i run an arcam irdac which just plugs into the amp , music is kept in flac (and other formats) on a netbook which runs jriver/foobar (the netbook can be put in another room completely away from the hifi , all you need to do is switch it on ).
i keep an ipad in the same room as the hifi which has jremote and monkeymote on it - from these remotes i can access all my music on the netbook.
a bit different from a dedicated streamer but most ppl have a netbook /laptop and ipad / samsung tablet lying about these days.
Mine is far from high end, but it does me well.
For TV/Movies/Games
Mission 796 and 79c with some small Mordaunt-Short Premier for the rear.
Sony dn1050 AV Receiver
BK Electronics Gemini II sub
QED cables all round
For music;
I switch the 796 over to a Marantz KI Pearl Lite amp.
Music is supplied via a Blue Sound Node II which is ace.
Music is either from a NAS or streamed from Qobuz.
In the dining room I have 2 Blue Sound Pulse Flex 2i paired in sterio. The Blue Sound are an excellent, great sounding alternative to Sonos. To me they sound significantly better.
THREAD HIGHJACK......
I'm currently signed up to the 90 day trial of Amazon Music Unlimited HD. Annoyingly Amazon has chosen badge HD and UHD rather than Hi-Res. I love what Qobuz has to offer, but at £25 a month, Amazon is very tempting at £13! If it sounds as good I could very well switch permanently.
Has anyone given the service a decent run/test yet? Thoughts?
Was into it big time for several years but haven’t bought anything for ages after finally realising the law of diminishing returns is a very slippery and expensive slope to go down. Plus, there is a lot of snake oil pedalled in the industry. My final system consists of 30 year old Rega Planar 3 (modded) Naim CDS3 with 555PS olive NAP 135s upgraded by Avondale olive 52 NAC & supercap. All pumping into Shahinian Obelisks. Sounds great to me even though now well outdated wrt to sources.
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Feeling the OCD starting to come back.....
I don't get on with IEMs. When out and about I have a pair of Sennheiser Momentums and a Shanling M0. Fantastic headphones. I remember demoing the Sennheisers alongside the Sony and Bose equivalents, and the Sennheisers actually put a smile on my face. :) Left the others for dust, so to speak.
I have just paid about a fiver for a pair of Venture Electronics VE Monk Plus Earbuds. Ridiculously good sounding for the money, and about as 'in-ear' as I can put up with.
Much better as far as I'm concerned. Of all of the Blue Sound products compared to their Sonos counterparts the Blue Sound sound so much better.
Their app may not be as good as Sonos, but it works, works well, and easily integrates with Qobuz and Tidal. I've not tried other subscription services as they don't offer Hi-Res. Of course that now includes Amazon, but I've only just starting using that.
I have tried Tidal. To me the sound quality was ever so slightly better, but not material. The issue I had with Tidal was the constant pushing of Rap and Hip-hop. I guess being owned by Jay-Z that's what you're going to get.
I like rap, but I also like dance, rock and classical music. Qobuz I find caters to a more varied taste in music and fairly/equally promotes good music from across all genres.
My gear has been relegated to the cupboard under the stairs and my BK 12" sub is for sale on EBay at the mo, due to new baby. I have
Cyrus CD7q
Sugden A21a
Sugden A21p
PMC FB1s
Isotek cleanline mains conditioner
Atacama rack
Can't remember what cables/leads but decent for the set up
One day I'll have it all set up again!
I'm looking at changing my Cambridge Audio NP30 streamer to the later CA CXN V2 does everything you list apart from the alexa stuff directly although it does support spotify connect so if you use that service you may be able to control spotify via alexa with the ouptut set as the CA device.
The other option is one of amazons own devices echo link in conjunction with the Cambridge audio may do everything you want.
There are cheaper streamers available on amazon, I received one as an xmas present last year but after 15 minutes of playback it would introduce random clicks and pops into the music and had to go back. The other option might be a cheap pc / tablet / Rasberry Pi and a usb dac or digital output converter but then you are wholly responsible for support and life is too short (for me anyway).
Mine is fairly old now, but still sounds OK to my aging ears
Revolver deck with Linn arm
NAD 3020 ( using preamp stage only )
2 Cyrus smartpower amps
Quad 23L speakers
All sourced 2nd hand for not a lot...
Anyway mentioned by me above, the Blue Sound Node II is worth a look. It's £500, not cheap, but cheaper than the Cambridge Audio. It does look with almost all streaming services and had Alexa functionality, albeit I'm not sure exactly how much you can control it with Alexa.
I have the Cambridge Audio CXN V2 and have to say I've been super impressed with it. I would say the only down side is the mobile app. You can however just use chromecast. It would be nice if they offered MQA support also.
Overall the build quality is really good and it sounds fantastic.
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I'm sure it does, and it was second on my short list. Herein lies the issue with modern hi-fi and modern sources of music. It's no longer just down to sound (and build) quality; consideration is also given to app and music format support. The best sounding can be rendered useless if the app won't work!
I use my CXN & ibasso dx220 dap to discover new music via Tidal. Once I find an album I like I always then go and get it on 180gram vinyl. You can't beat that analogue sound, for me the only format the beats vinyl is SACD but that never took off.
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I let my wife see some of the pictures........... she’s destroyed my credit card, just in case upgradeitus takes hold. Bitch.
I have the CXN (v1) and it’s probably the only bit of kit I wouldn’t replace.
I use it with TIDAL but the only issue is you need to use the CA Connect app which could be better. I also stream to a Google Chromecast audio (direct from TIDAL) but obviously don’t get album artwork.
I have it running to a an Arcam AVR390 in stereo to a pair of B&W CM6S2’s. Sounds fantastic at low and high volumes.
I have 2 Cyrus 8 powers, Cyrus pre amp and Cyrus CD player with all the stupidly expensive cables .
I did have Spendor SA1 but sold off a couple of years back.
Use Dali Lektor 1 now, I love Dali speakers - they are epic for dance music
I have Dali speakers and couldn't agree more.
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I've been into hifi for decades but stopped for about 15 years when the kids came. Got more time now so back to it.
My system consists of:
Rega Apollo CD player
Sonos Connect
Musical Fidelity X10-D valve line level preamp (occasional use only)
Linn Kolektor Pre-amp
2x Cyrus Smartpower Power amps in monobloc configuration
Linn Majik 109 Speakers
Cambridge Audio Aero 9 Subwoofer
VDH/Chord interconnects and speaker cables
The most significant and surprising upgrade was the addition of a subwoofer. Never tried it in a standard stereo set-up but so glad I did. The Linn Majik 109s have stunning mids and highs but not enough on the low-end mainly due to its size. After a few weeks of slowly tweaking the crossover and volume on the sub it is now in perfect harmony with the speakers. You wouldn't know it was working but the sound is now fuller, deeper and just richer. Highly recommended if you're thinking of getting one.
now my kitchen/painting/flooring is finished it was time to sort my hi-fi out. looks like my Rega P3 needs a new bearing or a least a re-lube of the housing (if you are buying a pot of oil you might as well get a fancy ruby or ceramic ball while you are at it.
after playing a a few sides it started to slow right down which i thought was a belt slipping but belt is brand new so google tells me the bearing is dry. however i feel i want to upgrade my amplification from a naim NAC92/NAP90/3 to something with streaming/DAB. i have a Musical fidelity Vdac but end up putting the laptop next to it to listen to digital which isn’t ideal.
thinking of a S/h naim Uniti? anyone have one?
anyone interested in my pre-power set-up? it has MC ‘k’ phono board fitted.
Amp - NAD
TTable - Rega P2
Streamer - Yamaha
CD - Pioneer (rarely used now)
Speakers - Monitor Audio floorstanders
Recently purchased a set of bookshelf Cambridge Audio speakers and I love them. Floorstanders were getting in everyones way.
ProAc have just released a new version of my speakers with a ribbon tweeter, and I got notice of a nice income tax rebate, going to demo the new style soon, if it's a goer I'm not telling SWMBO, I don't think she'll notice.
For my many sins, I used to run a modest dealership (succumbed to a mix of my utter incompetence and our nation's current convulsion of Europe-related insanity), still have a houseful of assorted bits and bobs (chiefly obscure vacuum tube based stuff), including a pretty enjoyable main system -
Changed slightly since, not least 'cos it's been buried under dust sheets for weeks while we build a huge new built-in vinyl rack...
very nice system, looks like you are using a puresound a30 amp ?
Pro-ject Xtension 10 with the original carbon arm (very underrated), and Hana SL. I'd like an ML, as the SL only went on to give the Cadenza Black a rest. People think Pro-ject only make toytown decks, but the Xtension replaced a Palmer (defunct) costing 3 times as much...
Thanks. I love it. That is an A30, which I tweaked somewhat with metal film resistors, some decent caps, and a decent grounding schematic to drop the noise floor since it's no longer a demonstrator. That's out at the mo and I'm using a Puresound L10 pre with Pro-ject Amp-box Mono hybrid switchmode/valve monoblocs - yet another underrated product from Pro-ject.
The business might have failed but it's left me with some nice toys at least.
Quite a simple little system nowadays, I was a Naim and Quad ESL pervert years ago.
The Yamaha amp is an incredible performer for £300ish.
Trying not to get the upgrade bug with the SL12, keeping it simple and cost effective.
Last edited by pembers; 10th November 2019 at 13:46.
It’s years since I went into a hifi shop but yesterday paid a visit to ask about upgrading and they had some pro-ject decks on display, didn’t listen but they certainly looked the part. I remember the ‘debut’ from years back and they have obviously moved on since then!
Hana is a new name in carts (to me) I’ll have to investigate when my deck gets serviced and the sumiko blue point special gets retired.
Hey Pembers, nice clock.
Pic of my computer system,
Sonus Faber 'Toy' Speakers
Quad Vena amp which has a digital input to link to the iMac.
Mega little system I use for close monitoring when I do the odd bit of recording.
My main system comprises of:
Arcam FMJ A28
FMJ P38
FMJ CD37
B&W CM9s
Black rhodium mains/atlas cabling, mains conditioner.
Keep thinking about tweaking it a little since we've move house - fancy a set of B&W 805d or maybe 804d and upgrading the A28.
Yamaha kit is perpetually underrated, their industrial design alone beats stuff at 10x the price. Nice Electras, too. Sweet spot in Focal's ranges a few years back.
Pro-ject outperform their pricetags, but lack snob cachet / brag factor.
Hana are the house-brand of a Japanese company that manufactures the premium end of certain cartridge ranges for a number of big names. Small but very cost-effective range.
If you have any issues sourcing, give me a shout.