Have your say & ask the experts

Gents,

As the title suggested my system is not impressing me. Amp is CA 640A V2, Wharfedale Diamond 9.1s and source from dvdp as transport output to some China DAC. I am not sure how to describe how the system sounds like but I am not impressed by it. Once I listened to Primare amp / cdp + Chario and they sounded really good as the lady singer was standing in front of me, her soft lips was clearly heard! However I could distinguish between good recorded audiophile cds and mp3 recorded cds through my system.

I believe majority would say the weak link is the source but is it really that bad? Any suggestion on improvements? Btw, speaker cable is Audioquest FLX-16/4 and interconnect is Blackrhodium Rhapsody.

Primare products are pretty special - and expensive. Its fair to say its a couple of rungs up the quality ladder then the set up you're using.

Although perfectly competent I think its a bit of a tall order to ask it to sing like the Primare.

1. A dedicated cd player will sound a lot better than your dvd player and DAC. Have you not considered the CA 640C V2? Aesthetically and musically, it will look and sound a lot better.

2. The Primare is a few notches up compared to your present gear and it would be unfair to make a comparison.

3.  Alternatively, you could try a non - CA brand cd player and the CA Dac Magic.

Nothing wrong with the amp or the speakers, the source is your culprit - add a CA 640C V2 and you're done and may be later on upgrade to a good BS.

Yup, inclined to say the issue's the DVD player rather than anything else. You can find out for free though by ripping a CD in lossless to your computer and playing it through the DAC. If it sounds better, then you know it's the player that's at fault and can move on from there to decide what to do. If you wanted a disc spinner rather than a streaming source I agree that a 640C would be a good partner (I had one for a while and it was very, very good indeed, and they might be cheap with the new650 arriving), but plenty of other options.

Thanks gents,

Looks like the culprit is the source. How about the cable? I understand 9.1s is on the warm side and CA is on a little bright. I would like to add a little brightness to the sound, would QED silver anniversary helps? Both units were purchased  this year hence the restrighten to upgrade any time soon as have shallow pockets.

Another thing on mind is do CA and Wharfedale match well?

Your options ->
CA 640A V2 + CA 640C V2 + QED SA XT speaker cables + Wharf 9.1
CA 640A V2 + Marantz CD6002 + QED SA XT speaker cables + Wharf 9.1

Both CA and Marantz gel well with Wharf.

What's a "China DAC"?

Check this out: http://www.compudio.ca/2007/04/beresford-tc-7510-mkiii-dac-reviewed.html

This is the China made DACI am using, more to headphone amp.

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f5/review-zero-24-bit-192khz-dac-headphone-amp-pre-amp-269458/