xreaperx22

xreaperx22

Junior Audioholic
ok so im not going with the nuforce junk,and i happened to find some emotiva gear that seems interesting,first theres the TA-100
preamp/tuner/dac/amp which seems to good to be true but there it is,and at a great price so im thinking of trying that.Are emotiva equipments any good? I also found some Parasound gear thats pretty reasonable also and could go with them also,are they any good? what im trying to do is go a different route than the conventional avr route since i wont need alot of what an avr offers,so i just need dac,amp and maybe a preamp.for 2 channel full range audiophile goodness...
 
slipperybidness

slipperybidness

Audioholic Warlord
ok so im not going with the nuforce junk,and i happened to find some emotiva gear that seems interesting,first theres the TA-100
preamp/tuner/dac/amp which seems to good to be true but there it is,and at a great price so im thinking of trying that.Are emotiva equipments any good? I also found some Parasound gear thats pretty reasonable also and could go with them also,are they any good? what im trying to do is go a different route than the conventional avr route since i wont need alot of what an avr offers,so i just need dac,amp and maybe a preamp.for 2 channel full range audiophile goodness...
Emotiva is generally pretty good, even really good stuff. They do get some (deserved) criticism, they are not the value that they used to be, they have had a few problematic pieces of gear, they have had a few really delayed product releases, and I don't understand their short life cycle on some stuff.

I personally own an Emotiva USP-1 Pre-amp (it is great!) and an XDA-1 DAC (it is great, it does have a design flaw, with how the digi volume was implemented, but that flaw is not a concern for me and how I use it, and it also means that I got it cheap!).

Parasound is also good stuff at good pricing. There have been several people with problems on the Halo P5 pre-amp, so steer clear of that at all costs! But, the classic line and the z line are great at good prices.

I personally own a Parasound 1206 Power Amp (it's like 20 years old, and it is a beast!), and a zCD (great CD player, small, and lots of flexibility).
 
xreaperx22

xreaperx22

Junior Audioholic
cool thanks for the info,so maybe go with parasound over emotiva then.
 
xreaperx22

xreaperx22

Junior Audioholic
i found that Elac also has some gear i could use but its a bit expensive,tho im not sure if i can put a price on having great sound lol.
 
slipperybidness

slipperybidness

Audioholic Warlord
Put the $ in the transducers (headphones or speakers).

Modern (well designed and built) electronics are all going to be orders of magnitude more ideal (linear response) than any transducer.
 
2

2channel lover

Audioholic Field Marshall
ok so im not going with the nuforce junk,and i happened to find some emotiva gear that seems interesting,first theres the TA-100
preamp/tuner/dac/amp which seems to good to be true but there it is,and at a great price so im thinking of trying that.Are emotiva equipments any good? I also found some Parasound gear thats pretty reasonable also and could go with them also,are they any good? what im trying to do is go a different route than the conventional avr route since i wont need alot of what an avr offers,so i just need dac,amp and maybe a preamp.for 2 channel full range audiophile goodness...
I'm gathering that you're wanting strictly a music setup...2ch.

The TA-100 is perfect for that purpose. Not realizing what speakers you're going to be driving, room size, average SPL, etc it's hard to say if it's an ideal fit, but I've been pleased with my 2 Emo amps.
 
xreaperx22

xreaperx22

Junior Audioholic
average size room i suppose and ill be driving wharfedale diamond 250's once i get my phil 3's.That TA-100 would be ideal though,however i most likely wouldnt use the amp it has in it,only 90 watts at 4ohms idk if that would be enough or not for those diamond's.
 
2

2channel lover

Audioholic Field Marshall
average size room i suppose and ill be driving wharfedale diamond 250's once i get my phil 3's.That TA-100 would be ideal though,however i most likely wouldnt use the amp it has in it,only 90 watts at 4ohms idk if that would be enough or not for those diamond's.
Okay noted.

I would prefer more power pushing the diamonds as well, but for the efficiency rating is not terrible.
 
xreaperx22

xreaperx22

Junior Audioholic
what are your thoughts on Elac? they seem to have some decent gear also but with a bit more premium price,they seem like a new company to me i dont know,there speakers arent something i would buy but the gear looks pretty good.
 
KEW

KEW

Audioholic Overlord
You might also want to check out the Outlaw Audio RR2160.
I know their power amps are made either by ATI or Parasound (both have very good reputations) and would expect this is made by Parasound.


https://www.outlawaudio.com/products/rr2160_about.html

It has a nice amp built in and you can use it as a pre-amp down the road if/when you decide you need more power.
 
D

Danzilla31

Audioholic Spartan
You might also want to check out the Outlaw Audio RR2160.
I know their power amps are made either by ATI or Parasound (both have very good reputations) and would expect this is made by Parasound.


https://www.outlawaudio.com/products/rr2160_about.html

It has a nice amp built in and you can use it as a pre-amp down the road if/when you decide you need more power.
I almost bought that bad boy KEW then went another direction! It's sweet tho
 
2

2channel lover

Audioholic Field Marshall
what are your thoughts on Elac? they seem to have some decent gear also but with a bit more premium price,they seem like a new company to me i dont know,there speakers arent something i would buy but the gear looks pretty good.
Elac...I've only read reviews, etc and there's a lot to like, but if you're entertaining Phil3s at some point...I think you'd be covered...not sure I would be looking at anything else.
 
xreaperx22

xreaperx22

Junior Audioholic
yeah i will be getting phil3's soon so ill need something decent to run them,id like to have as audiophile sound as possible which for me means crisp notes through out the range,so a dac is a must and so is clean power at least 150wpc
 
2

2channel lover

Audioholic Field Marshall
yeah i will be getting phil3's soon so ill need something decent to run them,id like to have as audiophile sound as possible which for me means crisp notes through out the range,so a dac is a must and so is clean power at least 150wpc
Okay...well you're off to a great start with the speakers...I have a pair of Salks that Murphy designed and they're awesome.

If you JUST want a really nice music system...2 ch..while good clean power should be an objective, but the source (CD, turntable, etc.) is going to have more impact on the SQ so you want a source with a good quality DAC...I'm not sure how much appreciable SQ improvement the stand alone DACs provide.

I would probably look at a 2ch pro amp...say a Crown, etc....If you're okay building it slower...I might get a pair of the Outlaw 2200 monoblocks.

I'm a long time (early 70s) 2 channel audio lover. I had almost zero interest in multi-ch audio, but the sales guy said...I hear ya, but since you're building an HT system anyway, there's no reason not to try a few multi-ch.

Well, I did and knowing what I know now (hi res multi-ch audio is way better than I expected), I'd probably just get a moderately priced AVR with preouts and added the monoblocks or other power amp when I got the funds later on.
 
xreaperx22

xreaperx22

Junior Audioholic
yeah i was thinking an AVR would make things much more simple,it just seems wasteful to have all those other channels not in use,than again i may change my mind later and the option would be there already lol..AVR's are so hard to choose from though,i was thinking maybe a marantz SR5010,other than that one im not sure which other would be a good go to,would i still need a dac with an avr? im guessing no,and on my source that will be a media pc i have put together solely for this purpose,and thats the only source for this room,its basically my music studio lol.

for a DAC i think im pretty sure ill be getting cambridge audio Dacmagic 100,i found a crown amp thats 300wpc into 4ohms but that seems a bit much for the diamond 250's ill be using in the meantime.
 
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2

2channel lover

Audioholic Field Marshall
yeah i was thinking an AVR would make things much more simple,it just seems wasteful to have all those other channels not in use,than again i may change my mind later and the option would be there already lol..AVR's are so hard to choose from though,i was thinking maybe a marantz SR5010,other than that one im not sure which other would be a good go to,would i still need a dac with an avr? im guessing no,and on my source that will be a media pc i have put together solely for this purpose,and thats the only source for this room,its basically my music studio lol.

for a DAC i think im pretty sure ill be getting cambridge audio Dacmagic 100,i found a crown amp thats 300wpc into 4ohms but that seems a bit much for the diamond 250's ill be using in the meantime.
AVR...think of it like this...it only adds features...doesn't sacrifice SQ. I'm a power head, so my objective would always be to augment the AVR with aux power so I would gravitate towards the lower end of the pricing that gives me the preout feature...so Denon over Marantz in short....3400 is a popular model.

DAC...I understand you want to use your PC as the source and that's fine and you're thinking well to realize you might need to upgrade the dac...I use jriver v23 and they have what they consider to be an audiophile grade DAC in their player...your Phil3s will pick up on the subtle details that a more precise dac might deliver, but would you be able to hear it?...With the modern AVRs...I would not be looking to augment the dac.

Crown...great value, you really can't have too much power...you probably won't be pushing the amp to the max that often unless you plan on moving a lot....lol
 

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