My biggest dilemmas, hardest set of decisions, greatest potential opportunities

morricab

Well-Known Member
Apr 25, 2014
9,391
4,988
978
Switzerland
The Eera is both blessing and curse.
It's totally made me reappraise my appreciation of digital, giving me as close to analog convergence as I'm likely to get at sane prices (MSB Select 3 box and Kassandra Ref being out of my range as the pricey dacs doing the same tricks for their respective owners).
At the same time it's set an unfairly high bar for a streamer/dac to have to try and jump.

What have you actually compared it too?
 

spiritofmusic

Well-Known Member
Jun 13, 2013
14,606
5,415
1,278
E. England
Only a handful of the top cdp's of the time in my system
Linn CD12, Reimyo, AMR, Emm Labs CDSA.
Not directly, but unlike others on this forum I don't feel the need for a/b trials ad infinitum.
I know when a piece of gear feels/sounds "right", "talks to me", has so much "naturalness" that it stays.
Eera ticks all these boxes.
And for JackD201 who deals Eera, Aurender and TotalDac, to make known his conclusion whereas he could easily have whitewashed the Eera is testament to this cdp's essential "rightness".
So Brad, I really don't need to hear streamer/dacs or dacs alone via laptop that I can't afford to retain the faith w Eera.
What I'm maybe more confident of is that w my room acoustics and power grid so allowing my system sound to blossom, a moderate set up of the R2R dac I'm looking at and a vfm streamer like Innuos Zenith will outperform and give me sufficient of what I'm looking for (midband tone density and upper bass texture as opposed to a sparser, more hyper detailed pin point imaged sound) for me to be basically happy w the sound and not feel inhibited in listening to this over my cdp and tt.
My Eera stays whatever streaming solution I finally decide on.
 

morricab

Well-Known Member
Apr 25, 2014
9,391
4,988
978
Switzerland
What have you actually compared it too?

I guess I am missing the point of this thread. You want to know if streaming/computer audio is right for you but don't want to "Dip your toes in the water" and don't want to go whole hog due to the perceived cost... what do you want then? I proposed a possible, affordable solution for a good server but, based on no knowledge, think it will be unpleasantly bad compared to other people's similar concepts. There are plenty of affordable streamers with digital out to go to a good DAC.

I think the real issue is that you are stuck on the Eera and aren't willing to let it go. But you can keep it for cd and get a decent DAC for computer audio.
 

morricab

Well-Known Member
Apr 25, 2014
9,391
4,988
978
Switzerland
Only a handful of the top cdp's of the time in my system
Linn CD12, Reimyo, AMR, Emm Labs CDSA.
Not directly, but unlike others on this forum I don't feel the need for a/b trials ad infinitum.
I know when a piece of gear feels/sounds "right", "talks to me", has so much "naturalness" that it stays.
Eera ticks all these boxes.
And for JackD201 who deals Eera, Aurender and TotalDac, to make known his conclusion whereas he could easily have whitewashed the Eera is testament to this cdp's essential "rightness".
So Brad, I really don't need to hear streamer/dacs or dacs alone via laptop that I can't afford to retain the faith w Eera.
What I'm maybe more confident of is that w my room acoustics and power grid so allowing my system sound to blossom, a moderate set up of the R2R dac I'm looking at and a vfm streamer like Innuos Zenith will outperform and give me sufficient of what I'm looking for (midband tone density and upper bass texture as opposed to a sparser, more hyper detailed pin point imaged sound) for me to be basically happy w the sound and not feel inhibited in listening to this over my cdp and tt.
My Eera stays whatever streaming solution I finally decide on.

You can try my Monarchy...it has what you say you are looking for...a certain "rightness" that it took Kassandra to get me to change.
 

spiritofmusic

Well-Known Member
Jun 13, 2013
14,606
5,415
1,278
E. England
Brad, yes I'm guilty of communicating mixed messages.
1- I'm not a natural computer audio consumer, I'm v much stuck on the fetish of physical media
BUT I also know I'm selling myself short this way
2- just as I open up to computer audio, my cdp jumps 10 stages to rub shoulders w analog, and I suddenly have a dilemma about what I might lose going streamer/dac
3- so I'm as much trying to sort my own priorities via this thread
Not much in it for others reading it LOL
 

Rodney Gold

Member
Jan 29, 2014
983
11
18
Cape Town South Africa
Here is something to throw the spanner in the works
Computer running roon/tidal .. wifi streaming directly to devialet 220pro amp (roon sees it as an endpoint)..to your speakers..
 

spiritofmusic

Well-Known Member
Jun 13, 2013
14,606
5,415
1,278
E. England
Devialet isn't going to happen here.
TBH, I'm v likely to stick with a streamer plus dac or all in one player.
Thanks for yr input Rodney.
 

asiufy

Industry Expert/VIP Donor
Jul 8, 2011
3,711
723
1,200
San Diego, CA
almaaudio.com
Marc,

My suggestion is to go old-school here. Buy a magazine. There's one in the UK called "Prog", and it has a lot of reviews and tidbits about old and new bands. See the little blurbs about these bands, then hop on Tidal/Roon and play a couple. Like? Go down the rabbit hole with their "Similar to", "Influenced by" links. That should keep you busy for a few hours... Then rinse and repeat :)

Brad's idea is good as well. Use the internet as your "magazine". There's tons of information out there on obscure prog and fusion. My friend Tom publishes a blog about this very subject.

http://unencumberedmusicreviews.blogspot.com

I only wish I had this amount of information available to me back then!

And Brad, don't diss our 70s dreck :) Some of it actually had quite innovative production qualities back then, specially the german stuff (Conny Plank and Dieter Dierks were two famous producers, Conny went to work with a lot of UK artists at the turn of the 70s/80s). But yeah, audiophile stuff they surely ain't :)

cheers,
alex
 

spiritofmusic

Well-Known Member
Jun 13, 2013
14,606
5,415
1,278
E. England
Alex, I get Prog magazine every month.
Have you looked at a copy? Deluxe cd box sets/reissues galore.
But yes, this is a good way to investigate, then laterally via Roon.
I was just intrigued how you came up w that playlist a few posts back.
 

asiufy

Industry Expert/VIP Donor
Jul 8, 2011
3,711
723
1,200
San Diego, CA
almaaudio.com
Marc,

As I said, I heard about those bands 20-25 years ago, word of mouth from friends. There barely was an Internet to obtain information, imagine streaming... So I did what any curious person would, I bought records blindly, from catalogs. And then started reading all I could find about these bands, and the countries/music scenes they were part of, mostly magazines and books, and some early Internet content. And, of course, tips from friends, like Tom who writes the blog I've posted.

After a while, you end up forming a base of knowledge, where you know what Roon knows, which is, that relationship between bands, who played where, which albums are good, etc. But that takes time and $$$. So, on one hand, everything's so much easier today, with all that information pre-digested and collected for you, it's also overwhelming in size and scope, so you have to be able to pick "starting points" and set into a journey, like I originally did.

Another early (musical) fixation of mine was the "kozmigroov" movement/scene of the late 60s/early 70s. That was the electrified jazz, progressive in nature, that blended all sorts of influences into a cool, hip, very 70s sound. Early on, a page served as a guide, and the curator of that page kept adding new "finds" within that genre.

http://www.freeform.org/music/kozmigroov.html

This very page is still around, grown in size tremendously. Back when I first looked at it, there were like 20-25 albums in there, so I, of course, proceeded to buy each and every one of them :) Now, as you can see, would be quite a bit harder, given he's collected a lot more information, but still, if you set a starting point into that journey, that sort of information is priceless. I'm sure a good 70% of the albums on that page will be on Tidal, so you can save a lot of money (if you're anything like me, and want to have physical media of the albums you end up liking the most).
 

spiritofmusic

Well-Known Member
Jun 13, 2013
14,606
5,415
1,278
E. England
Hey Alex, great stuff.
This is what will fixate me if I can get into this way of investigating.
I can't thank you enough for your input here.
Poor Blue58, I really can't foist Magma on him, so I'll have to do this all in a dark room upstairs, and get excited by the journey.
Between you, Blue and Sablon Mark, this is finally going to happen.
I know you're not a great fan of fly by night Chinese operations, but AMR was/is much respected, and it's dacs, cdp's and phonos are designed in UK and assembled in China. So, buyer beware, and eyes wide open, I'm going to take a punt on the Denafrips Terminator R2R dac, which has a lot of very positive user reviews, and a stellar 6Moons review and award.
At £4k this enables me to match w the £5k Zenith SE to get a streaming option of I'm confident very high quality (fingers crossed as always).
And then I can follow your advice finally LOL.
Also looking at the Acuhorn one box R2R streamer/dac, but if this is not Roon Ready I'll likely pass.
 

asiufy

Industry Expert/VIP Donor
Jul 8, 2011
3,711
723
1,200
San Diego, CA
almaaudio.com
Marc,

Please, do not compare AMR with "Denafrips". AMR was a well-established company before they embarked on the whole China thing. As far from "fly by night Chinese operations" as it gets. Denafrips is well... Denafrips.
I hope you see the distinction here, and how your comparison is not really valid, at all.
 

About us

  • What’s Best Forum is THE forum for high end audio, product reviews, advice and sharing experiences on the best of everything else. This is THE place where audiophiles and audio companies discuss vintage, contemporary and new audio products, music servers, music streamers, computer audio, digital-to-analog converters, turntables, phono stages, cartridges, reel-to-reel tape machines, speakers, headphones and tube and solid-state amplification. Founded in 2010 What’s Best Forum invites intelligent and courteous people of all interests and backgrounds to describe and discuss the best of everything. From beginners to life-long hobbyists to industry professionals, we enjoy learning about new things and meeting new people, and participating in spirited debates.

Quick Navigation

User Menu

Steve Williams
Site Founder | Site Owner | Administrator
Ron Resnick
Site Co-Owner | Administrator
Julian (The Fixer)
Website Build | Marketing Managersing