mlevinson

I just do not get tired of this album. Sounds fantastic too.

Totally agree with this.

I was in the same boat about a week ago and decided to go with a late 2012 quad core i7. Very happy so far, and like knowing I can upgrade when I need to.

I believe you may be overthinking the external DAC. All the tweaks listed on this site aren't really necessary. I have plugged my Mac straight into my DAC using a cheap USB cable and streamed from iTunes and gotten really good sound. Can it be improved upon, absolutely... but don't let all those tweaks/upgrades scare you away if you want to try it out.

I certainly agree with this. The beauty of a receiver is that internal components were designed to work together. How well they were designed to work together is another question, but the same can be said for separate components. I use a Cambridge Audio 751R for my living room and I use it's internal DAC fed from my Sonos system and am very impressed with it. It was designed with a very nice toroidal power transformer, highly biased transistors and a well executed volume control. It all adds up to make some really, really nice music. It's not cheap, especially for a receiver - but compared to other receivers I listened to it was clearly in another league sonically. In my experience boutique companies like Cambridge choose to compromise on cutting edge features instead focusing on SQ. Most of the other AVR's I listened to certainly had slicker GUI's, more advanced DSP/room correction - but sounded thin, flat and lifeless. The Cambridge is anything but. So, in summary - there are some really nice receivers being built today. As always, there are no absolutes regarding what is "better". Everyone wants different things from their system, so take your time and figure out what is most important and follow that trail.

Whether or not you hear a difference between your receivers preamp section and a dedicated preamp depends on the dedicated preamp. I know that I can hear differences between preamps in my system, but it depends on the rest of your system of course, and how much importance you place on sonic attributes such as soundstage, imaging, etc. If you just want a volume knob, then what you have is fine.

I agree wholeheartedly with Barry.

I agree. I've had my 10T's for a very long time and while there certainly are better speakers out there, I haven't heard a pair that has made me reach for my wallet. They do like big power however.

Thanks. Yes, I know it is the weak link and is the next place I will upgrade, but it's really a killer DAC for the cost IMO. There are so many options however and at the rate that digital is changing, it's difficult to make a big investment. If I could afford it, I would love to replace my Esoteric DV-50 with an Esoteric K-01 and use it's internal DAC's... but that's not going to happen anytime soon. Maybe in a few years when they are a generation or two outdated I can. My DV-50 with HD-DVD burned hi-res material is really still making me very happy.

I ended up going with a 2012 2.3 GHz i7 that I found on Amazon. I don't like the changes that Apple has made so I tried to get the most powerful one I could. It came with 4GB of RAM and a 1TB drive. I plan to add more memory and possibly an SSD in the future.

I've been researching the downsides of the latest mini compared to the outgoing model - which appears to primarily be a lack of upgradeability (soldered RAM, etc). My question however is there any other downside if we were to compare similarly outfitted mini's, old vs new? For example, if I were to buy a new mini with 16GB of RAM, and an SSD compared to a previous generation with an i5 CPU and the same RAM/SSD - is there any consensus on the older sounding better or vice versa? If not, which configuration would you choose if you were buying today? My system is as follows: Source: Esoteric DV-50 (SACD/DVD-A/CD) DAC: Micromega MyDAC Preamp: Mark Levinson 326s Amps: Parasound JC1 mono blocks Speakers: Aerial 10T Cabling: Audioquest Colorado/Meteor and a touch of Audio Magic I'm currently burning high-res music to DVD-A for playback through the Esoteric, but I would like the ability to stream as well to my DAC. I'm really, really confused on which mac mini is the right choice so I'm hoping you guys can help me out. I've listed the "new" Apple options below. Also, what's the consensus on external storage? Would it be a good idea to go with say a 500MB SSD and hang an external drive off it for more storage or do I want all of it internal? Is there a noticeable improvement with an SSD over the latest Fusion offerings? I'm thinking of the 2.8 i5, with 16 MB RAM and the 1TB Fusion drive. Sorry for all the newb questions, and thanks in advance for any guidance. 1.4GHz Mac mini Specifications 1.4GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 4GB memory 500GB hard drive1 Intel HD Graphics 5000 OS X Yosemite $499.00 2.6GHz Mac mini Specifications 2.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 8GB memory 1TB hard drive1 Intel Iris Graphics OS X Yosemite $699.00 2.8GHz Mac mini Specifications 2.8GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 8GB memory 1TB Fusion Drive1 Intel Iris Graphics OS X Yosemite $999.00