Upgrade worries - Where can I improve my setup in reasonable steps

Audio Gear Talk
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Where can I improve my setup in reasonable steps. My current set up is 2011 mac book pro used only for Roon core with ipad control. My streamer is aries Mini feeding into Audez Deckard pre amp and from there into Audioengine 5+ powered speakers. The Audez was bought awhile ago for headphones so I just fitted it in between the Aries Mini and speakers but can’t see if it improves performance or not. Can I improve sound quality with another Dac and miss out the Deckard. I do like the sound I’m getting but am wondering where I can improve more. Any advice would be appreciated.
Eric

1 Like
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Not sure the Deckard is adding anything other than a hardware volume control; there are many nearfield active monitors that might be better than the Audioengines. I like Genelec’s take on the format and would think of starting there.

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Thanks Andy, I was doubtful about the Deckard, I will look at the Genelcs.

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From an audio perspective you might be fine…maybe depending on the usability experience a faster core might be worth looking at. Are you using an SSD in the MacBook currently? Also wired connectivity might be better too for the core if it’s not already on lan.

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Thanks for your help, I put an SSD in the aries with my music files on but I can’t get Roon to see it so I have an external SSD fixed to the mac book pro. The mac book is just an old one of my daughters so I am looking for a better core.

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Just another question if I may, If I buy a 2 bay NAS could I use Roon on one drive and the other drive for saving a backup of my photos, or would this cause problems.

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Should be fine but your NAS would have no redundancy if a drive fails…still with only 2 drives only mirror (Raid1) is an option, or the other is one big combined drive (JBOD) also no redundancy.

Bec careful if you want to run your Core on the NAS as CPU will be an important choice. An SSD is also needed on the NAS for the Roon Database if your Core is running on the NAS…Well actually an SSD is recommended for all Core installations.

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Thanks for your response, I do have a need for keeping a network backup of all my art from our art gallery and just thought I could do both. I realise now that I will need quite a better drive set up if I wish to do both. I will use SSD for the roon side and maybe also the art side which runs into 700G. I will look at the best NAS that I can invest in at the moment.