Upgrade advice: moving to FLAC

ab9tgb

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After 10 years I'm looking seriously at ditching my old set-up (Rega Planet and Brio, Kef Q1). I'm not listening to music through CD enough at home, but what I play is MP3 format stored on my Mac Mini. I'm looking at the LIV Zen+ to store all CDs in FLAC format which I'll then play through the Mac Mini (probably using Pure Music). I've been looking at the Rega DAC and Brio R. I plan on pairing with Kef R300s having tested the R100s, LS50s and R300s. I might play through the house with Airplay, but thats not for proper listening. Someone has just suggested that I have a listen to the Naim UnitiQute as a means of having a one box alternative, so will try and have a listen. All thoughts welcome. Only problem is that I'm in Hong Kong and it makes trying out and buying a little tough. Cheers
 

cheeseboy

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if you're not going to play anything out of the liv device, maybe easier to just buy an el cheapo pc and put vortexbox on yourself - it's easy to do and may save you a a couple of hundred notes...
 

stevebrock

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Mac Mini via optical straight in to a Rega DAC - use your iOS device to control it - job done!

Make sure you rip in ALAC to your Mac Mini - ALAC is the same as FLAC in terms of SQ!

Sat here listening to my MacBook Pro ALAC files via optical straight into my Rega DAC and I cant distinguish it from Red Book CD.

The Rega has a lovely sound - Yes the Unitqute is a great little system, I have heard it side by side with the Rega Brio R/DAC and it isnt quite as engaging or musical as the Rega - however its personal taste and you may like it!

The unitiqute is a little down on power, however the Rega Brio R will drive plenty of speakers to moderate levels and if you ever fancy a TT then Rega has a phono stage albeit a very good one.
 

ngibbs

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stevebrock said:
Mac Mini via optical straight in to a Rega DAC - use your iOS device to control it - job done!

Make sure you rip in ALAC to your Mac Mini - ALAC is the same as FLAC in terms of SQ!

Sat here listening to my MacBook Pro ALAC files via optical straight into my Rega DAC and I cant distinguish it from Red Book CD.

The Rega has a lovely sound - Yes the Unitqute is a great little system, I have heard it side by side with the Rega Brio R/DAC and it isnt quite as engaging or musical as the Rega - however its personal taste and you may like it!

The unitiqute is a little down on power, however the Rega Brio R will drive plenty of speakers to moderate levels and if you ever fancy a TT then Rega has a phono stage albeit a very good one.

+ add Bit Perfect to iTunes. Makes an enormous difference imo - and something of a barfain at 8 quid or so.
 

BigH

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I would have thought the KEF R100s would be the best for the Rega Brio R, the LS50s need quite a bit of power (depends on your room size and what volume) not sure if the Rega is really upto it, I found it struggling with the B&W CM1s which I think are a similar sensitivity.
 

ab9tgb

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Thanks for all the input. I preferred the Rega sound when I bought my old system, but want to make sure that I'm not missing anything with the unitiQute.

I'm going to go down the route of the R300s. The R100s didnt stand up to the LS50s or the R300s. The R300s outshone the LS50s on a further demo with Massive Attack, Nitin Sawhney etc. The view of the Kef store was that the R300s dont require as much driving as the LS50s.
 

DanielTura

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At that price range u might allso want to try a Marantz PM7004+NA7004(if u can) they should pair very well with KEFs(how well is going to depend on your personal tastes).
 

Overdose

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ab9tgb said:
Thanks for all the input. I preferred the Rega sound when I bought my old system, but want to make sure that I'm not missing anything with the unitiQute.

I'm going to go down the route of the R300s. The R100s didnt stand up to the LS50s or the R300s. The R300s outshone the LS50s on a further demo with Massive Attack, Nitin Sawhney etc. The view of the Kef store was that the R300s dont require as much driving as the LS50s.

I store and play back music via my Mac mini. A separate HDD is used for music backup, all files are ALAC (except on mobile devices, where I use 192 AAC VBR) and played via iTunes.

I prefer to keep things as simple as possible, so I would recommend simply connecting Mac to DAC via optical cable.
 

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