What made you downsize?

Enjoying the music. No longer so bothered with analysing why. I can hark back to my first term at University. No music at all where I lived the time… Fortunate to live a couple of hundred yards fromT he Rainbow in Finsbury Park so went to everything I could. Then the guy I shared a room with came back with a small Phillips cassette player with three or four cassettes. I remember how good it was to have any music at all.

I should explain that this was pre walkman days

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I haven’t converted to Audirvana Studio, not liking the subscription model, and I likely will change from Audirvana some time before too long because it’s library handling isn’t great, just haven’t decided what yet, meanwhile Audirvana’s sound quality as a renderer when optimised an a Mac Mini is rather good.

So you went from Fraim to Isoblue HH, interesting. Care to share the rationale? I always had Fraim in a different league over Isoblue in my head (although i’ve never heard Isoblue as a comparison)…

Look forward to hearing what you chose to move to. I’ve explored all of the computer based options, Roon, Audirvana, Amara, etc. And Audirvana is the best to my ears, but with all of the bugs probably not a permanent solution - but I don’t want to spend ££££s on a streamer …

The Fraim didn’t look so good next to the skinny legs of the Something Solid speaker stands, and neither Mrs HH nor I were really sold on the silver uprights. We tried the black and that didn’t work either.

The Isoblue is, despite its very simple construction, a superb rack and it looks a lot more discreet.

Easy to manage too. It’s easy and convenient to slide one of the levels to get at the connections round the back. I’ve been using it for years.

Roger

I’ve done quite a bit of simplifying: £4,000 of MusicWorks mains block was replaced by a £170 Grahams Hydra and SuperLumina leads were replaced by Tellurium Q Black II. The focus is now on good sources and no fripperies. I’m not saying these things don’t make a difference, they do, but you can spend an awful lot and gain not really that much. Of course, you can convince yourself that night has become day when really it’s got just a little lighter.

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The box count, down from five to four?

I went from 202/200/HCDR/NAPSC to SN3+HCDR.

Yes there is a the drop in sound quality but I gain a lot more in enjoying the overall system because the entire space looks neater (less cluttered) and the fact that I have a more usable volume range on the SN3 makes it a better choice overall.

So it is not only about sound. The overall look and ease of use is also an important factor in your enjoyment.

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Was there that much of a difference in sound quality? I am surprised.

To complex, and the advent of streaming. From, showing my age, Record deck, tape deck, dvd player, integrated amp, AV amp (plus Ninetendo Wii, Xbox, Humax box) - all different manufacturers

down to

Uniti 2, AV amp, xbox, humax (and NAS in a separate room) and now plus a record deck. Also surround speakers in their chunky boxes down to the lovely KEF slimeline speakers - … less obtrustive

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Did you consider the Uniti Star? CD replay doesn’t offer FF/Rew, but is great.

This photo can probably be used as an argument by lot of spouse : investing on art is more durable than investing in electronic :slight_smile:

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Very surprising that no member so far had admitted that it was the wife who made him downsize.

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Hi Geoff,
Yes we reviewed all three new uniti models but the overall sound quality of the Nova won the day, so the CD player was a necessary extra!

Or an unnecessary extra, depending on your point of view. With everything ripped to a nas, a CD player seems superfluous.

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I am considering to downsize as we are moving to a new place. The system could fit in, but it really takes up a lot of space.

I am considering to go from 552/300/nd555 to sn3/nd555. My wonderful ART speakers would then get replaced by eg neat xplorer.

I am still torn, but will at least to a home audition

Br Lars

Hi HH, I would generally agree with what you say and I have in the order of 300 CDs on my NAS, but we have friends and family come to see us for an evening or so and bring new albums with them, plus it gave me the the opportunity to have just one more box!!

Yes, I’ve been hesitant about selling off my CD5XS. My wife often gets CDs with the foreign language courses she sometimes purchases and these can be a pain to rip (no metadata), much easier using the CDP. Really though, that’s just an excuse and it’s largely nostalgia, as the CD player was my first piece of Naim and I’m reluctant to say goodbye to an old friend.

Roger

I totally agree with the nostalgia sentiment my friend, also wish I hadn’t had to let go the minidisc and cassette decks, but that brings me back to the time before the question “can we get all this in one box” lol.