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Potential New Equipment Purchase


MWB1957

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I plan on purchasing some new stereo equipment for the first time in 31 years.  I am looking for comments on my potential purchase.

I have a brand new digital audio player, which will be my primary music source.  The plan is to plug the DAP into the system and listen to music thru wired speaker's.  I have always been partial to stereo componets, my system choices are as follows:

Amplifier.     Yamaha A-S501

Tuner.           Yamaha T-S500

Equalizer.      Pile Pro PPPEQ 100

Speaker's.     ELAC Debut 2.0 F5.2

I am not brand loyal to Yamaha, but the amp and tuner got my attention.

Ccomments / recommendations on my componet choices will be appreciated.

 

 

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7 hours ago, MWB1957 said:

I plan on purchasing some new stereo equipment for the first time in 31 years.  I am looking for comments on my potential purchase.

I have a brand new digital audio player, which will be my primary music source.  The plan is to plug the DAP into the system and listen to music thru wired speaker's.  I have always been partial to stereo componets, my system choices are as follows:

Amplifier.     Yamaha A-S501

Tuner.           Yamaha T-S500

Equalizer.      Pile Pro PPPEQ 100

Speaker's.     ELAC Debut 2.0 F5.2

I am not brand loyal to Yamaha, but the amp and tuner got my attention.

Ccomments / recommendations on my componet choices will be appreciated.

 

 

Hello, would you mind providing the brand and model DAP that you intend to use with the system outlined above?

 

I'm not sure if you already own any of the items you listed but if not I might suggest going a very different route. Assuming you do not own any of the items you listed (except the DAP) and based on my quick calculations it appears all the items listed would cost around $2K.

 

Depending on the output options of your already purchased DAP and if you intend to hookup a TV or not to this system I might suggest that you look into a pair of "Active Loudspeakers/Monitors" instead of the items listed.

 

Allot has changed over the last 10-30yrs or so. For example, two of them items listed can now be easily done via software, and done much better. Those items being the Tuner and the EQ.

 

The available options for Active speaker/monitors is endless and at all price points. Some have DAC's builtin if your DAP doesn't have that already while others offer just the amplifier/speaker parts and you just feed them an analog signal.

 

Forgot to add...the signal path of such a system I mention could be as simple as:

 

DAP-----Active Monitor-----Done

 

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Thanks for your response cjf.

 

I have yet to purchase any of the equipment.  Your $2K cost estimate is accurate.  With the sale cost of some of the items, the cost is $1.6K. 

 

My DAP is a FiiO M11, which has a built in DAC.  My plan is to put all my vinyl and CD's on the two storage cards in the DAP. No plans to connect a TV.  It is already connected to its own soundbar.

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Hello again,

 

Well, I gotta be honest. I wasn't expecting you to say the DAP was of the mobile type. 😀

 

But the unit you listed (M11) does indeed look very nice. The only concern I have is the Output options in order to connect it to an active speaker system.

 

First one being, if you use the Digital Outputs on the M11 to connect to another outboard DAC (either within an active speaker or to a traditional outboard DAC) then you lose the nice features of the DAC the M11 has.

 

Second one being, if you use either of the Balanced Outputs (2.5mm or 4.4mm) that cable would have a TRRRS connection at the M11 end and then two Balanced XLR 3pin connections at the other end. This in and of itself isn't the issue but in an active speaker configuration you would need the two leads with the XLR connectors to split off immediately or soon after from the TRRRS cable end. This being because the speakers would be some number of feet apart from each other. I've not seen such a cable in the wild but perhaps one could be made by these guys https://www.moon-audio.com/silver-dragon-portable-mini-cable-v3.html

 

The same cable story as above goes for when using the Line Output option the M11 has as well into an active speaker. But with that said, you can still connect any of these cables to a preamp without issue so all is not lost in the end.

 

So what does that all mean? If you find a decent way to output an analog signal from the M11 you could turn around and use your entire budget on a pair of very nice active speakers to connect directly to the M11. For $1600-$2000 you can get a killer pair of actives that would, IMO, sound significantly better than the entire equipment list seen in post one.

 

An example of the kind of active speakers I'm referring to check out Genelec monitors. I just bought a pair of the tiny 8020D's and they sound waaay larger than anyone could guess if the never saw/heard them before and these are only $1200 with stands. For your budget you could go quite a bit bigger then I did and even add a sub later.

 

Anyway, good luck in your search. Just offering another angle to building a setup that is more modern and potentially very impressive sounding. If any of the above sounds of interest I would just end with saying call the manufacturer of the M11 first and run such a scenario past them to see if they think their product can operate well in such a configuration. I don't own an M11 myself of course so I'm only going off of what their documentation shows about its feature set.

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CJF,

 

Appreciate your time, insite  and responses.

I'm a little embarrassed about the lack of info I provided on my M11.  I have only had the M11 for three weeks, but I take it everywhere along with a pair of bluetooth ear buds.  I listen to music in my car (via a aux connection), while working out, while shopping, then connect it to a pair of bluetooth speakers and sub-woofer when I get home.

The new home stereo set up is to allow me allow me to break free of the bluetooth connection, and let loose while at home.

The tuner is due to the fact I listen to a lot radio. 

I have a boxed up cd player and turntable that may come out in the future, so the system gives me the option to add in the future.

Other than the M11 and a pair of bluetooth earbuds, I have not purchased any other equipment.

I am considering your suggestions.

 

Thanks.

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More consumer friendly, as opposed to the Professionals (such as Genelecs) Actives provide easier connection; such as the Air Pulse: Edifier Airpulse A300 Bookshelf Speakers - APA300CH (abt.com)  have Bluetooth.  @DuckToller has reviewed several different pairs on this forum.  Might be easier to get cables for TRRS to RCAs if you want to go the cable route.  I have some Edifiers that I connect via Bluetooth or using analog from an Amazon Echo. (Air Pulse is owned by Edifier or they are sister companies or something...AP is a higher level)  

 

In the end, I agree with @cjf ...at this price point going Active you will get much more bang for the buck.  A lot of good choices in the $1K-$2K price point.

QNAP TS453Pro w/QLMS->Netgear Switch->Netgear RAX43 Router->Ethernet (50 ft)->Netgear switch->SBTouch ->SABAJ A10d->Linn Majik-IL (preamp)->Linn 2250->Linn Keilidh; Control Points: iPeng (iPad Air & iPhone); Also: Rega P3-24 w/ DV 10x5; OPPO 103; PC Playback: Foobar2000 & JRiver; Portable: iPhone 12 ProMax & Radio Paradise or NAS streaming; Sony NWZ ZX2 w/ PHA-3; SMSL IQ, Fiio Q5, iFi Nano iDSD BL; Garage: Edifier S1000DB Active Speakers  

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On 3/2/2021 at 9:43 PM, MWB1957 said:

Thanks for your response cjf.

 

I have yet to purchase any of the equipment.  Your $2K cost estimate is accurate.  With the sale cost of some of the items, the cost is $1.6K. 

 

My DAP is a FiiO M11, which has a built in DAC.  My plan is to put all my vinyl and CD's on the two storage cards in the DAP. No plans to connect a TV.  It is already connected to its own soundbar.

 

If being un-tethered is your thing Kef's wireless LS50 system is quite popular, a jack of all trades for wireless connectivity

 

https://us.kef.com/ls50-wireless-2.html

 

 

 

Regards,

Dave

 

Audio system

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@MWB1957

I have noticed @davide256 has already mentioned the wonderful KEF LS50, which are a top choice especially if you look for SQ with WAF integrated, that's why they are also above 2k. ;-)
There are several options for Actives and you may want to define what are the most important factors for you,
- i.e. Q- Acoustics have voice control integrated,
- the Audio Energy AE1 from Phil Jones have analog input only but have CLASS AB amplification
- the A300 pro by Airpulse Pro/Phil Jones are Class D & aren't high in WAF plus they are not really competitive in the digital domain, but they perform extraordinarily well if you use the balanced/unbalanced analog inputs only (both speakers are seperately powered by one amplifier per driver).
The horn loaded ribbon tweeter design gives you a superb soundstage on-axis. They go down to 40hz but offer no subwoofer output, which would mean in case you  want to use a sub you'd need to find ways to feed, filter & time-align the signal.

They look very studio monitor alike (their provenance) and their main domain of excellence is honest reproduction (and honestly, soundstage!).
I had them in my listening space in a 2.10m triangle (all sides beeing equal) and all I missed (sometimes) was the midrange pronounciation of my B&W805s.

You could feed them directly from your DAP, a balanced signal woud be preferable, however I do not know if you would match the input sensivity (Balance: 1100±50mV, Unbalance: 700±50mV) with your DAPS's balanced HP output

Here is a link  for the US, in Europe they are below 1.7k€ and I have some pics as well:
IMG_20201225_022004_173.jpg 1608670848794.jpg

P1030125_cr.jpg  P1030150.JPG

 

All the best & good luck finding the pieces that suit you
Tom

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Just to add one thing in case it was missed for @mwb1957

 

If your intention is to try and utilize the DAC built into the M11 which appears to have strong DSD and MQA capabilities then you will want to output the signal from the M11 as an Analog signal to the outboard device (active speaker or pre-amp).

 

The moment you send the signal out of the M11 as a digital signal (be it Bluetooth, SPDIF..etc) you will be handing off the duties of D/A conversion to that outboard device which may or may not have the same capabilities or quality as the DAC inside the M11.

 

This may not matter to you but I think its just something to be aware of.

 

 

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23 hours ago, DuckToller said:

@MWB1957

I have noticed @davide256 has already mentioned the wonderful KEF LS50, which are a top choice especially if you look for SQ with WAF integrated, that's why they are also above 2k. ;-)...

One thing that caught my attention  on the new wireless KEF's is that they are using a class D amplifier for the bass driver and a class AB

amplifier for the coaxial tweeter.

This makes a lot of sense to me as a concept... bass frequencies are power gobblers which a class D amp can do cheaply  and our ears are more sensitive to harmonic issues in midrange and treble where a class AB amplifier is less challenging to do well with.

Regards,

Dave

 

Audio system

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