The Journey

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Exactly one month after I wrote the first post here, I had completed the system.

Yesterday I hooked up the XDA-1. I also removed the Denon AVR, the Rotel amp and the ADS speakers once I heard the 2 channel music produced using the XDA-1, the XPA-1s, the Vienna Acoustics Bach Grands and the Integra. So nice...so very nice.

I'll be playing with different equalizer settings (using the Audyssey settings now) later but for now, I am just going to sit back and enjoy.

My thanks for all the input from all of the Lounge Lizards here!

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"The Journey" was over...or so I thought. I had learned so much and was ready to take a rest along side the road to audio nirvana. But something was missing...

After tweaking on some of the Integra settings, I embarked on truly embracing digital music. Additions made included a home server with 4 TB of storage (2-2TB drives in a RAID 1 configuration), Windows Home Server 2011, JRiver Media 17, creating accessible file folders on ther server, lots of CD ripping and moving of files to the server.

I also began to investigate higher resolution music files with the assistance of Michael Lavorgna at Audiostream.com, who provided some excellent insight into those file types, equipment and interconnect strategies. Most of the content there seems to focus on the PC based musical equipment however, since my music now resided on a computer, most of it was relevant.

That led me to the XDA-1 purchase which allowed me to translate the digital from the server to analog for the Integra. However, once I installed it, I was not exactly pleased with what I was hearing. Literally, I was sitting in my chair (the Domestic CEO calls it my "Throne"), shaking my head and wondering why I was not hearing any real improvement in sound quality. I was beginning to think that everything written on the Internet is not true even though we have been led to believe otherwise.

Then came an epiphany...and a very proud personal, pat yourself on the back moment...I realized I had a source issue. Just how good is that sound card in the back of the server anyway? DOH!!!

I realized that the optical out from the computer sound card to the DAC was not of the quality I needed. My solution was to find a streamer that could handle up to a 24bit/192 kHz signal.

I am not normally an early adopter of new products. In the case of the streamer, I became a bit of a beta tester, acquiring a Simaudio (Moon) Mind 180 streamer. New to the market in late 2012, the MOON 180 MiND (MOON intelligent Network Device) allows you to stream digitally stored music from a computer, Network Attached Storage (NAS) device, the internet, subscriber-based music services or a UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) enabled device to your audio system, either through a standard Ethernet connection or wirelessly over a Wi-Fi network. Digital music files in all common formats are supported up to 24-bit/192kHz resolution. So now I had an outlet for my FLAC files and higher kHz mp3 files that did not degrade the signal. I added the unit to my system using the Ethernet connection option.

The interface to the Moon streamer is iPad based and the early version of the control software is fairly simple. In my view, it's overly simplified and needs some tweaks to expand user control of playlists and the number of files that can be added to a "que" at one time. I've been asked for input as an early adopter and have happily provided that to Simaudio.

Tomorrow I will begin working to accommodate the new streamer and some other changes I've made with respects to Netflix streaming and audio connections to the Integra plus modify the programming for my MX-880 macros and function naming.

Then, there's that 2-channel system I've been slowly acquiring components for...more on that later.

For now, let me say that "The Journey" has been longer than originally anticipated. I am not weary of taking steps forward in my continual search for audio nirvana. I am, however, running out of time!

[hemster]

Look forward to your impressions of the 180.

P.S. The journey never ends... the destination keeps changing. Enjoy the ride!

[audiofile]

Thanks, bud. I realize the journey never ends but my mortal journey here may be over before I complete the audio nirvana journey! LOL