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Post by nonuffin on Jul 23, 2021 22:42:39 GMT
As you may recall, mother died in 2019 and left me some money which took ages to clear through probate.
A lot of the money was spent on replacing our aging cars, new carpets, a new freezer and a whole host of other clapped out household items, so I consider it money well spent. Still have the bathroom to rip out and refurbish, which I stall start soon.
I did say an amount was going to be spent on better hi-fi and here is what has come in:
I have always lusted after a Shanling CDT -100 player for it's looks alone and to be honest it sounds like Sh#t through it's own DAC and especially the analogue outputs, despite upgrading the original chinese valves to military grade russian jobs made not one jot of difference. The sound is soft and lacking in real details so I bought a Stello DAC cheaply as a stopgap, only using the Shanling as a transport, which is it's true forte, which was then fed into a Vincent integrated at 200 watts per channel. Oodles of details but the bass lacked real punch and heft, which I attributed to the Stello, which the Vincent amp has never manifested.
While browsing on ebay I saw an XTZ Edge A2-300 power amp for the right price so I bought it. This made the low impact bass even worse, because the XTZ power amp has bass that really is very tight and well controlled with a damping factor greater than 1500. The Stello DAC didn't have a pre-amp, so I reverted to the Shanling's variable output via the solid state outputs straight into the XTZ's inputs, which gave true meaning to the word "lean". So, the answer was finding a high quality DAC with an equally good pre-amp to match. The shortlist for such a beast was very short indeed, namely the BMC UltraDAC which I have wanted for a long time and it happens that a friend of a friend was selling one at a great price. The day before I was going to pay for it the man changed his mind, so it had to be a brand new one imported from Germany.
At long last then I now have a system that has all the details I could wish for, plus a full, rich, powerful and highly insightful bass. The system then is the Shanling CDT-100 being used as a transport only, the BMC UltraDAC acting as DAC and pre, into the XTZ Edge power amp. I have kept the Quadral Chromium Style speakers because I knew there was a heap of performance to be got from them using a better quality system driving them and I was right in that belief, they are truly great speakers in every sense of the word and shows that german hi-fi has a lot going for it.
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Bigman80
Grandmaster
The HiFi Bear/Audioaddicts/Bigbottle Owner
Posts: 16,398
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Post by Bigman80 on Jul 23, 2021 23:20:05 GMT
First of all, congratulations on configuring a system that you both A) enjoy looking at, and B) enjoy listening to.
I absolutely understand the desire to keep the Quadrals. Had I enough patience, I may have found a pair that worked in my room. The Aurums I tried were very close to being ideal.... however, my eye was on the Orkans....tasty.
HOWEVER, I must now ask a stupid Q....
If the CD player is now a Transport only, what are the Valves doing? Are they now just for show?
I am sure it's totally irrelevant to you, but I just wondered.
Anyway, glad to see mom's money has stretched to such improvements across your life and your system. Even now, she's made sure you're alright 😊
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Post by nonuffin on Jul 23, 2021 23:45:32 GMT
First of all, congratulations on configuring a system that you both A) enjoy looking at, and B) enjoy listening to. I absolutely understand the desire to keep the Quadrals. Had I enough patience, I may have found a pair that worked in my room. The Aurums I tried were very close to being ideal.... however, my eye was on the Orkans....tasty. HOWEVER, I must now ask a stupid Q.... If the CD player is now a Transport only, what are the Valves doing? Are they now just for show? I am sure it's totally irrelevant to you, but I just wondered. Anyway, glad to see mom's money has stretched to such improvements across your life and your system. Even now, she's made sure you're alright 😊 Like I said Oli, both the valve and solid state outputs leave a lot to be desired with the Shanling, so they are there doing nothing right now. The valves are still lit up the whole time the player is on and I would have thought a switch to disconnect them when not in use would be sensible when using the solid state outputs or digital output only.
I read a review written by Simon Pope who waxed very lyrical about this player and I am going to kick his ass very hard the next time I see him. At least it is a top class transport and it is nice to look at. I took a photo the other day and the flash wasn't doing the system many favours so I will try again soon.
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Bigman80
Grandmaster
The HiFi Bear/Audioaddicts/Bigbottle Owner
Posts: 16,398
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Post by Bigman80 on Jul 24, 2021 4:34:50 GMT
First of all, congratulations on configuring a system that you both A) enjoy looking at, and B) enjoy listening to. I absolutely understand the desire to keep the Quadrals. Had I enough patience, I may have found a pair that worked in my room. The Aurums I tried were very close to being ideal.... however, my eye was on the Orkans....tasty. HOWEVER, I must now ask a stupid Q.... If the CD player is now a Transport only, what are the Valves doing? Are they now just for show? I am sure it's totally irrelevant to you, but I just wondered. Anyway, glad to see mom's money has stretched to such improvements across your life and your system. Even now, she's made sure you're alright 😊 Like I said Oli, both the valve and solid state outputs leave a lot to be desired with the Shanling, so they are there doing nothing right now. The valves are still lit up the whole time the player is on and I would have thought a switch to disconnect them when not in use would be sensible when using the solid state outputs or digital output only.
I read a review written by Simon Pope who waxed very lyrical about this player and I am going to kick his ass very hard the next time I see him. At least it is a top class transport and it is nice to look at. I took a photo the other day and the flash wasn't doing the system many favours so I will try again soon.
Right, got ya. It's certainly a good looking unit, so it's a shame it ain't up to much as a standalone CDP. Thankfully the new DAC appears to be a good un, so at least it's working well together. Reviews.......sticky subject. I've bought based on reviews before and been left wondering what on earth the reviewer was talking about. I tried an Allo Katana on loan as everyone was raving about them, only for it to sound abysmal IMO. Then it got broken on the way back to the guy 🙄 Anyway, I digress. |
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Post by antonio on Jul 24, 2021 4:44:29 GMT
Pleased you have spent the money on something you enjoy, as well as a few sensible buys (cars, carpets freezer and home improvements  ) One question though, I'm somewhat surprised the XTZ has bettered your Vincent for power duties, did you you try using the Vincent in it's intergrated role and just using the dac as a dac, although I'm sure the BMC is a very good pre-amp? |
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Post by nonuffin on Jul 24, 2021 8:33:17 GMT
Pleased you have spent the money on something you enjoy, as well as a few sensible buys (cars, carpets freezer and home improvements ) One question though, I'm somewhat surprised the XTZ has bettered your Vincent for power duties, did you you try using the Vincent in it's intergrated role and just using the dac as a dac, although I'm sure the BMC is a very good pre-amp? The BMC really is in a class of it's own and it is a superb DAC and pre, so much so I didn't flinch at all paying three and a half grand for it. That is more than I paid for the rest of the system! The reason it is such a good pre is because volume level is regulated by current flow instead of a potentiometer adjusting voltage swing as most pre's do. The circuitry has other unique features that no other amps have and I think it represents good value to me because like my Quadral speakers the BMC is staying for a very long time.
The XTZ power amp wees all over most amps on the market. The Vincent SV 234 is rated at 200 watts per channel, the first 10 in class A, it produces bass thumps and grumbles as it should when it should, but the XTZ amp manages to uncover layers in those same bass registers that the vast majority of amps simply don't get close enough to, adding real meaning to the word "insightful". With a damping factor of over 1500 the XTZ really does get hold of the bass cones so there isn't any fat or flab in the bass and sounds all the better for it in my view.
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Post by misterc on Jul 24, 2021 9:38:09 GMT
Well done Dom I'm really pleased it all came tpogether for you in the end mate
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Post by nonuffin on Jul 24, 2021 10:53:10 GMT
Well done Dom I'm really pleased it all came tpogether for you in the end mate Thanks Tony.
For once in my hi-fi buying journey over many years I had a specific sound in mind that I have actually achieved. That is very rare.
I am very lucky in that I had a great pair of speakers to begin with in the Quadrals to build upon.
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Post by robbiegong on Jul 24, 2021 13:43:39 GMT
Well done Dom, glad it's come together rather nicely and that Mum's goodness and memory is in there too  |
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) One question though, I'm somewhat surprised the XTZ has bettered your Vincent for power duties, did you you try using the Vincent in it's intergrated role and just using the dac as a dac, although I'm sure the BMC is a very good pre-amp?
