Equipment Recommendations - The Home For New System and Upgrade Advice

displayname said:
Your head would probably start to hurt listening to their lengthy interviews discussing the style and art they put into the design. Eye of the beholder my friend.
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I refuse to accept that as art. Its bad industrial design. Those B&W are art, not to everyone’s taste but they’ve definitely been designed beyond “precariously stacked cardboard boxes with an ugly shell...
 
TheMythOfSisyphus said:
I'm shopping for an integrated amp and I'm creating a shortlist. Right now I've got a Luxman L-550axii and McInstosh MA5300 on the high end and a Musical Fidelity M6si and Creek Audio Evolution 100A on the lower end. The Mac is the bottom of my list (honestly, because of it's bigger footprint than the others).

The Musical Fidelity is the top of my list (great reviews, specs are where I'd like them, features aren't overabundant which I appreciate/all analog inputs - very much geared toward what I'm doing). I plan on putting a Luxman E-250 phono in front of it (right now I'm using a PS Audio NuWave Phono). Plus, I can redirect the money savings (prob to my pocket or retirement accout; ya, know something responsible). In the end, I'll go live test all that are on my shortlist.

Anyway, what I'm looking for is someone to check what I'm trying to do...the only thing the MF doesn't have that I may use is a headphone input and Bluetooth. It's not a huge deal since I hardly use Bluetooth in my main setup (mostly vinyl & CDs and my CD player has its own DAC) and I seldom put on headphones (when I do I usually throw a Bluetooth TX dongle in my headphone jack and connect my Audio Technica ATH-M50xBT). However, I'd still like the features for those times I will use it. So now that I've talked through all of this information that you don't need for my question, here it is:

I have a PS Audio Sprout 100 sitting around that I don't use, but I was always satisfied with its headphone section. And it has a Bluetooth RX. Instead of buying a different headphone amp and bluetooth RX could I have the Sprout live next to the integrated amp; not hook up any speakers to it, but have the analog out of the Sprout connect to one of the MF inputs, choose the Bluetooth setting on the Sprout and have it sent to the MF for playback? Then for using the Sprout as a headphone amp, connect the (fixed) line out of the MF to the analog in of the Sprout (and choosing the Sprout's analog input on the front) to hear what is playing through the main amp?

I feel like this should work but I'd love someone to sanity check what I'm mapping out in my brain. The infrequency with which I use bluetooth or cans doesn't necessarily justify buying two separate components when I already have one thing that can in theory check both boxes. Plus the footprint of the Sprout is similar to the footprint of a lot of headphone amps.
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Your plan is sound. What speakers do you have?

Also, make sure to get the Luxman phono stage with a money back guarantee. I had one and couldn’t offload it fast enough.
 
TheMythOfSisyphus said:
What is it about the Luxman phono that turned you off? I'm always open to have my attention adverted toward competing gear
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Dynamically flat, musically uninvolving. Boring. Overpriced. It’s so bad that it turned me a bit off of the brand.

I’d look at a Sutherland Insight or 20/20. Another very safe bet would be a PS Audio Stellar phono stage. They’ll even take your phono stage in on trade. A number of us here have Sutherlands and we all love them. The new Stellar seems like a great move as well.

You are in a weird spot speaker wise. The Luxman 550 doesn’t have enough power IMO for the Martin Logans. Plenty though for Klipsch Heritage series. I’ve also previously owned McIntosh. The lower models are OK (what you are looking at and what I had- a lower model). The special stuff are the ones with the output transformers. I kept my McIntosh for a year or so. Sold it and didn’t lose a cent. The McIntosh (and Musical Fidelity) have enough power for your current speakers, but are overkill for Klipsch.

I see everything you’ve listed is solid state. No interest in tubes?
 
TheMythOfSisyphus said:
I'm shopping for an integrated amp and I'm creating a shortlist. Right now I've got a Luxman L-550axii and McInstosh MA5300 on the high end and a Musical Fidelity M6si and Creek Audio Evolution 100A on the lower end. The Mac is the bottom of my list (honestly, because of it's bigger footprint than the others).
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Don't discount the internal phono stage in the Luxman L-550axii. I believe @Slimwhit33 has that amplifier and preferred it to a Sutherland Insight external.
 
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TheMythOfSisyphus said:
I’ve looked at all those phono pres you’ve mentioned. Perhaps I’ll have to give them another look. I do know about PS Audi’s trade up and I really like the NuWave but I’d like to give another line a go. The Sutherland 20/20 is the other I’ve looked the hardest at. I’ll look again.

I have nothing against tube. In fact, all of guitar amps I’ve owned in my life I’ve never owned a SS (unless you count the first practice amp my parents got me at 13 - but they didn’t know better).

My ideal would be an amp that can push my current speakers and any future Klipsch. I don’t want to have my hand forced to buy new speakers just cause I got a new amp. While the MF or McIntosh may be overkill for the Klipsch I imagine they should still pair nicely?
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I get wanting to try different stuff. Do keep on mind that although it’s a PS Audio piece, the Stellar is in a whole different league- designed by a different designer.

Another piece to look at is the JoLida Fusion 6802 integrated amp on closeout at Underwood HiFi. JoLida is phasing out the brand and switching over to Black Ice Audio. I ran an older version of the next model down for years. Scroll down halfway- you want the one with 6550 output tubes. It’s a great price on a great amp for much less than some others you are considering. @kvetcha owns a older version of this amp. Same guts, cosmetically different.

Specials | Underwood HiFi

www.underwoodhifi.com www.underwoodhifi.com
 
TheMythOfSisyphus said:
Those looks nice. I’m gonna bookmark that page.
I am in planning phase right now. I’m leaving end of Feb for a year in Kuwait for my job so I’m not looking to buy. I just start my research/narrowing down way in advance. Of course who knows what will come out in that time!

Any experience with the McIntosh MP100? One of the shops here is a licensed dealer and I know they carry it.

I actually will be in CO next year for some training and I already talked w PS Audio about visiting their HQ so I’ll see if I can get a listen to the Stellar. I actually got the NuWave when they slashed the price after discontinuing it in anticipation of the Stellar and their rep was not shy about how excited they were about it.
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No experience with the McIntosh MP-100. When I was looking, I specifically needed a phono stage that is compatible with Grado Statement series cartridges. The MP-100 isn’t.
 
Joe Mac said:
So your amp does have digital in. It has one coax and one toslink. You can connect the coax out on the Sonos port to the coax in on your NAD amp using a coax digital cable. If you select coax on your amp it will act as a Sonos zone. That leaves the toslink digital input free for the future if you ever want to connect a tele or CD player etc using an optical cable.
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In thinking about a CD player, if connecting through optical I wouldn't need a player with a fancy DAC since I'd be relying on my amp's. Does it really matter what kind of player I pick up, except perhaps finding one that's 24/192 compatible for high res?
 
dropsonde said:
In thinking about a CD player, if connecting through optical I wouldn't need a player with a fancy DAC since I'd be relying on my amp's. Does it really matter what kind of player I pick up, except perhaps finding one that's 24/192 compatible for high res?
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To be honest from what I’ve seen you only get separate transports and DACs at the proper high end. Most CD players you’ll be looking at for a fair price and pair with the level of amp/speakers etc will have a DAC built in, you’ll be bypassing it. CDs are max 16/44 so I’d not be worried about hi res there either.
 
dansomeone said:
Don't discount the internal phono stage in the Luxman L-550axii. I believe @Slimwhit33 has that amplifier and preferred it to a Sutherland Insight external.
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This is true.. it was at least as good to my ears. I sold the Insight to a member here and bought a bunch of vinyl from @Plaid Room / Colemine

I will say this however... after recently purchasing an Auralic Vega for streaming digital, I now feel like my vinyl setup is maybe a little behind the 8 ball. At some point the train has to stop, but I might try some new phono stages in the next year or two to see if anything grabs me. But I have to pay off all this other stuff first!
 
did i make the right choice getting a uturn.. it really limits what kind of cartridges i can try to add on to it (having to be exactly the same weight as my grado), and i kind of wonder if i should have went with the project debut carbon instead. cant fix it now but i wanted to know
 
duke86fan said:
did i make the right choice getting a uturn.. it really limits what kind of cartridges i can try to add on to it (having to be exactly the same weight as my grado), and i kind of wonder if i should have went with the project debut carbon instead. cant fix it now but i wanted to know
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You can use any cartridge weighting up to 7.2 grams. Heavier cartridges will require a magnet to stick onto the counterweight which U Turn will send you if you need it.
 
duke86fan said:
did i make the right choice getting a uturn.. it really limits what kind of cartridges i can try to add on to it (having to be exactly the same weight as my grado), and i kind of wonder if i should have went with the project debut carbon instead. cant fix it now but i wanted to know
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This shouldn't be the case. Older U-Turns are limited to cartridges 6g or less. Newer (post-2016) U-Turns can accommodate cartridges up to 7.2g.
 
HiFi Guy said:
You can use any cartridge weighting up to 7.2 grams. Heavier cartridges will require a magnet to stick onto the counterweight which U Turn will send you if you need it.
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wait wha... i thought it was custom tuned to my specific cartridge so the counter weight was weight to the exact 5.5 weight of my grado black, and thus adjusting the tracking force on a higher gram will be more difficult and have the wrong antiskate (trying to skate for a tracking force much higher or lower than the one previously on it) on it
 
duke86fan said:
wait wha... i thought it was custom tuned to my specific cartridge so the counter weight was weight to the exact 5.5 weight of my grado black, and thus adjusting the tracking force on a higher gram will be more difficult and have the wrong antiskate (trying to skate for a tracking force much higher or lower than the one previously on it) on it
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No, the UTurn’s antiskate is adjusted at the factory for a range of tracking forces of cartridges likely to be used with it. Anything that is relatively compliant due to the low mass arm and that tracks 1.5-2 grams and weighs less than 7.2 grams will be fine.
 
HiFi Guy said:
No, the UTurn’s antiskate is adjusted at the factory for a range of tracking forces of cartridges likely to be used with it. Anything that is relatively compliant due to the low mass arm and that tracks 1.5-2 grams and weighs less than 7.2 grams will be fine.
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so that will help figure out my upgrade path i think... in a while though
 
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