ahgee2
13-01-2017, 11:22
I'm new here and wanted to say hello.
My hifi background is fairly ancient history, with some decent kit I bought many years ago as a student, and have lived with happily ever since: a Sonic Link DM20 integrated amplifier, the original Arcam Alpha CD player, a lovely pair of Ruark Icon loudspeakers. More recently, a home theatre PC was added, I ripped my entire CD collection to decent quality files, and listen to everything (music, TV, radio) through the PC. My music tastes are mostly jazz and classical, with a little bit of world, folk and pop thrown in for variety.
What brought me here was a need to reconfigure my system, brought on by the gradual failure of the amp, and I have found the expertise on these boards extremely helpful. Thank you everyone. The DM20 is a lovely amp but is now showing its age. There is some left channel crackling/cutting out affected by the balance control. I am sure this could be fixed easily by somebody who knows what they're doing, but I don't tick that box. So I started looking around for alternatives. Being from Cambridge and keen to support local industry, I couldn't resist trying the Amptastic Mini-1, which arrived a few days ago. I love its clarity and precision, but am missing a bit of bass at low volumes (which is how I normally listen), something the DM20 does better.
I would welcome any advice about fixing the DM20 or improving the Mini-1 experience. One obvious flaw in my system is the use of analogue audio out from the PC. I wonder whether a (not too expensive) DAC would make a significant difference?
Anyhow, that's probably enough for now, I imagine I'm supposed to post queries elsewhere. Thanks for having me!
My hifi background is fairly ancient history, with some decent kit I bought many years ago as a student, and have lived with happily ever since: a Sonic Link DM20 integrated amplifier, the original Arcam Alpha CD player, a lovely pair of Ruark Icon loudspeakers. More recently, a home theatre PC was added, I ripped my entire CD collection to decent quality files, and listen to everything (music, TV, radio) through the PC. My music tastes are mostly jazz and classical, with a little bit of world, folk and pop thrown in for variety.
What brought me here was a need to reconfigure my system, brought on by the gradual failure of the amp, and I have found the expertise on these boards extremely helpful. Thank you everyone. The DM20 is a lovely amp but is now showing its age. There is some left channel crackling/cutting out affected by the balance control. I am sure this could be fixed easily by somebody who knows what they're doing, but I don't tick that box. So I started looking around for alternatives. Being from Cambridge and keen to support local industry, I couldn't resist trying the Amptastic Mini-1, which arrived a few days ago. I love its clarity and precision, but am missing a bit of bass at low volumes (which is how I normally listen), something the DM20 does better.
I would welcome any advice about fixing the DM20 or improving the Mini-1 experience. One obvious flaw in my system is the use of analogue audio out from the PC. I wonder whether a (not too expensive) DAC would make a significant difference?
Anyhow, that's probably enough for now, I imagine I'm supposed to post queries elsewhere. Thanks for having me!