DavidS

Have a couple thousand cds from my collecting days but don't buy them anymore - everything I want / need is on the streaming service. Have no plans to rip cds. Just looking to continue simplifying and get better sound from my source. Read about new Mytek Brooklyn Bridge on weekend, plus looking at streamers, just not sure if this is moving chairs on the deck vs making a real improvement to what I have.

another bullet I should have included in my OP post. about 2 years ago I had a great vinyl setup. It sounded better than cds. I had about 1200 records that took up a lot of room. I discovered that I like new and latest releases, exploring interesting artists but having access to a much larger library than $40 a pop records could ever allow me. So love what Tidal and Roon offer - every day a new discovery.... the Lampizator dac is good - it was personally modded by Lukas about 5 years ago so competes with his big boys. Appreciate the advice about spdif convertor, maybe the sonore microrendu has been the wrong rabbit hole, or better just more lost in the woods.

I think my source (digital) is my weak link. Cds still sound better than Roon/Tidal through a microrendu and Exogal dac. There are many choices out there and guess I need to do the research to take things up a notch but not sure I see the path. A couple of notes: I have good dacs - I have an older Lampizator that is still best dac I have heard but only digital rca connection (I no longer have spdif converter see bullet #2), I also have a Exogal Comet Plus which I use for digital streaming I hate all the little boxes that come with using the Lampizator for streaming and seem to hang off the microrendu (have an Uptone LPs1) I know very little about streamers but they seem more convenient - but maybe convenient does not = great sound with streaming maybe streaming is not there yet or I am using wrong software in Tidal and Roon? The goal: I want to make next step to high quality computer audio (I know this is now called audiophile style). Budget about $5K. If you were me where would you go from hold the course to blow it up and go different direction. Thanks for any feedback you provide - hoping it kickstarts that research I talked about My other gear is Sachs Model 1 preamp, Mivera class D amp, KEF ls50 speakers, all in a small 12 x 13 room. Good headphone setup as well (Cavelli and ZMF Atticus) in which cd also sounds better than streaming. Help me get out of the woods!

yes overkill is probably the wrong word - on the positive side of things sweet spot probably describes things better. With my constraints of 1. extremely small room - 9 by 11 feet 2. listening at low volumes - I really don't enjoy headphones so knowing I won't get full listening experience at low volume so as to not disturb neighbours on both sides 3. short timeframe - my job and apartment are temporary - 10 months, 2 weeks per month (I have a nice system at home) means I have to be practical and realistic about the sweet spot and the diminishing returns of spending too much on speakers still the x300a is top of list with the jbl lsr305, vanatoo transparent one, and audioegine 5+ in the mix. Will let you know how it turns out if I go with the Kefs

I don't own these speakers but would love them for a second system. You would need an amp and a dac (many now being made in one box) to play music from a computer. Interesting read DAR speculating about an active LS50 which I think would sell boatloads for KEF - not sure if it is really in the works but given the success of the KEF x300a it makes sense for them and people looking for a high quality system for smaller space.

thanks for the feedback. I had audioengine 2's that have died - I was always amazed at how good this little speaker could be when teamed with a good dac and given a little bit of breathing space. They also worked good with my tv although I admit they were no home theater experience just an upgrade on the TV's own sound. Any more thoughts on the 300a's in a pretty small room (9 x 12) and listening a low volume - still wondering if just go back to audioengine or try a vanatoo for all the quality I will loose given my circumstances. Thinking the 300a's may be overkill for how I will use them as much as I would love to try the little KEF's.

I have been thinking about buying the 300a's for about a month now. Suits my needs real good for now where I am away from home in a small apartment for 2 weeks out of every month for the rest of the year. Less boxes the better. Just not sure what I do with the speakers after I am done with my temporary home - is there a work around to plug them into a tv to use as home theater speakers? Also wondering how decent the dac is - some of the reviews had it as just okay. Mostly running roon through usb but have curious cables and regen but is all this maybe wasted on a low quality dac. So alternative would be decent powered speakers and a decent affordable dac - starting to build the box count again, guess I am wondering how much I need to spend on dac and powered speakers to get to the sound quality of the 300A? Any thoughts? How is this working for others. David

Here is another example of everything makes a difference. I now have about 20 hours on my regen and curious link. This morning the sound was okay but was still hearing congestion and not the magic I was expecting. Can honestly say my cd and vinyl setups were sounding better but still needing some burn in. This afternoon got thinking about what could be the bottleneck. I use an Hiface Evo spdif converter and was thinking maybe that is the problem, although it gets great reviews especially with upgraded power supply. Then got thinking about the old digital cable I use between the Evo and my Lampizator dac. Just playing around replaced the cable with a single side of zu varial rca - BINGO BONGO - Leonard Cohen is in my room - where did he come from! Unfortunately heading off for weekend - I want to play everything now and no time - dougghhht! More later. David

I had some similar impressions to 1 1/2 after installing the short curious link and a new Regen yesterday. Played Joe Jackson's Night and Day and was like piano was running off out of the room with a mind of it's own. Both products are fresh out of the box so confident that a little break-in will settle things down - the dynamics were pretty fabulous - just need Duke Ellington to show up and get everyone playing together. Will post more as time gets added although mine will be coloured by the addition of the Regen as well.

My Curious cables arrived this past week. Probably have 25 hours on the .8 m cable while the short one is awaiting the arrival of a Regen. The cable was an immediate upgrade over the Virtue Audio usb I have been using. Not sure I have noticed much significant change since I installed the cable - will have to put the Virtue or also have a Wireworld back in later this week. Mine is feeding a standard dell laptop into an M2Tech Evo converter which then feeds my Lampizator dac. Once Regen arrives this week will be interesting to see how far my digital goes. Right up there with my turntable and vinyl setup now and with Tidal/Roon I may never buy another record or cd for that matter. Looking forward to reading more...

Chris - read above about a max tutorial. Don't find this program very intuitive. Can you point me to where I can find this tutorial. Looking to convert some 24 bit flac files to apple lossless or AIFF that I can use with Itunes and puremusic. Thanks. David

how do I convert a 24 bit flac file to AIFF file that I can use on my mac. Sure there must a primer somewhere?

Not sure I know enough about this software in day 2 of use. My memory play is hilited in green and there is a circular meter that says 1570 mb and has lots of colors which doesn't work real well for me as I am color blind. I can tell you the first night I was using it I tried doing other stuff while I was in memory play and my computer froze up with the spinning beachball of death which I am told means my ram is overtaxed (which makes sense with memory play - may need 8 gbs vs current 4) so have been careful to run music only when in memory play. Also don't think the PureMusic will play with streaming music which has to be 50% of my listening so jury is still out on whether the software is a keeper as good as it is sounding. I will try experimenting with other settings such as upsample - think I saw something about nos mode.

I downloaded the Pure Music demo on Monday and have been trying it out since. Mostly using the memory play function and definately a more resolved, relaxed presentation. What other setting are you using - what works and why? Using mine on a MacBook Pro via usb to a dacmagic although also have a hiface coming and an Audio Note dac waiting to be hooked up. David

weird re mutine - was a couple of days before Pascal at Mutine replied to me the first time but after that he was an over-communicator. Excellent confirmations, emailed receipt, and all the mail / tracking information. So far my experience has been first class - Hiface should get here Tuesday or Wednesday.