100W Intergrated Amplifier. A very engaging sound that has paired nicely with both sets of speakers I've used. While I originally bought it to tame the Triangle Comete ES speakers, it's now truly shining on the Dynaudio's.
Simaudio Moon Equinox
cd player / black. Just using it as an overpriced visually-matched transport for now, but I still don't regret buying it. While it seems to add a very slight dark colored sound, compared to the benchmark DAC1, it still sounds very detailed on its own.
Benchmark DAC1
1/2-width DA converter. Truly excellent and detailed sound. Best one-word description: "wow"
Dynaudio Contour S 1.4
Danish 2-way monitor speakers. Very good soundstaging and clarity. Amazingly good at conveying high-end detail without sounding harsh or fatiguing. Very easy to listen to for long periods.
Sunfire Solitaire 10
The highest complement to any subwoofer is not noticing that it's there. The Sunfire has done a great job of fleshing out the frequency range of speakers I've used without drawing attention to itself. It's a true upgrade to any stand-mount speakers I've used in my system.
Solid Steel - don't remember the model number
I had no idea the $4 investment in sand from Home Depot would seriously improve the sound from my speakers, but filling these metal stands actually appears to have made an improvement.
I am thinking that at some point in the future I want to upgrade the amp. The I-3 has a great sound, but I think a more upscale integrated amp might make a nice improvement. I really like the Simaudio kit, so I'm contemplating the I-5 -- but I'm worried that it might not have enough power for the Contours.
Perhaps I should hold out of the new I-7 integrated (hope it comes in Black).
The Sim Equinox certainly is a wonderful CD player. But it's just not a fair comparison to the Benchmark. From what I can tell, the Sim just tends to sound a little "dark" compared to the DAC1. While I know it's somewhat heresy to reduce the equinox to a transport, the Benchmark really does open up some detail in the recording. At a loss of a better description, it sounds a little more "open" than the sim's output.
With that said, the Sim's sound was actually a better match with the Triangle Comete ES (which tend to be a little "hot" if you're sitting in the sweet spot). But, with the Dynaudio Contours, the details really come through in the Benchmark DAC1. I've been doing A/B tests for several weeks now, and I keep coming back to the DAC.
Speaking of Hi-Fi heresy: I just hooked up the Apple Airport Express to the DAC1's optical input and am now using my laptop to stream Lossless-encoded files to the system. The Express actually seems to be quite a decent "transport" since it has a built-in jitter buffer (about one second's worth, it seems) to compensate for the ethernet/802.11 jitter. In combination with the DAC1, the bitstream seems damn near bullet-proof -- and I certainly can't hear the difference between that and the coax input from the Sim Equinox.
Dude you have succeeded! A very nice and well balanced system. Just curious though, do you really think the Sim Equinox needs a dac? I have heard that the Benchmark is a great dac and I've also hear the Sim is a great dc player, wondering what your thoughts are?
So far, I'm very happy with the sound. The one observation is that the Triangle Comete ES speakers deliver an amazing amount of detail -- but they're very sensitive to their sources/amplification. My dealer cautioned me that I needed to drive them with a quality amp. A couple weeks of listening to them on my Denon 2102 receiver(that I still use for home theater stuff) quickly drove me to the Simaudio for 2-channel listening. The I-3's direct preamp-input (A4) makes it easy to integrate with the Denon's L/R output for DVD watching.
And you're definitely right about the Benchmark DAC1: It's truly amazing how much more detailed the Benchmark sounds -- even compared to the Equinox player.
The latest turn: I hooked up my computer (which is currently driving the TV for DVDs, etc) to the Benchmark DAC1 via an optical TOSlink cable (the Equinox outputs on S/PDIF copper). Now, iTunes lossless-encoded music is indistinguishable from the CD output.
Quite a nice attempt! All very high-value gear. The Benchmark is especially good. My friend has one, and I'm consistently blown away by how good it sounds for the price. Where do you plan to go from here?
