Advice for forum newcomer and relatively new NVA fan with £1k to spend
Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2018 12:54 pm
This is my first post on the forum so please, don't be gentle.
10 years ago a friend lent me a small NVA amp - must have been an AP10 of sorts - when I realised my budget home cinema amp (...) couldn't power some rather small Celestion speakers... At that time I was short on cash and wasn't in a place to think about new audio equipment so over the years NVA and the amp disappeared from memory.
In the last few years I've upgraded a few components - mostly budget end - and as a lover of music (really only what some would call 'classical', mostly solo piano, mostly historic recordings...) I decided I need to start building a decent system and am now in a better place to do so. I should also note I am an ex-professional flute player and would consider my ears fairly decent instruments, if not atuned to hifi as you lifelong advocates, and certainly without the technical knowledge.
Recently, that same friend this time lent me his AP20 integrated (running it for 3 weeks now) along with some NVA speaker cables (unsure which ones). Not only is this kit a clear, marked and TBH devastating upgrade on my Cambridge Audio Azur 351A (I can hear you all laughing) but I have fallen in love with the sound. It is utterly beautiful, natural, how I always thought hifi should sound (or not, as it were), and reproduces the old wax cylinder and 78s CD transfers wonderfully.
After reading up on nvahifi and trawling through this forum, i realise I've stumbled across something quite special and now intend pursuing what I imagine will be a years-long journey of NVA purchases.
So, to the meat of my post. If you've made it this far down, some advice on the following info regarding my step into NVA would be gratefully received.
Budget: £1000 (approx.)
Kit I expect to keep (for now): ARCAM irDAC II, Mission SX1s on Atacama SE5 stands, basic Marantz CD player (5003), usual digital AV stuff (Sky, Playstation 3, Android box), optical cables
Kit I won't keep: Cambridge amp (seriously, stop laughing), cheapo copper speaker cables, cheapo interconnects inc. digital cable from CD
I run Spotify Premium through the PS3 for maximum SQ via optical/DAC, and have a large CD collection
Kit for the future (apart from the NVA amps I want to buy now): turntable/(phono stage) - I have a large unloved collection of records getting dusty, CD player, NVA upgrades as cash becomes available
New kit for now...
Firstly, I want to start somewhere I can build from - I'm aware of the hugely admirable, unique and generous business proposition Mr Richard Dunn delivers. But I want to start in the best possible place with future upgrades in mind from the start.
I have one last question/point which really affects where I begin this NVA journey: I run all my kit kit including the CD player through the DAC (the DAC does a better job than CD player direct, although I do expect to upgrade the CD player in 2018), and to my mind the two places to start are either:
1. Stick to an integrated - the AP 50 + best cables I can get with change from £1k, or;
2. I use the DAC as a passive pre (has variable-out/volume control), which then opens up the possibility of a stereo power amp (A60) or some monos (A40), + cables with change from £1k. The one thing I am wary of here is retaining the natural NVA sound and qualities and is my biggest concern going down this route.
Any thoughts and feedback very welcome. Also, where there are related posts in the forum that may go some way to answer these questions, please feel free to aggressively point me there
I'm so happy to have found NVA and also this forum.
10 years ago a friend lent me a small NVA amp - must have been an AP10 of sorts - when I realised my budget home cinema amp (...) couldn't power some rather small Celestion speakers... At that time I was short on cash and wasn't in a place to think about new audio equipment so over the years NVA and the amp disappeared from memory.
In the last few years I've upgraded a few components - mostly budget end - and as a lover of music (really only what some would call 'classical', mostly solo piano, mostly historic recordings...) I decided I need to start building a decent system and am now in a better place to do so. I should also note I am an ex-professional flute player and would consider my ears fairly decent instruments, if not atuned to hifi as you lifelong advocates, and certainly without the technical knowledge.
Recently, that same friend this time lent me his AP20 integrated (running it for 3 weeks now) along with some NVA speaker cables (unsure which ones). Not only is this kit a clear, marked and TBH devastating upgrade on my Cambridge Audio Azur 351A (I can hear you all laughing) but I have fallen in love with the sound. It is utterly beautiful, natural, how I always thought hifi should sound (or not, as it were), and reproduces the old wax cylinder and 78s CD transfers wonderfully.
After reading up on nvahifi and trawling through this forum, i realise I've stumbled across something quite special and now intend pursuing what I imagine will be a years-long journey of NVA purchases.
So, to the meat of my post. If you've made it this far down, some advice on the following info regarding my step into NVA would be gratefully received.
Budget: £1000 (approx.)
Kit I expect to keep (for now): ARCAM irDAC II, Mission SX1s on Atacama SE5 stands, basic Marantz CD player (5003), usual digital AV stuff (Sky, Playstation 3, Android box), optical cables
Kit I won't keep: Cambridge amp (seriously, stop laughing), cheapo copper speaker cables, cheapo interconnects inc. digital cable from CD
I run Spotify Premium through the PS3 for maximum SQ via optical/DAC, and have a large CD collection
Kit for the future (apart from the NVA amps I want to buy now): turntable/(phono stage) - I have a large unloved collection of records getting dusty, CD player, NVA upgrades as cash becomes available
New kit for now...
Firstly, I want to start somewhere I can build from - I'm aware of the hugely admirable, unique and generous business proposition Mr Richard Dunn delivers. But I want to start in the best possible place with future upgrades in mind from the start.
I have one last question/point which really affects where I begin this NVA journey: I run all my kit kit including the CD player through the DAC (the DAC does a better job than CD player direct, although I do expect to upgrade the CD player in 2018), and to my mind the two places to start are either:
1. Stick to an integrated - the AP 50 + best cables I can get with change from £1k, or;
2. I use the DAC as a passive pre (has variable-out/volume control), which then opens up the possibility of a stereo power amp (A60) or some monos (A40), + cables with change from £1k. The one thing I am wary of here is retaining the natural NVA sound and qualities and is my biggest concern going down this route.
Any thoughts and feedback very welcome. Also, where there are related posts in the forum that may go some way to answer these questions, please feel free to aggressively point me there
I'm so happy to have found NVA and also this forum.