a new system based on Fullrangers- PC or CD player

[T11]

I am not an audiophile. Not anymore. My spare time became so limited that I

listen to music just when I am doing the work on my comp. I have been cruising

through the threads (all kinds) as am in a new system building. Even the front

loaded horns will be gone (i attached the pics - they look cool in the evening -

I attached a light into the back). They employ a modified fe206e with truncated

wheezer (made into a 11-ray-shaped star) and all other mods you can dig out on

the net. I have been into the hi-fi madness for 13 years and had several systems

(but mostly into all kind of Fullrange speaker projects with monachor, fostex,

eminence, tangband etc...al from OBs to horns and Br, sealed...)and heard some

very intersting ones too. The chase for the new system began after my modded

marantz cd53 became unstable and my MF A1 slowly passing away. Since then I

listened only to UCD180 amp and felt like it is a sonic amp (in short:better

soundstage and imaging then most amps I heard, great bass leading maybe not so

tuneful as A1 but quality jumped up, very undistorted sound, even the fostex did

not scream at loud volumes, very coherent, some problems with the reverberation

and note decay a bit truncated there, maybe too sharp for the utter involvement

but I do have horns so maybe bit a more mushy speakers) without the music singing

quality inherited. That turned me away a bit and started to look to some SKA kits

and new Aksa LF55. These week will probably listen to some more amps, including

aksa 100 N+. The choice here is to be made yet. But with turning the head to the

new source the problems rise. I can listen diverse amps but the music sources

here in slovenia are very limited...that is what I can only rely by your posts

and your likening. So... I pointed down the Arcam diva 73T, Shanling T80 and

maybe used JVC 1010 or meridian 506II after a lot of reading. My budget for the

source is up to 500$. I am not the kind of guy that wants the best for the buck,

I learned that priorities should be made if one wants to track down the right

component when it comes to a budget. Listening session years ago taught me that

companies do have home sound character to all units and some are doing also the

balanced approach (if their amp is analitycal and they know it- as they wanted it

to be, they make cd player a bit more lush sounding so the pair goes hand in hand

and you buy synergy from one brand- they know that balanced product, neutral

sounding with high resoulution, highly transparent and blablabla are

characteristics for their top notch range...). Listen to NAD, listen to ARcam,

listen to Sony, listen to Linn, Naim, Musical Fidelity (ther is a bias!) listen

to Micromega... They are all doing it and they all prefer one kind of sound over

the other. therefore mine would be: transparent and lush, colourful and musical,

bass quality not as important then highs and mids. 3D imaging must be good, a

sense of real musician playing in the room is prefered over the small illusion of

the projected soundstage. hence the horns. That is why I can live with

fullrangers I guess I listen to all good music and prefer musicality over

technicality (UCD will be banned probably just because of this simple reason, but

is a moajor one when you listen for the uisc all the time).

But... like I said- my computer is turned on all the time, my collection of mp3s

is getting bigger and bigger and I was wondering- is it possible to turn the PC

to a music database without loosing to much against these cd players? For 500$

there must be a great soundcard and s/pdif combination somewhere? I searched the

forum but could not find anything on these (except some PS2 and ipod threads).

These solution I find the best as is a transit one. The media will change, the

amps will change and in five years (that is usually my period of changing,

upgrading hi-fi) I will be ready. I would be really glad if this solution could

prevail as a new Cd player still sounds like a minor step and PC based music

store as a major one. But music first, technology second.

realy thanks.
tine

[peufeu]

I use a PC with linux and software raid so the music (losslessly ripped from bought CDs) is safe. It will last longer than the CDs, and I have backups.

With an external DAC and a digital out soundcard (RME), the sound is very good.

[lucpes]

I use a PC (good power supply - Antec)with a modded EMU 1212m (replaced caps with OSCON SEP ) sound card, SPDIF out to this dac , into UcD400 and Infinity RS II speakers. Sound is very airy and musical, musicality has to come from the source, the best amp would be a wire with gain as somebody said.

[T11]

thank you for what I think right now is a support of thinking in the right direction. Had you compared the resolution of sound you get from PC to the one from a good CD player - is there any kind of loss of information? I am sceptical abot this just because I compared the sound through my headphones from the several copied audio CDs (TDK, SONY, MITSUMI,... with different coloured plates) and found that any CD I burnt from hard disk back had some loss in one or more areas. TDK was far greater thn others. I remember Sony being the worst (smeared dynamics, some details were totaly obsolete from music, softe highs, no bottom grip - it really reminded me of their CD XB900E I had). Does these occour when you store data on HD also and which software do you recommend? I heard some good things about Nuendo today (from a friend musician) but did not "investigate" futher. Oh, I am becoming the same ____phile again.
Nice sounds to all!

[lucpes]

Well, a good card with a spdif out to a nice DAC can match or outperform sources like (what I heard) Marantz CD6000KI / Rotel RCD-1072, but... errr comes short of an Meridian G08.