FM Acoustics thread, 155 / 255 / 122 / 223 / 133 / 233 / 411 / 711 / 108 / 111 / 115

Lots of numbers in that title lol. Thread for all FM acoustics source gear

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When does it get here? You have a history of making a decision one day, and the next day you’re setting it up in your house.

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Hopefully waiting for me to pick up when I get back from my work trip. So perhaps 4 ish weeks?

For a lot of stuff at this point I get stuff shipped out to me to demo, so I already have it in hand, I just post when I choose to actually fork over the cash lol. Don’t say anything if I demo and don’t buy. And then in some cases I get lucky and can force myself to drive way too far and pick something up in person since I’m impatient lol, but it’s more likely the first. I’m sure dealers and friends are comfortable with sending me stuff to demo first because if I’m already that interested I’ll likely end up buying it anyways lol

But now is the hunt for a smaller sized non tube dac to properly go along with it lol. Anyone have any good ideas for a dac to pair with it? Most everyone I know or have seen runs vinyl with FM stuff, so no clue what digital frontend would be a worthwhile buy

If this combo works out as well as I hope for what I want it to, I should hopefully be able to sell off my grandinote and some other headphone amps. Because man I do love the grandinote but it’s too hit or miss with headphones and too large. Just want something that will be more desk not rack friendly but offer similar performance

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The Weiss 501 is pretty small but it may be out of its league given your chain. Small high end DACs are not that common. The Mola Mola Tambaqui is pretty small as well. Or the Mojo Mystique X SE?

I don’t know enough HIGH high end stuff to pitch.

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yeah, although the medus could be a good thing to try

Immediately I think a nagra would slot right into this system, but I’m skeptical about the pairing, and I also can’t say I’d want to own a nagra again unfortunately. I do think an APL dac would be the first thing I’d want to try on it, but my demo for the the DSD MR SE fell though and that’s more than I’d have wanted to spend on that setup anyways

Did enjoy that one when I had it, but I’m also skeptical on synergy

It’s going to be sitting next to an evo pro 21 so I just plan to use that for the time being lol

I actually did see a demo room once using FM gear with a Thrax dac, so that’s also on my radar, might be good to try something new there. I guess EMM is fairly compact too

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Any general overview of what it’s expected to sound like, or are you in the dark on this one?

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if emm is compact then I think you have a fair amount of options :sweat_smile:

in the more classically small space nagra is basically your only option if aiming above tabaqui level that I have ever found though. Lina is in that space price wise but I kinda doubt it competes dollar for dollar. Some off the wall ones you may want to look into are the ideon absalute, playback designs, or maybe even linn klymax. All 3 of those should be similar size to the Dac2x v2/DA2

EDIT: You currently have Kassandra/d1-twelve/21 evo pro?

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Basically a gamble. At shows and dealer demos I’ve heard FM sound both incredible in some setups or extremely mediocre poor value in others. Have to bet that the headphones and dacs I have on hand will synergize well otherwise it’s a strong miss.

One of the reasons I’m more comfortable with going straight for it though is because with FM you can draw a lot of parallels to Lamm in design philosophy and somewhat similar end goal (in a pretty different sonic way from my experience)

I mean it just can’t be huge basically, standard component size is just fine, sound is more important. But if it could stack somewhat with the FM that would be nice

I can think of others but no experience/too risky for me

Interesting, I need to look into that dcs system more

:+1:

I might skip playback designs since it’s not my preference but the other 2 def interest me

totaldac system, m21 plat, kassandra ii ref, evo pro, and then some studio dacs and a lonely bf2 lol

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Man, I dont even know dacs let alone brands in this range. I just hope the setup works out and synergizes amazing. There is bliss in finding something that allows you to let go a lot of clutter.

Basically I got this for a few reasons. I wanted to get something that could give me at least some of what the lamms do for the 3.1, but in a way that 1. didn’t involve tubes, 2. didn’t take up a lot of space, and 3. was likely to have better synergy with a wider range of headphones. I’ve kinda hit the limit when it comes to headphone amp quality, so I just naturally had to go this route at some point or the other lol.

I could have gone higher, but FM prices rise fast, I don’t care about balanced, I didn’t know what I wanted and just picked an easy impulse, and I’m not sure if I would feel like it would be worthwhile. Although this could spur a 2ch amp hell for headphones lol. I sure hope not, can’t really afford to do that at this point with all the money tied up in my main 2ch lol

It is really nice to consolidate, I hope to do that further

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It seems lately you have been moving a little bit away from tubes. Is that for convenience and/or not having to worry about finding the best tube match, prices, heat, anything else?

In some ways yes, in others no. Moving to LAMM was an even deeper step into tubes, but moving away from pacific was a small removal. When it comes to my 2ch setup I’ve just accepted I’d consider whatever regardless of if it has tubes or not if it sounds good and matches my system

But for a desk setup, I think I’ve come to conclusion that now that I’ve removed my garage rack hell at my main desk and don’t have a bunch of different amps and dacs there, I kinda want something where I don’t have to worry about the tube stuff, the heat (that’s a big one), and added size. But it’s also because I already have a tube setup at the desk (being the evo pro 21 → studio T). But that’s not exactly it either lol. Considering how at this point I mainly only use MS 3.1 and 3.2, I wanted to get a setup to best suit the 3.2, and that’s more often than not going to be on solid state amps rather than tubes, so that’s also coloring the preferences for this purchase as well.

But basically I’m still open to tubes, but for what I’m currently looking for solid state likely makes more sense. But if you have any potentially worthwhile tube 2ch systems for driving headphones (that aren’t massive, I’d consider my past AC setup too large as an example) I’m all ears lol. If this doesn’t end up panning out, I’ll next try a Spectral pre and power setup (because I enjoy the sound when properly matched, and also because I will admit it’s one of the few things I want to own simply out of looks). But from there I have no idea

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I never turn my PS off, it’s nice leaving an entire desktop on without worry of leaving your DAC and Amp on overnight. As M0N says, heat in the summer sucks balls when the gear is near by. Always paranoid of leaving tubes on overnight which happened a lot to me when you’re sleepy and just forget.

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It’s also the case of being on my pc a lot so even if it was normal use, I’m basically on it from the moment I get up to the moment I sleep, so might as well be equivalent of being left on lol. One interesting thing I’ve heard from someone about FM gear is that there’s not really much warmup time, so that’s nice if true

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Honest question: have you thought about going full single eco system with something like an msb stack/dcs lina/mola mola AOI/bolder/etc? Seems like if you realy want simple and compact that its a solid way to go. That said, idk how these compete sonicaly so maybe just not up to the level you want?

Also, just so i throw it out there, the air tight stuff looks damn sexy and stacks nicely with tbeir own transformer box :wink:

I have in the past, and recently had a full aries cerat chain, currently have a full bricasti chain, but that’s really only the basic components such as dac, amp, preamp, and not like literally everything same mfg chain. There are specific brands that can give you an all in one go package that kicks ass, but generally I’ve found there’s at least something that you might want to look for another brand to handle for you. You can’t expect the entire brand to do everything right

That being said, when you really move up that high you kinda find that you do generally want to pair stuff from the same mfg together, because that’s really how it’s designed to be. As an example, I tried the lamm monoblocks with a few other preamps I had on hand, and holy shit most of the magic was gone, it really only sounded like a worthwhile system being fed by the accompanying lamm preamp (although strangely the preamp sounded good with most anything I connected it to). So at some point you actually kinda have to pair things from the same mfg together. But of course this isn’t always true, and there’s benefits to looking elsewhere as well. I generally notice that most of the time, a mfg can’t nail both analog and digital components equally well (if they even offer them in the first place). Some can though, but I think that’s the exception and not the norm. And also that’s not including a full ecosystem as well, including things like streamers/digital sources, cabling, other stuff like that which further minimizes the amount of options you have imo

The obvious benefit of going everything from one mfg is assured synergy (although doesn’t mean best synergy), and easy buying and troubleshooting if things go wrong, and less effort as well. But there’s a lot of potential downsides as well, you may find that you don’t end up agreeing with the end goal of the mfg sound wise if it’s a full chain, you actually might find better synergy elsewhere in some cases, and it’s also a bit less fun in the end for those who like to move things around and fine tune a setup lol (while I don’t seek out doing that, I also think it’s sorta fun). But the biggest thing is that again you are betting on the mfg doing everything equally well, and I think that’s really the hardest aspect for a mfg to fulfill. But there are truly amazing one stop shop options if you are that sort of person.

If I had to give examples of from start to end same mfg chains including speakers, a full audio note uk chain is pretty amazing, a full aries cerat chain is amazing, full mbl chain is amazing, annnddd that’s likely about it from memory of what I’d actually consider getting everything I needed from one mfg. But I haven’t heard many entirely single mfg chains to be honest, because most people I know do mix and match, and many show and dealer demos don’t have a ton of single mfg chains either

If only source gear had to be the same mfg and you had flexibility with the transducers, I would absolutely look towards ch precision, vac, solution, mola mola, bricasti, etc. And plenty that I haven’t heard full same chains with either. There’s a lot more flexibility and options when you leave the source up to one mfg and the transducer up to another

I’ve heard chains all from the same mfg that I actually didn’t like, but then liked on their own, that’s been an interesting experience for sure, and most of the time it’s typically been either their dac was lacking or their amps + pre were lacking, because they couldn’t get both of them equally right. Which is why a lot of times at shows you will see matching pre + power or matching digital front end, but having a full single mfg chain isn’t as often. Or you see chains where everything is fucking different and it’s a whole huge mash of different stuff that somehow works together lol. Either way is a viable option, the latter just requires more careful experimentation and tweaking to get right but also can be more rewarding than limiting yourself to one or 2 single mfg.

TLDR: Basically, I don’t go out looking for matching stuff, I just look at stuff I want to consider and then find out it’s synergy needs. If it happens to be best with other gear from the same mfg, that’s great. If it happens to be best with a combination of different equipment, that’s cool too. I would look more into what things pair best with rather than being obsessed with getting everything from the same mfg if you are in it for the best sound that best matches your preferences and system

Never really had much experience with bolder and I didn’t know a good way to get them through people I know so I didn’t consider them that much. I already know I’m not really interested in DCS from past experiences, although the lina is interesting but I will wait for dust to settle for that one (and prices to fall too lol). Mola mola is great for aio but I just think it’s not the sound I’d be after from when I have demoed or owned their stuff, and I also don’t know if that would work that well when it comes to driving headphones. I have no idea what AOI is. MSB stuff, man I really do enjoy their dacs, but I’ve heard from friends that you are better off looking elsewhere than their own amps so that’s less on the radar.

Saw that, but I’m making the blind guess it wouldn’t be the best with the mysphere 3.2 and that is something I will prioritize. But I have heard air tight in the past and it’s great, although from a value perspective not as strong as some other tube gear I have heard in those ranges

Basically the main reasons I picked FM acoustics:

  • Size
  • Know someone who could sell me them
  • Similar design philosophy to lamm
  • Sound that has actually floored me in a properly matched system (but was incredibly average in another)
  • I think they are right on that line to where I don’t think it makes sense to go any higher, but also high enough to where they will be a solid step ahead of the top headphone amps I’ve heard

And if I was going to get a fm pre, I might as well get the fm power, or vice versa, I wasn’t exactly looking to make sure I got the same mfg for the pre and the power, it just made sense in this specific case

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@M0N Any update on the FM or the clone (I will call this the AM)

I’ve been too caught up in the dacs, but I’ve actually had the FM for a bit now. Clone might be here in a month or so. I’ll comment when I get time

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Im gonna have to hit you with the :eyes: :eyes: :eyes: :eyes:

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I just finaly got around to looking up the size of these and now im annoyed. If you can make a good damn speaker amp setup this size there is no reason HP amps need to be fuckign 4u rack mount bullshit /rant

In that same veigh, worth it for sus?

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