Equipment Recommendations - The Home For New System and Upgrade Advice

displayname said:
I have heard some complaints about reliability, which is a valid concern.

I personally have a CXN and CXC and have been very happy with those 2 products. I also like the sound of most of their gear. But I will also say I wouldn't go above the 851 line. While the Edge stuff doesn't sound bad, it's massively over priced and easily out performed in its price class. At the current prices I'd actually suggest stretching to 851 over the CX series, but that's also getting well outside of Ghost's budget. But as far as integrated amps, there are a lot of options at that price point. I think it's good to consider those too.

Anyway, my main point wasn't so much of pro or con on Cambridge. More that I take Whathifi reviews with an ever bigger grain of salt than most reviews. Especially if they are reviewing a product from a UK company.
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Gotta say I hard disagree and have nothing but good things to say about the bits of gear that I have bought off the back of their reviews. I struggle with the trend towards video reviews which tend towards the hysterical or the unbridled snobbishness of some of the higher end ones.

What I will say though is that taking the star or /10 rating is as crazy for gear, maybe crazier, than it is for album reviews. The devil is in the detail and so I read and base my call off the content of the piece itself.
 
Joe Mac said:
Gotta say I hard disagree and have nothing but good things to say about the bits of gear that I have bought off the back of their reviews. I struggle with the trend towards video reviews which tend towards the hysterical or the unbridled snobbishness of some of the higher end ones.

What I will say though is that taking the star or /10 rating is as crazy for gear, maybe crazier, than it is for album reviews. The devil is in the detail and so I read and base my call off the content of the piece itself.
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Also it’s of course well worth googling and checking out forums like here in addition to the these reviews too. No reviewer is going to have a piece long enough to solidly comment on reliability unless its an utter piece of shit.
 
Joe Mac said:
Gotta say I hard disagree and have nothing but good things to say about the bits of gear that I have bought off the back of their reviews. I struggle with the trend towards video reviews which tend towards the hysterical or the unbridled snobbishness of some of the higher end ones.

What I will say though is that taking the star or /10 rating is as crazy for gear, maybe crazier, than it is for album reviews. The devil is in the detail and so I read and base my call off the content of the piece itself.
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For sure. I mean I still read their reviews. But I like to call out a bias when I see one, and they have a bias in favor of UK based companies.
So don't stop reading their reviews by any means. They have valid input. But I certainly would want other reviews to back up their claims. Especially when it comes to their "awards."
 
displayname said:
For sure. I mean I still read their reviews. But I like to call out a bias when I see one, and they have a bias in favor of UK based companies.
So don't stop reading their reviews by any means. They have valid input. But I certainly would want other reviews to back up their claims. Especially when it comes to their "awards."
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awards in any line of work or product are an utter nonsense. Generally industry heads engaging in mutal wanking sessions.
 
Went ahead and placed an order for the NAD C 316BEE v2. Now I enter the excruciatingly painful waiting stage as I refresh my email every 10 mins to see if my Lintons have shipped yet. Don't even get me started on if the Lintons get here before the NAD, I'll cry myself to sleep as I watch my Lintons become gargantuan living room paper weights.

 
displayname said:
For sure. I mean I still read their reviews. But I like to call out a bias when I see one, and they have a bias in favor of UK based companies.
So don't stop reading their reviews by any means. They have valid input. But I certainly would want other reviews to back up their claims. Especially when it comes to their "awards."
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I see what you mean re: bias. But I don’t think they are biased.

Look at Rega for example. They make a nice product. I’d like it a whole lot better if it was priced equivalently here to what it costs in the UK. It’s a real value there and magazines there will surely point that out.
 
Ghost said:
Went ahead and placed an order for the NAD C 316BEE v2. Now I enter the excruciatingly painful waiting stage as I refresh my email every 10 mins to see if my Lintons have shipped yet. Don't even get me started on if the Lintons get here before the NAD, I'll cry myself to sleep as I watch my Lintons become gargantuan living room paper weights.

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do you have the stands coming ?
 
Ghost said:
Oh yes, including the stands was non negotiable for me. They’re so beautiful and complimentary and bonus, MORE STORAGE
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They only fit completely standard sized 12” with little tolerance. I had wanted to put my EPs in mine but one is in a box that is ever so slightly bigger and doesn’t fit! I’m going to look for something cool looking to put down there instead!
 
Ghost said:
Oh yes, including the stands was non negotiable for me. They’re so beautiful and complimentary and bonus, MORE STORAGE
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Sweet system. You have some time now to do your Bluesound Node research hehe Post a pic when you get setup.
 
JohnnyCashFan said:
Sweet system. You have some time now to do your Bluesound Node research hehe Post a pic when you get setup.
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Will do! Excited to start saving up for a quality streamer like the Bluesound now that I don’t have the convenience of making a Bluetooth connection. A bit more motivation. Pics will most certainly come!

Between the new amp and speakers, do I need any sort of specific cables to have these set up properly? Also how do I set up my chain when they arrive? Turntable - > head phone amp -> pre-amp -> amp -> speakers ?
 
Ghost said:
Will do! Excited to start saving up for a quality streamer like the Bluesound now that I don’t have the convenience of making a Bluetooth connection. A bit more motivation. Pics will most certainly come!

Between the new amp and speakers, do I need any sort of specific cables to have these set up properly? Also how do I set up my chain when they arrive? Turntable - > head phone amp -> pre-amp -> amp -> speakers ?
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You can use stripped bare wire or banana plugs on the amp. No spades. Anything fits on the speaker side.

If you are putting your headphone amp in line, go turntable>preamp> headphone amp> amp. The NAD also has a headphone output.
 
Ghost said:
Will do! Excited to start saving up for a quality streamer like the Bluesound now that I don’t have the convenience of making a Bluetooth connection. A bit more motivation. Pics will most certainly come!

Between the new amp and speakers, do I need any sort of specific cables to have these set up properly? Also how do I set up my chain when they arrive? Turntable - > head phone amp -> pre-amp -> amp -> speakers ?
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Any pair of speaker cables. Get banana plug termination because the NAD won’t accept spades. I like blue jeans but you can certainly get cheaper too.

Turntable -> Preamp -> NAD.

I’d go from the the fixed level/tape out of the NAD to the headphone amp.

Looking at the pics it doesn’t have a fixed level/tape out so ignore that last bit.
 
Joe Mac said:
Get banana plug termination because the NAD won’t accept spades.
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I'm embarrassed to admit this came across as a foreign language.

I should buy two (?) sets of banana plug terminated cables one for each speaker? I plug one set into one speaker, another in the second, and lead both of those sets into the back of the NAD? Just trying to over communicate hahaha, my Klipsch have one speaker wire that connects each speaker and than typical speaker cords that run into the pre
 
Ghost said:
I'm embarrassed to admit this came across as a foreign language.

I should buy two (?) sets of banana plug terminated cables one for each speaker? I plug one set into one speaker, another in the second, and lead both of those sets into the back of the NAD? Just trying to over communicate hahaha, my Klipsch have one speaker wire that connects each speaker and than typical speaker cords that run into the pre
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Usually speaker cables come with RCA to a stereo pair of banana plugs on each cable.
 
Ghost said:
I'm embarrassed to admit this came across as a foreign language.

I should buy two (?) sets of banana plug terminated cables one for each speaker? I plug one set into one speaker, another in the second, and lead both of those sets into the back of the NAD? Just trying to over communicate hahaha, my Klipsch have one speaker wire that connects each speaker and than typical speaker cords that run into the pre
Click to expand...

You need a pair of speaker cables. Each cable will have a positive and negative wire terminated with a banana plug. You plug one cable into the Right + and - at the amp end and the other end will plug into the + and - at the right speaker. Same again for the left.

If you buy from blue jeans get a cable terminated at each end with banana plugs at the length you need and choose a quantity of two because they sell singularly rather than in pairs.
 
Ghost said:
Will do! Excited to start saving up for a quality streamer like the Bluesound now that I don’t have the convenience of making a Bluetooth connection. A bit more motivation. Pics will most certainly come!
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The Bluesound is great bit of bang-for-the-buck kit. Sounds good, does everything. Hell, our Node 2 isn’t even hooked into the stereo at the moment but it’s still serving my wife well as a headphone amp for her Grados and Onkyo hi-res player.
 
Joe Mac said:
You need a pair of speaker cables. Each cable will have a positive and negative wire terminated with a banana plug. You plug one cable into the Right + and - at the amp end and the other end will plug into the + and - at the right speaker. Same again for the left.

If you buy from blue jeans get a cable terminated at each end with banana plugs at the length you need and choose a quantity of two because they sell singularly rather than in pairs.
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Blue Jeans makes quality stuff and is worth the money, but if you’re short after upgrading your speakers and amp there is nothing wrong with getting by on some inexpensive 14 gauage speaker wire from Home Depot and just going bare wire connections for bit.
 
There is a Linton specific thread on here too you can post specific questions, advice, photo's to if need be. It was very helpful when I was considering them.

Wharfedale Linton 85th Anniversary Review

You see this ^. THIS SAD BOY IS NO MORE CUZ I JUST BOUGHT ME SOME LINTONS BABY LESTTTGOOOOOOOO. From Klipsch R-51PMs to the Lintons, I'm boutta have my socks rocked.
www.needlesandgrooves.com www.needlesandgrooves.com

@Ghost I believe Music Direct recommends Audioquest CV4 cable to Linton users.
 
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