99% of my listening is with headphones. I have Audioengine A2s in a less than optimal placement on a middle shelf in an entertainment center. They sounded a lot better when they were on a desk. Consequently, they are used mostly for movies/TV shows.
I'd say 70% speakers (Bel Canto C7R > KEF Reference 1s; waiting to hear about the rumored Schiit 2 channel gear to consider replacing the C7R by multibit DAC > analog chain), 30% headphones (Bifrost MB > Asgard 2 > Alpha Primes), both fed by UPnP/DLNA streamers connected with CAT-6 and 1Gb routers/switchers to a Synology NAS full of FLAC (just ripping my last 200 unripped CDs into it).
Work: 100% headphones through Schiit gear
Home, music: 90% headphones through Schiit, 10% speakers
Home, TV: 100% speakers. Typically 60/40 TV to music.
I'd say 90% of the time, I listen through speakers. I don't like headphones that much cause after a while, I find most of them uncomfortable.
My current desktop setup is:
PC-->Wyrd-->Bifrost-->Asgard 2-->Genelec M030
Those Genelec are by far the most awesome sounding speakers that I've ever heard (they look great too!). I just love how pristine and neutral sounding they are.
You can count me among the ones that are impatiently waiting for those new 2-channel Schiit products that Jason mentioned back in December.
I want a kick ass Hi-Fi system for my living room. I already bought a pair of Kef LS50 in white. I'm already decided to get an Yggdrasil, so I only need an integrated amp or a separated pre + amp combo.
I'd say 90% of the time, I listen through speakers. I don't like headphones that much cause after a while, I find most of them uncomfortable.
My current desktop setup is:
PC-->Wyrd-->Bifrost-->Asgard 2-->Genelec M030
Those Genelec are by far the most awesome sounding speakers that I've ever heard (they look great too!). I just love how pristine and neutral sounding they are.
You can count me among the ones that are impatiently waiting for those new 2-channel Schiit products that Jason mentioned back in December.
I want a kick ass Hi-Fi system for my living room. I already bought a pair of Kef LS50 in white. I'm already decided to get an Yggdrasil, so I only need an integrated amp or a separated pre + amp combo.
I want a kick ass Hi-Fi system for my living room. I already bought a pair of Kef LS50 in white. I'm already decided to get an Yggdrasil, so I only need an integrated amp or a separated pre + amp combo.
The LS50s are great speakers but they are low-efficiency, they need a lot of power to drive them well. I had mine originally on a Naim UnitiQute and they did decently, but when I replaced the UnitiQute by a Bel Canto C7R, which has a lot more power, they really bloomed. Then I moved to a bigger place and the LS50s were no longer a good match to the living room, so I replaced them by KEF Reference 1s. My next audio exploration might be to replace the C7R with a multibit DAC and some pre-amp/amp combo, so like you I'm curious about Schiit's hinted-at two-channel efforts.
The multibit upgrade really improved my headphone listening with respect to stereo imaging, upper range clarity, and sharpness of attack in percussion. Cymbals gained a whole new presence, precise and well located. Favorite jazz drummers (such as Eric Harland, Brian Blade, Tyshawn Sorey) now live in my study.
The LS50s are great speakers but they are low-efficiency, they need a lot of power to drive them well. I had mine originally on a Naim UnitiQute and they did decently, but when I replaced the UnitiQute by a Bel Canto C7R, which has a lot more power, they really bloomed. Then I moved to a bigger place and the LS50s were no longer a good match to the living room, so I replaced them by KEF Reference 1s. My next audio exploration might be to replace the C7R with a multibit DAC and some pre-amp/amp combo, so like you I'm curious about Schiit's hinted-at two-channel efforts.
Yeah, I know the LS50 are hard to drive. I did a lot of research in a fair amount of sites prior to buy them, and several owners commented that you need an amplifier capable of deliver around 100 W @ 8 Ohms / 200 W @ 4 Ohms to make them shine.
That's the main reason why, despite the super positive reviews, I decided not to buy Ragnarok. 60 W @ 8 Ohm seems to be not enough for those Kef.
Regarding my future system, I'll follow your route and I will stream my music via a NAS. A Cubox-i will send the data to the Yggrasil, and finally... I plan to control the system with Volumio (iPad).
I hope to make it work wirelessly (the fewer cables, the better).
Thanks for sharing your experience. My living room is not big so I'm confident the LS50 will be enough
Yeah, I know the LS50 are hard to drive. I did a lot of research in a fair amount of sites prior to buy them, and several owners commented that you need an amplifier capable of deliver around 100 W @ 8 Ohms / 200 W @ 4 Ohms to make them shine.
That's the main reason why, despite the super positive reviews, I decided not to buy Ragnarok. 60 W @ 8 Ohm seems to be not enough for those Kef.
Yup, same here. Moving from the Naim UnitiQute (30W/pc@8 ohms, 45W/pc@4 ohms) to the Bel Canto C7R (75W/pc@8 ohms, 150W/pc@4 ohms) made quite a difference.
Regarding my future system, I'll follow your route and I will stream my music via a NAS. A Cubox-i will send the data to the Yggrasil, and finally... I plan to control the system with Volumio (iPad).
For some reason that I haven't been able to debug, Volumio 1.55 started to occasionally repeat/skip tracks when playing over UPnP/DLNA controlled by BubbleUPnP (Android UPnP control app). Very annoying, to the point that I just dropped $300 to get basically the same Cubox hardware with a partly proprietary software stack (Sonore's Sonicorbiter SE), in part because I had good experience with their software on a SOtM sMS-100 before. It's possible that I could have bypassed the problem by mounting the NAS as an NFS volume in Volumio, but I like the BubbleUPnP interface a lot more than the Web Volumio 1.55 one. OTOH, Volumio 2 is supposedly close to release candidate, and it may well fix some of these issues (as well as bring others, it's a major rewrite after all).
I hope to make it work wirelessly (the fewer cables, the better).
Good luck. I gave up on wireless when I started streaming hires FLAC from a NAS, too many glitches, but that's in part because I live in a very WiFi-dense place.
I'd say 90% of the time, I listen through speakers. I don't like headphones that much cause after a while, I find most of them uncomfortable.
My current desktop setup is:
PC-->Wyrd-->Bifrost-->Asgard 2-->Genelec M030
Those Genelec are by far the most awesome sounding speakers that I've ever heard (they look great too!). I just love how pristine and neutral sounding they are.
You can count me among the ones that are impatiently waiting for those new 2-channel Schiit products that Jason mentioned back in December.
I want a kick ass Hi-Fi system for my living room. I already bought a pair of Kef LS50 in white. I'm already decided to get an Yggdrasil, so I only need an integrated amp or a separated pre + amp combo.
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