Going Digital Musings

[Ninety4degrees]

Hi All, Just a quick one, a where do I start type question!

I'm thinking of looking into a bit of a do it all amp, I'm looking at the TV and some streaming services and think am I missing out on something.
So what I'm looking at is maybe something second system with various digital inputs TV/phone/stream as well as analogue input for the TT, do love a turntable.

I've had a quick look at a friend's Quad Vena, used the version 1 looks decent value and the combination he has in place certainly works as both digital and analogue modes. I'm also liking the small form, is there anything else I should be looking at?

Or am I missing a trick with just using a good DAC with a number of digital inputs as a pre-amp on a traditional amplifier speaker combo, I have a Beresford Caiman MkII to hand so maybe I should try that first.

Cheers

[AJSki2fly]

Hi All, Just a quick one, a where do I start type question!

I'm thinking of looking into a bit of a do it all amp, I'm looking at the TV and some streaming services and think am I missing out on something.
So what I'm looking at is maybe something second system with various digital inputs TV/phone/stream as well as analogue input for the TT, do love a turntable.

I've had a quick look at a friend's Quad Vena, used the version 1 looks decent value and the combination he has in place certainly works as both digital and analogue modes. I'm also liking the small form, is there anything else I should be looking at?

Or am I missing a trick with just using a good DAC with a number of digital inputs as a pre-amp on a traditional amplifier speaker combo, I have a Beresford Caiman MkII to hand so maybe I should try that first.

Cheers

Why not just get a Raspberry Pi with a HAT card, and connect that to your Caiman Seg, you can stream to the RPI using Volumio with mobile phone or tablet or computer.
If you have a computer with a music library you can map to that over wifi using Volumio to play your digital music.

You can hook up to the Caiman Seg from TV using optical sound out or digital coax (if it has it), and optical/coax from CDP if it has it, you can even us USB from computer to Caiman SEG

This is how I use mine and get very good results, if you have not got a Dorado battery power supply from Beresford you might want to invest in one if you like the above as it improve the sound quite a bit.

Have a look at https://www.hifiberry.com/shop/bundles/hifiberry-digi-bundle-4/ it works out to about £114 all in for RPI4, HIFIBERRY DIGI+ PRO, PSU, Micro Card and connection block. You might want to consider the HIFIBERRY DAC+ DSP combines a Burr-Brown DAC as we’re using it in our DAC+ Standard and Pro series with a an digital input and output and a powerful Digital Signal Processor and is on £28 more.

It will certainly get you started and without changing amplifier, unless you want to.

[Ninety4degrees]

Why not just get a Raspberry Pi with a HAT card, and connect that to your Caiman Seg, you can stream to the RPI using Volumio with mobile phone or tablet or computer.
If you have a computer with a music library you can map to that over wifi using Volumio to play your digital music.

You can hook up to the Caiman Seg from TV using optical sound out or digital coax (if it has it), and optical/coax from CDP if it has it, you can even us USB from computer to Caiman SEG

This is how I use mine and get very good results, if you have not got a Dorado battery power supply from Beresford you might want to invest in one if you like the above as it improve the sound quite a bit.

Have a look at https://www.hifiberry.com/shop/bundles/hifiberry-digi-bundle-4/ it works out to about £114 all in for RPI4, HIFIBERRY DIGI+ PRO, PSU, Micro Card and connection block. You might want to consider the HIFIBERRY DAC+ DSP combines a Burr-Brown DAC as we’re using it in our DAC+ Standard and Pro series with a an digital input and output and a powerful Digital Signal Processor and is on £28 more.

It will certainly get you started and without changing amplifier, unless you want to.

Not something I have considered, but a quick google suggests this may be a low cost-ish way forward. I'll have a look it may be a fun way to do this.

[struth]

The latest vena, the play, has streaming built in so maybe worth looking at. I've the mk2 which has the phono added from mk1 and a few upgrades.
The new one will be very good, as the other 2 are.
Great value amp imo. Can be used as a pre too if you want extra oomph.

https://dougbradyhifi.com/products/quad-vena-ii-play-streaming-amplifier