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I'm new to this. Critique my tentative plan?

Hi -- I am new to the world of high end audio. I got interested after a friend lent me his stereo, which is a Conrad-Johnson LS17 Preamp and MV-60 amplifier. He has a custom DAC from a defunct manufacturer. The setup sounds, from naive point of view, breathtaking. Remarkable detail, clarity, and warmth on a great soundstage.

For him -- and for me as I get into this -- the dominant usage case is streaming lossless or other high-quality files from an iTunes source to a DAC, then having a system put out two-channel stereo sound.

What I have now: An extensive digital library of music, a cheap integrated Onkyo amp, and a pair of 30 year old B&W bookshelf speakers up on stilts. The speakers sound great and my tentative plan is to keep them.

The question is --- what to get? I'd like to spend well under $3,000. My first thought was to buy a DAC, preamp, and amplifier, or an integrated amp and preamp. I listened to the Rogue Audio Atlas gear that Stereophile recommends, but missed the lost clarity. I also listened to a Pathos Classic One, which sounded better but not nearly as good as the CJ setup that spoiled me.

Here's what I'm thinking: Rather than get a preamp at all, I could get a DAC, passive attenuator, and power amplifier. Tentatively: The Channel Islands VDA-2 DAC, matching attenuator, and a used MV-60. As an experiment, I connected the MV-60 I'm borrowing up without a preamp, and it sounded amazing.

What do you all think?
dgrobinson
klipschfan
176 posts
 
Bel Canto DAC3 will work.
clio09
3,353 posts
 
Monarchy Audio NM24 is a DAC/preamp combo that sounds really good for the money.

That being said the CIA DAC and passive pre is a good idea, however you need to be sure the CJ is passive friendly. The CIA is a resistor based design and versus a transformer volume control based passive design impedance mismatches are more common.
audphile1's avatar
audphile1
4,793 posts
 
how about this:
Bel Canto DAC3(built in preamp section with nicely implemented volume control, USB, Coax, Toslink and balanced inputs). Should run you around $1500
McCormack DNA-1Deluxe.

Or, Havana tube USB dac, Sonic Frontiers Line-1SE tube preamp, McCormack DNA-1Deluxe amplifier. This entire bundle should be under $3k and I bet it will come really really close to the CJ combo your friend lent you.
dgrobinson OP
2 posts
 
Hi Clio --- What does "passive friendly" mean, and how would I check for it?
clio09
3,353 posts
 
Depends on the type of passive preamp. However, a few places to start are:

1. Your source(s) has the proper output to drive a passive. If this is a CDP then you would need one with an output impedance of about 500 ohms or less, and 2V or greater output.

2. Your amp has a sensitivity rating of 1V or higher (meaning under 1V).

3. Your amp has an input impedance of greater than 50k ohms, preferably much higher. Tube amps generally have a rating of 100k ohms so this is not usually an issue.

If I were you I'd give Roger Modjeski at Music Reference a call. He sells the pot in the box for about $200. It is a resistive passive like the CIA. he could tell you if the CJ i a match for it. Not all resitsive passives are built alike. That is why I prefer TVCs. One that is in your budget is Prometheus. Nicholas at Prometheus could also give you some imput as to how it may match up to the CJ.
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