Advice welcome! How to get the best from my digital audio....

[lex365]

Having gone from hi-fi seperates and cd's as a younger man to purely MP3 audio and desktop speakers for the past 10 years I have recently met this someonwhere in the middle. I have just sold my Audioengine A5+ speakers and D1 DAC and replaced them with a NAD D 3020 digital amplifier and a pair of Dali Zensor 3 speakers. I have to say it feels good to be back, although my source files are still either FLAC or 320kbps MP3 files on a Macbook Pro.

I initially connected the Macbook Pro to the NAD via the USB input and the sound was great, with the NAD's built in DAC doing the work and then feeding the Zensor 3's. However I have managed to get FAR better results using an Audioquest Dragonfly Red and then connecting this to the RCA inputs on the NAD via some homemade Van Damme interconnect cables. The difference really is night and day between the two and I have no idea if its the DAC or if its using the RCA inputs rather than the USB.

Althought I am very happy with how this sounds I am always open to ideas and upgrades to improve my listetning experience. Dali have not long released their Opticon 2 speakers which I was able to demo just before getting the Zensor 3's, and I was gutted to see an immacualte pair of Rubicon 2's sell on ebay for just £500 the other week. The Zensor 3's do look and sound great but I am curious to know what sort of imporvements I could expect with some slightly better kit, and also if anyone has any tips or tweeks for me to get the most out of my current set up.

Cheers!

 

[TomSawyer]

Your Dragonfly also connects via USB, just directly IIRC, rather than with a cable so there's no real difference to your arrangement. The difference you hear is almost certainly your preference for the Dragonfly DAC.

I assume your speakers are on good stands (otherwise there's your next step) and you've tried them closer to the wall, further away from the wall, closer to each other, further away from each other, pointing flat forward, toeing in slightly, toeing in greatly to find the sweat spot for stereo imaging?

Beyond that, there's no magic bullet. Replacing each of your DAC, amp and speakers with meticulously researched and auditioned ones of significantly higher price will bring a better overall result but therein lies the road to upgradeitis and discontentment if you're not careful.

 

[lex365]

Upgradeitis! Yes I have sufferered from this with IEM's and it got very epensive.

Yes I was lucky to pick up some Atacama Moseco stands for next to nothing online so the speakers are well supported. I am fortunate to have a decent sized room (4m x 6m) all to myself that houses nothing but a 60" TV, sofa and then hi-fi. There is a sweet spot about 1m in front of where I have the sofa where everything sounds perfect. If i sit back however I can get some very muddy and reverberating bass on certain tracks so this is definately something to look at with regards to speaker placement and toeing in.

Thanks for the advice Tom!