Changing priorities

[SteveR750]

Hi MP, thanks for the interesting post. I've had similar thoughts in terms of adding extra functionality and haven't made a firm decision as of yet. For me DAB is not worth purchasing a new tuner for until either DAB+ comes in or FM is switched off. If the Pioneer streamers were a bit cheaper I may go this route - matching with my A30. I've also thought of buying an AV receiver and using the pre-outs into the A30 as a way to give me more functionality (internet radio, spotify, DAB etc)

Suprised nobody has really mentioned the Rega kit you have until late on in the posts. Great that is working well for you again. Do you find you have potentially more boxes with the Rega kit than with other brands such as the Japanese companies? For example, needing seperate headphone amp, seperate DAC, + lack of tone controls, loudness etc

MP Have you heard any of the newer Dali speaker ranges recently? e.g. Rubicon/Opticon

Hi Blackdawn, Yes, potentially there will be more boxes with my Rega gear, but at least the amp and CD are half-sized boxes so when you compare these with the size of a more multi-functional unit like the TX-8150, the number of boxes probably isn't going to matter much. There are some good DACs around (such as the DacMagic+) that also offer a headphone amp, and the phono stage in the Brio-R is so good that I don't need to worry about adding an external one, so no problems. I'm afraid I haven't heard the Opticon or Rubicon ranges. The new Opticon range looks interesting and I would imagine (going on Dali's past form) that they will be well worth hearing. If I hear them at some point I'll report back, but I'm not thinking of changing the speakers in the forseeable future.

The headphone amp is the weakest part of the CA DM+, I ended up using a musical fidelity (MF100 I think) headphone amp that was much better at driving my Beyers. These things are all relative of course...

 

[record_spot]

Actives would be a good option MP. I'd suggest my AE22s if AE have any left on Ebay (half price, delivered). You'd need a pre-amp/DAC and you'd need suitable cables (easy done). Best upgrade I've made bar none.

 

[grimharry]

Seeing that you have gone back to the rega as main set up I was hoping you could give me some idea of how the brio and a400 compare? The reason being that I'm toying with a new amp & speakers (possibly 685s2)in the near future and the reviews for the brio r have always been good.