I am putting together a two-channel system from scratch. Never had one before but can’t stand the sound of my Bose playing via bluetooth anymore.
Amen Brother. You are among friends here. I have to say I’m curious as to what drove you to jump on the Jadis?
Anyway, given your budget and desire to rip CDs and have a user-friendly format I’d recommend giving the Innuos Zen Mk.3 streamer/server a look as it’s a solid streamer but also has an onboard CD drive and internal storage that makes it extremely easy to burn all your CDs directly into it — no muss, no fuss, no additional equipment required. It also works with Roon, which is likely the most user-friendly format for your other family members and Innuos is reputed to have very good customer support should you ever experience a problem or have a question.
I’d also highly recommend buying a separate DAC. At this level DACs become a highly personal choice, and marrying yourself to one embedded in a streamer will be very limiting. A separate DAC will also make it much easier to upgrade just the DAC (or streamer) in the future as this technology continues its torrid (at least in audio terms) pace of improvement.
As for the rest of your system, you’ll want to focus on speakers whose impedance doesn’t drop much below 6 Ohms in order to play nice with your amp. And don’t forget to save some $ in your budget for good cables, interconnects, and power cables as they all do matter at this level. Fortunately good wires can be had relatively cheaply these days, but it’ll still add up to a good chunk. Haven’t mentioned power conditioning, dedicated lines, room treatments, etc., etc., but you’ve already got enough on your plate to deal with and digest. Hope this helps at least somewhat, and best of luck in building your system. My last tip, make sure to use YOUR ears as the final arbiter in making purchase decisions as we all hear differently and you’re the only one who knows what sounds best to you. Welcome to the machine!
