New Hi-Fi Setup - £5,000 - £7,500 Budget - Thoughts and Comments

Audio Gear Talk
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Hi everyone. I am currently looking to upgrade my Hi-Fi setup in early 2020, and i have been looking at various components in my local dealers etc.

My end goal is for a complete hi-fi system in my office (roon capable, of course). I am happy with my record player (Vertere Acoustics DG-1) and speakers (tannoy dct6 se)…for now. So I am only looking to replace my entry-level intergrated amp with a slightly more premium setup.

My requirements are:

1 - A WIFI capable streamer+DAC (so it can talk to my Nucleus in another room). WIFI is the key here as i understand that there are a lot of good quality wired DAC/streamers. I need a unit that has WIFI connectivity which limits me in my choices.

2 - A Phono stage - this can be seperate or integrated in the amp. If inegrated it has to be more than an “after-thought” and of decent quality. MM/MC option is a bonus but not essential.

3 - AMP - needs to be able to drive floorstanding speakers but do not need a huge amount of power. More concerned with the quality and the integration with the DAC/PHONO etc.

I have come up with 4 potential builds for my budget. Please let me know if i should consider something else or if you have any comments. It would be much appreciated!!

Build 1 - Gold Note system - Cost £5,500
PHONO STAGE - PH-10 Phono Stage
PSU-10 Power Supply
DAC/STREAMER - DS-10 DAC
AMP - PA-10 AMP
Beneifts - All seperate components. Cons - DS-10 DAC not roon ready, but testing is underway. Lowest cost package out of the builds i am considering.

Build 2 - DAC + Inegrated AMP v1 - £5,800

DAC/Streamer - Matrix Audio Element X
AMP/PHONO - Luxman SQ-N150

Benefits - Luxman amp is excellent. Cons - Matrix Audio Element X is not roon ready, but testing is underway

Build 3 - DAC + Inegrated AMP v2 - £7300

DAC/Streamer - Matrix Audio Element X
AMP/PHONO - McIntosh MA252

Benefits - McIntosh is a luxury item and sounds good. Cons - Matrix Audio Element X is not roon ready, but testing is underway. More expensive setup vs Luxman amp.

Build 4 - Moon (Sim Audio) - £8650

DAC+PHONO - Moon 390
AMP - Moon 330A

Benefits - 2 companents work very well together. Roon Ready. Cons - Expensive (for me). Over budget. Not sure it is worth the upgrade vs Builds 1-3.

What do you think? For the WIFI DAC/Streamer i have also looked at Mytek Broklyn Bridge and Auralic Altair G1 Streaming DAC. Those 2 and the Matrix Audio Element X are all excellent. I have been thinking about switching the Matrix for the Altair which would save me £1,000 to justify getting the McIntosh. Plus the Auralic Altair is roon ready.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks!

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Naim nova and a stageline phono.

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If you’re spending north of £5,000 I’d spend a few hundred bringing a couple of Ethernet cables into your study.

Also, take your time and audition. It’s taken me months to choose a new pair of speakers. An absolute must is to audition all elements together, ideally in your home.

Condider trading in your speakers as this may limit choice. High-end active speakers are now a possibility.

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For Naim options in the OPs budget, I’d be looking at ND5XS2 with Nait XS3 or Supernait 3.

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An important point to make here is WiFi does not limit your choices. I have an Ethernet only streamer which, together with my Roon core is wireless fed. I use a dedicated access point which is essentially 300mb/s. If you have decent WiFi it is a good way to employ an Ethernet only device.
Asus RP-N12
https://binged.it/2sku9SX

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Indeed, I would strongly recommend anyone who can’t be bothered to run cables to rethink their decision. Obviously circumstances may make this impossible for some, but I’m glad I moved on from that attitude myself a few years ago.

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Hi. yes i have looked at bringing in ethernet, but my house is large, old (grade II listed), and complex. It does, however, have excellent WIFI due to a local private company rolling out fibre to the home. So i have excellent stable fast WIFI which is why my intention is to take advantage of the new range of streamers/dacs that use WIFI.

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when was the NaimNova launched? 2017? I wonder if it is due an update soon.

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The only Naim products i have seen used are the Muso and Qb 2nd generation products. they are great. So will look at the Naim options and see what i think

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I doubt it. There will be new functionality via firmware updates, etc. but I don’t think you’ll see a complete replacement for some time yet.

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ok. this is potentially an option for me. i presume it works over WIFI?

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A fast internet connection doesn’t mean your LAN will be fast, or reliable. Having said that, home WiFi equipment has improved a lot in the last couple of years of so, and you may well be fine. Still, you will always be more vulnerable to environmental issues with a wireless connection, and that may be due to issues that are out of your control, or hard to diagnose.

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All of the current Naim streamers have decent 802.11ac WiFi modules, and seem to work well. This was not the case with their older models, but although I use wired connections, when I’ve tried using WiFi they seemed fine.
The Naim forum used to be plagued by posts from people who couldn’t get their streamers to work wirelessly, but since the current range was released, you don’t see many people at all with these issues.

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Have you considered something like the Devialet Expert Pro, which integrates a network (wired/wireless, Roon Ready) streamer, DAC, phono stage and amplifier into a single unit? For your budget you’d be able to get a new 220 Pro with some change left for bits and bobs.

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It was initially my first choice. However the poor customer service and issues people have had on this forum have put me off.

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Naim don’t change their stuff physically very often. I have an atom driving floor standers and it sounds amazing. Much more of a standard sound than old style naim (which I swapped out for the atom). I’m not convinced that separates are significantly better than the new integrated offerings until you get up into silly money.
More importantly it works seamlessly with roon as you can control it with the naim remote for volume and skipping tracks etc.
I use a mesh wireless network and though mine is plugged in via ethernet I’ve had it working with high resolution over wi-fi with no problems ( I forgot to plug in the cable after borrowing it to test something else and it was weeks before I happened to notice :slightly_smiling_face:)

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Understandable, although I think the problems are often somewhat overstated - and inevitably over-represented - on forums. It probably depends on finding a dealer that you’d feel comfortable with in the event that something went wrong. For what it’s worth, my experience of owning Expert amps over the last 6+ years has been very positive; you’re welcome to PM me if it would be helpful.

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Personally I would stay within the Roon app to do all that, but yes, you can use the Naim app or remote if you want.

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Not if you have a significant other that won’t use the app :kissing_smiling_eyes:

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Mine will use the Naim app happily enough, but there’s no way she has the patience to fathom the multiple options that you are faced with in Roon. Frankly, I don’t blame her!