Thinking of changing to digital

@IainW

Which Linn streamer did you get in the end?

It’s in his post…

I went with the Akurate DSM which is also a preamp. I will be going Exakt (active) soon and will then swap ADSM for Klimax hub.

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@IainW

Very nice. Enjoy your new system and future upgrades as you go.

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That very much depends on your vinyl set up.
I’ve a few LP’s that have come with a CD copy. I’ve used a PCM recorder to record the vinyl at 96/24 and compared it to the CD copy and the vinyl rip betters the CD.
It’s a PIA but handy for when you can’t find a copy on CD. The OP’s set up would certainly make some decent files.

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Yes, some of the best sounding digital files I have are actually vinyl recordings - obviously the vinyl you record has to be something rather special though, otherwise not much point, I agree.

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Ahh the joins of vinyl distortion and filtering. I use vinyl simulators on some of my productions on my DAW, and it can make synthesised audio sometimes more organic or appealing to listen to… but not in an obviously apparent way to the listener.
it’s fascinating how adding certain distortions and filtering can make a sound far more pleasing to listen to, all subtle but quite real… our brains are funny things… and I wouldn’t be without my digital phono distortion simulators now.

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I do like the Linn approach and to me it´s a more modern approach and modular design. The Akurate DSM with Katalyst DACs, I had on home demo and as good as it was, I could not justify losses on getting rid of my Naim system in part exchange for the DSM and exactbox-I. In the end i settled for a complete service before the price hikes thank goodness and adding a streaming solution based on Auralic which are more reasonably priced than Linn and Naim.
I suppose your next move will be to change the amps.
That will be a very nice system and move away from the silly box count

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@anon17458420

Our intention is to only change the source and remain active.

We like the extra detail and depth that active provides.

It will give us the opportunity to tidy up the rack as we will be gaining two shelf spaces. We can put the DS3/K on the top with the 282 below that and the Headline and SNAXO on the same shelf below the 282. I’ll post some pics when done.

I’m repairing and repainting the wall where the Vulkan wall shelf was.

At the moment, the SNAXO, Headline and Streamer on top of the 282, which is not ideal, but none of them have power supplies in them.

So at the end of this, it will look a bit tidier, but in the meantime, this is the current set up.

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I tried the DSM straight into the 300 and with 252 plus 300. I preferred the latter. We have a similar box count, but I need two racks which fortunately have the luxury to accommodate in our apartment in Germany or when it goes to France in the living room. Shame you can’t stretch to two racks, it is better to split things if you can

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I recently swapped out all of my NAIM kit for dCS/D’Agostino (see “NEXIT” thread). One of the benefits for me was reduction in box count, going from 6 boxes down to 3. The system looks much “cleaner” now. I considered Linn, which was also 3 (much smaller) boxes.

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Make sure they set-up the Linn Airable radio.
This is a new option and replaces TuneIn which is now effectively kaput in the UK.
You set-up a Linn Account (free).
Get them to show you how it works, search for stations and register as “Favorites”.
All the good jazz stations are there - enjoy.
P.S. Blues is under Urban genre for some strange reason !!!

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Or sold their turntable, wished they hadn’t and ended up with a cheaper turntable .

I must admit that I’ve noticed the odd Rega 3 accompanying some very expensive Naim gear on more than one Systems pictures

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The obvious answer to vinyl or digital is, “both.”

Ripping cd’s is very easy albeit a bit time consuming. However, unless there is a lot of obscure/rare stuff in there, you will find most if not all of that music on a lossless streaming service such as Qobuz. I have a collection of ~ 1800 ripped cd’s and digital downloads on a home music server, but since subscribing to Qobuz I almost never access the server music library.

I would NOT recommend going down the rabbit hole of trying to ‘rip’ your vinyl. Just enjoy it on the Lp12 when you want to listen to it.

Amongst all the music that sounds ‘best’ to me on vinyl and a nice turntable is jazz. I don’t buy many records these days but when I do it’s almost all new high-quality releases of all-analog jazz recordings. But those same new releases typically are available on Qobuz and/or for purchase as digital downloads.

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@DiggyGun it sounds like you got some very thoughtful help from @Cymbiosis – as would be expected!

It sounds like you decided that you won’t miss your vinyl. I’d say – hold onto the LP’s and if you ever decide you really do want to be able to play vinyl, Peter can set you up with something very pleasant to listen to.

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Sure. I tried to convey that there may be exceptions to the rule in my next few sentences of that post, so I agree about special cases. Kinda disappointing that the engineers who prepared the digital copy to accompany the vinyl didn’t do as thorough a job as you did at home though, right?

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Not really IMO. Vinyl is better than CD sound wise. In my system at least my Xerxes 20plus / Artemiz 2 / DV XX-2 / Superline / SCDR sounds better than my CDS3 / XPS2.
And given the 96/24 vinyl rip is a superior file format to the 44/16 of CD it kinda makes sense.
Of course, unless you’re vinyl is of a good quality it’s a waste of time.

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Yes Phil will be sorting all of that out for DiggyGun :+1:

KR,

Peter

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Excellent - Airable is all a bit new but excellent and stable.

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@Bart

We will miss the vinyl, but as advised earlier, there are other factors in play as well that I’ve had to take into consideration.

Been playing vinyl and cassette tapes since the 70s, then CDs as well, albeit a late accepter of the CD format and, now streaming.

Some of my vinyl goes right back to then as I never got rid of them when CDs came out. The collection, albeit not huge has been built up since then, with CDs adding to the collection along the way culminating with streaming being added to the mix in my office system. Although, this is just the standard Amazon Prime into a Icon Audio valve amplifier.

Fortunately, the active; NAC 282 / Supercap to SNAXO 242 to 2 x NAP 250 DR to Kudos Titan 606, system is still in play. I think that the Linn Klimax DS3/Katalyst will work well with the system, keeping the Linn / Naim / Kudos synergy well balanced.

Besides, it won’t affect my Hi-Fi picture which is above the rack too much…

I also have the Naim Headline and the Focal Elear headphones to play with as well.

As mentioned in an earlier post, the Naim CD5 SX will be sold on separately. The vinyl and CDs will be sold on, which then leaves the CD storage rack and the I-Cube L200 record storage units to be sold on eBay.

Once all that’s been done, we can decorate and re-organise our dining room and work out what to do with the extra space.

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