Thank you tino. That's most helpful! I think I'll probably look into sticking American, since it seems like pricing will be better in New York for American brands -- although I wonder if American-made is necessarily better value in general for what you get.
The Dynaudios are a good recommendation ... I was going to point you in the direction of their passive speakers the Excite X12. The only thing to note is that their wireless speakers are limited to streaming CD quality or thereabouts (48kHz max).
ps ... are these less liberal for you ... http://www.audiowaveshifi.com/trianglecolor.htm
ps ... are these less liberal for you ... http://www.audiowaveshifi.com/trianglecolor.htm
The Dynaudios look neat if maybe too liberal for me! (In fact, maybe they are kind of amazing -- see later comment.) The Peachtree Nova sounds interesting and I wonder how it compares to the Bel Canto C5i. It's certainly cheaper. Both had well-written reviews in "Positive Feedback", a great publication.
Those Triangles are clever! The Dynaudio Excite X12s look great also. Unsurprisingly, as with other non-American products they are more expensive than in the U.K. (£695 to $1200+tax).
tino said:
yes, I'm aware of that. but I also note that the OP wants to listen to CDs and internet radio. no need for hi rez then.
oldric_naubhoff said:
Oldric, on closer inspection the XEO 3s do look kind of amazing. I can't actually find much out about them since they're so recent. Have you had the chance to hear them? The idea of simply transmitting from my computer is compelling!
oldric_naubhoff said:
Oldric, theoretically, would the sound still stand up well with a Macbook Pro as the source for the Xeo 3s? If I ripped all my music onto it losslessly? I'm wondering how the sound would compare between them and a more expensive passive set-up involoving the Bel Canto C5i, for example. I agree that my needs are not especially hi rez, although I wonder how kind the Xeo 3s would be, musically.
bpch said:
no, I didn't get a chance to listen to those Dyns. but I have Dynaudio Focus 110 (now superseded by Magnepans) and auditioned Excite 12. rest assured. Dynaudio is not releasing poorly performing product.
why can active speaker provide more"insight"? well, that's an easy question to which answer can be lengthy. in a nutshell. passive speakers have passive crossover. active speakers don't. they have an active crossover and each driver is being driven by its respective power amp. passive crossover is the biggest source of non linear behaviour and phase distortion from speakers, unless you're using top notch passive components in crossover network. don't expect top notch components in a pair of budget speakers though. ridding of passive crossover solves a lot of things. anyway, if your interested to investigate the topic you can find a lot articles on the web. search for "speaker crossover distortion" or something similar.
bpch said:
yes, your Macbook Pro will be an excellent source playing lossless files.
bpch said:
that I cannot answer. all I can say there are quite a few users of active speakers around this forum and they don't regret their departing from passive. also recording studios almost exclusively use active monitors.
I personally never tried active speakers. when I got into hi-fi I never heard of active speakers thus wasn't aware of their advantages. however, I should note here that even though I know now what I know about active - passive turmoil I won't actively pursue to try them out nor will be looking to switch to actives. why? I already found my audio nirvana in form of panel speakers. don't really think that any box speakers, even active, will do for me now.
bpch said:
they will be kind. Dynaudios are attacking but not aggressive.
oldric_naubhoff said:
Thank you again Oldric! Kind of you to answer all my questions, and great to have all this information to chew on. To my mind, the Dynaudio Xeo 3s, Bel Canto C5i, and Peachtree Nova all seem like good options and I guess it's now just a matter of checking out the two American brands while seeing what reviewers have to say about the Xeo 3s, which might take a little while to get to New York.
Crocodile said:
Thanks Crocodile -- I guess I'll probably head towards this other extreme, either with a Squeezebox or directly playing from my Macbook Pro. I'm actually kind of surprised that none of the Hi-Fi equipment stores I've been to didn't simply suggest I get an integrated amp with a built-in DAC. (The Transporter looks neat but is a little too expensive.) Not sure what the protocol is exactly for playing directly from a computer via USB, or whether it's worth getting software like Decibel, but any advice would be wonderful!
You just need to ensure that the data being presented to the DAC hasn't been interfered with by the media player or OS. I'm not a Mac user so not familiar with players for it but no doubt someone who is will chip in.bpch said:
Whether you use your Mac as a source or buy a Squeezebox Touch is going to be pretty much down to how you want the look & feel of the actual process of choosing your music. As I said before, one potential advantage of the Touch is that you could listen to Internet Radio without a server. There are also Android & iOS apps for remote control.
Crocodile said:
Hmm. I'd better ask about this when I check out the Bel Canto C5i at a dealer. Thanks for the other advice!
It wouldn't hurt to create a new thread specifically asking about direct playback from a Mac via USB.
It's probbaly been covered here before but finding it with the limited search capabilities of this forum software won't be easy.
It's probbaly been covered here before but finding it with the limited search capabilities of this forum software won't be easy.
John Duncan
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Crocodile said:
How very dare you
Crocodile said:
There isn't really much to say. Plug in, switch on, play. The only issue you would have is if you want to output higher than 16/44 resolution, which is fiddly by default - a Mac doesn't auto-adjust according to source material.
However, I now need to read back to see where the OP's got to, I haven't been paying attenton to this thread.
John Duncan
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All do I think except the Air. Possibly, but I can't say I had complaints using USB on my Mac, which was not the case with Windows XP.
Another thank you for all the helpful advice I received on this thread. Here's what happened with my purchase, which took place not very long ago.
I listened to the Dynaudio Xeo 3s and quite liked them but wasn't altogether convinced by the longevity of the current wireless speaker technology. Frankly, I was also put off by the lack of knowledge any of the Dynaudio dealers in New York seemed to have in operating the Xeos. And none of the dealers seemed very enthusiastic about them as a product, perhaps unsurprisingly it seems to me, as they cut out most of the variations they like to go into.
For a while, I was fairly sure I was going to buy a BelCanto C5i and a pair of Totem Rainmakers. I listened to the C5i a couple of times and was impressed, and I also quite liked the Rainmakers. But the salesman at the dealer I went to tried to rush me into buying and I stalled.
While stalling, I had a chance to listen to a pair of Harbeth P3ESRs elsewhere and was amazed by them. I also liked Harbeth's relatively no-nonsense spiel on their website and, after looking into Harbeth's claim that their speakers are easy to work with synergistically, I bought a pair of the P3ESRs in the cherry finish (which is beautiful!).
Then I went and bought the Wyred4Sound mINT separately, another American-made integrated amp with built-in DAC. (I wasn't able to test the speakers and mINT together but I felt reasonaly confident they would match.) The mINT can actually do more than the C5i and is a lot more compact, although it runs hotter. (Online it looks ugly but in person it isn't.) I now have the mINT connected to my computer via a Wyred4Sound USB cable, with all my music stored on an external hard drive, connected via Firewire 800 to the computer. I also use PureMusic, which I find very beneficial and which gave truly excellent customer service when I required assistance and advice. They recommended I buy a cheap tray-loading, AC-powered, external CD drive for ripping my music instead of using my computer's slot-loading CD drive. My speaker cable is a 10 foot pair of DH Labs Silver Sonic T-14.
So that's what happened! If anyone has any advice about the necessity of buying a relatively high-quality Firewire 800 cable (for my external hard drive to computer connection) I would certainly be interested in hearing it, as well as suggestions for candidates in the £100 range.
I listened to the Dynaudio Xeo 3s and quite liked them but wasn't altogether convinced by the longevity of the current wireless speaker technology. Frankly, I was also put off by the lack of knowledge any of the Dynaudio dealers in New York seemed to have in operating the Xeos. And none of the dealers seemed very enthusiastic about them as a product, perhaps unsurprisingly it seems to me, as they cut out most of the variations they like to go into.
For a while, I was fairly sure I was going to buy a BelCanto C5i and a pair of Totem Rainmakers. I listened to the C5i a couple of times and was impressed, and I also quite liked the Rainmakers. But the salesman at the dealer I went to tried to rush me into buying and I stalled.
While stalling, I had a chance to listen to a pair of Harbeth P3ESRs elsewhere and was amazed by them. I also liked Harbeth's relatively no-nonsense spiel on their website and, after looking into Harbeth's claim that their speakers are easy to work with synergistically, I bought a pair of the P3ESRs in the cherry finish (which is beautiful!).
Then I went and bought the Wyred4Sound mINT separately, another American-made integrated amp with built-in DAC. (I wasn't able to test the speakers and mINT together but I felt reasonaly confident they would match.) The mINT can actually do more than the C5i and is a lot more compact, although it runs hotter. (Online it looks ugly but in person it isn't.) I now have the mINT connected to my computer via a Wyred4Sound USB cable, with all my music stored on an external hard drive, connected via Firewire 800 to the computer. I also use PureMusic, which I find very beneficial and which gave truly excellent customer service when I required assistance and advice. They recommended I buy a cheap tray-loading, AC-powered, external CD drive for ripping my music instead of using my computer's slot-loading CD drive. My speaker cable is a 10 foot pair of DH Labs Silver Sonic T-14.
So that's what happened! If anyone has any advice about the necessity of buying a relatively high-quality Firewire 800 cable (for my external hard drive to computer connection) I would certainly be interested in hearing it, as well as suggestions for candidates in the £100 range.
bpch said:
Congratulations on your setup ... I recall mentioning the mINT some time ago (http://www.whathifi.com/forum/hi-fi/new-or-interesting-products-for-2012) but forgot to recommend it to you ... it was only recently launched then.
tino, although I didn't see your mINT mention, your Belcanto C5i recommendation indirectly led me to the mINT as an alternative. I'm very pleased with it.
michael hoy
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mitch65 said:
Wireless does not need to be an issue, I can stream 192kHz/24bit from my server in the loft down to my listening area with no dropout whatsoever.
I agree hardwiring would be ideal but not the be all and end all of streaming.
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