This is the first part, describing the system I've configured to listen to my music.
I don't like music streaming services: I find the interfaces very complexes, the recommendation systems not so good and I like to own the music (at the end you are paying for streaming but they can decide at any momento to cancel the service, to drop some music, ...). With films and series is a bit different because I rarely watch a movie more than once or twice. If I do this, it will be a musical one. I have a nice collection of CDs (more than two hundred) and some vinyl records (around 30 that I bought and a classical music collection that I sort of inherited from a relative). And I've started buying again, after my decision.
This summer I decided to upgrade my sound system: I had an old micro system with an integrated CD, cassete player and radio. So far so good, not high quality but it was playing my CDs. Moreover, it has an 'AUX' connection that allowed me to hear my discs. I had the turntable repaired one year ago or so after some long time without using it.
I visited with my wife a specialized shop in my city Novomusica after trying to improve my original system and they convinced me to start from scratch some decent sound system. My idea was that I didn't want a CD player (at the end, you have a rotating machine that reads the physical information with some lens, it converts it to analog and they you amplify this sound in some way; mechanical parts will break, the lens will have an end...): I was thinking about digitizing my CD collection, and using a computer and a DAC (Digital Analog Converter) to 'play' them.
After some talk, the configured system was:
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FIIO K11 DAC (some reviews [1], [2], [3]).
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NAD C 316BEE V2 integrated amplifier (some reviews [1] [2], [3])
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Dali SPEKTOR 2 compact bookshelf speakers (some reviews [1] [2] [3]).
The amplifier and the speakers were conneted by some Van der Hul O.F.C (Oxygen-Free Copper) cables.
For the vinyls I'm keeping, for the moment, my old turntable:
- AKAI AP-A305 belt-drive turntable (internet archive link to the manual (No reviews, you can find several second-hand units in several sites for under 50$, and there are some spare parts for repairing available).
The turntable needs some preamp to boosts its signal to a level that can be properly processed by the amplifier and the old one I had was not working well so I bought (in Amazon):
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Fosi Audio Box X2 Phono Preamp, more for the price (at that moment I was just trying to amplify my turntable to be played with my old system) and the fancy valves than other considerations (there were, anyway, some good reviews [1] [2], [3]).
Notice that the amplifier has an integrated preamp, so this part would not be needed. I'm keeping it for the moment because of the cables and because I'm deciding yet the final configuration (position of the things in my place).
The result? The system sounds more than ok (but remember my starting point) and I'm using it almost every day because I love hearing music when I'm working, or just doing some thing or relaxing.
This is a bit long now, so I will continue with a second part soon. Just as a teaser, some keywords: raspberry pi, 'bit perfect' encoding, lossless formats, Linux,...
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