dercius

I know this is gonna sound crazy but I would urge you to give the NAD M51 a listen before buying anything. It runs about 2000pounds if I'm not wrong and it sounds pretty amazing, beating (in my opinion as well as several others) several much pricier DACs like the Weiss 202 and the Esoteric D-07

I have yet to hear the Mytek (DSD at less than 2k sounds great though) but I can confirm that the NAD M51 is a stunning overachiever. I was at a local meet where it went up against a Berkeley Alpha 2, Esoteric D-07, Calyx DAC, Weiss 202 and Audio Research CD8. All DACs were used via digital cables from the AR CD8 as transport except for the Calyx and Weiss which were run off a macintosh desktop via usb and firewire respectively. Well, it was a huge surprise but in the blind listening test, where someone covered the dacs up and changed them while everyone else listened and voted, the NAD M51 was ranked highest from 7 of the 9 people present and the other two ranked it second, one each behind the Weiss and the AR CD8. This was a really impressive result and though I was the one who voted for the Weiss as tops, it was more a personal preference thing as I noted in my comments that day as I felt the Weiss had richer midrange. Just a fyi, the cables used were Tara labs, amplification was a AR LS-27 pre running into some AR monoblocks, not sure which model. Speakers were the very very impressive Focal Stella utopia EMs

Thanks. Yup, decided to go with the 1.7 plus sub combo since everyone I've talked to has told me that the 1.7s by themselves are already pretty much better than the 3.6. Forum member dyl1dyl even told me one of his friends is trying to sell his 3.6rs now to get a pair of 1.7s with sub or 3.7s. Told me that the 3.6r just sounds very incoherent and out of phase compared to the X.7 maggies. Anyway, thanks for all the help. Will be getting the 1.7s with Rhythmik F15 and will try and post up a short write up about them after they arrive.

Please drop me a personal message if you/your friend get around to setting up a 1.7 plus subwoofer setup. Am considering a similar setup and would love to know how that compares to a 3.6 setup. Great read btw.

Thanks for the comments. I'd love the 3.7s but don't want to spend too much as this is for a sitting room, not my main system and I'm already in trouble with the lady for spending too much. So, what I'm interested in knowing is whether a 1.7 with a good sub like the Rhythmik F12/F15 would be superior to the 3.6? This will be in a sitting room that is rectangular, about 5metres width and 7metres length. The speakers will be placed along the back (5m long) wall and I can afford about 1.5-2 metres space behind them to let them "breathe" ( I hear magneplanars should have space behind them). Thank you again for all comments. I never knew there was so much help available on online forums.

In my local audio community, there is currently one pair each of the magneplanar 1.7 and 3.6 for sale. I'm really keen to get one as I've heard they are great. However, I'm not sure which one to get. The 3.6 is $800 more which means I could get a 1.7 and a subwoofer or maggie dwm bass module for the same price. I'm really not sure which to get so any advice would be really appreciated. Thanks