Dougs Big Messy Stereo

[Box13]

I changed my system, not by an addition, but by a subtraction!

I found the Rega DAC/Luxman combination to be too "in your face" for me. So now I have two digital sources: the Rega Planet 2000 and the Squeezebox Touch, both with their built-in DACs. I like the Planet; it's fairly laid back as far as sound goes. The SBT is just OK -- I can live with it until I find a DAC more suited to my tastes.

So...one less power cord to deal with.

Messing with the digital side of things makes me glad that I have a lot of LPs....

Is the Planet like the Planar in terms of sound quality?

[dougmon]

Is the Planet like the Planar in terms of sound quality?

The Planet 2000 is the CD player. I thought a Planar was a turntable; or at least I remember my first Rega turntable being called a Planar 3. So I'm slightly confused here. Are you asking if the CD player is like a turntable in terms of sound quality? Or did Rega once have a turntable called the Planet, and I'm just unaware of it?

[struth]

not sure which way he was meaning but yes, Rega did make a TT in the early 70's called the planet.

[dougmon]

not sure which way he was meaning but yes, Rega did make a TT in the early 70's called the planet.

Ah, ok...there seems to be this whole history of British Hi-Fi I know nothing about. For a while, I thought that many of you had quadrophonic systems. Or some unknown "name" brand. Go figure.

[dougmon]

One small change in the system: I replaced the Rega DAC with a Muse HIFI DIR9001 + TDA1543x4 DAC. It's a NOS DAC that cost about 35 GBP or about 50 USD. I'm sure it's not the best implementation of NOS that's available, but I wanted to see if I liked the NOS sound. Turns out that I do, and I'll be looking for an NOS DAC sometime in the future.

I'd post a picture of it, but it's a tiny box, so it's lost somewhere in my cable mess You can see a picture of it on Ebay if you look.

The DAC does have drawbacks -- it's not always great sounding, but it's a lot better sounding than its price would indicate.

[Macca]

Ah, ok...there seems to be this whole history of British Hi-Fi I know nothing about. For a while, I thought that many of you had quadrophonic systems. Or some unknown "name" brand. Go figure.

LOL - when I first went to LA I was surprised by the number of little hardware stores: every strip-mall had one. Until I found out that a 'Nail Bar' was something entirely different from what I thought it was.

[Haselsh1]

Wow... would love to hear those loudspeakers on the end of Croft pre/power amplification.

[dougmon]

Wow... would love to hear those loudspeakers on the end of Croft pre/power amplification.

As would I. There are a number of UK or European brands I would like to hear, but they're just not available here; Croft is one that looks very interesting.

[SLS]

I'm surprised the Luxman is powerful enough for the Harbeth. I lived with Harbeth and similar powered Class A valve amp for about 9 months, but on critical deep bass it just could not control the Radial 2 drivers. That said, for 95% of listening it was fine, just fell over at the low end.

http://www.harbeth.co.uk/usergroup/s...x-with-C7-ES-3

[dougmon]

I'm surprised the Luxman is powerful enough for the Harbeth. I lived with Harbeth and similar powered Class A valve amp for about 9 months, but on critical deep bass it just could not control the Radial 2 drivers. That said, for 95% of listening it was fine, just fell over at the low end.

Was it the C7ES speakers you had, or something larger? I see you have SHL5 speakers in your signature.

I used tube amps for years, and there was almost _no_ low end -- so when I moved to the Luxman, it seemed to me as if there was excessive low end

I usually listen between 1-3 watts (or so I've been told by some serious stereo guys), so the Luxman has more than enough power for me. I think it's a great amp for people who like tubes, are tired of fussing with tubes, and are willing to compromise a little on the sound. Right now I'm running an NOS dac for digital and a tubed phono preamp for vinyl, so it all sounds pretty good to me.