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Post by geeqner on Oct 17, 2018 10:45:18 GMT -5
Is it me or it seems that on this FORUM many people who are starting a project whether from scratch or an upgrade the word CHEAP comes into the vocabulary. I just don't get it. I personally would hold off ANY project or upgrade if the finances were not there and in my experience cheap is exactly what it means, "cheap" with synonyms like unreliable, unpredictable, short lived...waste of time and money. Turning this around I am not saying to spend, spend, spend or make a bill and there is nothing wrong with the art of the deal. THAT is a more logical point of view then thinking CHEAP. I mentioned (and I am not taking this personally) a choice of purchasing a Mac-Mini and monitor for $542.00. I do the value exceeds the cost. A reliable computer and with the addition of Airserver for a one time payment of $15.00 transforms into a reliable high quality streaming device. If something that we want is out of the range of possibilities b/c it does not fit into the budget...then wait. Get what you want the first time and be done with it. From experience..one waste money and time which are both valuable and planning a budget, timing are very important. DONT GO CHEAP. I hear ya' Blue - There IS a difference between "cheaping-out" and saving money WISELY though (That's why I'm on the Emotiva website In my case, my Music Collection would reside on a home NAS running a RAID Array - so everything that "would take a long time to replace" will be stored on a highly-reliable system that will also be backed-up as an extra measure against Mr. Murphy. When it comes to the hardware that will get this and perhaps streamed music into my system, I know that there are a variety of approaches. This is the part where I am currently weighing my options. I do not want to have a bunch of little boxes "hairpinned and bailing-wired" together, in the vicinity of my Living Room and connected to my relatively pricey 2-channel System. If it turns out to be worth the effort though - I can "purpose-build" a PC to run Roon or something similar (but then again, if a relatively inexpensive, small, and reliable Mac mini does what I need - there's something to be said for a mass-produced PC with Warranty that I don't have to screw-with [at least, not MUCH])
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Post by bluemeanies on Oct 17, 2018 11:58:41 GMT -5
Is it me or it seems that on this FORUM many people who are starting a project whether from scratch or an upgrade the word CHEAP comes into the vocabulary. I just don't get it. I personally would hold off ANY project or upgrade if the finances were not there and in my experience cheap is exactly what it means, "cheap" with synonyms like unreliable, unpredictable, short lived...waste of time and money. Turning this around I am not saying to spend, spend, spend or make a bill and there is nothing wrong with the art of the deal. THAT is a more logical point of view then thinking CHEAP. I mentioned (and I am not taking this personally) a choice of purchasing a Mac-Mini and monitor for $542.00. I do the value exceeds the cost. A reliable computer and with the addition of Airserver for a one time payment of $15.00 transforms into a reliable high quality streaming device. If something that we want is out of the range of possibilities b/c it does not fit into the budget...then wait. Get what you want the first time and be done with it. From experience..one waste money and time which are both valuable and planning a budget, timing are very important. DONT GO CHEAP. I hear ya' Blue - There IS a difference between "cheaping-out" and saving money WISELY though (That's why I'm on the Emotiva website In my case, my Music Collection would reside on a home NAS running a RAID Array - so everything that "would take a long time to replace" will be stored on a highly-reliable system that will also be backed-up as an extra measure against Mr. Murphy. When it comes to the hardware that will get this and perhaps streamed music into my system, I know that there are a variety of approaches. This is the part where I am currently weighing my options. I do not want to have a bunch of little boxes "hairpinned and bailing-wired" together, in the vicinity of my Living Room and connected to my relatively pricey 2-channel System. If it turns out to be worth the effort though - I can "purpose-build" a PC to run Roon or something similar (but then again, if a relatively inexpensive, small, and reliable Mac mini does what I need - there's something to be said for a mass-produced PC with Warranty that I don't have to screw-with [at least, not MUCH]) I hope no affense was taken. I seriously did not mean that you were cheap...or your system. You system is fine. Bottom line I am just giving an opinion...don't sell your system short...cables can be hidden, re-routed or covered there is so much you can do these days to accomplish your agenda. Living room...understood. Estedics are important. I wish you success. B
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Post by creimes on Oct 17, 2018 12:19:20 GMT -5
That's why I figured something along the lines of the Cambridge AXN unit, one box and you control and playback everything with an app, your files on the NAS and Tidal, Spotify etc
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Post by geeqner on Oct 17, 2018 16:41:40 GMT -5
I would say BlueSound. Really like the synology choice also. That being said NAD has a new DAC coming out with the bluesound module in it. This would be another upgraded sound quality idea although the BlueSound sounds pretty good by itself. Your suggestion made me take a trip to the NAD website. (I have had good experiences with NAD products in the past - their design philosophy seems pretty similar to a "Canadian" Emotiva.) It sounds like you are referring to NAD Model C658 due out in December. THAT might be an excellent choice for me: - Combines functionality of new Pre-Amp, DAC, with Streaming / Network Access all in ONE box!
- High-quality DAC
- User-Friendly, well supported Streaming / Network Access via BlueOS
- Balanced outputs to feed my IPS
- Decent Phono Input stage for those times when I feel the urge to spin some Vinyl
- NAD solid design
- Could be cost (and space)-effective, because it gives me MOST of what I want with XSP-1 with DAC and Streaming Access without needing 2 or 3 separate components
- NO PC to deal with
Although I am pretty sure that overall SQ would be a tad lower than separate DAC / XSP-1 when you shove sensitive components near to digital stuff (unless they REALLY "sweat the details" of shielded sub-enclosures, etc.)
Wonder if Emotiva has something similar in the works. Maybe they could license the Socket for BlueSound Module to add to some of their stuff?
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Post by Gary Cook on Oct 17, 2018 17:46:26 GMT -5
I want to spend my time actually listening to the music, not setting up, playing with, fault finding, updating software, fixing bugs, updating hardware, researching the web for solutions to issues etc etc. Just push some buttons and music comes out. With that in mind my system is all Apple, the music resides in iTunes, on a MacMini, stored in the cloud, it plays via an Apple TV (2 in fact) and I push buttons on any of the family's iDevices (iPhones, iPads etc). Obviously I can also play streamed music from any supplier that I choose to subscribe to, I can even just ask Siri to play the track I want (even less physical button pushing). Plus using the XMC-1 I can play music in any one of the 3 Zones.
It works for me, I spend less time playing computer nerd and more time listening.
Cheers Gary
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