Need help with upgrading up my Digital Music Set-up

Anands123

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Sep 9, 2008
Messages
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Location
Mumbai
My current set-up is a Musical Fidelity M1 DAC connected to a Musical Fidelity A5 Integrated Amp. My speakers are Bowers and Wilkins CM series floor standers and a REL subwoofer. For CDs, I use an OPPO BDP 93 just as a transport and connect via coaxial to my DAC and AMP. This sounds good and I am happy. For music on my laptop I use a USB connector to DAC which is not bad either. Main challenge is with streaming and want to upgrade/ future proof for the next few years. Currently I stream via an Apple TV 4K model which is directly connected to the TV. I get sound back via a digital 'pass thru' from TV on an optical cable to M1 DAC . This sounds quite good but needs the TV to be kept on and the audio signal has a circuitous route. The Apple TV does not have a digital out like in the previous generations.
Following are some of my concerns/needs
a) Gera up to play the latest available digital formats/ resolution/ sampling rate ( M1 DAC can play upto 24bit/192 KHz but only through Coaxial/ AES inputs)
b) Use a good quality streamer that can do better than my Apple TV - dedicated to Audio
c) Leave the TV out of the system and have a smaller display on the potential new component instead


Open to buying/replacing a few items in my set-up as it has been a while and welcome any thoughts or inputs on these... thanks!
(PS: I have a Musical Fidelity A3.5 CD player which is not working. Have not been able to get it fixed in Mumbai as it might have a motherboard issue. Any thoughts/ leads on that would be appreciated as well. )

home theater.jpg
 
Last edited:
A streamer seems the obvious way to go. Cambridge CXN should fulfil a, b and c. There might be other options costing less that do a and b, but don’t recall any that also does c.
 
My current set-up is a Musical Fidelity M1 DAC connected to a Musical Fidelity A5 Integrated Amp. My speakers are Bowers and Wilkins CM series floor standers and a REL subwoofer. For CDs, I use an OPPO BDP 93 just as a transport and connect via coaxial to my DAC and AMP. This sounds good and I am happy. For music on my laptop I use a USB connector to DAC which is not bad either. Main challenge is with streaming and want to upgrade/ future proof for the next few years. Currently I stream via an Apple TV 4K model which is directly connected to the TV. I get sound back via a digital 'pass thru' from TV on an optical cable to M1 DAC . This sounds quite good but needs the TV to be kept on and the audio signal has a circuitous route. The Apple TV does not have a digital out like in the previous generations.
Following are some of my concerns/needs
a) Gera up to play the latest available digital formats/ resolution/ sampling rate ( M1 DAC can play upto 24bit/192 KHz but only through Coaxial/ AES inputs)
b) Use a good quality streamer that can do better than my Apple TV - dedicated to Audio
c) Leave the TV out of the system and have a smaller display on the potential new component instead


Open to buying/replacing a few items in my set-up as it has been a while and welcome any thoughts or inputs on these... thanks!
(PS: I have a Musical Fidelity A3.5 CD player which is not working. Have not been able to get it fixed in Mumbai as it might have a motherboard issue. Any thoughts/ leads on that would be appreciated as well. )

View attachment 57228
Buy an hdmi to spdif/toslink audio extractor.
 
My current set-up is a Musical Fidelity M1 DAC connected to a Musical Fidelity A5 Integrated Amp. My speakers are Bowers and Wilkins CM series floor standers and a REL subwoofer. For CDs, I use an OPPO BDP 93 just as a transport and connect via coaxial to my DAC and AMP. This sounds good and I am happy. For music on my laptop I use a USB connector to DAC which is not bad either. Main challenge is with streaming and want to upgrade/ future proof for the next few years. Currently I stream via an Apple TV 4K model which is directly connected to the TV. I get sound back via a digital 'pass thru' from TV on an optical cable to M1 DAC . This sounds quite good but needs the TV to be kept on and the audio signal has a circuitous route. The Apple TV does not have a digital out like in the previous generations.
Following are some of my concerns/needs
a) Gera up to play the latest available digital formats/ resolution/ sampling rate ( M1 DAC can play upto 24bit/192 KHz but only through Coaxial/ AES inputs)
b) Use a good quality streamer that can do better than my Apple TV - dedicated to Audio
c) Leave the TV out of the system and have a smaller display on the potential new component instead


Open to buying/replacing a few items in my set-up as it has been a while and welcome any thoughts or inputs on these... thanks!
(PS: I have a Musical Fidelity A3.5 CD player which is not working. Have not been able to get it fixed in Mumbai as it might have a motherboard issue. Any thoughts/ leads on that would be appreciated as well. )

View attachment 57228
Whoa, which REL is that?
 
A streamer seems the obvious way to go. Cambridge CXN should fulfil a, b and c. There might be other options costing less that do a and b, but don’t recall any that also does c.
Thanks. That is one of the options I have been reading about. It’s launched three years back. is there a later product though even if it is a bit more expensive?
 
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