Great setups, all! Some I like, some I love, some Iām a bit dubious on - doesnāt matter, as long as weāre happy with our own setups!
You guys inspired me to share mine. I split w/ my spouse and moved into a condo about 18 mo. ago. I decided to put together a great system. So Jamesā comment about divorces leading to extravagant systems hit pretty close to home, Truth hurts! Anyway, I took my time, researched carefully, and tried to maximize value. I wanted it to be a chill, low key system with SQ as good as possible within a reasonable budget. I think Iāve largely achieved that.
First Iāve got a PC which serves as my Roon core, Plex Server, media storage, and just generally the media hub.
In my LR Iāve got a raspberry Pi hidden away w/ Ropieee (or Volumio, canāt remember) which serves as the Roon endpoint, connected via Wifi. This has the HiFiberry + Pro DAC hat, with analog outputs. This goes to my Denon AVR S910W receiver. Iāve got Polk S55 (GREAT speaker value, they are amazing) front speakers, S35 center channel. (rocking a 3.1 setup for home theater, rear surround I find distracting, personally) SVS SB-1000 sealed sub. I also have a U-Turn Orbit TT w/ a nagaoka MP-110 cartridge & Uturn Pluto preamp. RCA cables are Audioquest Evergreen, Speaker cables are MediaBridge. I bought an Amazon tablet to use as a dedicated Roon remote. Iāve been fortunate, thereās been no duds at all equipment-wise & everything plays nicely together.
I also have a modest little HP setup, another Pi w/ Ropieee, USB out to an Olympus 2 Fiio dac/amp and Grado S80 'phones. Iāve been eyeing a Schiit Mani/Modi stack and Sennheiser 6xx phones from Massdrop as an upgrade path. This HP setup does pretty great for hard rock and metal but seems to lack a little something with electronic music.
Through careful planning and research, the willingness to do a bit of DIY with the Pi endpoints, and probably a good deal of luck, I got a system that absolutely shines for a semi-reasonable cost! Itās given me so much joy. I love hearing nuances Iāve never heard before in well-loved music Iāve heard a hundred times. Sometimes, if the system is nice and warmed up, with the perfect album and Iām really focusing on the music, I experience what Iāve taken to calling āaudiogasmsā - these moments of transcendence where the music just gives me chills and Iām sort of gobsmacked by the sound, itās like the music is writing itself directly onto my brain or something.
Anyway, hope this isnāt too long of a post! Would love any comments/suggestions for improvements etc. and Iāll do the same as well. Iād be happy to answer any questions as well, Iāve learned quite a lot through trial and error. Anyway, cheers and happy listening!