Need advice on dealing with retailers.

[nopiano]

Very interesting. The snag is by the time you add the other gubbins, you're talking about £1,200-£1,300 all in. That's fine if it matches or betters a £1,200 CDP, but if not...

That's 4 times your budget, pp! You were talking Sonos a few hours ago, so that's not the dealer talking you up!

What about the new Denon at £430 and the Cambridge at £399?

As to sound quality, this is rather elusive in reviews, though as I highlighted already in another thread, the Olive 4HD at over £2000 was deemed similar to the Marantz CD6003 at £300, so I would not hold out much hope for beating your CDP. In fact, that is surely inconceivable.

That said, isn't the point to be able to play higher-res files, or internet radio for free? If so, then you get into all the variations of whether 192/24 files are supported, and if they do gapless playback, etc.

Looking forward to the mystery 'reveal' of location, somewhere in deepest Surrey I guess (or Guildford)? And most of all, to what you report back.

 

[plastic penguin]

Very interesting. The snag is by the time you add the other gubbins, you're talking about £1,200-£1,300 all in. That's fine if it matches or betters a £1,200 CDP, but if not...

That's 4 times your budget, pp! You were talking Sonos a few hours ago, so that's not the dealer talking you up!

What about the new Denon at £430 and the Cambridge at £399?

As to sound quality, this is rather elusive in reviews, though as I highlighted already in another thread, the Olive 4HD at over £2000 was deemed similar to the Marantz CD6003 at £300, so I would not hold out much hope for beating your CDP. In fact, that is surely inconceivable.

That said, isn't the point to be able to play higher-res files, or internet radio for free? If so, then you get into all the variations of whether 192/24 files are supported, and if they do gapless playback, etc.

Looking forward to the mystery 'reveal' of location, somewhere in deepest Surrey I guess (or Guildford)? And most of all, to what you report back.

That's very true. You can set a budget, and as you well know, if it's really speacial sounding then budgets can be flexible. Ideally, like most, I want to eek out the most cost effective solution, hence the 'suck it and see' session on Saturday.

TBH, in terms of SQ, I don't really know what to expect so I'm keeping a very open mind on the dem.

 

[CnoEvil]

PP Did you ever read this: http://www.whathifi.com/review/linn-sneaky-music-ds[/quote]

Very interesting. The snag is by the time you add the other gubbins, you're talking about £1,200-£1,300 all in. That's fine if it matches or betters a £1,200 CDP, but if not...

IMO. It matches CDPs at £2k, and exceeds them on 24 bit......but this is meaningless unless you think this as well.

All that I am encouraging you to do is have a listen, and either you will be convinced, or you will think I'm off my rocker (which I am, as you know).....either way, you will be wiser. It's just one of those pieces of kit that I think should be heard before making a decision.

 

[Anonymous]

PP Did you ever read this: http://www.whathifi.com/review/linn-sneaky-music-ds[/quote]

Very interesting. The snag is by the time you add the other gubbins, you're talking about £1,200-£1,300 all in. That's fine if it matches or betters a £1,200 CDP, but if not...

IMO. It matches CDPs at £2k, and exceeds them on 24 bit.......

What exactly would you say the advantage is with 24 bit? 16 bit already gives a 96 db dynamic range, which is way more than is ever actually used, or is actually useable.

Just askin' 🙂

 

[John Duncan]

Some people think it sounds better. In the same way that some people think active speakers sound better than passive ones.

 

[chebby]

Looking forward to the mystery 'reveal' of location, somewhere in deepest Surrey I guess (or Guildford)? And most of all, to what you report back.

Clicky

 

[CnoEvil]

PP Did you ever read this: http://www.whathifi.com/review/linn-sneaky-music-ds[/quote]

Very interesting. The snag is by the time you add the other gubbins, you're talking about £1,200-£1,300 all in. That's fine if it matches or betters a £1,200 CDP, but if not...

IMO. It matches CDPs at £2k, and exceeds them on 24 bit.......

What exactly would you say the advantage is with 24 bit? 16 bit already gives a 96 db dynamic range, which is way more than is ever actually used, or is actually useable.

Just askin' 🙂

It's a bit better (well actually 8 bits better). 😛

 

[matengawhat]

prob get flamed for this but don't overlook the squeezebox touch and a good dac, has lots of remotes for smart phones and tablets can plug a hard disc straight in to it or use a nas drive. i would only swap it for a single box of convenience as i hate loading music on the comp and 9 times out of 10 reach for the cds still

 

[matengawhat]

what ever happens don't but the musicm8

 

[Anonymous]

prob get flamed for this but don't overlook the squeezebox touch and a good dac, has lots of remotes for smart phones and tablets can plug a hard disc straight in to it or use a nas drive. i would only swap it for a single box of convenience as i hate loading music on the comp and 9 times out of 10 reach for the cds still

I've heard from a friend that the Squeezebox touch doesn't need an external DAC, it's that good. Only 2nd hand information though, the duet certainly does... 🙂

 

[matengawhat]

never tried the internal dac as always had connected to my mf v8 dac, my only issue with squeezebox touch is random skippink to next track which is |(

 

[plastic penguin]

prob get flamed for this but don't overlook the squeezebox touch and a good dac, has lots of remotes for smart phones and tablets can plug a hard disc straight in to it or use a nas drive. i would only swap it for a single box of convenience as i hate loading music on the comp and 9 times out of 10 reach for the cds still

Yarp, another one to add to the 'to listen to' box. Price-wise it's a good option, so let's see how it stacks up

http://www.whathifi.com/review/logitech-squeezebox-touch

 

[John Duncan]

Have you got an iPhone or an iPod Touch, PP? Or an Android phone? I forget.

 

[nopiano]

prob get flamed for this but don't overlook the squeezebox touch and a good dac, has lots of remotes for smart phones and tablets can plug a hard disc straight in to it or use a nas drive. i would only swap it for a single box of convenience as i hate loading music on the comp and 9 times out of 10 reach for the cds still

I'd never flame you, but pp might like to read this:

http://www.whathifi.com/forum/hi-fi/squeezebox-touch-nas-drive-help-please

It would certainly put me off!

That said, it's a brilliant design. We just need Rega, Naim, or someone to make a sort of hi-fi variant that is easier to use.

 

[plastic penguin]

Have you got an iPhone or an iPod Touch, PP? Or an Android phone? I forget.

No.

 

[John Duncan]

Forget that idea then.

 

[Anonymous]

Some people think it sounds better. In the same way that some people think active speakers sound better than passive ones.

and some people think African elephants have bigger ears than Indian ones...(but they hide them dontcha know) 🙂

 

[plastic penguin]

Forget that idea then.

It'll be about what's achieveable for the budget. Also, the dealer said he'll sort out some cracking speakers - ones I've not heard before and see how the Leema performs with vastly improved source/speaker combo.

 

[nopiano]

Looking forward to the mystery 'reveal' of location, somewhere in deepest Surrey I guess (or Guildford)? And most of all, to what you report back.

Clicky

Well Cranleigh is pretty much south of there, and nothing much there, so I reckon it must be Guildford, as there's at least two dealers there (PJ and Guildford Audio) as well as Sevenoaks and Richer.

[Thinks...."What ever happened to Merrow Sound, and the hi-fi shop at the top of the High Street, run by a bloke called Bob Ewbank I recall?"]

 

[plastic penguin]

Looking forward to the mystery 'reveal' of location, somewhere in deepest Surrey I guess (or Guildford)? And most of all, to what you report back.

Clicky

Well Cranleigh is pretty much south of there, and nothing much there, so I reckon it must be Guildford, as there's at least two dealers there (PJ and Guildford Audio) as well as Sevenoaks and Richer.

[Thinks...."What ever happened to Merrow Sound, and the hi-fi shop at the top of the High Street, run by a bloke called Bob Ewbank I recall?"]

No, I live close to the A3 and north of Merrow and Burpham

 

[tino]

Am in the same boat as you plastic p in that I have the same amp as you and am looking around for a decent digital setup. I'm kind of already there in that I use a Chordette Gem DAC in USB and Bluetooth apt-x streaming modes from a PC. I also use a Creative Ziio tablet with apt-x for casual listening. I can use the tablet to control the PC or a media streamer. There aren't too many streamers that are in my price range that are neat one box solutions (most requring a NAS drive / router / upnp control point which adds another £200-300). I am considering the following options: A Sneaky DS, SimpleAudio Roomplayer, ANO media streamer + DAC .. but not sure if any of these options will be justifiably better than what I have now. One option I do like with a PC or media streamer is that you can hook them up to a HDMI monitor / TV so you can use that to browse your music. If you do review the Sneaky I would be interested to know how it sounds with 'our' amp and if the Sneaky internal amp is good enough. Cheers.

 

[nopiano]

No, I live close to the A3 and north of Merrow and Burpham

Sounds like Send then, or maybe Ripley, where I lived when I was 17. And nopiano senior (my dad) still lives there!

Anyway, I'm more interested in which dealer than tracking down your house...!

 

[Ambrose]

Hi CnoEvil,

I am watching tread with interest as I am saving for convenient alternative to my DVD - Dac Magic source in my system where ease of use are very important but more so the sound quality to be equal or ideally superior to current setup.

Your comment about the Sonos Vs Sneaky made me wonder as I am edging towards the Sonos solution, given that if Dac magic isn't as good as hoped then adding a Rega Dac would be a big step up.

Given a standalone amp (Nait 5i) and seperate DAC does the Sonos SQ improve or is your opinion hold true that Linn is much better?

Obviously subjective and taken as personal opinion.

Cheers

Ambrose

 

[plastic penguin]

No, I live close to the A3 and north of Merrow and Burpham

Sounds like Send then, or maybe Ripley, where I lived when I was 17. And nopiano senior (my dad) still lives there!

Anyway, I'm more interested in which dealer than tracking down your house...!

No, not far though.

Anyway, the reasons at this stage for not divulging the dealer is not because I'm being surreptitious, but if they (or someone they know) frequent this forum it could err... be awkward. Tell you Saturday afternoon/evening.

 

[chebby]

Anyway, the reasons at this stage for not divulging the dealer is not because I'm being surreptitious, but if they (or someone they know) frequent this forum it could err... be awkward. Tell you Saturday afternoon/evening.

How?

There is a whole forum entitled "There's this shop near me..." where people comment on their dealers without any 'awkwardness'.

Mine is a Sevenoaks (used to be an Audio-T) in London Road, Porstmouth. The manager is called Nick. Their telephone number is 02392 663 604.

They are an excellent branch and a great bunch of chaps. (The coffee is instant though.)