Hi

[waxnightmare]

I'm Geoff from NZ - chronic hifi Internet researcher and foolish audio enthusiast who turns over equipment far too regularly for my own good. Have often read from this forum and thought I should finally join.
Music taste is fairly diverse but have lately developed a real enjoyment of alt-country but also really enjoy a bit of electronica and also bands like "the cinematic orchestra" (probably my favourite).

Cheers, Geoff

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[STD305M]

Hi Geoff
Welcome to AOS
What system do you currently have??

Steve

[waxnightmare]

Thanks Steve.

Source is a sonos connect and denon dvd1900 (for cds). Preamp is an arcam a19 (unusual!?) into a dynavector HX75 power amp into kef xq40 speakers (which are the only things I haven't changed in the last 6 or 7 years. Various mainly budget interconnects and speaker cables are kimber kable 4pr.

Currently looking at dipping my toes into the murky dac waters but hard to know what benefits I can get - most of the music I listen to is only 320kps or red book and previous audition of dacs never seemed to yield benefits equivalent to the cost (must be my poor hearing or inattention to detail).

Cheers, Geoff

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[Macca]

Hi Geoff, welcome to the forum and Happy New Year.

DACS don't sound massively different from each other (it would be weird if they did) so not surprised by what you have found so far, but start a thread in the digital section you will get some recommendations as to what to try next.

[Light Dependant Resistor]

Hi Geoff
Welcome to AOS - you are just down the road and over the water

I disagree with Martin( - the world just would not rotate if someone did not disagree ) DAC's indeed sound quite different to each other
it all depends on what you use to listen to them with. Example a marantz CD7300 vs a Marantz CD50 - vastly different to each other
I prefer the CD50 For ascertaining said difference DAC was a Yamaha CDRHD1500 in its DAC mode connected with coax - attenuator
was Stereo coffee into a Quad 306 per channel and JR149's

[southall-1998_mk2]

Howdy! Welcome to AOS.

Have fun.

S.

[antonio]

Welcome Geoff, never heard of The Cinematic Orchestra will give em a listem

[waxnightmare]

Welcome Geoff, never heard of The Cinematic Orchestra will give em a listemI'm afraid they are probably a love them or hate them proposition - try the albums "everyday" or "ma fleur".

Thanks for all the welcomes....

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[struth]

Welcome to site
[emoji846]

[Barry]

Welcome to AoS Geoff,

I would agree with Martin: my experience with experimenting with various external DACs has shown the differences to be subtle and not necessarily better than the internal DAC of the player. It was an instructive period as I was also able to experiment with various digital cables. In the end I decided to remain with the internal DAC of my, then. Sony CDP, thereby removing one extra box from my system, and not having to worry about cables.

That's is not to discourage you from experimenting in any way: just don't expect 'night and day differences'.

Enjoy the Forum
Barry