DAC for live music

[wilejoe]

Hello all it's One More Saturday Night

I have a very basic stereo system and am looking to upgrade slowly but surely
I have an old Sony 100w receiver
Sony 5 disc cd changer and the dreaded Bose Acousticmass 5 speakers

I mainly listen to the Grateful Dead live shows. I also listen to the soundboards of recent Dead & Co etc. shows that I purchased

My speakers will be on the living room and I listen to my music as I putter around

Would love to try and keep my system made in the USA as much as possible

Not looking to spend a ton of money.
Just get something that sounds much better and meets WAF

I know that a DAC with a Sabre chip in it wouldn't work for me since 60% of the music is from live music and hence has imperfections in the recordings.


Thanks for any help

 

[everettT]

Better speakers equal better sound, no other gear will upgrade a systems sound noticeably.

 

[everettT]

Is it mainly a music system? You might want to try a 2.1 or 3.1 setup. These speakers @295 a pair have a very flat frequency response so they will reproduce recordings faithfully.
http://www.philharmonicaudio.com/aa.html
They have good bass extension and could handle most music without a sub, though I'd recommend one. The owner of the company is a well respected designer and a member of the Washington Philharmonic.

 

[lovinthehd]

I know that a DAC with a Sabre chip in it wouldn't work for me since 60% of the music is from live music and hence has imperfections in the recordings.

How do you know, or rather why do you think this?

Do you lack a dac for the digital recordings you want to listen to now?

I'd agree that better speakers would be the way to go but have no idea what your wife will let you have.

 

[wilejoe]

I was told that the Sabre Chip is extremely accurate and shows any flaws in the source

Eventually I will use my dac to play music from a laptop etc
But for now was going to run my cd player through it with an optical connection

Would love to get the Salk Song Towers but they would be too big for now

Thanks

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Your current speakers are subpar, any investment in decent speakers, which doesn't have to be expensive btw, will go much longer way than upgrading dac. What is the model of sony receiver you how now?
"Ton of money" - that is not exactly budget we could help you with. Please try to add actual number range you have in mind.

 

[lovinthehd]

I was told that the Sabre Chip is extremely accurate and shows any flaws in the source

Eventually I will use my dac to play music from a laptop etc
But for now was going to run my cd player through it with an optical connection

Would love to get the Salk Song Towers but they would be too big for now

Thanks

So your Sony receiver is an older analog only model? Best to always provide make and model of current gear, the wattage is mostly irrelevant.

The goal of all hi fi gear is to accurately reproduce the source, so accurate equipment may indeed show flaws in a recording, but this is largely the function of speakers rather than electronics. You don't adjust this by choosing gear with a particular brand of dac chip. Quoting specific sources would be better than alluding to someone telling you something or reading it in some unknown source...

Quite a leap from a small bose sat to a large tower speaker....what dimensions are your limits? What budget is your limit?

 

[wilejoe]

Budget is around a $1,000
Which could change if needed, I'll just have to save more
Not sure on size.
If they look good and can mount on the wall maybe 24" tall

 

[lovinthehd]

$1000 each like the Songtowers or $1000 the pair? You don't mount tower speakers (or really any speaker with a rear port) on the wall in any case....and the Songtowers are 44.5" tall....

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Ascend acoustics sierra1 of if you could stretch budget a bit philharmonic audio philhamonitor

 

[wilejoe]

Yes I looked at the Sierra 1's and really like them.
Great reviews about all his products and customer service

 

[wilejoe]

Just started looking at the Philaharmonitor
Thanks

 

[lovinthehd]

Both the Sierra1s and the Philharmonitor are better suited to stand mounting. If you must wall mount at least provide a little space for the rear port. I am very happy with my Sierra1s (as well as 170SEs and 200SEs).

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Both the Sierra1s and the Philharmonitor are better suited to stand mounting. If you must wall mount at least provide a little space for the rear port. I am very happy with my Sierra1s (as well as 170SEs and 200SEs).

You could have Salk do a custom cabinet with a front slot port. That could be ok for a wall mount. The downside that would be budget busting. So, yeah, going with a sealed speaker design for wall mount is a probably better idea.

 

[everettT]

You could have Salk do a custom cabinet with a front slot port. That could be ok for a wall mount. The downside that would be budget busting. So, yeah, going with a sealed speaker design for wall mount is a probably better idea.

The wait is worse than the dollars, trust me.

 

[everettT]

I'm sure if you contacted Dennis he could do a sealed version of those no problem or possibly an adjustment for on wall placement

As for the custom work, ordered on 5/27/18

 

[wilejoe]

Wow
Longggggg wait

 

[everettT]

Wow
Longggggg wait

But worth it. I've got gigs of live music, half of which is my own recordings. I have a preference to live unamplified acoustic music. Every speaker I've purchased needs to reproduce those recordings faithfully without coloring the sound. Ditch your speakers and move foward as that's your goal, reproducing the original recordings.

 

[67-79]

Do someone have ever had an experience listening loud in wall speakers at home or at a friend house. Klipsh, polk, Yamaha have very sophisticated in wall speakers that im interested to listen to. Siegfried linkwitz said that the biggest design flaw in sound systems was speakers box colorations and all the rest was o.k.

 

[everettT]

Do someone have ever had an experience listening loud in wall speakers at home or at a friend house. Klipsh, polk, Yamaha have very sophisticated in wall speakers that im interested to listen to. Siegfried linkwitz said that the biggest design flaw in sound systems was speakers box colorations and all the rest was o.k.

Klipsch makes some descent inwall speakers, but the others are meh. There a few brands that make really good ones like RBH, Triad, Martin Logan, Niles Audio, and others. Also on walls from them are available. Linkwitz was somewhat correct, note though that his omni polar and bi/di poles use extremely well made drivers, some individual ones costing more than 2 or 3 whole speakers from Klipsch.