technomagus
Responses from technomagus
| Favorite Streamer/DAC combo under 3k? When I was auditioning DAC/Streamers, I listened to quite a number at different prices. The real standout for me at even vaguely that price point was the Teac UD-701N - it uses the same main board as the big Esoteric DAC and sounds absolutely supe... | |
| Streamers - Auralic, Aurender, Lumin, others... Having used, auditioned and built multiple streamers and Roon cores over the last few years, I have to comprehensively disagree with the sneering negativity I’ve seen from some towards the Mac Mini: my experience is that it’s a solid, well designe... | |
| Cloud storage for 8TB of music files on an external HD Both professionally and personally, I've been moving away from cloud storage - I've been a paying Dropbox user for 15 years but now, they've (IMHO) lost the plot in terms of basic functionality and performance, so am in the process of ditching the... | |
| Just Get A Better DAC? When it came to upgrading the DAC/streaming side of my system, I was moving from a Roon playout chain of an Intel Mac Mini, running Roon and HQPlayer to a Gustard A26 over the network connection. That in turn had been an upgrade from lossless iTun... | |
| Old SS amps I bought my Quad 303 new in 1978. It was still sounding great when I had it serviced by Quad in 2021. My Sumo Polaris II was untouched and working beautifully when I sold it in 2023, at 28 years old. I bought a recapped Mark Levinson 331 in 2020 -... | |
| DAC suggestions? In that price range, the best DAC I’ve auditioned is the Teac UD-701N - fantastic open sound, lovely build quality and built-in streamer. It also works well with HQPlayer, if you want to go down that route. (It uses the same main board as the $15k... | |
| The best opening act you've ever seen & heard? 1. 25 November 1973. Mott the Hoople concert in Edinburgh. Their support act was a largely unknown bunch of theatrical, Lycra-clad rockers, who got boo’d by the audience of cool dudes when they came on. An hour-and-a-half later, Mott the Hoople go... | |
| Does the Mark Levinson 331 suck? I had a 331 until a couple of years ago. Other than being a pain to move around, it was an excellent amp (fully serviced and recapped). Effortlessly powerful, neutral, analytical and drove my Martin Logans or Spendors very well indeed. So why did ... | |
| ???What's The LEAST Expensive "End Game"Amplifier You've Ever Heard??? This may not be my actual end game amp, but I certainly wouldn’t be disappointed if it were: Octave v110SE with KT150s and the Super Black Box cap bank. About £11k in the UK and it comprehensively saw off my Mark Levinsons. | |
| PSVane KT150 No problem - I’ll probably try the replacements when they arrive - I need a backup set of valves, would rather not buy Russian, and I’m currently out of pocket on customs fees and VAT! | |
| PSVane KT150 I bought a matched quartet recently for my v110SE. They did indeed try to fry my amp :( fortunately, Octave’s protection circuits are very good indeed. Returned to dealer, tested and found to be faulty. Obviously that put me off PSvane rather thor... | |
| Best DAC’S $5k to $15k My final shortlist last year included the Dave, the Bartok and the Tambaqui. All are great DACS and, frankly, the decision comes down to your system and environment, your musical tastes and the state of your ears! (as for any of us). For my tast... | |
| Martin Logan vs. Everything Ignore them. There are many good speakers around, and - in my extensive experience - Martin Logan's are right up there with the very best. They aren't cheap, but they aren't hand-crafted from unobtainium by vestal virgins, which seems to be the en... | |
| Can a tube amp be damaged by a speaker switch? Depends on the amp: anything made by Octave for instance wouldn’t matter at all. Others I know to be less robust | |
| Have you found your "End-Game" speakers yet? I have. And it feels so good!!! Depends on whether you’re talking about components/systems that you don’t feel the need to ever change, regardless of inclination/budget or those to which you have such an attachment that they’re going nowhere, ever. In the first category are my M... |