The Melco sounds better, right?
Spotify doesn’t come close to my ripped CD’s via internal storage on my Aurender music server. Tidal sounds very good though- pretty much on par with a decent CD transport not the Aurender. I don’t doubt that a 35k transport would beat them all but that’s pretty irrelevant in my world.
So, slightly off question in this “magico magic” thread, but you guys have had me re-thinking some pre-amps. Of course Esoteric, but has anyone listened to the new Levinson pre-amps? R2R volume control some cool features like an assignable high pass filter to one of the outputs is intriguing. Those two things wouldn’t sell them alone (the 523 is $15k), but if it has any of the old Levinson magic, might be interesting.
There is nothing off-topic in this thread.
Good point!
Let me save you $10K. This one here would be a strong contender for the very best, ever.
Don’t have an opinion about the pre-amp but The Music Room is great. They pack the gear they sell for shipping better than anyone else I’ve bought from. Impressive!
That’s not yours is it? I don’t recall you replacing that unit.
As good as it may be, the aesthetics just don’t do it for me. I can hear the purists arming themselves with tomatoes now…
Thanks for that tip… ironically they have Brodric’s Halcro there for a bit less than on A’gon.
Yeah, just at the beginning of considering this. I have a Hegel P20, which is reasonably priced by audio standards, but I think it is better than its cost would suggest. Nonetheless, having recently been totally wowed by an amplifier upgrade, the itch to see what else is out there has begun. I am torn because I like the value of the used market, but, when we start talking about big bucks I want to hear it in my system before I buy.
Maybe I need to move next to Brodric, and then the itch would go away… only if he gave me access to his room with that keyless entry thingy!
Mine is not for sale. There are engineering reasons for the aesthetics. I don’t mind the look.
In the hierarchy of importance of HiFi things, I say the pre-amp comes it an #2, speakers are #1.
So, what are the highlights? It looks as though it is no longer in production, correct?
That keyless entry thingy is brilliant. I’ve previously converted 2 other doors at home to keyless entry, using Rosslare access controllers and electric door strikes. One I had to rip out the whole timber door frame and replace it with a custom made steel door frame with Padde ES2000 electric door strike. And the other I spent many days cutting out an existing steel door frame to fit an electric door strike, and run the electrics through internal brick walls. Being able to retrofit this smart lock to an existing door was so much easier, maybe 15 minutes, no cutting, no drama. Compared to weeks of work with butchering door frames.
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It’s a pre-amp and it does what pre-amps do. However this one has distortion that is so low, JA said “…actual distortion is at or below the residual level of the lowest-distortion signal generators I have on hand…offers measured performance that is both beyond my ability to fully characterize and beyond reproach”.
Here is a link the measurement report.
Yeah, they stopped building them years ago. I haven’t heard if they are building an updated version in the Eclipse series. They don’t come up on the used market very often. The tech guy at Halcro who was part of the design team told me they never had a single pre-amp come back for warranty repair, anywhere in the world. A very different experience to some of the other mediocre stuff I’ve owned over the years. If one was to break down they have the spares to fix it, except for the LCD display (they can’t get those any more).
I am going to look into it, although I don’t know if the timing is great, as I was thinking of heading to RMAF to get further ideas.
And, my comment on aesthetics comes off as harsh - what I mean is it would definitely stand out in my rig of all black.
They also built them in black, but I’ve only ever seen one or 2 of those for sale on the used market.
Yep, have thought about the two box units. I admit, other than in name, I know nothing about Triangle Art. Going to explore…thanks!
absolutely
Adjusting the torque on eight specific fasteners in the back of each M3 speaker to 115 inch pounds using a calibrated torque wrench (supplied with the speaker). Required after installation, and then annually after that. Some of the bolts were much less than the required torque, some were close. All are now precisely torqued to the correct value.
All part of the ownership experience.
My new Magico S-Sub sub-woofer will be the next addition to the system. I’ll need to acquire a pair of 7m XLR and a C19 power cable before it arrives.
