lateparty
Member
Thanks a lot for the feedback! I really appreciate you taking the time. I’m planning on running the A12 with my Linn Majik 109 speakers which are very similar to the LS50s in terms of sensitivity and impedance, so it’s good to know that the Rotel will be able to power them. I noticed Sound & Vision measured a 150 watt into 4 ohms from the A12
I have a Bluesound Node2i that I'm running primarily via optical from my PC, I also have a Rotel A14 [B&W 685 S2] and an RME Fireface UC, I recently did some A/Bing (not blind) with my Windows PC as the source outputting at the max supported frequency and rate (USB and optical to Rotel and RME, and optical to Bluesound) with all devices ultimately terminating via RCA into a Monolith THX 887 through a pair of Hifiman Arya via the balanced out, and what I learned is that I cannot hear a difference between any of them regardless of the track or player (Plex through browser, VLC, and Tidal). Does that mean my source (PC) is the bottleneck? Maybe, but I doubt it.
For reference I'm 31, and played in a few (loud rock) bands for a few years in my early 20s, but through a few different frequency sweeps on these headphones I can typically hear up to 16.5kHz. To volume match, I played a test tone at 1khz into the headphones and used a decibal meter app into my iPhone 7 Plus sitting atop them, matching around the volume measuring 88dB - accurate or not they all had the same meter and were matched to that the same level.
I wish I could get an understanding of the DAC quality on each the other two devices to see where they stand. I really want to invest in another DAC that rates well but, between these three (3) and not being able to hear a difference I'm not sure if it's a wise way to spend my meagre consultant's salary.
Click through for pics of my testing gear
