@halifax: Thank you for the heads up on the 3.5’s. At this moment in time I am simply making adjustments to improve my current setup, which only today scored a Mytek Liberty DAC to replace a Jolida FX Glass Tube unit. The Belles 250i Integrated 250i that I’ve been digging has a tubed (1) preamp section, and I kinda feel like I’m over-tubing myself with the aging Jolida. My Pro-ject turntable also uses a tubed phonostage. The Mytek is way more up to date, including MQA support.
It is my humble opinion that Thiel, as well as Maggies, benefit from solid state amplification. In the past I stuck to this, more often than not incorporating tubed preamps in the mix to good effect. Unless I’m mistaken or misinformed by info obtained from the interweb, Coda was founded by a bunch of guys who once worked with Nelson Pass? That association alone would give me reason to buy one.
My current setup is: Belles 250i Mosftet Integrated Amplifier, Magnepan MMG, Musical Fidelity A35 disc player, REL T5i subwoofer, Pro-ject Debut Carbon EVO turntable, Pro-ject DS tube phonostage, Aurender N100H 2TB music server, and lastly the newly acquired Mytek Liberty DAC, and a Furutech power conditioner. The most expensive component to date has been the Aurender, which I bought in lieu of TMR’s refusal to accept my offer on a Pass Labs X150 Integrated.
The next addition will in all likelihood be a Pass Labs integrated. Like that, my eventual re-association with a pair of CS 3.5’s is fairly far down the proverbial road. Being financially capable of obtaining either is the crux of the matter. In any case, such will be my “final” system. I am more than willing to wait for the upgraded versions of the CS 3.5’s which, I know, will cost substantially more than the pairs I have already had.
PS: I always employed the CS 3.5 equalizer in my listening. To my ears the sonics were dull without it.
Cheers, folks!
