Tír Na HiFi

This is great Fran! I remember hearing Audioplan Kontrasts with Jadis JA-80s at a Cloney Show a good while ago: it was perhaps the most enjoyable sound of the show for me. I don't envy you trying to work with 25mm MDF, I made some curved shelves out of it once, which looked great, but it was very ha...

On the classical front, I find most of the smaller labels are not represented well on the streaming sites (e.g. Hyperion is nowhere, from what I can tell) so ripping might still be a thing. Personally, though, I started and didn't get far. So tiresome, I just couldn't cope. I've tried 3 streaming s...

Oh no! My research was not sufficiently thorough! The KANN doesn't support installing apps for streaming, though it has Tidal built-in. I think that would be frustrating as I'd like to try Qobuz and Idagio, not to mention being able to use Spotify. I could use the KANN as a USB DAC and use the lap-t...

Ciaran - make sure to give us your impressions when it lands!! Can't help on the recommendation front, but I don't know about ripping CDs, you can get nearly everything streamed now so that saves a lot of work.... I'll report back when I've had a go of it! Interesting about streaming: any ripping I...

THank you everyone for your insights. I drooled over the Sony DMP-Z1 and the Astell & Kern SP2000, toyed with changing tack and getting a Chord Hugo 2, but eventually decided to go for an Astell & Kern KANN , a bit of a Swiss Army knife of a player with all the formats it can take, and it ca...

Diapason wrote: ↑Fri May 01, 2020 6:05 pm Bizarre decision to leave the Vault without WiFi in this day and age. That would be an immediate deal breaker for me.

I couldn't believe it, but there it is!

Thanks mcq, going straight to the most expensive is often my own instinct, and I've acted on it on occasion and not regretted it. But this is hopefully a temporary situation, and maybe a €4000 - €8000 budget is more than is called for. But you have me thinking.... Thanks for the sensible advice, Fra...

It has been suggested to me that a Bluesound Vault 2i might be a solution for me. I need something small, but it doesn't have to be portable. My criteria are: small good sound can use streaming services (Idagio, Tidal, Qobuz) can connect to wi-fi can drive proper headphones will store a good number ...

Hi Maciej,

Thank you very much for those helpful suggestions! I'm quite tempted by that reconditioned A & K, (I need to research the others!) but I have another line of inquiry underway and I'll see how that goes first!

Thanks for that Fran! I'd been looking at FiiO too. The FiiO M11 Pro seems to be their current top of the line. There are also well-reviewed players by Sony and HiBy. The A & K players seem very solidly built and focus resolutely on sound, rather than incorporating games and video. But the SA700...