New member, long post ahead, feel free to skip… tl;dr what to buy????
I’m not quite AARP eligible, but VERY close and lost what I thought was going to be the job that took me into retirement due to COVID related issues… which is not all that relevant, except as relates to both my non-essential budget and how I found myself a reader of this here forum…
Just about two years ago, the above employer went into Chapter 11 related to COVID and my “position was eliminated” as part of the restructure. Examining my options, I decided to start my own business, servicing clients in the industry I’d worked in for 30 years, and it seems to be working. I’m basically at earnings parity, including pesky details like paying self-employment tax, providing for my own health care and contributing to my retirement fund, and there is slow, steady growth.
I like to say, “I’m cautiously pessimistic.”
I came across this thread early in the start-up process, partly because I was researching DACs, but I stuck around because I was interested in the
@Jason Stoddard posts that, especially early on, dealt with building something of one’s own. There are a lot of management lessons secreted in this long thread.
But, that cautiously pessimistic thing is perhaps most relevant when I’m considering purchasing things I want, but do not need…
Which brings me to…
I have three main amplified sound cases in my life.
1) A main system that sees many hours a day for 2.1 channel music listening outside of working hours.
Sources are: U-Turn Orbit turntable with the upgraded platter and an Ortofon Red cart, a no-sim card iPhone 8 as a dedicated streamer, primarily using Apple Music High Res/High Res lossless, and a thrifted cheap Sony DVD player hidden in a cabinet as a CD transport. The two digital sources are run through a Modi 3E (iphone via camera USB dongle, DVD via Coax).
Amplifier is a neat little 10 WPC integrated tube amp with three Jan GE 5670 tubes in the preamp stage and 4 Gold Lion EL84 tubes in the output stage (a retired audio engineer relative is currently SLOWLY rebuilding me a HealthKit AA-151, which may or may not replace this amp. TBD if it ever gets done).
Amp has one line level input and a pretty good sounding phono stage, feeding Klipsch R50M speakers, with a Velodyne sub filling out the bottom.
This set-up is probably 60% streaming, 35% Vinyl and 5% CD. Music runs a wide gamut, with a lot of classic jazz, Texas singer-songwriter (think Townes), alt.country, indie rock (esp. late 80s to early aughts), etc, etc. No metal, very little Prog Rock, but I own—and play—a lot of the early to mid-90s 4AD, Matador and Sub Pop records on vinyl, alongside all of the above. It’s not uncommon for us to play Yo La Tengo’s
I Can Hear the Heartbeat Beating as One followed by Wes Montgomery, followed by Beck, followed by Nanci Griffith, followed by
Check Your Head from the Beastie Boys, followed by an original pressing of Willie’s
Stardust or Springsteen’s
Nebraska.
2) My newish very near field home office set up. I am not a headphone guy. I have a nice set of wired, over ears for airplane use, but they live in a drawer when I’m home. Prior to COVID layoff, I spent MAYBE 10 hours a week in my home office. My new venture has me there for 40 plus hours a week, depending on travel. I had a Bluetooth/Airplay 1 speaker in there prior to COVID, but couldn’t live with it full time. Bought an SMSL class D to pair with some Polk Monitors I had laying around. Source is 100% streaming run from a no-sim iPhone 5 I had in a drawer through the DAC in a 1st Gen iPhone lightning dock, via a 3.5mm to RCA AUX in the amp. It‘a fine. It’s WAY better than the Bluetooth deal.
3) TV, which currently has sound from the headphone out on the flatscreen into an el-cheapie Sony all-in-one that’s about 25 years old. Sounds fine into Klipsch R51, and we use it MAYBE 3 hours a week.
Which brings me to… what should I buy, given my cautiously pessimistic nature about my disposable and future income (noting that I own a Sys, that is not currently in use)?
1) A new Mani for main system phono stage. This would put the Sys into use as basically a switcher between the turntable and the digital sources through the Modi 3E, bypassing the phone stage on the amp.
2) A Modi Multibit, for the large use case of our digital sources.
3) A Rekker/Gjallarhorn for the office near field set up. The Sys would do preamp duty there, and I could move the Class D SMSL amp into service driving TV audio (3.5mm out to Aux in) and ditch the cheap-o Sony, which is, maybe, on schedule to fail any day, adding a DAC from the digital out on the TV if I ever got the itch to do it.
Benefits to Mani—Discogs tells me my vinyl collection is worth about $10k. Both my spouse and I have been buying—and playing— vinyl records since we were Gen X kids and we never stopped. We like our records, and we play them, especially on the weekends.
Cons to Mani— We really have no issues with our current phono stage, it sounds good, we get a lot of enjoyment from it, and not sure if this is upgrading just to upgrade.
Benefits to MMB— probably (maybe?) sounds better than 3E, used more often than phono. Simple enough to switch in to the main system, already have all the interconnects. By adding another camera dongle, could improve office set up by moving the 3E into the office.
Cons to MMB— Do I need it? Really have zero issues from the phone streamer or transport. 3E continually makes me smile on well loved recordings.
Pros Rekker/Gjallarhor— I don’t love the SMSL as a music amp. It’s not bad, it does the job. But it doesn’t make me giddy.
Cons to Rekker/Gjallarhor — I really don’t need it. The SMSL is background music 75% of the time. Moving the SMSL to the TV would lose the remote the cheap-o Sony has for volume, but we don’t need that much. TV/HT is our least used source.
What to buy? I have some mad money from a big deal, but not enough to do it all.
And I could just take that relatively small amount of mad money and turn it into a bottle or two of fantastic whisky, which would also probably work.
maybe next time my son comes out to visit...
