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So, what did you get yourself for the holidays?

My guess is that most of us are "hard to buy for". That said, I get my own presents.

Outside of audio, this holiday season I treated myself to a 3D printer (Bambu Lab P1S), a ZWO Seestar S50 smart telescope, and I will be ordering a PiFinder for my 20" telescope next week.

In the world of audio I upgraded my Rogue Cronus Magnum II to the III. I added the home theater feature so I can put a tube pre-amp between my DAC and the amp at a later date. And since they had the amp in the shop I added a processor loop in the event my hearing would benefit from additional processing in years to come. I'm a small spender for this group and I expect this is my ultimate amp. I will upgrade other components over time, but this is making me very happy right now. Besides, my astronomy hobby is where most of my extra money goes. 

I've been playing the CR III for the past week and it is an amazing upgrade. It also helps that my backup amp was a major step down and since I hand delivered and picked up the amp I've been without the CM since October.

As far as the new amp goes, I love the triode mode and the phono pre-amp is noticeably improved. I'll test out the new headphone circuit in January, I don't use headphones often so I won't be able to weigh in on any improvement, just the end result.

So, what did you get for yourself?

 

 

 

markcasazza
bassbuyer's avatar
bassbuyer
887 posts
 

For audio SVS upgrades.  SB 3000 sub, Evolution center channel and a pair of Evolution Elevation speakers.  For video, a Samsung S90F 55 inch TV.  

faustuss's avatar
faustuss
815 posts
 

"On the audiophile front I’m thinking about snagging a Rotel a8 integrated in silver to use with the Dali Oberon 5s I bought for kicks and an inexpensive if I can find one mc step up transformer to use with it’s phono input. Think it will work a treat with my Luxman PD151 MKII and my Hana ML cartridge as a change of pace."

I have an update on this since as of yesterday I found an a8, open box at MD in the silver finish I wanted and immediately ordered it and last night after contemplating for a while now what to do for a step-up transformer to use with the phono stage in the Rotel I decided on a very inexpensive WisWinDa Pro RCA passive preamp with a 1:2 step-up. I considered Bellari, the newly introduced Pro-Ject MC Step-up Box S3 or maybe buying a used Ortofon one. I also looked at several of the versions of the Reisong ones that actually seem to get some acclaim but prices for the exact same units varies from well under a $100 to well over $200! Looks sketchy and in all of the above cases I couldn't justify the expense for the a8, so the WisWinDa got my vote for $70 plus tax and freight. It looks cool and it's supposed to arrive Tuesday. With so little risk, I'll see if it floats.

I've completely forgotten about all the other stuff I've been doing. Friday, the three Analog Products reissues of the Julie London albums arrived, I preordered the two Etta James albums scheduled, one arriving in January and I ordered a short stack of out-of-print Mofi Frank Sinatra LPs from MD yesterday that'll probably be here by the end of the week. Been on a kind of a splurge!

mike4597's avatar
mike4597
304 posts
 

So true!!  I finally broke down and purchased the ButcherBlock Acousics 42" four shelf rack I have ogled for over a year.  They had a holiday sale, and that tipped the scale.  I am also about to purchase a DH Labs USB-A to USB-C cable to connect my Innuos Stream 1 to my Schiit Audio Gungnir2 DAC, upgrading from a rather generic cable.  That pretty much wraps it up for me ... until "upgraditis" strikes again.

pvnasby
41 posts
 

A PS Audio S300 to tide me over while I wait on two mono blocks to be built by Odyssey.

Went through a whole “odyssey” with it as well. Unbeknownst to me I had developed a short in my cabling which triggered the amp’s protection circuit. Never had this happen in my entire life. PS Audio was great about it and sent me a new amp as we thought it was the amplifier. After the new one arrived, figured out it was the cabling. Chucked it and got new cables and problemo solved.

This more or less described my entire fall season.

agentwja
30 posts
 

My Christmas gift to myself was a REL Classic 98 Subwoofer. I’m very happy with it  for both the sound and its appearance. I have a vintage system with the exception of my Merason Frerot DAC with its external power supply and my BLUESOUND Node 2i Streamer. My vintage components are a MFR A2 Tube Preamplifier, a pair of Meitner MTR 100 monoblocks and a pair of Bozack 302b Urban Speakers. I have already decided to buy ( when my budget allows) another REL CLASSIC 98 so that I can connect them to the MTR 100s to the High Level Inputs of the RELs. Right now I use to Sub Out on my BLUESOUND to the REL which sounds good but I believe it can be improved upon. 

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