Good evening all, I have recently (in the past year) since retirement of sorts been on a bit of an upgrade project even though nothing has left the stable
. Starting with speakers Amphion Krypton2 to the new 3X version teamed with a REL 6 stack, this followed with a trio of Aquas finest Formula dac, LinQ, and just last night a La Diva M2 CD spinner and for good measure a new pair of Stax SR-X9000 ear speakers. I like probably most of you have gone away from playing CD's and streaming is the norm, convenient vast choice and in many cases perceived better sound quality? Me to a tee until the La Diva was teamed with the Formula dac yesterday afternoon, how wrong I have been despite having a very respectable streaming setup, if you thought the humble Redbook CD had seen its day think again.
I originally auditioned the La Diva out of curiosity (costly mistake) it literally made you sit up and take notice of just how great the CD Redbook format can sound nothing short of phonemonal even using the same Formula dac and LinQ in the streaming rig that now sounds just ok by comparison. I tried two other drives I have an Esoteric D03 and an Audio Analogue Maestro V2 via digital out into the Formula, while the AA was clearly the better of the two it paled by comparison compared to the Aqua La Diva. It just goes to show don't dismiss supposedly old technology as it certainly proved me clearly wrong. Even ripped WAV files from the same played CD's have no chance against this Aqua combo it was quite a collective holy #$@& realisation for the three of us who were here yesterday.
I now have a vast CD collection to relisten too in a way I have never heard them before, don't know about you but this is why I love this hobby, just my 2 cents.
. Starting with speakers Amphion Krypton2 to the new 3X version teamed with a REL 6 stack, this followed with a trio of Aquas finest Formula dac, LinQ, and just last night a La Diva M2 CD spinner and for good measure a new pair of Stax SR-X9000 ear speakers. I like probably most of you have gone away from playing CD's and streaming is the norm, convenient vast choice and in many cases perceived better sound quality? Me to a tee until the La Diva was teamed with the Formula dac yesterday afternoon, how wrong I have been despite having a very respectable streaming setup, if you thought the humble Redbook CD had seen its day think again.I originally auditioned the La Diva out of curiosity (costly mistake) it literally made you sit up and take notice of just how great the CD Redbook format can sound nothing short of phonemonal even using the same Formula dac and LinQ in the streaming rig that now sounds just ok by comparison. I tried two other drives I have an Esoteric D03 and an Audio Analogue Maestro V2 via digital out into the Formula, while the AA was clearly the better of the two it paled by comparison compared to the Aqua La Diva. It just goes to show don't dismiss supposedly old technology as it certainly proved me clearly wrong. Even ripped WAV files from the same played CD's have no chance against this Aqua combo it was quite a collective holy #$@& realisation for the three of us who were here yesterday.
I now have a vast CD collection to relisten too in a way I have never heard them before, don't know about you but this is why I love this hobby, just my 2 cents.
