Sonic Frontiers made really good sounding gear. But…keeping the Iris is a risk. If it breaks you will most likely not be able to fix it due to unavailability of parts.
I’m with @ghdprentice on starting to shift towards streaming. You can begin the process by upgrading the DAC to a unit that includes a network card. With $3k - $4k budget you can definitely get something really nice on a used market. Keep the SF transport to spin CDs until it dies or sell it to add funds to the streaming setup purchase.
Should I make any changes?
I would like some thoughts about making some equipment changes or just do nothing.
Sadly, I had to substantially reduce the size of my listening room and forever say goodbye to my Apogee Divas, Krell power amps, preamp and the big open sound they produced. I have set up a smaller system consisting of Harbeth SHL5+XD speakers, an Accuphase E-280 integrated amp with top quality cables.
I listen mostly to jazz and classical music on CDs so I retained my Sonic Frontiers “Iris” transport with a Theta Gen 5 DAC from the original system. The overall sound is not as big but very good, but these units are decades old and possibly an equipment upgrade could markedly improve the CD sound.
Here’s my first question: I keep the Sonic Frontiers transport (probably still state-of-the art) and replace the Theta with a current top quality DAC. My second question: Replace both units with a high quality single compact disc player. In either case what, if any, newer units could improve sound of the new smaller system. My price range is 3K to 4K (or more?).
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- 19 posts total
- 19 posts total

