Hi fi from Home Cinema

[chris hollands]

I have Home cinema set up as per sig,

Really want to upgrade the music performance when playing CD and USB ,

Not sure of the best way to do it and where to invest ,

Budget flexible .

Thanks guys.

 

[Big Chris]

I would guess a dedicated CDP and a 2 channel amp would be your starters for 10.

Hopefully, your Yamaha has multi channel outputs to allow you to hook it up to a 2 channel amp, which in turn would be connected to your RX6 fronts, leaving the Yamaha to power the centre, surrounds & sub.

 

[CnoEvil]

Three questions:
Can you give an idea of budget?
Are you prepared to ditch CD for a streaming solution?
Does your amp have pre-outs?

 

[chris hollands]

budget about £1-2k ish but could be more, happy with streaming , pretty sure i have pre-outs. was thinking of maybe a dac to improve the receiver sound ?

 

[CnoEvil]

Chris, sorry for all the questions, but could you describe the sound you like or even equipment that you've heard and liked.

There's amp + Dac solutions like the Peachtree; Musical amps like Sugden Mystro, UR Unico, Electrocompaniet and MF M3i.

There's good streaming solutions from the likes of Linn and decent Dacs from Rega, Arcam and MF.

Ideally I would suggest Nas + Streamer + Stereo Amp (with ht by-pass)...but this may not be what you have in mind.

 

[the record spot]

Use your existing Blu-ray source, it'll be fine as a transport and no worse than any CDP out there just now. Take your pick of a number of stereo amps out there which have an optical or coaxial digital input which can then handle the conversion. Depends what kind of sound you want, or think you will get from those.

Rest assured, CD performance is no better with a greatly expensive CD player than it is with a bog standard Blu-ray machine going through even a basic DAC. With that in mind, your budget, certainly at its upper limit, is probably excessive for the likely returns you'll get back.

 

[CnoEvil]

Rest assured, CD performance is no better with a greatly expensive CD player than it is with a bog standard Blu-ray machine going through even a basic DAC. With that in mind, your budget, certainly at its upper limit, is probably excessive for the likely returns you'll get back.

I don't agree with this, but that is the nature of hifi...and one for the OP to try for himself. It is my view that the transport makes a difference.

I am though, of the opinion that a well conceived streaming solution will usually out perform a CDP of a similar budget.

 

[Audio_ELF]

First suggestion off top of my head...

Musical Fidelity M1DAC-A (make sure it's the new A version).

Musical Fidelity M3i

Netbook or Laptop - any basic one will do.

J.River Music Center software

Also digital from BluRay player for directly playing CDs

About the top of your budget but should sound great.

Eloise

 

[the record spot]

Yep, the returns I've had from the laptop or via a Western Digital external hard drive have been excellent going into the Onkyo.

 

[kevinJ]

You could do it like I did: wait untill your receiver develops a fault (Denon, after 3years of use), and then go back to stereo.

 

[chris hollands]

Thanks for all the replies,

I have always been a vinyl buff, Gyro with Pathos valves , last few years more into Home Cinema but you know when you get the bug back !!

Trouble is i find the new technology mind-blowing and never to sure where to start.

I appreciate i will not replicate the hi fi i have had in the past with the budget i have which is why i was thinking of trying the streaming via my mac or laptop !

Guess i just want to get as good a sound with the minimum number of boxes.

 

[kevinJ]

That shouldn't be a problem. There are already some hifi amps available with a built-in dac and/or usb (Harman kardon, NAD)
There are a whole bunch of cd players out there with a digital input (mine has one too).

And then it's just a matter of connecting whatever you want to connect.

I use an old laptop as music server, connected via usb to my dacmagic, which is only being used as a digital switch box now. I have the dacmagic optically connected to my cd player, which is a much better dac.

 

[CnoEvil]

Maybe look more closely at the Peachtree, which was on sale at Sevenoaks here:
http://www.ssav.com/products/productdetail/part_number=Nova/1765.0.4.3

It has a built in dac and musical sound.....might be just the thing