Ok all, I'll admit. I have a problem!
The Cyrus mono X's that have now been replaced by the Mono X 200 & 300 are available at effectively "buy one, get one free" for around £1700 for the pair. I'm extremely tempted it must be said, but with it comes a dilemma.
At the moment my system consists of a Cyrus 6XP fed by a couple of various sources but mostly using the pre-outs from my onkyo 3007 from NAS with flac and 320kbps mp3. The 6XP is feeding a pair of B&W CM7s. The intention had been to get myself a seperate streaming product to bypass the onk for music, but keeping the cyrus wired into the AV setup so as to have one neat system. However, a "domestic conflict" is arising with regards use of music and telly box at the same time, so I'm tempted to break away the music side and put it in the other living room as a seperate entity. Also, I feel the 6xp is perhaps struggling a touch with the CM7s.
A) Stick with the 6xp, move it to the spare room, buy some standmounts to match and a squeezebox touch or similar, leaving the onk and CM setup as the AV setup.
B) Buy the mono X's, upgrade the 6xp to a pre-xpd, get a streaming product to match and some suitable speakers. If I go for the mono X's, I'm thinking I'll want something floor-standing to go with. Either move the CM7s to the spare room and replace them in the av setup with some smaller CMs, or preferablly get something a little more upmarket to go with the mono x's.
C) go halfway and maybe buy one X-power to start with, adding a second later. Move the combo to the spare room and get some floorstanders or decent standmounts to match.
For a) thoughts on speakers and a streaming source? A reasonable number of my FLACS are 24 bit, and I think that is the way the world is going, so I'm a little reluctant to plug for a sonos setup, as slick as they are.
For b) thoughts again on speakers? I think if I'm plumping for that much money's worth of Monobloc, I'm wanting a more capable speaker than the CM7s, good as they are for cinema. Any thoughts? Also, with that setup, is a squeezebox touch going to cut it, even through a cyrus DAC, or am I going to want something a little more refined?
for c) what are thoughts on Xpower vs mono x? It is a bit of a halfway house, but won't give me quite the same level of buyers guilt. It also allows a stretch of the purchases over a longer stretch of time.
Is there another, better solution I'm missing?
Budget, aside from my personal guilt, is not too much of an issue so long as it stays the right side of about 6k for amp, streamer/DAC and speakers. The main thing is, if I'm spending that much, I'd like to get mostly ex-demo or clearance stuff to make the money go further (guilt relief!)
Sorry for the epic! Ideas on a postcard please!
The Cyrus mono X's that have now been replaced by the Mono X 200 & 300 are available at effectively "buy one, get one free" for around £1700 for the pair. I'm extremely tempted it must be said, but with it comes a dilemma.
At the moment my system consists of a Cyrus 6XP fed by a couple of various sources but mostly using the pre-outs from my onkyo 3007 from NAS with flac and 320kbps mp3. The 6XP is feeding a pair of B&W CM7s. The intention had been to get myself a seperate streaming product to bypass the onk for music, but keeping the cyrus wired into the AV setup so as to have one neat system. However, a "domestic conflict" is arising with regards use of music and telly box at the same time, so I'm tempted to break away the music side and put it in the other living room as a seperate entity. Also, I feel the 6xp is perhaps struggling a touch with the CM7s.
A) Stick with the 6xp, move it to the spare room, buy some standmounts to match and a squeezebox touch or similar, leaving the onk and CM setup as the AV setup.
B) Buy the mono X's, upgrade the 6xp to a pre-xpd, get a streaming product to match and some suitable speakers. If I go for the mono X's, I'm thinking I'll want something floor-standing to go with. Either move the CM7s to the spare room and replace them in the av setup with some smaller CMs, or preferablly get something a little more upmarket to go with the mono x's.
C) go halfway and maybe buy one X-power to start with, adding a second later. Move the combo to the spare room and get some floorstanders or decent standmounts to match.
For a) thoughts on speakers and a streaming source? A reasonable number of my FLACS are 24 bit, and I think that is the way the world is going, so I'm a little reluctant to plug for a sonos setup, as slick as they are.
For b) thoughts again on speakers? I think if I'm plumping for that much money's worth of Monobloc, I'm wanting a more capable speaker than the CM7s, good as they are for cinema. Any thoughts? Also, with that setup, is a squeezebox touch going to cut it, even through a cyrus DAC, or am I going to want something a little more refined?
for c) what are thoughts on Xpower vs mono x? It is a bit of a halfway house, but won't give me quite the same level of buyers guilt. It also allows a stretch of the purchases over a longer stretch of time.
Is there another, better solution I'm missing?
Budget, aside from my personal guilt, is not too much of an issue so long as it stays the right side of about 6k for amp, streamer/DAC and speakers. The main thing is, if I'm spending that much, I'd like to get mostly ex-demo or clearance stuff to make the money go further (guilt relief!)
Sorry for the epic! Ideas on a postcard please!