Bit of history... 65 now, into music and motorcycles all my adult life. Also, while not nearly broke, have never had endless money to lavish on hobbies, which means I've got quite good at being a cheapskate... finding bargains in both fields when I had to. Two years ago, sold all three performance/classic bikes in my garage and bought one sensible one... and love it.
I think today I got there with the hi-fi!
A couple of years ago, I found an advert for a pair of Mirage M3si speakers a mile away. I'd never heard of them, but they were big and interesting. Guy selling them had stopped someone throwing them into a skip at the local recycling centre... they were in reasonable condition but needed new foam on the mids and a clean up... sorted out, I found a mutually acceptable place to fit them in the house. Not ideal, but my wife of 33 years is partially deaf, and suffers my system in the house having no interest in it whatsoever.
Anyway, I bunged a streaming system together with what I had laying around and then started "improving" it...
Spotify... Chromecast Audio... Musical Fidelty V-DAC.... Cheap TPA3116 brick.... Mirages. Sounded remarkably good.
Immediately ordered a TPA3255 amp... more power for my huge speakers... is it better? Not really, but it was still cheap.
Upgraded the streamer to a Pi 3 with a digi HAT, and eventually a screen, running Volumio. Wasn't expecting any benefits soundwise, it's digital, but at least it plays gapless and shows me some pretty album art!
Tried several amps, an Arcam, a NAD... 50W amps but both seemed more powerful than the 3255. Maybe because they're bigger boxes! They were certainly in the way... I needed a small, powerful amp! Built myself an Icepower unit (300AS1 and 300A1 modules, used from ebay!). My own personal "endgame" amp. Did it sound better? Not that I could tell, but it's got some power!
Right, so digital front end is fine, amp is as good as it's going to get, improvements must lie in the ancient DAC, right?
Picked up a few alternatives along the way, including one with a tube output stage, supposedly ideal for tempering all that "digital harshness". Also picked up the well regarded Khadas tone board from Amazon. With the good lady out at Ascot yesterday (another freebie!) I set about swapping them all out. Can I tell a difference?... possibly. Does it make a blind bit of difference?... no. They all sound fantastic. Sent the Khadas back to Amazon, put the rest away, and shoved everything back whence it came... all hidden except for the streamer and the speakers.
It sounds fantastic and is good enough. Nothing I do is going to make it "better". Just play the music...
Then again the caps in my crossovers are 25 years old... ;-)
I think today I got there with the hi-fi!
A couple of years ago, I found an advert for a pair of Mirage M3si speakers a mile away. I'd never heard of them, but they were big and interesting. Guy selling them had stopped someone throwing them into a skip at the local recycling centre... they were in reasonable condition but needed new foam on the mids and a clean up... sorted out, I found a mutually acceptable place to fit them in the house. Not ideal, but my wife of 33 years is partially deaf, and suffers my system in the house having no interest in it whatsoever.
Anyway, I bunged a streaming system together with what I had laying around and then started "improving" it...
Spotify... Chromecast Audio... Musical Fidelty V-DAC.... Cheap TPA3116 brick.... Mirages. Sounded remarkably good.
Immediately ordered a TPA3255 amp... more power for my huge speakers... is it better? Not really, but it was still cheap.
Upgraded the streamer to a Pi 3 with a digi HAT, and eventually a screen, running Volumio. Wasn't expecting any benefits soundwise, it's digital, but at least it plays gapless and shows me some pretty album art!
Tried several amps, an Arcam, a NAD... 50W amps but both seemed more powerful than the 3255. Maybe because they're bigger boxes! They were certainly in the way... I needed a small, powerful amp! Built myself an Icepower unit (300AS1 and 300A1 modules, used from ebay!). My own personal "endgame" amp. Did it sound better? Not that I could tell, but it's got some power!
Right, so digital front end is fine, amp is as good as it's going to get, improvements must lie in the ancient DAC, right?
Picked up a few alternatives along the way, including one with a tube output stage, supposedly ideal for tempering all that "digital harshness". Also picked up the well regarded Khadas tone board from Amazon. With the good lady out at Ascot yesterday (another freebie!) I set about swapping them all out. Can I tell a difference?... possibly. Does it make a blind bit of difference?... no. They all sound fantastic. Sent the Khadas back to Amazon, put the rest away, and shoved everything back whence it came... all hidden except for the streamer and the speakers.
It sounds fantastic and is good enough. Nothing I do is going to make it "better". Just play the music...
Then again the caps in my crossovers are 25 years old... ;-)
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