Been lurking for some time since finding the site via a couple manufacturers (Spatial and Cherry amp) I was in communication with during my equipment discovery, and their presence on the forum. Been a long time audio enthusiast since my teen years. Resist calling myself an audiophile as many seem to geek out a lot more than I. Though I'm pretty critical..
Recently updated my system in an attempt for something more minimalist (less boxes) coming off having a 20-25 y.o. matched Linn setup (short of a couple DAC and speaker driver upgrades along the way) that worked well, but gave into the bug of wanting to try something new and hopefully better sounding. The COVID lock down and working from home also fueled this too.. Also figured with the state of products available now that I could put something together that sounds better and costs less money. Objective achieved I think.
After quite a bit of research, reviews read, attendance to a couple audio shows along the way to hear some components (not a lot of dealers around anymore, my previous shut down), I've managed put together a system I'm quite please with for the purposes I intended, especially considering I couldn't audition everything. I wanted to have streaming capability to access the huge high rez libraries out there these days (Qobuz so far and liking it), and play CDs primarily. May get back into vinyl at some point too.
System consists of Spatial M5s, 2-Cherry amplifier, Mytek Brooklyn Bridge with SBooster PSU and a Bel Canto CD3t (still have the old Linn Karik). Currently tied together primarily with a loom of Anticable speaker and interconnects (Mytek to amp). Ended up keeping the Linn Sizmik sub in service (with an outboard amp as the internal failed some time back) crossed over at about 40hz. The Spatials have very good bass, but this adds just a bit more oomf at the very bottom that is pleasing. I didn't go with the bigger Spatial M3s more for their imposing size, but also budget. Trying to keep it minimal, I had the sub and it integrates really well with these speakers in my room (even as fast and clean as the M5s are). Also put in an AudioQuset Niagara 1200 for protection (FLA storms), and it did seem to refine things a bit with no loss in dynamics that I can tell.
Well, that's about it other than I'm about to experiment with some other cables. Starting with a Zu Event XLR interconnect that's en route for the amp pre/dac connection. We'll see. Cables apparently do make a difference.. Damnit.
A couple pics for the heck of it. Cheers.
