Nelsonkat Posted October 7, 2024 Posted October 7, 2024 Hi Guys, I have just sold my Chord TT2 after 3 years. Looking to move to the next level. Happy to spend around 10-15k. Would like a preamplifier included if possible. Any advice you could give me would be very much appreciated. Cheers
POV Posted October 7, 2024 Posted October 7, 2024 3 hours ago, Nelsonkat said: Hi Guys, I have just sold my Chord TT2 after 3 years. Looking to move to the next level. Happy to spend around 10-15k. Would like a preamplifier included if possible. Any advice you could give me would be very much appreciated. Cheers Hi Nelson, just to clarify, are you looking for a DAC, headphone amplifier, and stereo pre-amp all in one unit?
Nelsonkat Posted October 7, 2024 Author Posted October 7, 2024 DAC first and first most. However, it would be nice for the DAC to have a pre-amp.
POV Posted October 7, 2024 Posted October 7, 2024 7 minutes ago, Nelsonkat said: DAC first and first most. However, it would be nice for the DAC to have a pre-amp. But no headphone amp required I gather. I mean there are a ton of options out there in the sub $15k range. What is the partnering equipment you would be using this DAC with?
Nelsonkat Posted October 7, 2024 Author Posted October 7, 2024 Pass Labs XA25 power amp, Primaluna EVO 400 Preamplifier, KEF R3 Meta.
POV Posted October 7, 2024 Posted October 7, 2024 (edited) Okay, try and help me follow along here. You are wanting to spend $10-15k on a DAC that will feed a circa $7k preamp, and circa $8k power amp which is driving a pair of $3k speakers? Edited October 7, 2024 by POV
Nelsonkat Posted October 7, 2024 Author Posted October 7, 2024 When you say it out loud it does sound somewhat absurd. I guess maybe I should have kept the TT2. What this really indicates how green I am to the hobby. I thoroughly enjoy listening to music and would like to get the best system for my budget. Happy for any help from the community. Cheers.
Nelsonkat Posted October 7, 2024 Author Posted October 7, 2024 I started off with the chord TT2 and the Focal Utopia's and the Audeze LCD-MX4. I moved away from headphone setup to a speaker setup. I may move back to the headphone setup in the future. I really wanted a DAC that would be able to bridge both duties depending which setup I go to.
POV Posted October 7, 2024 Posted October 7, 2024 6 minutes ago, Nelsonkat said: When you say it out loud it does sound somewhat absurd. I guess maybe I should have kept the TT2. What this really indicates how green I am to the hobby. I thoroughly enjoy listening to music and would like to get the best system for my budget. Happy for any help from the community. Cheers. OK…well my take on all of this is that the listening room, the speakers, speaker positioning and setup, and the speaker room interface are far and away the most important part of sound fidelity and quality. I own a pair of KEF r3 metas which I use in my home office for background listening. They are fine speakers for the money, but certainly not world beaters, and to be frank kind of don’t make a lot of sense as a partner to your electronics (at least to me, but if you are happy with how they sound then fair enough!) I would be inclined to suggest you consider either selling the KEFs or repurpose to another room/system and direct the lions share of your budget towards speakers and (if possible) dealing with any serious room issues (sounds like you may need professional support for this). Once you have this sorted and too your liking then find a DAC which does what you need and sounds good to you. I can suggest a number of DAC options in the sub $5k (and even the sub $1k) range that sound superb and objectively measure superbly. But before all of this, do you have a dealer you have been using and trust? How did you get this system built up as it is?
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