Nice! Let us know how it sounds
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Please see if you can spot the potential bottle neck…
I’m not necessarily one to share recent purchaes or into intoductions, but did think it was important to share my experience with the Aurender N10. I cannot overly empathize the importance of a quality souce, but that’s something I learned from @Veritas and reinforced here. For context, I am coming from a laptop. Veritas’ and @M0N 's analogies were spot on about the importance of a good source. I might as well get both out of the way.
I previous had an entry level tube DAC, LM 34, and Harbeth C7s. I found the wet tube sound great for vocals and much of the music that I would unwind to. I auditioned the system at a dealer and thought it had good synergy… if you are into that sound. I have been looking to update my entire chain.This was sparked by buying Veritas’ Harbeth 30.2s and trying to get them sounding their best. I was open to a new listening experinece with my only non-negotiable to have a stong mid-range. I apprecate all the guidance he’s provided to get me here. Additionally, I have read coutless experiences and advice, thoughtfully, shared in this forum.
The ModWright KWH 225i can be largely charterized by Veritas’ experince of the KWA 150SE in the ModWright thread. I will share my thoughts there for the 225i. The IA could present a good value as the 150SE is integrated into the unit with a pre at the same price as the 150. MW stands behind their products.
Now on to the N10. The N10 is transparent without sounding analytical to my ears. All this while sounding natural and adding control. Didnt expect that. I had no expectaions as synergy and the DAC bottleneck could be issues. Not sure if this is a house sound or unique to the N10. Once again, my intention is not to overhype the N10 (even tho it is bad ass), but have folks consider a cleaner source.
I was looking into DDCs for my laptop to do double duty. I though this would be a resonable approach. Afterall my desktop has a M2 Pro mini - ifi Purifier 3 - Qutest and it is good enough. Veritas scratched that idea. The N10 checked off every box for me (streamer, local storage, OCCO clock… jk i had no idea what this was, and a functional app). I only listen to local files and this stores 8tb. I was not interested in Roon.
I am going to share rambling texts sent with my initial impressions. S, “Like took my system up 4 levels.” S, “Everything that I had to listen to critically and noticed is now out in the open. It was veiled before, but I still knew it was there. Now, it just sounds like my old system but completely on steroids.” S, “Yes, the N10 did everything you said a good source would do. The N10 (in comparison to a macbook air) added tremendous transparency and grip to the sound. The N10 does a great job of making bad recording sound good and good to great. The overall chain is very enjoyable. You can listen into the music or you can just enjoy the music.” Still exuberant? Yes, but closer to earth. A good souce may be worth pushing other upgrades or priorities back a compoent.
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Glad to read your post! Looking forward to hearing your extended impressions when you get more time into it.
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Really good looking rack and quality equipment there. I have the same Dac and enjoy it very much.
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Just picked up this Luxman L509x at a killer price. Will have to wait for my directstream to come back to me before I can truly evaluate it though.
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Dream amp!
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Classic styling!
Love those meters and the entire look overall. 
congratulations…maybe some day you can give it a more commanding place in the rack where it’s great looks will stand out and you can watch the meters wiggle 
Yeah I’ll get a stand eventually. This is my homemade stand so I don’t trust my handiwork to hold up a 60lb amp 
Ground/bottom is the safest
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Nice! I missed out on a 509x. Did you get yours on Head Fi?
I got it on audiogon. I’m basically swapping out my current gear for basically the same price as what I paid for this.
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Excellent. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the amp and hypnotic nature of the vu meters.
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I bought a thing, might have been a big mistake for my bank account in the future, but oh well here we are… check out the post below for the full details and pictures.
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Ok, so a pair of Fiber optic thingies, and a new ethernet switch and power supplies and associated cables came in. @dB_Cooper upgraded his stuff and i jumped on his old stuff to make it my new stuff and damn…soooo many cables. Tripping hazards at this point. Now i have to re-wire this room too in the future. 5 meters of fiber cable may may seem like allot for a small room but it barely reached its connection point 
will need 6 meters to make it work cleanly. Racks are full and fully overflowing, both of them, HP and speaker. Cable bins are dwindling down and i had to open at least one fresh power chord out of the plastic 
Front end upgrades by cleaning up power and internet signals. 
BTW, he sent a damn good shipping box and double boxed everything inside. NICE i’m saving the outer box for tubes i may sell someday, it’s perfect.
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I wanted a dac specifically for PC and console and to pair with the Softone Model 10 - something not too pricey. I owned a previous version and was interested to see how their implementation of an FPGA instead of one of the usual dac chip suspects sounded. Additionally it gives me three outputs which is ideal for the use case.
So far very decent for the price. I shall play with opamps at some point but as is it pairs nicely with the Model 10, toning down the bright highs a touch and adding a little more bass depth.
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These were on my list for this year, turned up at the right price.
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Those dropped in price very rapidly last year which was kinda weird, but they seem to have settled now. They’re a steal at their current price of around 2.3k.
Have you tried the CA-1A? Will you be using it with the hsa-1b?
I have a CA-1A and like it, which is why I wanted to pick up an SR-1A, I got lucky, there was someone selling one without the speaker box or jot R.
Since I already own the TI-1B, and the filters, it was pretty ideal for me, and not very many other buyers.
Short version is it’s easily the most resolving headphone I own for less than $1600.
At some point I’ll post a comparison to the CA-1A and MySphere.
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Oh! Play with the opamps!
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You know I will. I do like playing with small hard to find things.
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