Tír Na HiFi

I'm moving house in the not too distant future, so while space will no longer relegate my hifi to mothballs in the attic at the same time cash won't be flowing like water!!

I'm definitely going to upgrade speakers and depending on whether I end up with a music room or the hifi is in the living room I'll trade solid state for valves...

here's the musing....

I spent (for me) a lot on a cd player in 1997... £1,200 if memory serves

Where has the progress been made in the intervening years?

Is is purely dac technology that has advanced or are the transport elements vastly improved also?

Is a current entry level cdp much better than mine?

Let's say I squirrel away 500 to spend, what would you spend it on? A dac or a newer one box?

(lets leave the TT for another day!!)

Hard not to chuckle here. You may get one or two recommendations for a JKDAC...!

I'm far more inclined in the opposite direction!! vinyl

I like corks in my wine and something round for my music!!

I use AirPlay for background and it's great, but I'm firmly in favor of a bit of a performance when it comes to listening to music!!

and it's not that I'm a Luddite!!!

But how far will 500 snots get you in vinyl territory? Especially if you don't have a ready-made vinyl back catalogue.

I think CD's days are, well, maybe not quite numbered, but I'm thinking myself that I need options in the computer audio direction if I'm going to stay remotely current.

Diapason wrote:But how far will 500 snots get you in vinyl territory?

I'm very interested in the answer to this. Like a fool I've been paying shops with hard earned money.

I'd keep the CDP JB, you'd probably have to pay many many euros (or "through the nose") for something better. Get your existing system together in the new gaff and enjoy it. If there are flaws address them then.

oh I know 500 wouldn't go anywhere in tt terms, but longterm I'd prefer the vinyl route investment than ca.... I spend enough time as it is dealing with pcs for them to feature in my cave...!!!

and you're right, I'll exercise the speakers and amp options first...

just wondering out loud and in general what the consensus was!!

this was all prompted by the way of picking up a new cd player for the mum...

(her electrician when redoing her skytv gave her a denon dcd815 which he was charging her 250 for, with all the patience I could muster I returned it to him sans a toe in the hole)


€150 for a new marantz cd6003 which I thought was prety good, and started thinking, could this be better than mine

You know, you should probably just borrow one, but here's a little experiment in the meantime: I now use my Blu-Ray player as a CD source in my second system, and it urinated all over my Arcam DV79 which in turn urinated over my old Arcam Alpha 6. You might be surprised by how good your 370 sounds, and since it's sitting right there, it's pretty easy to find out.

jaybee wrote:oh I know 500 wouldn't go anywhere in tt terms, but longterm I'd prefer the vinyl route...

I went down the vinyl route from scratch a few years ago. Whereas I've absolutely no regrets about doing so, it is a very expensive road to go down. New vinyl aint cheap these days but having said that, nothing compares to the joy of queueing up a record. When analogue really works, it's hard to beat.

jaybee wrote:I spend enough time as it is dealing with pcs for them to feature in my cave...!!!

It's a similar reason that puts me off ca. My work is technical enough so the idea of playing around with a PC for music just doesnt appeal to me.

a bit of ritual goes a long way....

I wouldn't go without streamed audio now, I use it daily, but to sit down and unwind...

corks, crystal and discs....!!