How abt Rega Apollo CD player?

Do you still have the SFCD? Shall I put up your name in the owners list? How good was the pairing?


Actually I like the Krell 300i. My friend is using it to drive a pair of ProAc Studio 125.
Owners of the Krells that I know said the same thing. They prefer the 300i to the 400xi. I tend to prefer the 300i too. Come to think of it, I don't really quite like Krell that much actually.. hahaha... prefer the European amp.


Hmm..... let me check this out.

Rega apollo sure better than 640C, but in this price range it don't do anyting wrong but noting special make us surprise.

what's the best price for this? Best quote so far is RM3,200

How about Exposure 3010s (110w/ch - around RM 8k)
integrated amp pairing with SFCD? Read review from Audioart (Taiwan hifi magazine #232) also June 2008 Stereophile magazine reviewed by Art Dudley, not bad though. It's UK design

This post has been edited by auronthas: May 27 2008, 09:56 PM

Thanks but I am a retired Audiophilee now switched to Head-Fi leow.... I missed my SFCD with VSi55 and CD3MKII

Hmm... so many amps to choose from. I came across a cute Italian made Synthesis tube amp the other day.. but I've got no idea how it sounds like. Pretty difficult when you can't have a demo with your own speakers.. I might just end up with my old Technics amp... har har har!

outdoorxplorer, you'll come back to Hi-Fi one day...I'm very sure of it

Haven't heard about Italian made Synthesis, but i heard Unison Research, another italian made tube amplifier used to test with SF speakers (heard from Perfect Hifi), anyone?

Agree with u, Grandspy, it's hard to choose amplifiers as listed, need to pair with your source and SFGP/SFCD and make some audition. Not sure if Perfect Hi-FI has various listed amplifiers to test? Hopefully, they can bring some amplifiers to my home to test.

Also, thought of purchase Benchmark DAC1 to bypass CA 540C and Squeezebox internal DAC, will be the upgrading DAC has more improvement compared with amplifier?

This post has been edited by auronthas: May 29 2008, 06:36 PM

Benchmark DAC1 is good dac, But you need use good quality digital cable. For hifi, Source is very important. sometimes It may more improvement compared with amplifier.

This post has been edited by kkthen: May 29 2008, 09:10 PM

Thanks for yr opinion, kkthen.

Great, i have made some review and comparison among decent DACs such as Benchmark DAC1, Lavry DA10, Bel Canto DAC3, PS Audio Digital Link III DAC, etc. Benchmark DAC1 still the most valuable one.

What's your recommendaed digital coaxial interconnect? How much? Is digital coaxial better than SPDIF/toslink?

Cheers

This post has been edited by auronthas: May 30 2008, 05:46 AM

I am not sure Coaxial or toslink which one is better. This is much depend your Transport & DAC combination. But normally good Coaxial will be more expensive than good toslink. The toslink is colourless & neutral. Coaxial sound like analogue cable, different brand got different color & characteristic like warm, cool, neutral.

If u want to use toslink you must use glass toslink. Glass toslink got 3x the bandwidth of plastic toslink for expanded resolution and reduced jitter. This the reason why some say coaxial better than toslink. Because plastic toslink not enough bandwidth for audio data transmission.

Length of digital cable is also very important. I got DH labs D75 coaxial in 1m & 1.5m each one.
1.5m length will sound more better 1m length. After i do some research, I found 1.2m length is optimum length digital cable. More than 1.2m will not much different. Less than 1.2m will be more jitter. DH labs d75 is good budget coaxial cable, 1.5m is rm160 ( default come with two canary plug). But please don't terminated with canary coaxial plug, sound terrible. I change the plug to cheap audioquest coaxial plug sound much better.

I got 4 different digital cable.

a)1.5m Dh labs d75 coaxial with audioquest plug- Musical, Good imaging, Thick vocal, slightly warm, but not very detail.

b)1.5m acoustic zen silver bytes RM950- neutral, colorless, sweet high, more detail, soft bass.

c) 2m Ebay Glass toslink RM125- Neutral, colorless, high extension not as good as sliver byte. but vocal thicker , Bass better than silver bytes. Detail as good as silver bytes.

d)1.5m stereovox xv2 rm850- Neutral, colorless, most detail, dynamic, good imaging, transparent, vocal not as thick as d75. Bass not as full as d75 but more detail.

In my system, stereovox is the best, second is Glass toslink, third is acoustic zen.

Cost/performance Glass toslink is best in my system.



This post has been edited by kkthen: May 30 2008, 09:03 PM

here update some photo of sonus faber concertino domus.
my setup is

NAD3020A moded.
Marants CD-46
Van Den Hul D102MKIII RCA-RCA
Speaker Cable = DIY / Cable Talk 4

Poisoning photos.....

really nice to see, must come to pc bro house to test it.

Wow, kkthen, what a review. Thanks for providing detail review for my consideration.

What's your hifi setup like, perhaps can share with us.

Cheers.

my system is very entry level. All is vintage level & second hand item,

Transport = CEC TL5100
jitter reducer: Monarchy DIP
DAc: Monarchy model 22 20bit DAC
Int Amplifier: japanese Cosmos 6bm8 tube amp (2x8w only)
Speaker: France small floorstand confluence solstices

My system only good in vocal. Not all rounded. Not dynamic to play rock & Drum.

My Transport also not good match with DAC. If i am not using Monarchy DIP. It sound lifeless,
even Standalone CD player like marantz 63se & 640c can beat it. Transport + dac not a easy task for my hifi journey,
it got matching problem with your tranport & digital cable. If i start over, I would rather get one
good single box cd player, life will more easy.

I believe your sonus faber is better than my confluence solstices. Hope one day I can come to your house to enjoy your system & learn from each other.

This post has been edited by kkthen: May 31 2008, 09:54 AM

Grandspy:

Couple of years back with the Concerto (no Domus) was first launched, it received raved reviews from Stereophile with paired with the KAV-300i.

In the interest of Hi-Fi curiosity, maybe can arrange for your Domuses (or Domii ...) to have a go with the KAV-300i (i've got one) and see hows the sound like if you haven't explored already.

BTW, my Concertos (1st Gen batch ) are still going strong after all these years (since 1997 i think).

---

Added on May 31, 2008, 5:53 pmSometimes also depends on the DAC punya receiver interface and/or the transport punya transmitter interface. The myriad combination of these factors can be misleading and make people think one particular medium is better than the other.



This post has been edited by mugenfoo: May 31 2008, 05:53 PM

I thought Exposure is very suitable for Epos spkrs?

Nice Pics PcWork!!


Nice setup!!! How effective is the jitter remover?


That's what I thought... KAV-300i could be the perfect match for the SF. BTW, mine are not the newer model of Domus(es?) but the earlier Concertos.. probably the same as yours?? Yes, I would like that very much... to have a listen to the 300i driving a pair of Concertos. I've listened to a 400xi paired with Concertos but not a 300i. Hey, can I put your name up there as the owner of Concertos?

hey
how about a small gathering of sonus owner?
grandspy. wanna come over for listening my sonus?
i had tune it according to my taste.
it's very different with the one you listened at perfect hifi that day.
personally mine is smoother.
due to cable/ amp.


i has one epos ES-11 at my hand too.
=)


This post has been edited by PcWork: Jun 1 2008, 12:33 AM