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No objection to your classification.
AFAIK however, MQA is lossy (i.e. not lossless or high res).

BTW, interesting article from a mainstream publication!

Hi- no doubt you are aware that ATC manufacture their own pre. It's reasonably priced and I remember being pleasantly surprised at how good it sounded in my system. I only listened to it that once,...

I envy your patience and admire your resolve! Admittedly, I tried (24/96) and gave up very quickly and I only have around 2500 LPs!

The two immediately perceptible differences:
Much more clarity (i.e. resolution), top to bottom frequencies, and more extension especially in the bottom frequencies, even compared to the Goldmund...

Years ago I had a FMA 122, and I found it to be my end-game phono.

The FMA replaced a Goldmund Mimesis (don't remember the number--age!), which in turn had replaced an Octave & the phono section...

Isn't it interesting that MQA (lossy, expensive) inspires discussion whereas for example MP4 (less lossy, free) does not? I'm sure more audiophiles would admit to listening to mqa, while I'm guessing...

Best wishes for a painless, effortless, and speedy recovery!

Have we included Dartzeel?
Surely Tier 1.

Performance wise I would see the big Symphonic Lines (Kraft, monos) high in tier 2 maybe even 1 (they have excellent driving ability, they are very...

No disrespect, but it would seem that MQA's target is to generate new income from existing musical content.

The "good / master sound" argument looks more like a positioning, i.e. a selling...

My thoughts exactly.
If the crates fit up the stairs, that is. Unless the crates can be hauled through a 2nd floor window / balcony, etc?

Congrats by the way, those are excellent speakers!

What confuses me -- mind you, it doesn't take much! -- is that the dBW (watt) scale is entirely different, i.e. +10dBW corresponds to 10Watts, +20dBW -> 100Watts, etc.

The table is a bit confusing: what dB are they referring to?
It could mean (as you note) that one amp has a higher input sensitivity than the other (3dB) in which case, fed the same input signal,...

I agree about Qobuz offering superior SQ.
Interestingly, comparing Tidal to Qobuz (on pre-classical orchestral music) the difference in favour of Qobuz was immediately apparent subjectively.
Maybe...

Let me propose the following:
There is a difference between creating music and reproducing the sound of music.
Musicians create the music;
Music & audio hobbyists are concerned about reproducing...

For high-performance DACs under 5k I'll mention my own Ideon Ayazi Mk-2 and the Benchmark DAC-3, IMO excellent contenders.
In my small system, either of these DACs empirically sounded close to my...

I would add Simon Rattle's rendition with the LPO, on EMI. A very good reading recorded in the late 80s now available in the series great recordings of the century. As a fan of the opera, I gather...

Agreed.
MQA is probably an answer to using less bandwidth and less storage space.
It seems tht one advantage of MQA is that it's compressed so it occupies less space...

Exactly.
Perhaps we overlooked the entertainment factor in the article?
It doesn't read like it was meant to be an exhaustive market-reasearch into speakers... subjective would be more like it.
...

There are quite a few transformer-based attenuators around, I have a Stevens & Billington one. Mine has switchable inputs using relays -- many of which no longer work, by the way :|
Very clear, airy...

I also prefer enhanced, even though taking me back to PCM does seem to defeat the purpose, doesn't it? Could've stuck with 24/192 in the first place...

Comparing DSD (5.something mega) to 24/192,...

I have heard both, albeit not in critical listening conditions. Either should drive the Sonettos OK, even though, at ¬87dB /W (4ohm), they're not the most sensitive models aroundl.
My take on the...

Agreed. I'd say the 1.5 is the one you need here.

Hi everyone, I'm new to these shores.
Having said that, I can echo Kingrex above regrading pre amps tubes.
Re, the original question, one of the best phono stages I have ever had was inside a CAT...

Congrats, those are nice sounding speakers (nice looking as well).
On your listed cjhoices, I would prefer the CH precision followed by the Antileon. Subjectively, both offer stable driving...