Onkyo A-9110 and A-9155? Experiences?

[rainsoothe]

So everything is here and plugged in! Holly cow... what can I say, blown away. Speakers clearly need some burning in but, straight out of the box, there are already layers on music I can hear again. My test track is usually the not so well recorded opening of Bach's St. John's Passion conducted by Franz Brüggen (Phillips). Choir is multilayered and has this back and forward between front and back. I could never hear the men when they are singing low and and gathering momentum.


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I need to position them better and replace that table etc but pretty impressed. I don't feel like they are slow, probably the amp recommendation helped a lot in that. Bass is plenty and pretty deep AFAIC.

First thing that hit me is the soundstage. There's no middle sweet spot, I can move from left to right and forward or back and it's like I'm inside a bubble of sound that doesn't change! It's a pretty big bubble too, horizontally and vertically.

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Funny that people say DACs all sound the same. I tried both my IFI Zen and the Topping D10 and they sound noticeably different. They already sounded different on my old speakers. It's like the IFI has a more wide soundstage and better separation, even though the D10 is slightly more detailed. I happen to like the Zen better but wouldn't mind to have that little bit of more detail of the D10 on top of what the Zen gives.

I probably won't bother with DACs until I have the speakers better placed, etc, but any recommendations or thoughts regarding this?

Glad you like them, whew! Imo, the Zen is pretty apropriate for the setup you're running, and it doesn't matter which is better on paper or reviewed, it only matters what YOU like. If you still do wanna spend moneyz, maybe you could check out a Chord Mojo or an Auralic Aries Mini (if you wanna remove your laptop from the equation AND you're an Apple user, since it doesn't have an Android app). But again, I think your iFi is very fitting of your system.

 

[Kutusov]

Glad you like them, whew! Imo, the Zen is pretty apropriate for the setup you're running, and it doesn't matter which is better on paper or reviewed, it only matters what YOU like. If you still do wanna spend moneyz, maybe you could check out a Chord Mojo or an Auralic Aries Mini (if you wanna remove your laptop from the equation AND you're an Apple user, since it doesn't have an Android app). But again, I think your iFi is very fitting of your system.

I do like them, yes! And thank you for the suggestions and questions because they led to quite a different result from what I was first looking for.

I'm not really after a new DAC, it's just that I can tell a difference in sound with different ones, so maybe I could be overlooking this. I know the Zen measures way worst than the Topping but that just tells me that, to me at least, numbers don't really matter, I think the Zen sounds a lot better.

As for moneyz, that now goes for a new chair. And that's me done! Honest! I can recognize a rabbit hole when I see one. I already fell into plenty to be able to recognize one

 

[see_for_miles]

Congrats on your setup!

How do you find the IO? Would you recommend it?
I don't know the size of your room, but given it's just 30 watts - any trouble driving those floorstanders?

 

[Kutusov]

Congrats on your setup!

How do you find the IO? Would you recommend it?
I don't know the size of your room, but given it's just 30 watts - any trouble driving those floorstanders?

Hi, thanks! The room is about 355 square feet (33 square meters) so the speakers might have been a bit overkill But they are able to play very well at low volumes and I was after that too.

The IO is more than enough, I don't play music very loud but I think I haven't gone beyond the 9 o'clock position yet and that just for testing once. I'm quite happy with the whole setup!