I'm currently using a Marantz SR5005 with a Mordaunt Short Premiere 5.1 setup. Which have served me well over the years. But I'm planning on swapping my desk with a slightly smaller standing desk model. So the amplifier needs to go and the speakers need to move from the wall to the desk. I have 2 27" monitors so the space is quite limited on the planned 140cm wide desk. So I already take in account 2 side desk clamps for the speakers. Also the amp can get quite warm which is not ideal in summer and I also guess it takes quite some power.
The room is about 2.75 meters wide and about 4m wide. With the desk situated on the longitudinal wall so there is about 1.5m of room behind my chair. And any acoustic paneling will not survive the approval factor. Ceiling is about 2.5m high. Wall behind me is covered in thin carpet and the others are just drywall covered with paint. So to summarize, acoustics are not great.
For my HD660s I got a Schiit Asgard 3 with the built-in DAC. So I don't require a headphone option in all this. This setup is a bit too neutral to my taste as it lacks a bit in the lows, it does sound amazing with instruments and vocal. But that's another story. I do require a extra USB DAC as I want to remove my dedicated soundcard from the PC and if possible stay clear of any modified driver crap.
I mostly listen to pop, electronic and sometimes classical. I game on the system and watch movies. Low-end does not have to be that loud as the house is quite noisy so I want to limit nuisance. So I'm planning to reuse my current sub as it's more than powerful enough and has a LPF and dual-channel coax inputs. Not sure if it scores high in any scorelist but as far as I know a sub in a low requirement situation is by far the least important factor. But if it can be replaced by just 2 monitors it would be a bonus. Music is not always on that loud, I also use it as background music for when I'm working so the setup also needs to work good at that level of volume. Can be the entire day in the room so any tweeter that is known to cause fatigue is not high on the list. Anything that has an audible hiss from my listening position 0,8~1m away from each monitor, is a no-go. Especially if the music is off.
Budget is €1500 for the kit (DAC, XLR cables, 2 speakers and IsoAcoustics frame/pucks). But willing to flex it a bit if there is far better choice. I tend to buy stuff for 10+ years so a bit extra is no problem. But is has to be quality stuff.
DAC:
Requirements: Works with Windows 11 over USB. Has good drivers or can use the built-in Windows ones. Needs to have a physical volume knob.
Nice to have: small formfactor and sleek design. Bus powered.
What I have found so far:
-SMSL DO100. seems a bit hefty but judging from the reviews on here it's rock solid. Has XLR and Coaxial so can use monitors balanced and can reuse my sub.
-Focusrite Scarlett Solo is also popular but looks quite clunky and I'm not sure if the DAC is even on the same level as the DO100. A plus would be I could use the mic from the Adams A-series Sonarworks integration. It's also bus powered. As I get the impression the DAC part is not it's focus I'm more geared towards the DO100
Speaker requirements: Good quality and not to big. For this setup I think a 'nearfield' studio monitor would be the best choice. But I'm not going to mix on it, so I don't need a reference type of sound. Just good quality audio with allowance of a bit of let's call it color to it. Which makes the choice a bit limited as the goal of many if not all studio monitors is to be as close to reference as possible. Also the room might require tweaking so DSP would be nice or maybe even required.
For that reason I've selected a few Studio Monitor speakers.
-Adam T5V. Seems to be a good allrounder with a "fun" sound. T7v and T8v are deemed to big and from what I understand would also not fit my room size and require some volume to work.
-Adam A7V. Definitely a big step up in price but comes with a way more advanced DSP and forward facing bass port. The consensus about the A4v is that it's quite mediocre and has port issues. On the other hand it's a lot cheaper and perhaps for regular music listening it might be more than enough? The 'UNR' DSP setting judging from reviews would be the better setting for my non-mixing 'hi-fi' needs.
-Kali IN-5. It seems to lack quite a lot in highs compered to the rest? Also everyone seems to say get the IN-8 V2 due to a tweeter hiss fix. But the 8s are very big. So I guess this kinda closes the door on Kali?
-Neumann KH 80. Has iPad only DSP which I don't have and I'm not really keen on supporting this vendorlocking behavior. So this kind of results in the KH 120 A which has a somewhat limited psychical DSP.
If a small dac+amp combo and 2 unpowered "dumb" speakers would be a far better choice let me know. I'm not afraid to spend a bit on the set but it needs to be realistic for the usecase (no audio work). But if monitors would be a total waste of money or in this price range sound worse than I have now. I'm more inclined to limit the search to a small amp-dac combo and reuse 2 speakers and my sub. But a small high quality 2.1 dac-amp is not really something I've come across that often or are extremely expensive like the SMSL VMV A2
Any help with deciding would be much appreciated. I'm located in EU so not all US based brands are available or might be grossly overpriced. I selected 3 brands that are well stocked here and seem to score high on the "get this" list by many.
The room is about 2.75 meters wide and about 4m wide. With the desk situated on the longitudinal wall so there is about 1.5m of room behind my chair. And any acoustic paneling will not survive the approval factor. Ceiling is about 2.5m high. Wall behind me is covered in thin carpet and the others are just drywall covered with paint. So to summarize, acoustics are not great.
For my HD660s I got a Schiit Asgard 3 with the built-in DAC. So I don't require a headphone option in all this. This setup is a bit too neutral to my taste as it lacks a bit in the lows, it does sound amazing with instruments and vocal. But that's another story. I do require a extra USB DAC as I want to remove my dedicated soundcard from the PC and if possible stay clear of any modified driver crap.
I mostly listen to pop, electronic and sometimes classical. I game on the system and watch movies. Low-end does not have to be that loud as the house is quite noisy so I want to limit nuisance. So I'm planning to reuse my current sub as it's more than powerful enough and has a LPF and dual-channel coax inputs. Not sure if it scores high in any scorelist but as far as I know a sub in a low requirement situation is by far the least important factor. But if it can be replaced by just 2 monitors it would be a bonus. Music is not always on that loud, I also use it as background music for when I'm working so the setup also needs to work good at that level of volume. Can be the entire day in the room so any tweeter that is known to cause fatigue is not high on the list. Anything that has an audible hiss from my listening position 0,8~1m away from each monitor, is a no-go. Especially if the music is off.
Budget is €1500 for the kit (DAC, XLR cables, 2 speakers and IsoAcoustics frame/pucks). But willing to flex it a bit if there is far better choice. I tend to buy stuff for 10+ years so a bit extra is no problem. But is has to be quality stuff.
DAC:
Requirements: Works with Windows 11 over USB. Has good drivers or can use the built-in Windows ones. Needs to have a physical volume knob.
Nice to have: small formfactor and sleek design. Bus powered.
What I have found so far:
-SMSL DO100. seems a bit hefty but judging from the reviews on here it's rock solid. Has XLR and Coaxial so can use monitors balanced and can reuse my sub.
-Focusrite Scarlett Solo is also popular but looks quite clunky and I'm not sure if the DAC is even on the same level as the DO100. A plus would be I could use the mic from the Adams A-series Sonarworks integration. It's also bus powered. As I get the impression the DAC part is not it's focus I'm more geared towards the DO100
Speaker requirements: Good quality and not to big. For this setup I think a 'nearfield' studio monitor would be the best choice. But I'm not going to mix on it, so I don't need a reference type of sound. Just good quality audio with allowance of a bit of let's call it color to it. Which makes the choice a bit limited as the goal of many if not all studio monitors is to be as close to reference as possible. Also the room might require tweaking so DSP would be nice or maybe even required.
For that reason I've selected a few Studio Monitor speakers.
-Adam T5V. Seems to be a good allrounder with a "fun" sound. T7v and T8v are deemed to big and from what I understand would also not fit my room size and require some volume to work.
-Adam A7V. Definitely a big step up in price but comes with a way more advanced DSP and forward facing bass port. The consensus about the A4v is that it's quite mediocre and has port issues. On the other hand it's a lot cheaper and perhaps for regular music listening it might be more than enough? The 'UNR' DSP setting judging from reviews would be the better setting for my non-mixing 'hi-fi' needs.
-Kali IN-5. It seems to lack quite a lot in highs compered to the rest? Also everyone seems to say get the IN-8 V2 due to a tweeter hiss fix. But the 8s are very big. So I guess this kinda closes the door on Kali?
-Neumann KH 80. Has iPad only DSP which I don't have and I'm not really keen on supporting this vendorlocking behavior. So this kind of results in the KH 120 A which has a somewhat limited psychical DSP.
If a small dac+amp combo and 2 unpowered "dumb" speakers would be a far better choice let me know. I'm not afraid to spend a bit on the set but it needs to be realistic for the usecase (no audio work). But if monitors would be a total waste of money or in this price range sound worse than I have now. I'm more inclined to limit the search to a small amp-dac combo and reuse 2 speakers and my sub. But a small high quality 2.1 dac-amp is not really something I've come across that often or are extremely expensive like the SMSL VMV A2
Any help with deciding would be much appreciated. I'm located in EU so not all US based brands are available or might be grossly overpriced. I selected 3 brands that are well stocked here and seem to score high on the "get this" list by many.
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