Saying hello

[tonescout]

Hi - looking to try a Chord 2qute after reading reviews.

I am relatively new to digital audio, having spent most of a past life in vinyl....then got distracted with other areas of life. Just rebuilt a system and want to improve an old DacMagic - coming from audirvana+tidal and an old macbook unibody.

any thoughts / comments on streamer vs dac improvements. I am driving ARCsP8 a 211 ongaku circuit SE and Heresy III speakers in a relatively large room,

Thanks,

R

[Puffin]

Hi Richard, Welcome to another hifi-er from W Sussex (yes my location says Surrey as that is my postcode) I have one of the Hifi News modified original DacMagic's (is your's an original or one of up-sampling one's?) The HFN mods threw out all the voltage regs and most of caps and replaced them with higher quality ones (Oscon caps/Linear Technology Regulators). I have 6 Dacs and most of these accept 96kHz signals whereas the original DM only accepts up to 48kHz. I would not spend money on it as I think modern Dacs offer so much more. So far as streaming is concerned, I have been very impressed by the Google Chromecast using the OUT as a digital input to a Dac.

[walpurgis]

Hello Richard. Welcome to AOS.

Take a look around the site, you'll find plenty to interest you and tell us what music you listen to.

For info on your DAC mods, why not start a thread in the Digital Expressions section with your questions?

http://theartofsound.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?3-Digital-Expressions


Enjoy the forum,
Geoff.

[tonescout]

Hi Richard, Welcome to another hifi-er from W Sussex (yes my location says Surrey as that is my postcode) I have one of the Hifi News modified original DacMagic's (is your's an original or one of up-sampling one's?) The HFN mods threw out all the voltage regs and most of caps and replaced them with higher quality ones (Oscon caps/Linear Technology Regulators). I have 6 Dacs and most of these accept 96kHz signals whereas the original DM only accepts up to 48kHz. I would not spend money on it as I think modern Dacs offer so much more. So far as streaming is concerned, I have been very impressed by the Google Chromecast using the OUT as a digital input to a Dac.


I actually have no intention of putting money into the DACMagic (by improve I should have said replace!), just want thoughts on upgrades to the source. I also wanted some thoughts on the DAC pathway and streamer pathway for the future. I will finish taming a hard and reflective room first, and then upgrading at low investment some of the cables which are basic/cheap. I am also building myself a sub for some lower frequencies (which may or may not work) although things are already better with recent work on the system. My impressions from the reviews are that I would like the 2Qute as a good s/h buy, but not sure what else there is around that price. Just streaming tidal at the moment

R

[tonescout]

hey why 6 DACS!!

What is the rest of your system out of interest?

Richard

[Puffin]

Why 6 Dacs?......well I am 103 years old and so have been at this game for a looooong time:D

My System. A lot of it is DIY and of course sounds fantastic:lol: Amps are a mixture of Gainclones, DIY Class D, DIY Class A and DIY Mosfet. Speakers are DIY Lampizator Open Baffles, EAR Primary Drive open baffles and re-conditioned Heybrook HB3's......oh and some others of course.

[Ian7633]

Hi Richard, welcome. Lots of friendly people here and lots of knowledge too. I'm just up the road from you in Pulborough, I'm more of a vinyl fan than digital but I did recently upgrade my CD stuff and started streaming from Spotify .

[tonescout]

My vinyl player is an old Sondek, with a Syrinx PU2Gold (great arm if you can find one) and a Shure V15 (used to have a Koetsu, which are magical but expensive, my brother has this now). My Sp8 has noisy valves on the phono stage, so will be replacing these soon.

R