Hello from Hong Kong!

[Adrian Ho]

Pleased to join this Forum. Didn't know about it until I was searching around a bit about Magnum Audio and saw posts by Colin Wonfor, a most impressive fellow.

Originally from New York City, I've been based in Hong Kong since 1995. In 1996 I had the chance to buy a Magnum Audio system (Two A.100 Monoblock Amplifiers, with accompanying P.100 Pre-Amplifier and PS.100 Power Supply) from an audiophile friend and I've been very happy with them ever since. They came with a pair of Celestion SL700s, that have now seen better days, but that charmed my ears for years. (Thinking about new speaker options now.) The purchase of this system required me to upgrade a bunch of peripherals (CD, turntable, etc.).

Lately I've been wondering what to do with the Magnums. My wife grew scared of them at home (they just seemed too complicated for her) and our young son was too curious about the buttons and heatsinks, so I moved the whole kit to my office. The A.100s perform admirably up to 10 hours a day, six days a week. (The irony is I feed them with music from the tuner on an old Android phone!)

But occasional stops into stereo stores have made me aware that the world has gone very digital with optical audio cables, NASs, DACs, Streamers, wireless this and that, and ... whew!

A few years ago I spent quite a lot of time transferring 1000+ CDs into iTunes, but have grown to dislike Apple and really want to find another solution. This has caused me of late to question whether I should move beyond my beloved Magnums into something more 'state of the art'. I don't want to give up all wires (especially to speakers), but wouldn't mind having my entire music collection available at the touch of a tablet screen.

I'm sure many of you have been where I am or are there now.

I look forward to any feedback from you.

Cheers,

Adrian

[Audio Al]

Adrian

Welcome to the forum , I can't advise on this digital stuff as I am stuck in the past with all the old formats
Someone here may be able to help

Have fun :)

[Adrian Ho]

Thanks, Audio Al! What is Pishanto?

[Audio Al]

Thanks, Audio Al! What is Pishanto?

Its a forum Joke as I obtain lots of hifi related items from car boot sales , in other words pish / unwanted / cheap , I do get some real bargains , Nearly everything I have is second hand old hifi , I LOVE it :D

[walpurgis]

Hi Adrian. Welcome to AOS.

Take a look through the Digital Expressions area and see what members are using for music sources. There are many options.

There's a lot going on here, so feel free to get involved and join in with the chat.


Enjoy the forum,
Geoff.

[LC1979]

Hi Adrian,

I'm no digital expert, but you're absolutely right that the digital realm has improved so rapidly that hi-fi quality is now more affordable than it has ever been. I use a raspberry pi with a DAC hat board, which while not ideal for everyone, gives you a level of sound quality to rival much more expensive systems. I love that it is so small as to be rendered virtually invisible and that you can access all your music via any laptop, tablet or phone that you have to hand. On the con side, I think going digital requires you to have a good knowledge of your collection and what you want to listen to, as you no longer have the physical sleeves/cases to browse through.

I wonder if you ripped all those CDs to alac or 128 mp3?!

Cheers,
Luke

:)

[Spectral Morn]

Welcome to AoS

[Adrian Ho]

Hi Luke,

I ripped them as ALAC, but have also avoided iTunes and simply downloaded to my Android tablet as FLAC. I suppose those are both acceptable formats, but am no expert. I figure with storage space being 'cheap' it makes sense to get as much fidelity as possible and download in large format. But recently I heard from a fellow in a high-end audio store that I should purchase a software that ensures a validated (over sampled?) bit for bit transfer. (Yes, I am quickly out of my depth here.) Haven't even begun to explore that yet. Any suggestions?

Then I have to consider purchasing a DAC. The same audio salesperson suggested I consider a Node 2 from Blue Sound (made by NAD). It seems to have good reviews.

I think I'll follow Geoff's suggestion and check out the Digital Expressions forum a bit, ha, ha.

I'm amazed/impressed that you're using a raspberry PI. You're obviously a techie! ;-)

Best,

Adrian

[struth]

Welcome Adrian


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[LC1979]

Hi Adrian,

You lost me with the oversampling software bit - I'm certainly no techie! The Pi for playing flac and mp3s is pretty much idiot proof if you use something like Moode Audio player (or similar). Better sound quality can be achieved, of course, but I suspect you will have to pay significantly more to get there.

Lots more knowledgeable folks than me on the digital forum!

Luke

[Barry]

Welcome to AoS Adrian.

We have many enthusiasts here who have embraced file based audio. Sadly I'm not one of them, but I'm sure someone who does know about these things will be along shortly to help you with your queries.

Enjoy the Forum
Barry

[Colin Wonfor]

Hello Adrian,

I loved making the Magnum A100, the first pair went to Belgium to a friend home he made Etude speakers Marc Van Meobeke is his name.
He some how shorted the speaker cables out at the speaker end and commented that the right channel was not as loud as the left.
Meanwhile is wife Rita was cooking dinner and kept saying the lights were flickering, the music room had just had new carpet, then Marc and I notices the smell of smoke and the cable, Monster Cable was burning and the new carpet, whoop.
Rita still to this day teases me about this , I suspect I will never live it down , but the good news is the 400W/ch mono blocks A100's never stopped and he still has them today.

Best Colin