happy with my mid-range system

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Hi guys,

Thanks for your advice and hearsay on this forum... I've been immersed in it for a while to put together my system with limited budget and I'm pretty happy with how it sounds I must say.

I got

epos M22 speakers (slightly more subtle looking than the M22i)

creek evolution 2 amp

audiolab mdac

oldish denon cd transport

This is a pretty neat mid-range Bristish system I reckon - all the components around the £700 mark. And all my acoustic / jazz music sounds nice on it - rich mids - upfront vocals. So yeah quite happy with this. Anyone care to burst my bubble? Would be most grateful!

🙂
 
I would never want to burst your bubble.

Someone though will have an opinion about an improvement you could make or how one component will be better than another (and they may well be right!) but for now I would just sit back, listen and appreciate what you have.

If at a later date there is something you feel could be improved upon then I would get some suggestions.

Glad to hear you have found a combination you enjoy!
smiley-smile.gif
 
For £3k, you'd expect to be happy with it! lol

Try to just let the music play and forget about what its playing on.
 
Hi

Seems like a very nice system you have :clap:

I think I'll go for a new CD like AUDIOLAB 8200CD :?
 
I would like a better transport - but I feel that getting the audiolab 8200cd would be buying the DAC part of the equation again for no good reason.

It's a shame there isn't a single piece of hardware on that market that just plays or "streams" music files without also including a DAC. Hello! I just procured a DAC! I don't need another DAC. And I don't want to feel I've spent money on something I already have have.
 
stee_doc said:
I would like a better transport - but I feel that getting the audiolab 8200cd would be buying the DAC part of the equation again for no good reason.

It's a shame there isn't a single piece of hardware on that market that just plays or "streams" music files without also including a DAC. Hello! I just procured a DAC! I don't need another DAC. And I don't want to feel I've spent money on something I already have have.
Click to expand...

There's a few dedicated stand alone streamers, and more than a couple of PCs around that meet this definition*

* excluding a DAC of any audiophile pretense anyway.
 
stee_doc said:
I would like a better transport - but I feel that getting the audiolab 8200cd would be buying the DAC part of the equation again for no good reason.

It's a shame there isn't a single piece of hardware on that market that just plays or "streams" music files without also including a DAC. Hello! I just procured a DAC! I don't need another DAC. And I don't want to feel I've spent money on something I already have have.
Click to expand...

Not sure on your budget but Bel Canto CD3t and Simaudio Moon180 MiND tick your boxes as transport and streamer respectively, neither have a dac of any sort!
 
Thanks for the suggestions (I hoped it was obvious that I was excluding PCs).

The Moon looks good - however it's a weird shape - and it's not cheap - but still - it's the only option on the table at the moment - I guess I will carry on searching for alternative streamers without DACs
 
Just wondering why you don't want a PC, because that was going to be my suggestion for your next step even before you mentioned streamers.

My rationale was more music focused than hi-fi; a PC would open up options like Spotify, which is a great way of trying new music. I share your tastes in music and find a lot of new stuff that way (some of which I then buy on CD and rip to my Nas to get the quality). Plus iTunes enables me to find my way round my large collection far more easily than wading through shelves of CD's.

A well setup PC would cut the mustard sound wise in your system, so no issues on that front. But as I say the suggestion was more music focused. More than one way to address the issue though. Just don't get ugraditis for a while; your system sounds as though it is nicely balanced.
 
stee_doc said:
Thanks for the suggestions (I hoped it was obvious that I was excluding PCs).

The Moon looks good - however it's a weird shape - and it's not cheap - but still - it's the only option on the table at the moment - I guess I will carry on searching for alternative streamers without DACs
Click to expand...

What are you realy need a CD or streamer ?
 
Get some Judie Tzuke then your system will really sing!

I came across her on a Morcheeba album as she did some vocals so decided to get some of her stuff.....amazing voice!
 
Thanks for the helpful comments.

My thoughts on PCs (and I can't believe I am alone in this) is that they are for spreadsheets and emailing.

When I enjoy music I like the sensual, intimate, erotic feeling of sitting next to audio gear, unfettered by screens and peripherals, and just listening. I don't like the light coming from a monitor or the sound of the fan whirring in the background.

Spotify might be a nice way to discover new stuff - but the quality of the audio is not good.

I love Judie too - stay with me till dawn is one we play in our band!

Cyrs stream 2 hits the nail on the head for what I'd like - and as richer sounds say - it's 'a bargain' at only £1400
 
Or you could spend less on a Mac Mini, an iPad and a whopping great NAS. Mac optical out into your DAC.

I get the computer thing, but the Mac Mini doesn't need a monitor, just use the iPad to control it. No monitor light, virtually no fan noise if any. And you end up with a very versatile set up.

I find the sound quality of Spotify to be more than acceptable - what do you not like about it?
 
stevebrock said:
Get some Judie Tzuke then your system will really sing!

I came across her on a Morcheeba album as she did some vocals so decided to get some of her stuff.....amazing voice!
Click to expand...

Very good advice 🙂

I have been a fan for years and have seen her live many times , she still tours and is even better live :rockout:
 
Omni - I like where you are going with this... Does a mac mini play FLAC or must I only play ALAC? Currently, I am married to Android - would i be able to interface with it somehow with an android?

I haven't tried spotify to be honest - but I've been told it doesn't spew out the highest quality files suitable for hi fi.
 
stee_doc said:
Omni - I like where you are going with this... Does a mac mini play FLAC or must I only play ALAC? Currently, I am married to Android - would i be able to interface with it somehow with an android?

I haven't tried spotify to be honest - but I've been told it doesn't spew out the highest quality files suitable for hi fi.
Click to expand...

The alternative is a netbook or micro ATX Pc running XBMC on Linux. That said, XBMC is available for Mac OS, as is the XBMC remote from the App Store?

XBMC runs FLAC natively.
 
My Squeezebox Touch arrived today! Hooray - the final piece in the jigsaw of my hi fi set up!

I now have the entire history of recorded music at my fingertips in FLAC format for hi fidelity listening.

Maybe oneday I'll get a turntable - but very happy for now.
 
Free information - that's where it's at - trading a sharing's so awesome and cool
 
Spotify premium at 320kbs (uses a different codec t mp3) is pretty damn good, and works for 95% of the time. The gap to 16/44 isn't actually that big.

I can understand why many people don't want to use a PC though, I guess it's a marmite thing. I have a pretty much dedicated laptop for music and picture editing, all the usual computing stuff I do off an old worn out xp2 powered lump. I don't notice the fan noise, and using a decent media player can yield some fantastic results.
 
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