source first approach, very pushed forward here, may be wrongly applied if misunderstood. While I agree that a very poor source like PC soundcard, or cheap DACs cannot deliver the musicality of a real source, be it TT or CDP, I have seen some setups here that sorry again make me wonder if somethings fishy
putting CDS3 with NAC282/NAP250 with 1k or 2k speakers is, in fact, a joke, since those speakers coould be porbably driven quite well with the XS series. Some guy here was wondering if 282/200 will be up to cremonas, and somebody says to stick with his cheaper loudspeakers and put all the money in electronics, or something like that. Well, putting all your money in electronics, and saving just very little to the most important and most well represented character of the system (meaning the speker) is proof to me of bad judgement. The speaker will always reveal the most significant and rewarding changes, if driven properly, of course. But putting NAP300 on neat motive series, or some cheap bookshelves, wont make Naim any justice, and even will proof that, when balance is not used, money can be spent hilariously! Just make yourselves a gift and try the following combinations: CD5i/5x with SN on SF cremona, vs CDS3/282/250 on neat motive, or on epos M22, or on any cheap floorstand, and tell me which one you prefer
so my advice is: find the right SPEAKERS first, wich will mate with your home environment (very, very important issue) and then find something to properly drive them with, and add a source to bring firstly musicality to your setup. Downhill construction is for me silly approach. Ive experimented it and no good for long term. Is like trying to force a truck throgh a very narrow door. You could easily pass on a bike! If you have a narrow window (or door) like a cheap speaker, you wont get too much music no matter how good the electronics are, but with a good speaker properly driven, the music will flow more easily. Would you prefer a very large room with a very narrow window or no window at all, or a smaller room with generous windows? That is the question