shayzorblade
New Member
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2023
- Messages
- 3
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Long time listener, first time caller. Have been fortunate enough to enjoy my dac/headphone/iem setup for a few years now (micro iDSD Black Label into ATH-R70x and Moondrop Blessing 2) and am looking to make the jump to a passive bookshelf system.
From a source perspective, I generally listened to vinyl rips (cough cough) for many years before the overhead of constantly migrating my ~300gb digital library became too much of a headache; so Apple Music lossless is my digital source right now.
That all being said, I’m looking to dive into the analog space this time around; I’d like to build up a vinyl collection and have some room to grow my setup down the road. After a few months of dedicated research (much of it from ASR) I’ve narrowed down to a short list that I feel gives me a good foundation.
Speakers: Ascend Sierra-LX (~$1500). They measure well, I love the way they look, and they aren’t too difficult to power.
Amplifier: Topping PA7 (~$450). As I understand it I wouldn’t need the extra power from the Plus version, and I confirmed with the manufacturer that both variants use a dual chip system to avoid the heating issues with the PA5. I saw that there is a new PA5 as well, but the PA7 seemed “right” for these speakers.
Phono Amplifier: Parasound ZPhono XRM (~$450). Balanced input and output, specs indicate they should work great with MM now (90db S/N at 50db setting) and MC (88db S/N at 50db setting) down the road. I couldn’t find any measurements on them, but comparing their specs to the regular ZPhono I hope they’d land somewhere in between them and the Cambridge Solo/Duo. Plus, with the PA7 I appreciate continuing the balanced input chain.
Turntable: Pro-ject Debut Pro (~$750 with employer discount). Opportunity for full balanced output and MC cartridges down the road once the included Sumiko Rainier wears out. Would consider the Pro S too, but can’t get the above discount, so it’s a $450 jump.
All in for around $3.5k with cables, accessories, and a few records to start; it’s not an endgame setup but I feel like it’s got the right pieces for what I’ll use it for. I’ll also leverage my iDSD Micro for occasional DAC duty for digital playback which I think should do the job nicely.
Later on, I could pick up a couple of subs and add in a MiniDSP Flex Balanced as a dedicated DAC with proper bass crossover management, along with an MC cartridge.
It’ll likely be another month or two until I’ve assembled the planned setup, and hope to post follow-up impressions at that point too.
Would love people’s feedback and critiques (especially any recommendations to cross shop or compare). I’ve considered several alternates in this setup; but to leave myself with room to grow into a full balanced MC setup, and adding proper bass management for subs, I didn’t really find much else at this price point which compared favorably.
From a source perspective, I generally listened to vinyl rips (cough cough) for many years before the overhead of constantly migrating my ~300gb digital library became too much of a headache; so Apple Music lossless is my digital source right now.
That all being said, I’m looking to dive into the analog space this time around; I’d like to build up a vinyl collection and have some room to grow my setup down the road. After a few months of dedicated research (much of it from ASR) I’ve narrowed down to a short list that I feel gives me a good foundation.
Speakers: Ascend Sierra-LX (~$1500). They measure well, I love the way they look, and they aren’t too difficult to power.
Amplifier: Topping PA7 (~$450). As I understand it I wouldn’t need the extra power from the Plus version, and I confirmed with the manufacturer that both variants use a dual chip system to avoid the heating issues with the PA5. I saw that there is a new PA5 as well, but the PA7 seemed “right” for these speakers.
Phono Amplifier: Parasound ZPhono XRM (~$450). Balanced input and output, specs indicate they should work great with MM now (90db S/N at 50db setting) and MC (88db S/N at 50db setting) down the road. I couldn’t find any measurements on them, but comparing their specs to the regular ZPhono I hope they’d land somewhere in between them and the Cambridge Solo/Duo. Plus, with the PA7 I appreciate continuing the balanced input chain.
Turntable: Pro-ject Debut Pro (~$750 with employer discount). Opportunity for full balanced output and MC cartridges down the road once the included Sumiko Rainier wears out. Would consider the Pro S too, but can’t get the above discount, so it’s a $450 jump.
All in for around $3.5k with cables, accessories, and a few records to start; it’s not an endgame setup but I feel like it’s got the right pieces for what I’ll use it for. I’ll also leverage my iDSD Micro for occasional DAC duty for digital playback which I think should do the job nicely.
Later on, I could pick up a couple of subs and add in a MiniDSP Flex Balanced as a dedicated DAC with proper bass crossover management, along with an MC cartridge.
It’ll likely be another month or two until I’ve assembled the planned setup, and hope to post follow-up impressions at that point too.
Would love people’s feedback and critiques (especially any recommendations to cross shop or compare). I’ve considered several alternates in this setup; but to leave myself with room to grow into a full balanced MC setup, and adding proper bass management for subs, I didn’t really find much else at this price point which compared favorably.
