Tonto

All I can say. I have NEVER seen an online reviewer EVER do what you just did - and really highlights your integrety and passion for our hobby. Well Done! <br /> I strongly recommend a donations link on the site so you can be rewarded for your time and efforts.<br />

"I have used a SONOS ZP90 with my PS Audio DL III DAC and compared it against my MAC Mini with iTunes. The sound of the MAC was significantly better, so I sold the SONOS. Upgrading the MAC with a good player software like Pure Vinyl improved the sound even more. So definetely a thumbs up for the MAC." Yay! I've been waiting for a straight up answer on this for ages! I have been fip flopping between the two siding toward the Sonos mostly although I really wanted something I could shove a CD in to rip right away. I was even tempted at one stage to use the Mac Mini AS the NAS using a larger internal or usb external. Then AEX to the hifi

Photos please ! The cool thing about the Neutron 2.1 is it has way more digital inputs and a USB input aswell. The thing I find slightly annoying about my ADM9.1s are I run out of digital inputs x2 (Digital TV, PS3, AEX) and there is only Optical (although you can specify Coax when you order). Also all the wires head to one speaker and a power point per speaker makes cord managment difficult. Wheres on the Neutron everything goes to the Sub and then wire to the rest. Can definitly see the Neutrons in my lounge with the TV/PS3 and the ADM9.1 in a dedicated audio room.

Thank You!

Thought I would bump up my previous post as no answers thus far- surely someone is doing this??? If there is a thread previously I have missed please point me the way- overall I just want to hear you experiences good and bad so I know what to look out for. Btw its pretty likely I will go down Mac Miniville later and/or Sonos so currently building things up one step at a time.

Welcome to the forum! A few ideas from someone who has gone from 5.1 to a 2.1 computer based system (Will soon be running from my laptop). In terms of DAC to Active Speakers make sure the Actives have a preamp inside so you can control the volume from there (most will agree much better to do than using the volume control in Windows. Some of these models also have subouts so it can be evenly controlled with the same volume control. In regards to subs if you want to reduce the clutter you can go with active standmounters which tend to perform better than their passive bretheren then the sub takes care of the rest including the all inportant LFE channel in movies. Now if you arn't too fussed on DAC choices you could go with something like my ADM9.1s but another cool options is to go with a nice DAC/Preamp and then on to speakers with power amps inside. Just so I don't sound like an AVI salesperson other great choices I looked at were actives from Quad, Dynaudio and if you have some money and want an integrated DAC go Meridian or ADAM (of course it depends where you are. Good sub companies are the likes of REL, SVS the higher end Velodynes plus some of the brands listed above. Of course all YMMV, just sharing my experience. Looking forward to other opinions as I have the same kind of philosophy. BTW Bluray on 2.1 is awesome and can be delivered full res over optical YES!

Anyone using the above config? I have decided to use iTunes + AEX so I can avoid the dreaded KMixer and I'm not too fussed on 24/96+ at the moment. Laptop Specs are a Sony Vaio CS16 Intel Core2 Duo Processor P8400 2.26 GHZ and 2GB RAM (800hz) 32bit Vista Home Premium.

Not so great for me as I want to keep the boxes to a minimum- cool gaget though

Bummer, I was thinking of getting a BDP-83 to partner with my ADM9s guess no point now with no Hires over optical.

Has anyone compared the sound quality of their Mac Mini vs their Sonos? The sampling rate to me is a bit of a non-issue with this topic as both AEX and Apple TV are also restircted to 16/44 and would need to be used to get the multi room fuctionality of the Sonos.

Nice work! Bring on the Sonos comparison! ;P

I can't get over how many people don't bring music to listen to and a favourite movie to demo products. You need at least "some" point of reference! The other tip is to make sure the TVs are not set on Vivid/Dynamic/Showroom modes which are almost always too bright. Give the Pioneer a whirl its a great TV - grab it before they cease production! And that is from someone working for a competitor brand!!! Its a shame the NAD gear didn't do it for you as I always have a soft spot for them. Maybe the PSBs were abit too forward for you. The NADS to like to rock but maybe too much. I would throw two other brands your way Sonus Faber Speakers and Unico/Audio Analogue. All are Itallian made with beautiful finish but more importantly a lush warm sound. I believe models would fall in your price range if you are looking at M3s.

I agree with Eloise, if two channel is what you want best results from then I wouldn't go the AV reciever route. For the same money as a hi end AV reciever (which is what you will need to get close to that demo you heard) you can get a REALLY good Integrated amp. It terms of upscalling the DVDs I wouldn't worry too much about that. An HDMI DVD player will upscale for you anyway and often the upscalling which occurs in every HD TV will be better anyway! Later on you could plug the DVD into the DAC as well as computer to get a nice CD/DVD transport. Also in my personal experience I have recently "downgraded" from a multichannel system to a 2 channel system and never looked back. One of the things that really impressed was Music DVDs. So here goes: Nice sounding DVD player (perhaps a SACD/DVD Audio universal if audio is your thing- Marantz do these) + Nice powerfull int amp as Smaller speakers often require more power, remember power doesn't always equal overall loudness but ability to transfer subtle information from the disk. Then the PSBs which I have heard nothing but good things about. But yes Listen, listen, listen and try to get a home demo when you are down to your final choice.

I now have a shiny new D-Link DNS323! It worked faultlessly straightaway and my reripped WAV files sound supurb. One thing of note this NAS doesn't play nice with the PS3 for some reason which is pretty frustrating (something to do with the type of DNLA it uses) I can access it but all the songs get dumped into one big song list no matter what folder they sit in. I'm sure there is a workaround but the point was something that was seemless and hassle free. Sonos is speaking to me louder each passing day! Please note the above NAS for all else is fantastic and well priced so recommended except for the PS3 compatibility.

I'm looking to rip to WMA Lossless - the PS3 DOES play it (I found out last week) however as a media client. My question was if I went to a different system later could I convert those files to WAV/AIFF/ALAC/FLAC without re-ripping the whole shebang. I probably confused things by incorrectly using the transcoding terminology.