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March 16, 2011 - 6:04am
#1
If you could buy 1 piece of equipmnet...
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If I could only buy one more piece of gear , i would probably just stay on my current upgrade coarse and replace my power amp . It won't be a cost no object amp , but upgrading from my current amp , a Levinson #431 will be exotic enough for me .
I would get an Oppo blu-ray universal player. I have a bunch of sacds and especially dvd-as that would be so much better to listen to that way.
Trey
Considering my ability to pay and what I need, I would upgrade my phono preamp from a Zphono to a Graham Slee....
Given my existing equipment, I'd have to go with the Dragon.
It would be an Oracle Premier TT. I'm currently saving pennies for a used one.
up my mind - because there's just TOO MUCH STUFF I LIKE!
However - my partner, she of the impeccable good taste, saw and heard the Sonus Faber Ellipsa speakers and was smitten! Nothing I've shown her (in the loudspeaker realm) since, and I get three different higher-end audio mags, has replaced that pair of speakers on her "if we had the money" list.
(note the 'we' - she loves 'em but 'we' will pay for them - and I can't argue - I heard them too.)
Without question it would be an EMM Labs DAC2 stereo D/A Converter. This D/A converter has the proprietary MFAST (Meitner Frequency Acquisition System) technology.
From the website:
Unlike PLL circuits, The MFAST technology has two advantages. It locks onto any data stream instantaneously, and it totally eliminates jitter altogether.
Another feature is MDAT (Meitner Digital Audio Translator)upsamples to 5.6 mHz, double the SACD standard sampling rate.
Ed Meitner is a genius in my book.
http://www.emmlabs.com/html/audio/dac2/dac2.html#
Mark Evans
For me, it would be the Conrad Johnson ART 3 pre-amp. I have auditioned the ACT 2 pre-amp and can only dream about how outstanding the ART 3 would sound, in comparison.
For me I would go for a nice pair of Focal Grande Utopia EM floorstanders. Then I would need to sell my house to afford an amp to properly power them but this is a fantasy after all.
you need to change your screen name! Well thought out approach as far as I can see.
Trey
Hard to say.... I guess for me my weak link at this point is my Rega Apollo CD player. A good player for sure, but nowhere near the resolution of my Well-Tempered TT/Grado Platinum front-end. I'd love a kick ass CD player with a couple high quality digital inputs that I could also feed a NAS or iPod. But for my main system, my media is overwhelmingly vinyl, so it's hard to get too motivated for the digital upgrade. Otherwise,
I'm pretty much happy with everything for the moment (going on about 4 years, which is not bad for this disease, ahem, I mean hobby)
I went to the Atlanta Expo in April and now have the Outboard DAC bug. Everyone was using HDD's with upsampling or High Res (24/192) music through external DACs playing heavenly tunes. Yes I know there is more than just the DAC, but I loved how several sounded when playing High Res music. They were clearly superior to the CD recordings that were playing.
Can i simply take the signed cheque and fill the numbers myself?
too many things... , i want a new cd player , two pairs of bryston 28b monoblocks to fill up the empty slots, a pair of PMC MB2XBDi and a MB2C. ..
I was fortunate enough to hear this DAC at the Atlanta Axpona show. If I had the necessary coin, I would own one like this:
Cost unlimited?? Wow!
The best thing I could do is build a dedicated listening room from the ground up. Anything else is already on the curve of diminishing returns and would be incremental, or barely noticable. A well designed room would have a huge impact.
WillW
I am finally replacing some flood damaged gear and have to choose between the Oppo universal player or a replacement subwoofer. I am going to continue to limp along with my cheapie universal player that survived the flood and get the Outlaw LFM ex sub. My speakers only go down to about 80hz, and I miss the bass more than I miss really sweet sounding sacd and dvd-a. So it is Outlaw time for me in a week or two.
Trey
The new Benchmark DAC1 HDR sounds amazing in review...I am also interested in the PS Audio perfect wave DAC but heve never heard one.
My brother still has his original 3020. One of the output stages went on it last year however. If you want it, I can send it to you.... maybe you can resurrect it!,
New REL subwoofer! Wilson speakers.
TDL Reference Standard transmission line: speaker AND subwoofer
This Sunday I got a dream piece of gear, a SOTA Sapphire turntable. I've been putting together a new system this past year and was dreaming of a nice deck to complement it. I really try to work my audio money hard and it just seemed that I couldn't justify the expense of a decent turntable. Long story short, after much research and deal chasing I scored a very nice used Sapphire at a righteous price. This 'table is absolutely wonderful and I'm having a ton of fun tweaking and tuning it, and I may never need a better one. And the best part is I have a bunch of dough left for some new albums.
Conrad Johnson Art 3 Pre-Amp for me!