep Impact, The Land Before Time and The Perfect Storm. Simply set the volume so the loudest bits reach about -10db on the VU meter (loud enough when those punchy spikes happen like a hard piano strike or a big drum boom, but avoid 0db if you can or else you risk reaching speaker damaging distortion levels) and then leave it alone.

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And while I like the Yamaha amplifier range with VU meters better in silver, this Technics amp ($2500) looks more beautiful in black. Probably because it has a more modern design than the Yamahas, in spite of the retro VU meters. The white background of the meters (and blue lighting) against the black front panel really looks good.

 

 

maxresdefault.jpg

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