Hi Everyone...blimey things have changed

[Bigfishnet]

I think I've been hibernating for far too many years......just woke up and the world of DAC's , HD Audio ,streaming services has taken over !!

Sorry this might be a bit rambling but I've joined to see if anyone can help as I am disappearing up my own proverbial at the moment

My "vintage" (read.......VERY VERY old ) hi-fi needs a bit of a dust down and spring clean

My issues:

My CD player Marantz CD63SE KI has started playing up a bit....wouldn't read CD's at all but a quick clean solved that but it still has problems playing CD's that are not 100% mint (which play fine in my car) it skips a bit here and there and the RH output socket needs re soldering (it works with a bit of pressure applied)

I reckon about £100 would fix these problems but is it worth spending this money on a 20 yr + CD player which still sounds great but I've heard things have moved on and the newer players sound so much better?

OR

Do I ditch the CD player completely and throw all my money into a DAC , rip the CD's via my computer and feed this to my hi-fi (feels oddly wrong somehow!!)

AND

Do I completely remove the pre-amp from the equation (Exposure VII with VI PSU) and just feed the power amp (Exposure Super VIII ) via this DAC ....(feels even more wrong !!)..the theory being that the less "links" from the source the better

Speakers are Ruark Talisman 2's which aren't going anywhere :D

Ultimately I'm looking for sound quality rather than convenience......budget about £500 absolute max !

Any advice/pointers/laughter will be extremely welcome

Andy

[AJSki2fly]

I think I've been hibernating for far too many years......just woke up and the world of DAC's , HD Audio ,streaming services has taken over !!

Sorry this might be a bit rambling but I've joined to see if anyone can help as I am disappearing up my own proverbial at the moment

My "vintage" (read.......VERY VERY old ) hi-fi needs a bit of a dust down and spring clean

My issues:

My CD player Marantz CD63SE KI has started playing up a bit....wouldn't read CD's at all but a quick clean solved that but it still has problems playing CD's that are not 100% mint (which play fine in my car) it skips a bit here and there and the RH output socket needs re soldering (it works with a bit of pressure applied)

I reckon about £100 would fix these problems but is it worth spending this money on a 20 yr + CD player which still sounds great but I've heard things have moved on and the newer players sound so much better?

OR

Do I ditch the CD player completely and throw all my money into a DAC , rip the CD's via my computer and feed this to my hi-fi (feels oddly wrong somehow!!)

AND

Do I completely remove the pre-amp from the equation (Exposure VII with VI PSU) and just feed the power amp (Exposure Super VIII ) via this DAC ....(feels even more wrong !!)..the theory being that the less "links" from the source the better

Speakers are Ruark Talisman 2's which aren't going anywhere :D

Ultimately I'm looking for sound quality rather than convenience......budget about £500 absolute max !

Any advice/pointers/laughter will be extremely welcome

Andy

Well, firstly with the CD, you can get some pretty good 2nd hand ones for £100, depends whether you want to fix it as you know it or not.

Secondly if you do rip the CD's to a Hard Drive and you do it the right way then you will not loose on quality, there is a thread on here how to go about that, just don't do it using iTunes or similar.
Personally i you are going down this route then think about a NAS (Network Access Server), basically a hard drive that you put on you home network and connect to it, you can put your whole music library there and just let it grow. Wherever you put it, back it up regularly to another hard drive.

If you want to experience new music and have easy access then look at threads about streaming from the internet, there are many options and some are quite cheap. e..g. Raspberry PI and DAC (£100-150) or with external DAC, if you go for the RPI/DAC only route you may want to look at the I2S DACs https://volumio.org/product-category/dac/i2s-dac/, simply put I2S is the protocol used by the computer to process music, so having a DAC that can handle this means less conversion and introduction of errors. I have RPI/S/PDIF card type of solution feeding a Beresford Caiman SEG DAC(which is excellent) lots on AoS about them, which goes to a passive pre-amp(switch box) and direct to power amp(s), I control volume from the Volumio application that plays the music on the Raspberry Pi(small card computer). Also use Volumio to access TIDAL that I subscribe to for streaming music at hi-res or Aidirvana on my computer.

Volumio have just released a complete solution which may be worth looking at, there are lots of others out there but can be pricey.

Pre-Amp is useful it you want to switch between inputs, but not if you feel it colours the sound, but you might want to do this anyway. I seem to recall that you pre-amp is pretty good anyway.

I hope that helps a bit.

[Stryder5]

Buy a CD transport Cambridge Audio CXC ...Richer Sounds £250

Topping D30 DAC. £100 ish new on eBay .

That's you're CD's fixed.

Streaming, get a Google Chromecast Audio. £30 feed it into your DAC .

Join one of the streaming services ......Tidal, Spotify etc.....from £10 ish upwards, you can try most for a period free to see if it gives you what you need. A whole world of music that you can view and stream.

All within Budget.

Gary

[southall-1998_mk2]

Howdy! Welcome to AOS.

Have fun.

S.

[Bigfishnet]

Well, firstly with the CD, you can get some pretty good 2nd hand ones for £100, depends whether you want to fix it as you know it or not.

Secondly if you do rip the CD's to a Hard Drive and you do it the right way then you will not loose on quality, there is a thread on here how to go about that, just don't do it using iTunes or similar.
Personally i you are going down this route then think about a NAS (Network Access Server), basically a hard drive that you put on you home network and connect to it, you can put your whole music library there and just let it grow. Wherever you put it, back it up regularly to another hard drive.

If you want to experience new music and have easy access then look at threads about streaming from the internet, there are many options and some are quite cheap. e..g. Raspberry PI and DAC (£100-150) or with external DAC, if you go for the RPI/DAC only route you may want to look at the I2S DACs https://volumio.org/product-category/dac/i2s-dac/, simply put I2S is the protocol used by the computer to process music, so having a DAC that can handle this means less conversion and introduction of errors. I have RPI/S/PDIF card type of solution feeding a Beresford Caiman SEG DAC(which is excellent) lots on AoS about them, which goes to a passive pre-amp(switch box) and direct to power amp(s), I control volume from the Volumio application that plays the music on the Raspberry Pi(small card computer). Also use Volumio to access TIDAL that I subscribe to for streaming music at hi-res or Aidirvana on my computer.

Volumio have just released a complete solution which may be worth looking at, there are lots of others out there but can be pricey.

Pre-Amp is useful it you want to switch between inputs, but not if you feel it colours the sound, but you might want to do this anyway. I seem to recall that you pre-amp is pretty good anyway.

I hope that helps a bit.

Hi Adrian

Thanks for your detailed reply , The NAS route was something I was thinking about , can they be directly connected to a DAC via the USB connection thereby eliminating more links/signal degradation such as Ethernet etc...?
The preamp is analogue only (with a great switchable MM and MC phono stage) and line in only.
I have to have in line 16Db attentuators to be able to get any control via the volume knob..haha!!
The music streaming service(s) seem a great idea and definitely something I will subscribe to a bit later...at the moment I'm picking up CD's by the score at silly money (from 49p at my local charity shops!!)..I'd love to hear what "better than CD quality" audio sounds like but I realise that a DAC is the only way to achieve this
I was very interested in the Beresford SEG which is how I ended up here on this forum...it looks like a real bargain with some very impressive write ups from the users here (I've also been looking at Audiolab MDac, Arcam irDAC, Chord Mojo etc.......)
In its day the Amp(s) were very highly regarded and worked really well with my now sadly sold Linn LP12 and the CD Player.
I was rather hoping to maintain the quality of the sound but bring it all together with some up to date with a "proper" digital source(s) if you know what I mean

[Bigfishnet]

Buy a CD transport Cambridge Audio CXC ...Richer Sounds £250

Topping D30 DAC. £100 ish new on eBay .

That's you're CD's fixed.

Streaming, get a Google Chromecast Audio. £30 feed it into your DAC .

Join one of the streaming services ......Tidal, Spotify etc.....from £10 ish upwards, you can try most for a period free to see if it gives you what you need. A whole world of music that you can view and stream.

All within Budget.

Gary

Hi Gary

Thanks for the reply , interestingly enough the Cambridge CXC was something I had looked at......
I ended up here because of the Beresford SEG DAC....now I've got another alternative...don't know if thats good or bad !!
Streaming internally is not really of interest as I listen to music only in one room and not via any portable devices ...domestic peace is kept that way :D
Looks like I have more research to do

Andy

[Bigfishnet]

Howdy! Welcome to AOS.

Have fun.

S.

Thanks Shane

I'm sure I will :)

[Stryder5]

Hi Gary

Thanks for the reply , interestingly enough the Cambridge CXC was something I had looked at......
I ended up here because of the Beresford SEG DAC....now I've got another alternative...don't know if thats good or bad !!
Streaming internally is not really of interest as I listen to music only in one room and not via any portable devices ...domestic peace is kept that way :D
Looks like I have more research to do

Andy

There isn't any streaming internally as your thinking of it, the Chromecast Audio takes streams from your router, output to DAC, from DAC to pre amp, hence you are using existing equipment, your phone, pad whatever acts as the remote control for the streaming service.

Beresford would be a great DAC too!

Gary

[AJSki2fly]

Hi Adrian

Thanks for your detailed reply , The NAS route was something I was thinking about , can they be directly connected to a DAC via the USB connection thereby eliminating more links/signal degradation such as Ethernet etc...?
The preamp is analogue only (with a great switchable MM and MC phono stage) and line in only.
I have to have in line 16Db attentuators to be able to get any control via the volume knob..haha!!
The music streaming service(s) seem a great idea and definitely something I will subscribe to a bit later...at the moment I'm picking up CD's by the score at silly money (from 49p at my local charity shops!!)..I'd love to hear what "better than CD quality" audio sounds like but I realise that a DAC is the only way to achieve this
I was very interested in the Beresford SEG which is how I ended up here on this forum...it looks like a real bargain with some very impressive write ups from the users here (I've also been looking at Audiolab MDac, Arcam irDAC, Chord Mojo etc.......)
In its day the Amp(s) were very highly regarded and worked really well with my now sadly sold Linn LP12 and the CD Player.
I was rather hoping to maintain the quality of the sound but bring it all together with some up to date with a "proper" digital source(s) if you know what I mean

Your welcome, as you may have guessed there is no one answer to digital nirvana only that you can spend lots and not get much better SQ than if you se pend a few hundred, hence my answer, if what I’ve done sounds great through £10k worth of valve amp and speakers then it’s good enough for me. The caiman Seg is a goody, and is flexible, but as I said there no point unless you need a separate DAC IMO.

I am not aware of a NAS that has that will connect straight to a DAC as it would need to be able to run music management software and be connected able to a computer or mobile device to control it. Basically there are single box solutions that give this, if you look at ROON capable devices you will find something, but the cost will escalate for something decent, £1-2k is the norm. The separate NAS BOX controlled from a computer be it PC, Mac or Raspberry pi is the cheapest approach as far as I know, and it gives flexibility until there is a really good and affordable streamer with or without a dac. Hope that helps a bit.

[Ali Tait]

Nice Marantz for sale here-

https://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?61684-FS-Marantz-CD17-CDP

Looks a bargain for the price, and I can vouch for Steve as being a top bloke.

[Barry]

Welcome to AoS Andy.

I think most of your questions have already been answered; but there are, as they say, many ways to 'skin a cat'.

Whichever route you choose it need not cost a fortune.

Enjoy the Forum
Barry

[Hypnotist]

Hi welcome to AOS, I have a Pioneer Network Player with my CD collection ripped to FLAC, and the FLAC files on a USB stick, The Pioneer Network Player plays via Optical to my new Beresford SEG Dac, onto my amp via RCA. All just about within budget and works brilliant

[Sansiiro]

I am reading these threads just to educate myself.
Hypnotist, there is one thing I dont understand.
You say you have your Flac music on usb stick, and it is connected (sticked) to pioneer network player. Then your Pioneer is connected to Beresford DAC.
Does this Pioneer not have a good enaugh DAC? If not, why do you have it? You could feed these files to a Beresford directly. And if it does, then why do you need this Beresford?
I understand there might be reasons I dont know for this, but just to listen to Flac files, it raises these questions, could you shine some light on this?

[Pepperamip]

I would guess he had the pioneer first and then bought the caiman subsequently to see if it's dac could be improved upon. A purpose built dac 'should' sound better then one crammed into a multi purpose unit but there are exceptions.

I went a similar route with a marantz av receiver. If you just want to try out streaming first then a chromecast audio into an inexpensive dac such as the topping dac would be a good way to start.



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