Next upgrade or add on?

[ed612313]

Morning,

Im looking for a bit of advice as to where i should go in regards to my next upgrade/Additions.

My set up is currently

- Adams Tensor Delta (active speakers) - I love these

- Cambridge Audio CXN Streamer

Budget is approx $2k

I stream all my music through my Synology NAS via Airstream on my CXN, Spotify or Tidal.

Sometimes i use the bluetooth feature on the CXN - Which i think is average at best and the fact that it is an add on (required a dongle) really annoys me as im continually having to "re pair"

Any "next step" advice appreciated

Thanks

Ed

 

[Guest Eggcup The Daft]

You have a decent starting point. A worthwhile speaker upgrade is going to cost a lot more than your budget, the CXN is generally not a bad product.

 

You have a few things to look at:

1) Software. Is Airstream doing all you need? I have no experience of it at all, so just put that in as an open question. It's probably fine.

2) The annoyance. My pro high fidelity stance says "well don't use the bluetooth then" but there have to be alternatives where  bluetooth works well. The Bluesound Node 2/2i are popular in these parts for streaming, so worth a look perhaps.

3) Could you incorporate a subwoofer to improve bass? Your existing speakers are pretty good in the bass department for standmounts, but if you are listening in a large room or feel things are a bit lacking in the bass area it's worth considering.

4) A dedicated DAC would make a difference as well. There are a lot of options here, hunt down and read the various threads on this matter on this site.

 

Of those options - unless you feel you really need bass improvement, I'd suggest you go for the DAC. DAC owners with recommendations will be along shortly. I'm looking into this myself so will be reading what they have to say...

[Bill125812]

As far as Dacs go.    For your budget the Gieseler Gross is unbeatable.  

 

Have a read and and see what people are saying. I have one and it won’t be going anywhere 

[Irek]

Hi

the biggest upgrade comes from speakers, followed by amplifier. Very important is room acoustic/room treatment - have a look at primacoustic london 8 kit. Also speaker's stands from isoacoustics can make a significant improvement. Next upgrade would be $10k + speakers with $5k + amplifier. 

Edited January 19, 2019 by Irek

[ed612313]

Im happy with my speakers so wanted to keep them.... So im guessing its looking like a DAP is where is should start looking

[alistairm]

@ed612313

 

First, what a brilliant choice of speaker to build a system around. The Adam Tensor Deltas are magnificent. You could easily spend $15K on speakers, preamp, power amp and cables and not have a better sound. That money is much better spent on upgrading your source - there is an absolute stack of headroom left in your speakers. 

 

By way of background, I know the Deltas very well as they have been in my office system for many years. I currently have them running off a TechDAS D7i Supreme DAC with a Sonicorbiter streaming Roon into it. I have, at various times, also had a range of different preamps in the signal chain. 

 

I could easily be happy with Deltas as my main system with the right front end, but they can be very revealing so you need a good source for them. They don't have, for example, that lovely Proac mid-bass hump that makes everything sound good. 

 

You say you are streaming, but what is your actual source and what software are you using? Assuming you have good stands (and noting the excellent suggestion above about some simple room treatments if necessary), as a next step I would be inclined to concentrate on getting a good feed into an upgraded DAC and using digital volume control for now. In due course, a preamp can be added that will give you more system flexibility and improved fidelity. 

 

Lots of options for you... let us know a little more about your setup and no doubt there will be a stack of ideas! 

 

Overall though, you have a brilliant start with those speakers, and a long journey ahead to unlock their potential. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest Eggcup The Daft]

The question here is a great example, and I'm going to generalise the point @alistairm makes. We do tend to pile in with "speakers are the most important thing so upgrade the speakers". There's another side to this, always.

 

If you have great (or even decent) speakers in the right room, you should actually be wary of changing them - you may find yourself off on a run of failures - the next speakers, the ones after that, the ones after that, chasing what you already had to start off with. Or you get speakers that don't work with the rest of your system - there were a few people on here when I first joined who bought B&W 800 and 802 speakers with their entire upgrade budget, only to discover that their amps weren't up to the task. I got the impression that the people concerned enjoyed rushing out and spending huge sums on amps to go with them, not everyone can suddenly do that...

 

Speakers make the biggest difference, true. But speakers are usually capable of being better exploited, as well. What's more, if you don't bring the rest of the system closer to what the great speaker you have can exploit first, that much more expensive "even better" speaker upgrade may just expose faults instead of improving the system.

 

 

[Chill3]

Great speakers, so improve the source.

 

use the best files you can, improve the DAC

[Ittaku]

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest something slightly different, though no doubt I'll be ignored. I recommend a room correction DAC such as the antimode dual core to improve your speaker's in-room performance, and then top it off with a great value DAC like the Topping D50 in the chain after it. Either can act as the volume control by the way. You can do it in steps, trying the antimode by itself since it's also a DAC in its own right, and you can add a linear power supply to make it sound much better.

[ed612313]

OK.

Thanks guys for all the feedback.

My music selection mainly revolves around Electronic (ie Ambient and Detroit techno) along with modern classical. This in case 75% of the music i listen to are sub par 320kbps DJ mixes at best. So in this regard i am downloading music to my NAS and then streaming it via my Cambridge Audio CXN. My Adam Tensor Deltas are connected directly to my CXN. And my CXN is connected to my NAS via ethernet.

I find the CXN internal file playing system more efficient to use than Roon (which is frustrating) but when it comes to listening to actual albums i use Tidal (which is built in to the Cambridge Audio CXN) or spotify. The reason i find it more efficient is because my music collection consists of folders (by artist name) but i have folder that is labelled "new" and it generally consists of 50 plus dj mixes that i want to listen to prior to deciding wether to keep or delete. Roon doesn't let me view folders in this same manner unfortunately ie i cant see all the random music in my "new" folder....

 

[Irek]

Maybe you can add preamplifier between Cambridge Audio CXN and speakers. 

[Guest Eggcup The Daft]

30 minutes ago, ed612313 said:

OK.

Thanks guys for all the feedback.

My music selection mainly revolves around Electronic (ie Ambient and Detroit techno) along with modern classical. This in case 75% of the music i listen to are sub par 320kbps DJ mixes at best. So in this regard i am downloading music to my NAS and then streaming it via my Cambridge Audio CXN. My Adam Tensor Deltas are connected directly to my CXN. And my CXN is connected to my NAS via ethernet.

I find the CXN internal file playing system more efficient to use than Roon (which is frustrating) but when it comes to listening to actual albums i use Tidal (which is built in to the Cambridge Audio CXN) or spotify. The reason i find it more efficient is because my music collection consists of folders (by artist name) but i have folder that is labelled "new" and it generally consists of 50 plus dj mixes that i want to listen to prior to deciding wether to keep or delete. Roon doesn't let me view folders in this same manner unfortunately ie i cant see all the random music in my "new" folder....

 

Thanks for the extra info. Whatever you use, you need a volume control in the stages later than the CXN, one of good quality - some digital volume controls degrade the sound. Most recent devices are good for this (avoid older ones)

I would go for the best DAC with volume control you can get, but think Ittaku's suggestion is a valid alternative. So would be a preamp, replacing the CXN for volume control duties and allowing for a fixed output from another DAC later. I believe the CXN has a digital volume control, but don't know how good it is. Possibly, having a device with a good analogue volume control may preserve what is in those 320K files. I've found digital controls that sound OK with the stuff I play (lossless) can still lose detail with 256K MP3s at lower volumes, so this is worth watching.

 

I'm advising on this from hearsay - I don't know the CXN well, but have been told by an ex-owner I trust that the upsampling is good, but the variable output not so, so adding an external DAC does help.

 

[Mike13]

With your music taste I’d get a sub and integrate it with DSP. This will probably have the biggest impact. 

 

Speaker cords maybe.  What are you using currently? I found some $200 Osborn speaker cables to be a good, reletively inexpensive upgrade.

 

I’d grab a second hand Bluesound Node 2 for around $400-$450.  Probably stick to Tidal rather than Spotify.

 

Before you go the DAC route it may be worth borrowing a couple to see if you can actually hear a difference from your current one. Node 2 DAC may work for you. 

[ed612313]

So ive found a place online that will rent me a 12in adam sub.... I have it for the next 6 months  Will be interesting to see... 

Next step a DAC of some sort  (if required)