Hello from Down Under, fellow audiophiles and freaks

[OzzieAudiophile]

Hi blackraven.

Thanks for the tip, yes there is one shop which stock Plinius. I'll have to audition that
properly, will do tomorrow. I got some prices, the models appear to be relately old ones
in comparison to what you can get outside Australia

Feanor - thanks for the feedback, it's appreciated.

Used equipment ? There's only perhaps 3 or 4 shops which sell any used equipment, and
those are that old, I think Elvis himself was usin

Those used hifi gear are cheaper than my cables
You may use them if you needed a decent paperweight

No such thing as hi-end gear as used equipment in those shops. We probably wouldn't
have more than 50 hifi shops in WA. 30 of them are low-end to middle-range.

Ok, Pass Labs and Ayre, BAT, Audio Research (ARC), VTL, and Monarchy all NOT
available in WA

Conrad Johnson yes one shop does stock it, but only 2 models, and they won't get
any more in for you unless you buy it, which I'm not prepared to do.

CA200 - $8K (no balanced outs)
LP70S - $9K (no balanced outs)

I'll add these prices to ALL of my options to my topic above.

Thanks.

[Ajani]

No such thing as hi-end gear as used equipment in those shops. We probably wouldn't
have more than 50 hifi shops in WA. 30 of them are low-end to middle-range.

What Middle range brands are available? I'm not going to suggest that they might sound better than McIntosh, but they may be such a substantial step up from your Yamaha Receiver that you won't feel the need to spend the extra money on the really high-end stuff.

You might want to check if you can audition NAD Masters Series, Marantz Reference or Musical Fidelity gear etc....

[OzzieAudiophile]

Hi. Well I've decided to close all doors, in terms of, it's high end, or nothing.

One thing has to be made clear, I'm NOT silly enough to realise that I need to spend,
X-amount of money minimum to get the high level of detail I need out of my music.

However, the middle-range products are like the $300 jobs, the all-in-one systems, that
all come in 1 box etc, that can fit in the boot of your car. My Yamaha receiver is at least
10x better than all of those options.

It's quality like low-end bookshelf systems, more for practical and space saver reasons.
Nothing wrong with those, but whatever I want to get, I want to be completely happy with
it, not just now, but 5 to 10 years down the track.

Well to answer your question, Yes I can make just one addition, use my Yamaha as
my pre-amp, and still get a decent power amp that can better drive my speakers.

Everyone can forget about removing my speakers out of the equation, these puppies need
a lot of juice, and I will need a very good amp to get the best out of it.

The paramount thing is that I "need" to get the best listening experience out of my
system, home, as possible.

However I can safely rule out 99% of everything, rule out low to mid end components, and
anything that costs more than 10K.

80% of all high end gear in WA costs $12K or more

Ok, I found out my two McIntosh options :

MC252 7.2 K
MC402 10 K

YES you see my point ? We have to pay much more than you guys in Europe or the USA.

Ebay, no McIntosh gear in Australia, as if they would part with it. In the US, yes
people will sell it on Ebay, but then you have different current settings, which I'm not
willing to fiddle about with, plus no warranty etc.

I won't consider second hand, for warrantee purposes. It's only my personal prefernece,
and I think it's perfectly fine for anyone to buy second hand gear. Problem with that is
that you have no idea how good/or badly the previous owner treated that component,
it may be half way out because all the years of overheating due to poor ventilation etc.

I took a listen to the Master Series, but the Universal player for example has too many
features missing (no Balanced out !!), the CD playback doesn't hold a torch to McIntosh.
The SACD playback is not the best either. Look it's fine, but it's nearly 4.5 K here.

Everything in NAD Master Series is 4.5 K , I cannot justify 4.5 K for that series.

I have found many returns of those components, due to overheating, or the power
supply fried. It may be due to user error (i.e. poor placemant causing poor ventilation), but
I cannot assume all of them have made the same mistake.

The hifi store has pulled the plug on NAD due to too many returns.

There is basically at least one feature or another that is missing in the NAD Master
series in each component, it's too frustrating to justify 4.5 K to go without the
features.

The surround sound pre and power amp, have NO balanced connections.

So no point buying the SACD/CD player, as that has balanced outs.

Feedback I received the reps redistibutor is that their R&D will consider the missing
features for their next models, assuming he wasn't talking porky's.

The NAD M15 appears to be exactly the same as my Yamaha receiver, except the M15
has 2 HDMI in. My Yahama has at least 2.5 x as many inputs !!, and 2x as many
surround modes.

Only their integrated amp has a balanced in.