Respectable Integrateds

[AudioDoctor]

I don't know about you guys, but I listen with my ears, not my eyes...

[botrytis]

2 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

I don't know about you guys, but I listen with my ears, not my eyes...

 

Why can't you have both? 

[Ralf11]

5 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

I don't know about you guys, but I listen with my ears, not my eyes...

 

 

You never look at the BIG Blue Meters?

[AudioDoctor]

4 hours ago, botrytis said:

 

Why can't you have both? 

 

Ok, I don't listen to measurement graphs.  Is that better?

[AudioDoctor]

4 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

 

 

You never look at the BIG Blue Meters?

 

 

All the time unless I am reading and responding to one of your witty posts Ralf.

[beerandmusic]

6 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

so not excellent or even very good - Thx.

 

"GOOOOOOOD" with seven o's is much better than excellent or very good...it is equivalent to "the BEST".

 

Also when you have "the BEST" and big blue meters, you actually have the "BESTEST BEST".

 

...you must not have been paying attention in school....Go back to school silly.......

[Ralf11]

ok, then why did Mc et al. demo the best speakers with ARC gear, not Mc??

[semente]

3 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

Ok, I don't listen to measurement graphs.  Is that better?

 

No one does.

But they're a useful tool for sorting out what should go in the shortlist. You just need to learn how to interpret them and how they correlate with listening. Learning some of the basics about how things work helps a lot too.

Otherwise you're just walking blind...

[Spacehound]

2 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

aok, then why did Mc et al. demo the best speakers with ARC gear, not Mc??

Because the 'Asian' outfit that owns McIntosh own ARC and Sonus Faber too. (Look real close at any of them and it will say "Contains some foreign made parts" - that's their getout clause.)

 

Nobody at all  would have gone  if it had been advertised as the Sang Yu Fong Electric Corporation,  Jungle, Asia. Easy 

[Spacehound]

5 minutes ago, Spacehound said:

Because the 'Asian'   outfit that owns McIntosh own ARC and Sonus Faber too.

 

Nobody would hve gone if it had been advertised as the Sang You Fong Electric Corporation,  Jungle, Asia. Easy 

 

[botrytis]

2 hours ago, Spacehound said:

Because the 'Asian' outfit that owns McIntosh own ARC and Sonus Faber too. (Look real close at any of them and it will say "Contains some foreign made parts" - that's their getout clause.)

 

Nobody at all  would have gone  if it had been advertised as the Sang Yu Fong Electric Corporation,  Jungle, Asia. Easy 

UH - the ownership of McIntosh, Sonus-Faber, Audio Research, etc is now an American company.

[Spacehound]

44 minutes ago, botrytis said:

 

AndUH - the ownership of McIntosh, Sonus-Faber, Audio Research, etc is now an American company.

Good. Though it's apparently French and Italian owned too. These things change every time you blink.

 

I'm in the UK and  in the past I've purchased two Harley-Davidsons, (not at the same time) even though they are quite high-priced  because they are made by people 'much like  me'  who  are paid real wages like I am.

If people don't like that it's my money and I shall spend it how I want, same as  they do

 

Quote.url

[miguelito]

Audio Note Kondo Ongaku is a decent integrated... See my signature.

[davide256]

11 hours ago, botrytis said:

 

Why can't you have both? 

Numbers are good. On a scale of 1-10 I'd give measurements about a 4 in importance when purchasing gear, auditioned sound quality an 8 and having the required feature set a 10.

[Spacehound]

15 minutes ago, miguelito said:

Audio Note Kondo Ongaku is a decent integrated... See my signature.

Sure it is. Shame you waste some of it on those powered bass units 

[beerandmusic]

7 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

ok, then why did Mc et al. demo the best speakers with ARC gear, not Mc??

 

to keep you confused....it worked (wink)

[SoundSparks]

On 2018-02-11 at 4:54 PM, beerandmusic said:

Yea, i am more of a laid back type...love my mcintosh, but I am planning on buying a new mcintosh once they come out with a new DA module and after my move, so i wanted something to hold me over...

What are the anticipated changes to the DA module, please? Timeline? Any info would be much appreciated, @BeerAndMusic!

Are you happy with your interim solution, PM7005, please? How would you describe the SOUND?

Please chime in!

[Rounder44]

On 2/11/2018 at 6:41 AM, beerandmusic said:

Lots of suggestions for new $4K+....any more suggestions for used or $2K and under?

 

I had an NAD 368 BluOS that was $1200 and sound was great but it had QC issues. 1st had a bad volume knob. 2nd had BluOS card issues.

 

I was getting the brand new NAD's so maybe the QC has gotten better as the sound was exceptional for the price!

 

But buying from Crutchfield made the hassle bearable.

 

Switched to a Hegel Rost and haven't looked back! Flawless plug and play and great sound! $3K though but super happy I bit the bullet and spent a bit more...

 

R44

[botrytis]

8 hours ago, Spacehound said:

Good. Though it's apparently French and Italian owned too. These things change every time you blink.

 

I'm in the UK and  in the past I've purchased two Harley-Davidsons, (not at the same time) even though they are quite high-priced  because they are made by people 'much like  me'  who  are paid real wages like I am.

If people don't like that it's my money and I shall spend it how I want, same as  they do

 

Quote.url

 

Actually, McIntosh and S-F - the CEO's got together and bought the company lock, stock, and barrel because they wanted to keep them going and if they produce a product that is not so good, they won't be shut down because of it (which was likely in Fine Sounds - the previous owner).

[gmgraves]

On 2/11/2018 at 10:39 AM, bobbmd said:

i have a 2005 yamaha rx-v2500 with all bells whistles at that time still works great and i play with all sorts DSP selections including THX neo music etc and different halls/theaters etc only thing the GUI no longer works for room calibration and there is no USB port

i'll bet newer Yamaha or Onyko(sic) integrateds are even better and inexpensive also try that 'retro'

Outlaw Audio 2 channel stereo integrated

That's the only real complaint I have about my HK990. No USB input for the rather nice sounding fully balanced (with FOUR AMD 24/192 DACs) Delta-Sigma DAC section. I used the IFi USB>SPDIF adapter for a while until I stopped using it and went back to my 10-year old Assemblage 24/96 R2R, or ladder DAC (R2R, IMHO, just sounds better that Delta Sigma).   

[Spacehound]

46 minutes ago, botrytis said:

 

Actually, McIntosh and S-F - the CEO's got together and bought the company lock, stock, and barrel because they wanted to keep them going and if they produce a product that is not so good, they won't be shut down because of it (which was likely in Fine Sounds - the previous owner).

With the financial assistance of the two I mentioned. But at least their is a considerable 'home' financial interest, which is good. Our UK Naim is now owned by Focal, the French company, though Naim pretended it was a 'merger'. They make the  fancy stereo  for  Bentleys, which are VWs except for  body panels/seats. 

[beerandmusic]

17 hours ago, SoundSparks said:

What are the anticipated changes to the DA module, please? Timeline? Any info would be much appreciated, @BeerAndMusic!

Are you happy with your interim solution, PM7005, please? How would you describe the SOUND?

Please chime in!

unfortunately, even though i bought the PM7005 on hifiheaven for $600, they told me they already sold it and the online site didn't register it as sold...so i didn't get it.

I can tell you though, that i have used marantz MANY times both as amps and dacs and have always liked them.  Even now i am using the dac in the ND8006 and it sounds as good as anything else i have tried, and it also supports native dsd via ethernet, which has always sounded better to me than any pc usb pcm only dac....anyways, i am still in the market for another amplifier, but in no rush to buy anything.

[beerandmusic]

16 hours ago, Rounder44 said:

I had an NAD 368 BluOS that was $1200 and sound was great but it had QC issues. 1st had a bad volume knob. 2nd had BluOS card issues.

 

I was getting the brand new NAD's so maybe the QC has gotten better as the sound was exceptional for the price!

 

But buying from Crutchfield made the hassle bearable.

 

Switched to a Hegel Rost and haven't looked back! Flawless plug and play and great sound! $3K though but super happy I bit the bullet and spent a bit more...

 

R44

thanks, i have also used many NAD products and generally happy.  I really liked an old vintage 208thx beast (200watts per channel high current amp).  I will check out the Hegel Rost. 

[beerandmusic]

edit above...i meant 218thx w/225watts per channel...had tons of bass, many consider too much bass, but I liked it and usually had the bass turned down when using this amp...but it was also nice to have that extra oomph when i wanted it too.

 

[Ajax]

On 12/02/2018 at 9:24 AM, beerandmusic said:

 

Yea, i am more of a laid back type...love my mcintosh, but I am planning on buying a new mcintosh once they come out with a new DA module and after my move, so i wanted something to hold me over....i just picked up the marantz pm7005...hifiheaven had one for only 599 with free shipping, so hard to pass on.

 

Hi Beer,

I have been buying Marantz amplifiers for over 40 years and over that time they have remained one of the best manufacturers for value. How do you like the sound of your new PM 7005? 

 

I know it is no longer relevant to your OP, as you have already purchased, but I think your thread topic was a good choice and generated some interesting alternatives for me to consider going forward. FWIW I've had a lot of enjoyment from the following "integrated" configurations:

 

Devialet 220 + OTHM G1 speakers

... picked up this complete "all French" system as a demo at the Melbourne Audio show in 2016 for US$8K. I believe you can purchase a used Devialet 220 today for around US$4k. It exhibits ground breaking technology with USB, Coaxial, Optical, Ethernet, Wireless inputs (that can be easily re-configured) together with upgradable firmware, an internal DAC as well as plenty of power and excellent sound. I have since purchased a pair of SVS SB2000 subs, which I connect via the internal active crossover at 65hz. Very compact and elegant unit with huge WAF acceptance. I concur with the previous posters that it just makes good sense to keep everything digital as long as possible.

 

Benchmark PRE/DAC1 HDR + ADAM A7 Active monitors

... this is my desktop system and is now over 7 years old and hasn't missed a beat (apologies for the woeful pun) ... wonderful sound for US$3k new or under US$2k today. This is simplicity personified and is the antithesis of a "bling" system ... looks ordinary but the sound is exceptional with USB, Coaxial, Optical and Analogue inputs and balanced and RCA out. I'm a great fan of active speakers and can't understand why there isn't greater acceptance.

 

Marantz PM 6005 + Wharfdale 220 speakers

---- purchased this system for my beach house I own with my brother in law as it has A+B speakers outputs for a second pair on the balcony. Actually puts out 50W into 8ohms (measured by Aus HiFi ... not 40W as advertised) and has a surprisingly good DAC, which I prefer to the DAC inside the Auralic Mini (with standard power supply) to give you a guide to its quality. Insane value at around US$350 for the Amp and another $350 for the speakers. I have since added a pair of second hand subs I picked up at a pawn shop for a total system cost of just over US1100. 

 

I use a variety of sources including my laptop and an Auralic Mini, which I think is great value and a very much underrated device. The Mini can stream Tidal (and soon Spotify Connect) as well as connect your smartphone using Bluetooth and Airplay ... it can also play PCM 24/192 AND DSD 256 files from local storage. The Mini is controlled from your iPhone via a free app called Lighting DS. I use the mini with an SB Booster power supply when feeding the DAC of the Devialet using its optical out and it sounds very good to my ears. With this same power supply and utilising its internal DAC it could very well be considered a stand alone "integrated" preamp in its own right  - just add a power amp or active speakers.

 

Never has audio been so good, so versatile, so easy to use and so inexpensive. You just have to know what to buy and how to set it up, which is where CA comes in as most of my knowledge has come from the contributors to this site, so thanks fellas!

 

All the best,

 

Ajax