I've been building a digital music library which is at 1TB and growing. I manage this through iTunes with storage on 2x2TB Caviar Black drives in SIIG II USB3 enclosures. For the last few years the D/A conversion is accomplished with a Grace Design M902 Monitor Controller that also has an excellent headphone amp. I run this single-ended (analogue) to a McIntosh pre-amp and the sound is very respectable.
My McIntosh system is pre-amp, 2x400w power amps and universal disc player. The radio is either through iTunes or my trusty Nikko FAM-500. The selection through iTunes has way more depth than what can be picked up by a traditional tuner. Sure, the quality varies depending on the bit-stream, and by opting in to paid subscriptions better sound quality minus commercials can be had for short green.
I LOVE my McIntosh gear. It is beautiful to look at with the hand-stenciled glass face-plates, the sound is All-American: big, bold and hefty. Recently I've come to realize, great as this McIntosh stuff is, it is not future-proof and_GULP!_I traded it for an NAD system.
Yikes!! Am I CRAZY???
NO!!! The amp, the new C390DD is a total re-thinking of integrating control/switching/amplification. All functions occur in the digital domain right up to the speaker terminals where a 150watt/channel Class D amplification stage routs signals to the speakers. The architecture is software based and infinitely upgradeable. I have also installed 2 modules for analog and HDMI inputs. The sound is absolutely stunning. Where the McIntosh is as described above, the NAD just gets out of the way and presents a tight, lively, holographic image with timber accuracy and transparency. I've connected my PC directly via asynchronous USB connection that up-samples to 96K and can handle files up to 192K.
The radio is NAD's new C446 Digital Media Tuner. This is where it gets interesting. The C446 is Ethernet capable so connects directly to my router, is supported by a NAD portal that has hundreds of stations from around the world, plus stations can be added any time. Within minutes of configuring my account on the NAD portal, I turned the PC off and was accessing traditional Persian music broadcasting from Tehran. This device can also access music files stored on a NAS (Network Access Storage) device. The computer is taken out of the equation!
I still use the PC for importing/converting/organizing my music files and feeding the NAS, and otherwise it's off.
All this would be meaningless except for one thing: My toes have been happily tapping along more than ever!
Congratulations NAD on a job well done.
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