Hello from South East London

[yabadaba]

Hello, I've been a member of several of the well known audiophile/hifi forums for many years, though only came across this one fairly recently, but after reading through several very interesting threads I decided it would be well worth signing-up! I've been into hifi, on and off, since the 80's (but have always been a big music listener) and after a few years concentrating my free time on other pursuits I got back into this game 'big time' a few months back after I suddenly decided to dust-off my separates and then realised how much more rewarding a listen they were than my Sonos setup.

My current analogue front ends are a Rega Planar 3 / RB300 turntable (original 90's version but with 24v motor upgrade) with Nagaoka MP110 cartridge into a Schiit Mani phono stage and a Technics SL1200 MK5 with Denon DL103 into a Sugden A21SE Stage Two phono stage. I've also got a couple of other phono stages - Project Phono Box S2 and CA 640P - that are left over from my search for phono stages that I was happy with. The phono stages feed a Yaqin MC100B valve amp (Svetlana KT88's, Brimar 6SN7's and Mullard 12AX7's), which outputs into a pair of Spendor S9e's. As regards digital, I have burned most of my CD's to FLAC and have Spotify and Tidal accounts, all of which is routed through a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ / Allo DigiOne (running Volumio), into Shek D1 DAC (TDA1543, I think) and onwards to my amp & speakers.

I've concentrated my effort recently on vinyl and am happy with what I'm hearing (assuming playing a decent pressing of course), but I'm not overly pleased with the digital side of things and am hoping I can do some research on here and ask a few questions to work out what changes I need to make. I suspect a new DAC...but so many choices. Anyway I spotted a 'what DAC have you got thread' so I'm going to read through that. Need something that leans towards smooth and velvety, whilst still being detailed, if that is actually possible. A Naim CD player (CDX I think it was) nearly made me give up on digital altogether a few years ago and only the much smoother TDA1543 based Shek DAC rescued things a bit...but the smoothness that imparts seems to be at the cost of detail.

Anyway, looking forward to spending some time on here and learning what I can from what seems like a good bunch of people. Cheers, David.

[walpurgis]

Hi David. Welcome to AOS.

Good sound is achievable from CD and I'm sure members can give you plenty of opinions on getting a sound you like. Why not start a thread in the Digital Expressions section and outline your ideas?

Feel free to join in the banter, it's a friendly place and there's a lot going on.


Enjoy the forum,
Geoff.

[yabadaba]

Thanks Geoff and I did just what you suggested - already had some helpful replies that I will explore further.

[Pepperamip]

Hello David, I'm originally from South London. Always good advice available on here. Enjoy

Sent from my CLT-L09 using Tapatalk

[walpurgis]

Thanks Geoff and I did just what you suggested

Ah. So you did.

[Stryder5]

If you can find one a Jolida Glass FX Tube DAC may just be what you are looking for.

Gary

[hifi_dave]

Welcome David. Good name you have.

[southall-1998_mk2]

Howdy! Welcome to AOS.

Have fun.

S.