Get a used Antelope Zodiac Platinum with the audiophile Rubidium 10m clock. It has a great preamp section and top notch 44.1 to DSD DAC
Dcs Bartok without pre amp or going cheaper with pre amp
Hi all,
it feels crazy going back to this money pit of a hobby (all hobbies are the same though). I used to patronize Audiogon some 20 years ago, heck I even bought my last gear a pair of Cary 805 from a member here. FORTUNATELY I quit the hobby some 17 years ago (due to life circumstances) and UNFORTUNATELY my wife who plays musical instruments is starting to lust over higher end audio. It was like a wildfire, the bug immediately caught me again!!!
Now, I have been fortunate enough to be offered a pair of NOS BNIB with full warranty gen 3 Mcintosh MC75 monoblocks for a price much lower than the original MSRP when it was still available some years ago, in fact the shop still have 2 more pairs. I also sourced a pair of pristine condition Sonus Faber Guarneri Homage for a good price.
The problem is, I just spent 70K on luxury wrist watch just last month and I don’t feel right digging deeper on our saving just a month forward. So in order to save a bit of money and lessening my guilty feeling I decided to cap my budget on completing my ‘initial’ system. I have zero interest in Vinyl or CD, so it’s digital only for me ‘right now’. After exhausting 4 days marathon of browsing and researching, I concluded that I have these two options;
Option 1 = a pair of new MC75 + pre owned SF Guarneri Homage + new dCS Bartok + NO Preamp
Option 2 = a pair of new MC75 + new C22 Preamp + pre owned SF Guarneri Homage + pre owned Esoteric D-07X DAC + new Aurender N100H. Why the old Esoteric DAC? Because I live in Indonesia and that was the only pre owned high end standalone DAC I could find under $5000 after 4 days of hunting and scouring the local marketplace.
As for my music taste, I like it to be very analog and warm, my ear is very sensitive to uber detailed high and I just cannot tolerate the SS sound. Back on the old days, I used to constantly change my gear from the puny Marantz amp to the higher end Meridian system and never feel happy until I found my Cary full tube setup. Before switching to tube I was actually very enraged for spending that much money and having my ears hurt by the sound of the old days SS system, I know that modern SS amps are thousand of years ahead of the SS amps from a couple of decade ago but I just have 0 interest on SS amps.
Please advise me on which direction I should go to ‘initially’....
thanks in advance folks!!
it feels crazy going back to this money pit of a hobby (all hobbies are the same though). I used to patronize Audiogon some 20 years ago, heck I even bought my last gear a pair of Cary 805 from a member here. FORTUNATELY I quit the hobby some 17 years ago (due to life circumstances) and UNFORTUNATELY my wife who plays musical instruments is starting to lust over higher end audio. It was like a wildfire, the bug immediately caught me again!!!
Now, I have been fortunate enough to be offered a pair of NOS BNIB with full warranty gen 3 Mcintosh MC75 monoblocks for a price much lower than the original MSRP when it was still available some years ago, in fact the shop still have 2 more pairs. I also sourced a pair of pristine condition Sonus Faber Guarneri Homage for a good price.
The problem is, I just spent 70K on luxury wrist watch just last month and I don’t feel right digging deeper on our saving just a month forward. So in order to save a bit of money and lessening my guilty feeling I decided to cap my budget on completing my ‘initial’ system. I have zero interest in Vinyl or CD, so it’s digital only for me ‘right now’. After exhausting 4 days marathon of browsing and researching, I concluded that I have these two options;
Option 1 = a pair of new MC75 + pre owned SF Guarneri Homage + new dCS Bartok + NO Preamp
Option 2 = a pair of new MC75 + new C22 Preamp + pre owned SF Guarneri Homage + pre owned Esoteric D-07X DAC + new Aurender N100H. Why the old Esoteric DAC? Because I live in Indonesia and that was the only pre owned high end standalone DAC I could find under $5000 after 4 days of hunting and scouring the local marketplace.
As for my music taste, I like it to be very analog and warm, my ear is very sensitive to uber detailed high and I just cannot tolerate the SS sound. Back on the old days, I used to constantly change my gear from the puny Marantz amp to the higher end Meridian system and never feel happy until I found my Cary full tube setup. Before switching to tube I was actually very enraged for spending that much money and having my ears hurt by the sound of the old days SS system, I know that modern SS amps are thousand of years ahead of the SS amps from a couple of decade ago but I just have 0 interest on SS amps.
Please advise me on which direction I should go to ‘initially’....
thanks in advance folks!!