Been awhile. Thinking about upgrade. Amp recommendations?

heiney9

Ok, square one.

What are wanting to accomplish here? Finding a 4 input dac is going to be next to impossible. Is this for a mix of HT and 2 channel?

H9

concealer404

heiney9 wrote: »

Ok, square one.

What are wanting to accomplish here? Finding a 4 input dac is going to be next to impossible. Is this for a mix of HT and 2 channel?

H9

Well... yes. By "HT" i mean i watch movies, sound comes out of my 2 channel rig.

I'm cool with leaving the TV out and i'm getting ahead of myself with the squeezebox.

A 3 input doubling up on SPDIF would be awesome, but seems uncommon. I guess bare minimum, i want to run the CDP and the PS3 through it.




Did you guys miss me?

tonyb

My mistake, I keep thinking Ref 50, not 5.....oops.

Still think a re-start and thought process on what you want to accomplish is in order for you to gain any significant improvement.

concealer404

tonyb wrote: »

My mistake, I keep thinking Ref 50, not 5.....oops.

Still think a re-start and thought process on what you want to accomplish is in order for you to gain any significant improvement.

Unfortunately... that thought process is kindof what got me to where i am right now.

That being a 2-channel setup that handles all my sources.

I suppose i could simplify with a nice strong integrated that handles enough digital inputs for my needs, but i'm not sure if i could talk myself into doing that right now.

heiney9

concealer404 wrote: »

Well... yes. By "HT" i mean i watch movies, sound comes out of my 2 channel rig.

I'm cool with leaving the TV out and i'm getting ahead of myself with the squeezebox.

A 3 input doubling up on SPDIF would be awesome, but seems uncommon. I guess bare minimum, i want to run the CDP and the PS3 through it.




Did you guys miss me?

My Adcom dac has 2 coax and 1 toslink input. I am in the same boat, I watch movies on 2ch.

1 coax has the SQB
1 coax has the DVDp for cd playback
1 Toslink for TV and DVDp for movies because I use HDMI from the DVDp to the TV. The TV has an optical out for anything playing thru the TV which is my Dish Network box, ROKU player and DVDp all hooked up via HDMI. This means the TV acts as the switcher for those devices and sends one output via optical which is hooked to my dac.

If I didn't want the ablility to play cd's via the DVDp direct to the dac I could eliminate one of the coax connections and get by with 1 toslink and 1 coax. That would mean the cd signal would go through the TV and an extra conversion process, not ideal so I choose to have the digital out of the DVDp (when playing cds) to go direct to the dac.

tonyb

You watch movies in 2 channel ? Did I read that right ?

One system for HT/ 2 channel, with connections for all the other sources...is that the objective ?

concealer404

heiney9 wrote: »

My Adcom dac has 2 coax and 1 toslink input. I am in the same boat, I watch movies on 2ch.

1 coax has the SQB
1 coax has the DVDp for cd playback
1 Toslink for TV and DVDp for movies because I use HDMI from the DVDp to the TV. The TV has an optical out for anything playing thru the TV which is my Dish Network box, ROKU player and DVDp all hooked up via HDMI. This means the TV acts as the switcher for those devices and sends one output via optical which is hooked to my dac.

If I didn't want the ablility to play cd's via the DVDp direct to the dac I could eliminate one of the coax connections and get by with 1 toslink and 1 coax. That would mean the cd signal would go through the TV and an extra conversion process, not ideal so I choose to have the digital out of the DVDp (when playing cds) to go direct to the dac.

Hrmmm... i should see if my TV has an optical out. I use HDMI from the Cable, PS3, and BluRay all to the TV, but i'm only using the HDMI cables for video.

Basically if i'm able to do that, i would always leave the Preamp input selector on whatever input the DAC is feeding, and it would pass whatever happens to be going through the TV at the moment?

So i would use Optical on DAC for TV, coax to go direct from CDP.


Any loss in quality using the TV as an "HDMI to Optical" converter? Or is any loss far outweighed by the gain from no longer using the crappy onboard DACs in my sources?

concealer404

tonyb wrote: »

You watch movies in 2 channel ? Did I read that right ?

One system for HT/ 2 channel, with connections for all the other sources...is that the objective ?

Yes... i only have a 2-channel setup, and i'm not setting up a full HT setup anytime soon. Don't have the room.

Basically each one of my sources is fed through the 2-channel setup. Tuner (Tuna!!!!), CDP/BluRay, PS3, Cable box.

If i were to simplify, whatever i get would still have to handle all four of those sources in a 2-channel setup anyways.

tonyb

Cool, maybe look for an Anthem, Classe, Cary processor, used of coarse, all will have plenty of inputs for your needs and their preamp sections are nothing to sneeze at. A used dac and a used B&K amp, and you should see an uptick in your SQ that I believe you will be able to listen to for some time. Even a tubed amp instead of B&K amp will give you another level upwards.

Here's just one option
http://app.audiogon.com/listings/458306

Though I would look for a SSP300 or 600, depending on budget.

concealer404

Heiny, any hands-on/ears-on experience with the Keces DAC?

There's also a GDA700 on the 'Gon right now for $315, but 1) I don't really have room for a full width thing, and 2) It's damn ugly.

tonyb wrote: »

Cool, maybe look for an Anthem, Classe, Cary processor, used of coarse, all will have plenty of inputs for your needs and their preamp sections are nothing to sneeze at. A used dac and a used B&K amp, and you should see an uptick in your SQ that I believe you will be able to listen to for some time. Even a tubed amp instead of B&K amp will give you another level upwards.

Here's just one option
http://app.audiogon.com/listings/458306

Though I would look for a SSP300 or 600, depending on budget.

Wow that looks pretty... Not in the budget right now, unfortunately.

I believe i'm going to go with a DAC now, and maybe look at a better amp in a couple months, then leave it alone for awhile and see how i feel about it then.

The issue isn't that i'm dissatisfied with my current sound, just that i know there's probably some low-hanging fruit that could be picked without a huge hit to budget. Beyond DAC and (from this thread it seems, debatably) a budget-friendly amp, the law of diminishing returns really rears its ugly head.

heiney9

concealer404 wrote: »

Heiny, any hands-on/ears-on experience with the Keces DAC?

There's also a GDA700 on the 'Gon right now for $315, but 1) I don't really have room for a full width thing, and 2) It's damn ugly.

The 700 is a nice dac. I have the 600 but it's modded to bring it closer to today's standard. They really just need some newer Op-amps and some caps.

I currently have a Keces DA-151 in my office rig. It's the USB only version of the DA-131. I am very impressed with the build quality, design, parts and attention to detail. Some say the 131 is even a little better. The sound is excellent. In fact I wasn't expecting it to sound as good as it does.

H9

concealer404

heiney9 wrote: »

The 700 is a nice dac. I have the 600 but it's modded to bring it closer to today's standard. They really just need some newer Op-amps and some caps.

I currently have a Keces DA-151 in my office rig. It's the USB only version of the DA-131. I am very impressed with the build quality, design, parts and attention to detail. Some say the 131 is even a little better. The sound is excellent. In fact I wasn't expecting it to sound as good as it does.

H9

I'm guessing it'd be a better choice to try the Keces than to take my chances on the tubed Jolida? Are there any others i should keep my eye out for?

I have to admit that i don't know much of what to look for in a DAC, other than a digital input or two and an analog output.

heiney9

I think they'll both have the "equal" amount of chance as far as sound/synergy, but I have done some extensive research on the Keces and it's build and parts are top notch. Very few, if any, had any sort of issue, I can't say the same for Jolida, but I'm not knocking them.

Are you ready for what tubes and tube rolling brings? That's just more money :twisted:

H9

concealer404

heiney9 wrote: »

I think they'll both have the "equal" amount of chance as far as sound/synergy, but I have done some extensive research on the Keces and it's build and parts are top notch. Very few, if any, had any sort of issue, I can't say the same for Jolida, but I'm not knocking them.

Are you ready for what tubes and tube rolling brings? That's just more money :twisted:

H9

You mean my tube buffer doesn't count?

I'm pretty sure i spent more in tubes than i did for this stupid thing. (Ok, it's not stupid, it DOES make things sound pretty, but still.)

I will do more research on the Keces. My only complaint so far is that it's silver-faced. But i haven't looked into the company much to see if there's other options.

heiney9

Huh? Silver faced?



Lots of feedback on the 'net.

H9

heiney9

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0808/keces_da151.htm

Plus a lot of feedback on headfi.

Here's a nice Audiogon review that pushed me over the edge to purchase.

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/frr.pl?rdgtl&1227724779&read&d2&zzlDrubin&&

H9

heiney9

Just throwing it out there, it is budget friendly and I think it would make a positive difference and something you can continue to build on in the future.

H9

concealer404

heiney9 wrote: »

Huh? Silver faced?



Lots of feedback on the 'net.

H9

Oops i got confused. It's black. D'oh! Reading those reviews now!

heiney9

Here's another for the 151, they both have about the same sonic signature so this should give you some more to read

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/usbdacs/2.html

For some reason the "enjoythemusic" link is down, it wasn;t a little while ago. Check back later.

H9

concealer404

I got into the enjoythemusic link before it went down, all good. Reviews look great!

I'll be giving this a shot, just have to decide if i want to pull the trigger today, or wait til the next check amount is determined on Wednesday. I'm guessing i'll probably grab it today because i'm impatient.


Do i want any of the upgrades that the seller offers? Thinking about the $30 for the gold socket upgrade.

heiney9

It should be a nice little unit. Is it as good as the Benchmark or W4S or Eastern Electric? no. But still a rewarding sounding dac.

H9

cnh

DACs are nice but I'm pretty happy with my Jolida. Actually they stopped making my model because they decided to streamline their offerings and just do one new 100 series and the newer 200 series and lower the costs. My equipment shipped directly from China and arrived safely and has been working "perfectly" for almost a year now (amp and CDP).

Whatever works is good! Guess I should have read posts on "page 2". Looks like DACs!

Happy hunting!

cnh

EndersShadow

Personally my suggestion would be to wait on the results of this thread: http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?128951-Entry-Level-DAC-Comparison

Its a head to head of most of the decent DAC's under 500. I believe H9 sent his Keces to be added to this shoot-out. I have been searching for a decent USB DAC for about 9 months and most of the ones on his list were ones I considered or am still considering.

concealer404

Heh funny he mentions the FiiO units, i was looking at those for work purposes.

heiney9

EndersShadow wrote: »

Personally my suggestion would be to wait on the results of this thread: http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?128951-Entry-Level-DAC-Comparison

Its a head to head of most of the decent DAC's under 500. I believe H9 sent his Keces to be added to this shoot-out. I have been searching for a decent USB DAC for about 9 months and most of the ones on his list were ones I considered or am still considering.

I am hoping to hear back from Danny re: sending my Keces. My concern is he doesn't have a USB source so he would be converting to SPDIF and I have been doing a lot of reading and can't find one good thing about it. It's frowned upon for being less than ideal to convert USB to SPDIF, I don't want the Keces or other models to be at a disadvantage. Apples to Apples kind of thing.

H9

concealer404

cnh wrote: »

DACs are nice but I'm pretty happy with my Jolida. Actually they stopped making my model because they decided to streamline their offerings and just do one new 100 series and the newer 200 series and lower the costs. My equipment shipped directly from China and arrived safely and has been working "perfectly" for almost a year now (amp and CDP).

Whatever works is good! Guess I should have read posts on "page 2". Looks like DACs!

Happy hunting!

cnh

It'll probably end up being both in the next few months... i haven't had a B&K amp through here yet, and it'd be nice to have some matching stuff for once.

polkfarmboy

You missed alot of these deals but there is still a few good ones available if you need new interconnects from MIT

http://www.mitcablesexpress.com/index.php?page=shop.browse&category_id=107&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=14

concealer404

Some damn nice deals! I'm good on ICs, though, thanks!

nikolas812

B&K ST-140. One of the sweetest amps ive owned... You can pick them up for $200 all day..

Nik

concealer404

nikolas812 wrote: »

B&K ST-140. One of the sweetest amps ive owned... You can pick them up for $200 all day..

Nik

You still just a bit south of me, Nik? I'll be running back and forth between here and Louistucky at least 2-3x a month starting late spring, we'll have to catch up.