Description

System is in a c 3 x 4 m living room at our south coast cottage.
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Components Toggle details

    • Oppo 981
    CD and SACD source
    • Ming Da Mc34a
    Integrated tube amp, Nordic model, 2007 Upgraded by the Norway firm Musical Innovation / Roar Malmin, giving much improved clarity and flatter frequency curve, 2013
    2022: no problems. Some slight scratching in the volume potmeters.
    • Aurum Cantus Leisure 2SE
    Great speakers, one of my best buys (second hand for ca 500 usd), they have done a fine job at my cottage. 
    They replaced Royd: The sorcerer, that could not stand the sea air here (clogged the treble drivers).
    This is the model with the famous ribbon tweeter and a fast small woofer that complements it very well.
    I could get a sub, but I've found I like the purity of these speakers on their own.
     *  Design: 2-way vented-box
        * FrequencyRange: 55Hz-40kHz
        * Sensitivity (2.83V/1m): 87dB
        * Impedance: 8 ohms (minimum 6.4 ohms)
          * Tweeter: Model: G2. P
        * , : Model: AC130/50CK, 1×130mm (5.2?).
        * Crossover Frequency: 2500Hz
    • Tascam DA-3000 DA-3000
    Semi-portable - part of main system
    • Fiio X3ii
    Digital audio player, able to play my DSDx2 vinyl drops (replaced the Korg Mr-1)
    • Denon DA-10
    This very light version amp adds some more muscle and oomph to my rather low-volume recorded DSD recordings, and to phone streaming too. Maybe the clarity is somewhat less, but for now, it stays, in my system. The Fiiio X3ii generally sounds better through the Denon, than direct (testing also, headphones -  Audioquest Nighthawk and Nightowl).
    • Topping E30ii
    Small DAC to improve performance from streaming and my own DSD files recorded from vinyl, used in the cottage system and others. Plays native / direct DSD as well as high resolution PCM.
    • Western Digital My passport ultra 5tb
    This small external hard disk holds my music library, mainly dsd files, and is easy to bring along, to the cottage system and elsewhere. I have several hundred DSD recordings, each album is around 2,5 - 3 gb. Even so, with a 5 tb disc, I have a lot of space. It has to be handled carefully. It is not SSD.

Comments 4

Owner
The Topping DAC plays DSD with no problems, from an app like Audirvana, or Foobar. I have bought a 5TB small disk to bring along my DSD files, vinyl rips from my home system, made on the Tascam da-3000. Works fine. The Topping is not a great dac, but it goes into over-achiever mode, playing native DSD.

o_holter

Owner
My source for the cottage system is now mainly a thinkpad pc getting wifi from a mobile phone, with a small Topping 30 dac, and then to the Ming Da integrated amp. The system is good enough to give a plus to the (low price) Topping, compared to the PC (or Fiio) dacs, not to speak of the phone dac. I plan to bring my Teac to the cottage to test if a better dac makes a difference.

o_holter

Owner
I mainly use the Fiio X3ii, while the Tascam recorder stays at home - even if it sounds maybe 20-30 percent better, playing my DSD recordings. After an upgrade (made by Roar Malmin) the Ming Da integrated amp sounds quite linear (better bass and treble). The amp's "Triode" mode sounds best, into the Aurum speakers, even if they would maybe like a little more watts even better. The alternative, "Ultralinear" may sound good at first, more hefty, but is more flat and solid state sounding to my ears, so this switch is therefore permanently turned to Off, on the Ming Da amp.

o_holter

Owner
System edited: The Tascam sounds very good and will be brought along to the cottage sound system this year, also, since the Korg MR-1 is misbehaving.

A "cottage" in the Norwegian sense of the word (hytte) is where you go some parts of the year, especially in the summer, from the cities into the coast or countryside.

o_holter

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