if you want the results withouht the hassle (but where’s the fun in that?) you can go with HAF. Spectacular results !
This is my Roon setup…vintage meets modern.
The vintage:
Fisher 500c tube receiver (1964)
Rectilinear Highboy speakers (1969)
The modern:
Roon ROCK on Bytespeed i7 NUC 16GB RAM 100GB SSD
External 4TB SSD for personal library files
Schitt cables
Decco mesh wifi connected to ROCK via ethernet cable
Cambridge Audio DACMagic 200M 2.0
Flawless bit perfect performance and sound managed by ROON with Qobuz service.
A dream realized!
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Great system.
I had a current and high end system in 1974, and it sounded great…to me. I went to visit my sister who had a Fisher 500c with a Gerrard turntable and AR-3 (not 3a). Her system sounded so much better than my system at that time. I never forgot how much better her system sounded. Finding such a receiver like that today, restored, is not inexpensive.
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I’ve come to realize that with my current equipment I’ve been trying to recreate the sound my 19 yr. old ears perceived with a 1970 20 wpc Scott receiver, a Gerrard TT and speakers so non-descript I can’t remember the brand.
[Sigh]
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The AR-3 are outstanding for tube equipment. You can find these receivers in good shape for roughly $750 or so. Expect to spend another $500 or so to recap, update, modify power cord, etc. Once restored you won’t believe the difference. Same story with vintage speakers. Invest in restoration and you won’t be sorry. The Rectilinears are all original drivers. They used a material that stays stable, meaning no repairs were needed, just recapping. I live near Cleveland , Ohio and we are very fortunate to have a nationally known tube amp specialist in town, Blackie Pagano. He does great work at a very reasonable rate. It was Blackie who turned me on to ROON and Qobuz. We also have a very good speaker guy nearby who really makes sure your speakers are fully repaired and restored. He is actually low in his pricing. Thanks for your reply!
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Agreed. I live in New Jersey and have a friend who used to work as a repair technician for McIntosh so he really knows his stuff. Of course, he loves the sound of tubes. One of the tricky things with respect to repairs is trying to get a hold of the latest schematics for various pieces of electronics, sometimes they are just not available and other times the manufacturers don’t allow the schematics to be released. On the other hand, many manufacturers can be extremely helpful.
In this hobby it’s very useful to know a good repair person.
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I enjoyed the Dahlquist DQ-10 and the original Advent speakers. My sister’s receiver was one of those few times where I felt the sound quality was remarkably better. Another time was when I changed from an Empire cartridge to the Shure V15-Type II.
But the most significant change was when I bought a pair of Acoustat Eight speakers. I had tickets to see Dave Brubeck that evening and almost did not go because of having just connected the Acoustats. All other changes to various systems resulting in minor improvements.
By the way, my sister had only opera. I almost did not turn on the system, but I found she had The Country and Western Ray Charles, and I put the cartridge on You Are My Sunshine. It was amazing.
Of course, she gave away the Fisher receiver and bought a Technics solid state.
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Playing “The Cat crept in” by Mud 
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Thanks, that’s very helpful!
I keep forgetting that that’s possible within Roon. Since I misplaced my miniDSP UMIK-1 a couple years ago when we moved into the first house, and I just purchased the Dayton UMM-6, I may try playing around with this some this weekend. With that said, I typically don’t like using DSP at all to be honest.
We’ll see.
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Some updates with a new rack and universal transport.
Denon PMA-1600 Integrated
Denon DBP-2012 Universal Player
Rasp4 w/Display running Ropieee NG
Dali Helicon 300 mk2
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Wanted to say I’m also a huge fan of Thierry’s Convolutions. He does a great job with his services!
What’s really nice is you can switch them on or off with a flip of one switch from Roon to compare the results of with and without!
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A post was split to a new topic: Advice about how to set up my relatively small home office room for listening
The roon box is the tiny white box below the left of the TV. A raspberry pi with HifiBerry Dac2, it normally hides behind the other components but I pulled it out for the picture (since Roon is the guest of honor!).
It feeds into a Conrad Johnson ET-3 tube preamp, and then into a Rogue Stereo 90 tube amp, and Sonus Faber Grand Piano speakers. The two turntables (Thorens TD-124 idler drive and Music Hall MMF-7 belt-drive) compete with Roon for music. That’s half my album collection. All video sources are switched by the TV and go through fiber optic to the Bel Canto (oldie but goodie) dac, to the preamp. The tube amp gives me problems if any video source is connected electrically (say via coax or usb) so I use the fiber-optic to prevent that, and there is no noticeable background noise from 12 in. away. The sound is beautiful for music, and also great for movies. It took years to come up with this combo, that’s good for both video and audio sources.
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Dennis, your comment made me laugh out loud LOL. It’s so true. But even more creating a system that makes the music feel so rich with tone, rhythm and that immediacy of live performances. The eternal quest of that leaves me feeling like Sisyphus - but worth the effort just the same.
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P.S. you got a beautiful system. My uncle had a Fisher amp and Marantz pre amp in the 60’s - which I think was the beginning of my obsession with great sound
I think you’ve conflated my post and @Dennis_Allen’s post as he is the one with the vintage stuff.
My system is new stuff and I spent a lot more (even inflation adjusted) and researched it a lot more than in 1970…
That was the crux of my complaint. 
I have this posted in the “Headphones” thread but equally is applicable here.
My bedroom ROON setup:
Meze 99 Classics w/ Forza AudioWorks XLR balanced cable connected to Schiit Magnius/Modius stack + Bluesound Node 2. Fed from NUC ROCK.
My main room ROON listening consists of:
NAD C368 w/ Bluesound Node 2i module
*Totem Rainmaker speakers
*Martin Logan Dynamo 700 sub
-or-
*KEF Q900 + KEF Q150
*SVS PB1000 Pro sub
(Would be nice to get ROON support on Cambridge CXN v1)
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