My 2019 Update Thread - My final system I think.

[Gazjam]

Good pre-amp. I looked at that when I was looking for an active pre, along with the Rotel Michi, Parasound JC2BP and Benchmark LA4.

Ruled it out on looks in the end, same with the Michi and the Benchmark. Probably would have got the Parasound but then had a punt on the Sony which ended up surprising me - and saving me about three grand!

For me it's got to look old school.

We have very different approaches to digital sources. I don't go with spending large amounts of money there, I just don't hear any benefit, or see that there can be any when I look at the measurements either. Yes I did drop two grand on the CD transport but that was just bought for the looks as well. If there'd been anything cheaper that looked as good and wasn't slot loading I'd have gone for that instead.

Slot loaders are the work of Beelzibub.
Just Say... NO.

As you say though,
It's funny how folks can hear things differently?

For me,
even changing out digital cables I've heard a difference?
Ferrinstance the new HDMI i2s cable I'm running between the CD Transport and Dac sounds VERY different now to how it did when I first plugged it in a few weeks ago.
1's and 0's right?... Go figure.

My take on things is that theres too many assumptions being made and we just dont know enough about how it all works... yet.

Example:
With my current Dac you can run it in two modes, High volume or Low volume.
The choice being there to tailor the Dacs sound to the particular gain structure of your pre/power amp?
The low setting reduces the noisefloor by -20dB, and is meant for high gain systems where the DSD upsampling nature of the Dac may produce slightly audible background noise.
A decision made by the Dac Designer at the time..

Love Audio folks that look that far into their designs, can totally get behind that.
Those are the products you want to spend money on, not the flavour of the week stuff.
Bought a few things over the years based on that.

I compared both settings and volume matched, and they sounded slightly different, with the Low setting having slightly reduced dynamics and narrower soundstage width.
So not even two different bits of digital gear, but the same Dac with different settings sent to the analogue output stage applied!


Hear you Martin on the gear having to look the part as well?
Feel the same.

You gotta stare at it and if it looks terrible or if it's not your Thing... thats never great.
Each to their own of course, but like yourself wouldn't give gear like that houseroom, unless it was hidden out of sight.

That Parasound looks the Business, hadn't seen it before?
Has an old school Electrocompaniet/ Audio Note vibe about it, you cant beat a bit of Black and Gold with hifi Gear.

My first Valve amp was a chinese cheapie, which sounded MEH... and eventually blew up but boy did it look good with all that black brushed aluminium and gold valve cages!
Really enjoyed my time with it.

My next foray into valves was a custom build 300B power amp, that one looked amazing AND sounded wonderful.



It had a black case with a copper top plate.

Loved how that thing looked, especially with the big Western Electric 300B valves at night.
Real "serious amp" vibe about it.

Miss this amp, thanks to Nick Gorham and Colin Topps (RIP)
Some things really are worth spending your hard earned on, the Amp yes, but not Premium unobtanium 300B power valves at THAT price.
Only reason I still dont have it.

Always liked the copper contrasting with the black though?
Guess it kinda stuck with me, the new Dacs the same