Dear All,
Thank you for your wishes and comments
Since I have received few queries on how I went about selecting the components, i think it is important that I talk about my music taste and my room details before that.
My current music system is setup in my living room which is 24ft by 24ft and I listen to all genres of music barring Rap & Hip Hop
The same living room also serves as my movie screening hall. So essentially I was looking for speakers which could double up as HT speakers too without compromising much on the musical note.
I auditioned the following speakers before choosing Quadral Ascent 90 -
1. Monitor Audio Silver & Gold series
2. Polestar Danavox Vanguard F1
3. Magnepan 1.6
4. Mordaunt Short Aviano & Mezzo
5. Accoustic Energy Radiance
5. KEF Q900
6. Matin Logan Motion Series
7. ATC SCM 40
Quadral Ascent 90 has a very transparent sound and was not high on low frequencies. Considering my room size, it is very difficult to control the booming bass. ATC SCM 40 was obviously the best but it needed huge amount of investment to set it up properly with all components :sad: I am hoping I will be able to upgrade in a year or two to the world of ATC's
Amongst amps, I listened to Nu Force, Musical Fidelity, Arcam, Cambridge Audio, Rotel, Denon, Onkyo, Marantz. I had no chance to listen to Naim Nait 5i but bought it (from singapore) purely on the recommendation of a very good friend of mine
Must admit it is an amazing sounding amp and even though it is rated 50W @ 8ohm, I can't even cross beyond 10'O clock mark. Yes it is that loud and sweet
Choosing the CD player took a long time !!! I was initially inclined to get the Naim 5Si but Naim CD5 XS was what my friend suggested. It was again over budget for me. So chose Azur 651C after listening to players from Magnet, Musical Fidelity, Arcam, Cambridge Audio, Marantz. Also chose Azur 651C over any other lower Azur models because 651C has 3 filter settings which allowed me to control the lower frequencies. In fact I change the filter settings based on the type of music I am listening too
As for the DAC, I just fell in love with the sound of Musical Fidelity M1 at first hearing ...
For speaker cables, could not get Naim NAC-A5. Hence opted for Kimber Kable's 8PR (which i bought second hand from a friend of mine)
Lastly the list of cd's I used for my audition. I have a standard set of 8 cd's that I use -
1. Soundtrack from Black Friday by Indian Ocean
2. Remembering Shakti by Shakti
3. Led Zeppelin's BBC Sessions
4. Metallica's Black Album
5. Tracy Chapman's Greatest Hit
6. Dire Straits On Every Street
7. Dream Theatre's Score
8. Raising Sand by Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
It took me good 18 months to learn about hi-fi systems, audition them and then of course save the money to be able to afford it
