Greetings from Kenya

[occamsrazor]

Soundway have some of the best 'comps' out there, the Ghana stuff is amazing + can get on vinyl also.
http://www.soundwayrecords.com/catalogue

Yeah Soundway are amazing, I have some of their stuff, but looking at the site it looks like i'm missing a lot...

[jollyfix]

playing this on vinyl to help wake up this morn, more camaroon than Ghana.

[occamsrazor]

Ha, you lot are too funny :-) If I take your advice before I know it I'll be chopping down trees to harvest for wood to build speakers to sell at my newly-opened hi-fi shop :-)
Seriously, some nice ideas, but I'm looking for a more boring mainstream solution I'm afraid...

I've realised that living abroad etc physical source material (CDs, vinyl) is too much of a hassle and I'm exclusively digital. The aluminium layer in most of my CDs got corroded during two years in a humid place, so I don't trust it anymore and have amassed a large MP3 collection. Now I'm starting to get FLAC, converted to ALAC because I'm pretty much all-Apple. I have 2 mac mini servers, Macbook Pros, iPhones, and two QNAP NAS with a lot of storage and backups, so I am fairly sorted for sources. For radio I would use internet streams anyway.

So it occurs to me that these days I don't need to invest in quality CD player/tuner/tape deck/turntable and instead should put my money in solely the DAC, amplifier, and speaker aspects. I do like the idea of valve amps but I worry a bit about having fragile glass components.

I would need something not too big and heavy (unfortunately), but on the amplifier and DAC side I've been looking at these options:

For combined units: the new Quad Vena (but am waiting for more reviews), TEAC AI-501DA
For separates: Rega DAC (maybe the new DAC-R) + Rega Brio. Audiolab M-DAC/Q-DAC + M-PWR (though I'd like the option of analogue input).
Also been looking at some of the Cyrus & Naim gear, it's a bit more than I want to spend but possible I could get persuaded.

On the speakers side I really haven't started to look yet, but would need to be something robust and not too big & heavy. Which sadly rules out my longtime dream of owning quad electrostatics :-)

I welcome any thoughts.... budget for the DAC + amp is up to a grand, but I could be a bit flexible.

[StanleyB]

Thanks, appreciate the offer, but the issue is damage and/or ridiculous customs charges on arrival here when shipping direct.

Personally I can't remember anyone ever having received a unit from me that got damaged in transit. We designed the packaging to cope with that. And there are ways to limit log distance Customs charges, as many of my non-EU customers on AoS can testify to. It's just a case of knowing the regulations when trading internationally. But having someone carry the item with them can be the best option in most cases.

[jollyfix]

Where abouts in Kenya are you? i have some friends who work/ live there.