Should i bother with a CD player?

[Anonymous]

Hey guys

Yes £250 is about my budget for this. So is the Beresford dac as good as the CA one in terms of sound qualtiy? I listen to many diffrent types of music (Rock, early hip hop, classical, some drum and bassy type stuff) Would the Beresford dac cover these?

I also cannot find an online retailer for it, any suggestions?

I'll deffently look into trying to kill some off the noise my pc makes. However i have a heavy overclocked proccesor (Q6600 2.4 > 3.2!) so do you think these quiet fans move as much air?

 

[Anonymous]

Not heardthe magic steve but people who don't like the dac magic tend to say things like the bass is too much, sounds over inflated, lack of dynamics etc. I have not seen many people who have said Beresford's are poor and indeed I think you will be extremely surprised by it's neutral sound, it's brilliant seperation of sounds and instruments etc. However as you mentioned you can't purchase it from anywhere besides Stanley Beresford's own website. However you are going to be paying almost 140.00 on there and can be bought in great condition second hand for around 80.00 on ebay http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=170313472498&Category=81741 quite a few days left on this one, there is another one also, but I am sure you will be wanting one of the newer versions of this dac hence this one. Just remember 2 things...an optical cable and rca phono cables which you connect to the line fixed analogue output on the dac

 

[Anonymous]

Ashworth can i pick yor brains a sec mate? you mentioned a silent PSU, which PSU's should i be looking for? and what "quiet fans"?

 

[Anonymous]

Cheers Hi fi!! So you attcualy own the Beresford? You say it has a neutral sound, but surly the point of the dac is to improve the sound?

If you are after quiet case fans these are really good - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-036-AK&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=4 They are not the queitest fans in the world but are ok and still move a good amount of air.

These are also good quiet psu's http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-019-BQ&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1083

 

[Anonymous]

Ah but because it has a very neutral (albeit very open, detailed sound) it allows the music to be reproduced in a natural manner instead of adding anything tonally to the balance which does lead to sometimes harsh sounding music. Therefore it has massively improved the sound but without affecting the tone of the music. I do indeed own a Beresford, (says so below) I have owned one since December and decided that due to not being able to audition prior to buying it that it wasn't worth buying it new and instead opted for ebay.

Thanks for the mentioned psu's i will take a look

 

[Anonymous]

Stevie,

You've many options infront of you, but I do urge you to take the computer audio route. I output digitally into a pair of AVI ADM9.1's and as I write this listening to A Mountain of Ice by Helios from his Caesura album, I wonder how long traditional high end hifi has to live.

Also, the convenience of having all your music stored in one place and so easily accessible cannot be beaten.

Oh - Johnny Cash has just started ... sounds like he is the room ... .. .

Matt.

 

[up the music]

I too own the Beresford TC7510 DAC and would concur with the previous poster re it's neutrlity. I've not heard the Cambridge DACMagic, but it has it's following too.

Beresford

Stanley Beresford sells via EBay in addition to the 'HomeHifi' site.
If you go the 2nd hand route beware of Beresford lookalike units.

SilentPCReview is a fantastic resource as I said earlier.

 

[up the music]

I nearly forgot

Silent PC Review

 

[Anonymous]

My advice....use this for reference

http://www.homehifi.co.uk/others/versions.html

 

[Anonymous]

ATTN "hi fi newbie"

I bought these:
Coolermaster hyper TX http://www.ebuyer.com/product/136623
Arctic PSU http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124927
i-cute case with 1 fan http://www.ebuyer.com/product/121076

I've not tried overclocking though...should be pretty good as there are loads of reviews of the Coolermaster going fast http://www.overclockersonline.net/?page=articles&num=772 .

 

[Anonymous]

Cheers for all the replyies guys. I have decieded to get the Beresford DAC, i'll let ya'll know who it sounds. Won't be for a couple of months untill i have it all set up though.

Cheers!

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Rich and Steve....just steer clear of the older beresford's because if memory serves me right there was indeed south partnership with a south east asian company and thus they also produced similar dac's. However if you use the official website's link that i posted as reference, then problem sorted. What speaker cable are you going to be using?

 

[Anonymous]

hi fi newbie:Thanks Rich and Steve....just steer clear of the older beresford's because if memory serves me right there was indeed south partnership with a south east asian company and thus they also produced similar dac's. However if you use the official website's link that i posted as reference, then problem sorted. What speaker cable are you going to be using?

Glad you asked that i was going to strat a whole new thread on the topic. What cables would you recommend? I also need suggestions for RCA cables too. I think i'm going to get the Beresford optical cable, so i'm alright on that front.

Would it be worth bi wiring? The speakers are going to be about 2 meters respectivly from the amp so i'll need around 4 meters of cables.

 

[Anonymous]

Lol I am going to recommend what what hi fi recommends and that is the chord carnival silverscreen, get the single wire version. I did mention that there was a slight improvement (i found) from biwiring my QED micro wire cable but it wasn't a lot. For what it's worth here is what I bought...and yes it's cheap but it sounds great http://www.cutpricecables.co.uk/ I bought the PRO TOS and Pro Stereo Phono Lead. Now I am not saying you can't buy better but it's reassuring to know that even cheap cables will make the system sound good

 

[Anonymous]

Cheers man. So you wouldn't recommend bi wiring? Can i evan bi wire my Lekor 2's and Marantz 6002?

Should i bother getting banna plugs or is it not worth it?

 

[Anonymous]

Alrighty, I just checked the whf mag and they are indeed biwirable but as they reviewed the single wire version of the mentioned speaker cable, stick to that.

Banana Plugs make the task of fitting the speaker cable so much easier you just expose a bit of wire on the speaker cable and push the speaker cable through the hole and out through the other hole, scewing the banana plug tight onto the cable. Alternatively you could purchase the speaker cable with terminations already done for you (banana plugs fitted). In addition The amp and speaker terminals might have a bung in the middle, if they do just prise it out, your finger tips are enough to do that, that gives you a hole from which to simply plug the banana plugs into.

 

[Anonymous]

So can you just clip the cable into the back with no banna plug still or is it banna plug only?

 

[Anonymous]

Well basically if you don't bother with the banana plugs, you just expose a bit at the ends of each speaker cable and you will notice you can unscrew the speaker and amplifier terminals, so they move further forward. You just place the speaker cable through the hole which has been created from doing that and then screw the speaker terminal and amp terminal tight against the cable. The only thing is with thicker speaker cable that is quite fiddly.to do hence the convenience of banana plugs and in addition if you ever need to move things around, then banana plugs just allow you to plug and play.

I am trying to cover all bases mr newbie (the irony) lol, when you get the speaker stands, be sure to fill them with dry kiln sand which can be bought very easily and will definitely aid all aspects of the speakers sound (assuming you are ordering Atacama Nexus) if you have ordered the soundstyle stands, ignore that as they aren't designed to be fillable.

 

[up the music]

And don't forget the blu tac. The Beresford is pretty light, not flimsy, just not weighty. I use a little blu tac under each corner to secure it.

Have you read PJPro's thread on getting best audio output from your PC here?

This seems to be the cheapest banana plugs I've found of the type described above.

Do you have speaker stands? Ideally get proper ones but if you're really tight for money Newcastle Brown crates offer better rigidity and a smaller footprint than milk crates. I'm thinking back to my student days here, unlike most stands they sound better if you drink the filling material.

 

[Anonymous]

Cheers for your help man, would have made some bad decicions with out this forum. The cable you recommneded seams quite thick so would it be best to go the banna plug route? It seams expensive to buy it pre-banana'd lol, is it hard to do yourself?

I haven't decided on the stand yet, i was leaning towards the soundstyle. I live in the attic of a shared house that i get though up very narrow and steap stairs, so i'm not sure about lugging stands filled with sand up them. I'm also not entirly sure that the floor is as robust as it could be!

What about power conditoners? Is it worth it?

 

[up the music]

Ideally fill the stands in your room, but they wouldn't be impossibly heavy to lug up the stairs.

As for banana plugs the type I've added in the link above take about 10 seconds each to put on and the same to take off. The cable goes through that big hole in the side and the end screws on to clamp it. Solder types require a liitle more work but are not fiddly. We're not dealing with tiny components in confined spaces using tiny wires here. They are a good beginners soldering task.

If your house wiring is old or bad you'll get more benefit from a conditioner such as the Tacima 929 than in a new build with no major industry around. Some people appear to find they strangle dynamics but these are mostly people with good wiring.

Another idea. If you end up putting the PC on a surface of some sort try squash balls cut in half under it to reduce resonances into whatever it's sat on.

 

[Anonymous]

You live in the attic

I didn't know you were such a black sheep lol.

In seriousness I agree with up the music and as for the speaker stands, my memory might be playing tricks with me (always possible even at 26) but I thought you mentioned the soundstyle speakers not being tall enough. Therefore i recommended the Atacama Nexus 7 as when the top plate, the spikes were fited etc, that it brought the total height (including the speaker) to over 1.1 metres. In terms of the weight, well you just need to take the speaker stands up first and scoop up a fair amount of the sand into some kind of container or other, that will prevent you from falling off the ladder half way up!

 

[Anonymous]

hi fi newbie:

You live in the attic

I didn't know you were such a black sheep lol.

In seriousness I agree with up the music and as for the speaker stands, my memory might be playing tricks with me (always possible even at 26) but I thought you mentioned the soundstyle speakers not being tall enough. Therefore i recommended the Atacama Nexus 7 as when the top plate, the spikes were fited etc, that it brought the total height (including the speaker) to over 1.1 metres. In terms of the weight, well you just need to take the speaker stands up first and scoop up a fair amount of the sand into some kind of container or other, that will prevent you from falling off the ladder half way up!

You did indeed recommend me the Nexus stands, good memory!!! But i though about it and the height shouldn't be a problem anymore i don't think as buy that point i hadn't tested the Lektor's, now i have any they seam to project the sound up ok. Is there any advantage sound qualtiy wise to the Nexus? I mean how much would the sand cost and where would i get it? Like B & Q or summit?

Music - Cheers for that, i'll get some banana plugs then!

On a totaly diffrent note can you recommend me some speaker wire for my surround sound set up? I have a sony str dg820 and the Tanny sfx 5.1 speakers. I would like the cable to be thin and not to expensive as i plan to replace the Tannoy system next year maybe.

 

[Anonymous]

Building yards sell bags of the dry kiln sand, cost me a fiver per bag. The advantage is that they are fillable unlike soundstyle but I have never been able to compare the two of them.

Yes, the QED mico wire is both very cheap, thin and my speakers still sound good using it.

 

[Anonymous]

Ok so i emailed Stan who makes the TC-7510 and he recommended that i buy the TC-7520 instead. Now i don't want the usb interface but Stan said the TC-7520 is better sounding. Opions?