Croweproductions

Being an audiophile and working with alot of recording studios locally, and also run sound at our local 500 seat church every Sunday, I can say that in my circle, audiophile recording and sound reinforcement is sorely lacking. The 5% that care have very nice tube pre's, neumann and vintage telefunken mic's, ribbon mic's, all digital boards, etc. For sound reinforcment, My brother and I sometimes bring in our own home DIY horn speakers to church, and amaze the congregation, compared to the installed pro QSC's, that are "supposed" to be good in the pro audio world. You don't need a golden ear to tell what is good sound, but getting there is both art and science. I think there is a huge market for "minimal audiophile recording and sound reinforcment" in our area. We have jazz festivals, and a lot of musicians. Might do that someday.

I've had crackling happen after a while using Pure Music-turned out to be not enough ram to handle the increased processing power. Might have to restore defaults and see if it goes away. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I had B&W 683 for a few years. Awesome bass and midrange, but slighlty gritty tweeter. CM9 is much better. Also, 610xp sub is very fast if you're for something for jazz. Beware of B&W impedance dip, requires big amp that will double down on lower loads. +1 on maggies. They just sound so right. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm going to throw another wrench in the discussion. Be careful assuming people just like colored sound with tubes or vintage systems. Every system is colored no matter how good it is. I have learned to choose my coloring for musical enjoyment like others have mentioned. I lived with electrostats but grew tired of the plastic film coloring. Same is true with poly woofers. Then I heard voices on an old paper cone Philips fullrange, and it blew my mind! I tried tube/SS hybrid amps but could always hear the solid state notch distortion(I presume that was what I was hearing). It was just masking a problem. I believe you have to spend ALOT on a solid state amp to get rid of this, when a tube amp has a more pure sine wave tone that I find enjoyable, especially for jazz. Properly setup vintage Altec or vintage JBL (no, not your moms SUV system or Heresy's) will sound surprising life like and similar to mega buck modern speakers. They are a better value IMO, although used prices keep rising. Whenever someone claims a system is SOOO revealing, that it can only play well recorded music, red flags go off, because they could easily be mistaking resolution for a nasty peak or problem somewhere. I would strongly encourage an entry level tube amp, like a el84 triode, paired with some good'ol alnico paper cone fullranges. Do some late night listening and be drawn into the music. Decware or Bottlehead might be worth researching in this regard, however I have no direct experience with them. Going back to overpriced mainstream would be several steps backwards in my journey IMO. Are you interested in possibly building your own speakers someday Crenca? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No. They are mid fi because they sound mid fi. As I said, when compared to a similiarly priced tube amp, paired with high effeciency speakers like Tekton, Fostex, vintage Altec it JBL, there simply is no comparison. However that said, I do agree with Genelec or ADC monitors as an option for clean uncolored sound. Also have heard Magnapan paired with Prima Luna, and it was magic, assuming OP has some room. Also, highy respect Reference 3A and Harbeth, always a favorite at the audio shows. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I lived with NAD for over 10 years, but my dealer eventually stopped carrying it because "literally everything came back broke". Their quality went down the drain. So call me a hater, yes NAD sucks. I stand by that. Regarding emotiva, installed a large home theatre with Emotiva and hall all sorts of problems, sent back to emotiva a few times. Comparing both to equally priced alternatives, especially in the tube department, they are simple mid fi, and that is not what the OP is looking for. I wished someone had told me that 10 years ago and introduced me to high effiency speakers/tube combos. It taught me what "musical" IS. Sometimes we don't do anyone any favours by saying "oh, its all personal taste, don't judge, don't hate." It's just equipment were talking a about not people! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Tekton with Emotiva?! That will sound like garbage. Emotiva is mid fi having lived with them. Nice, but not HI Fi. Go tubes. Look at pairing Tekton Lure 2.0 with Musical Paradise mp-d1 tube dac and a mp-301 mk3. NAD sucks too. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Windows version of JRiver sounds way better on my system than Mac version. (running Windows XP Parallels on my Macbook Pro as a direct comparison). Also, Pure Music (which I've owned for 3 years) doesn't sound as good as JRiver. You can't compare sound quality of the digital domain without comparing the Digital to Analogue interactions. It's a valid way of checking if something is bit perfect, just don't call it a "sound quality comparison".

B&w Aluminum domes can easily be unscrewed from the magnet and then push it out from behind. This however will still leave a scar on the metal dome, so instead you can just order a new dome piece from an authorized B&W dealer. My 601 S3 cost $50 each to replace.

Is there a way to output via the macs optical out to a 6 channel LPCM signal to a high end home theater receiver and connect/configure the speakers so that rear channels=tweeters, sides=mids, and mains=woofers?? I have read everything above, and would like to avoid buying a multiple channel DAC while at the same time utilize the high end wolfson DACS in my Elite SC-25 receiver.