For about the last 20 years, I have had a weekend at my parent's lake house for buddies from college and my hometown to get together and hang out. It normally is just a bunch of sitting around, having a few beers, and retelling of old stories while catching up with each other since we are now scattered all over the country. I have been in charge of the music since the beginning since I had a multigigabyte collection of mp3s from my high school napster and ripping CD days. That's where my interest in this hobby first started and when I saw my first silver faced marantz I was hooked.
This year for the first time I brought an amp and speakers that wasn't currently in my main rig rotation. I loaded up my beloved marantz 8 (I just got a SET amp I have been listening to) and a pair of Dynaco A-25s in the car with a Schiit Bifrost Multibit DAC and a Schiit Saga pre-amp. The A-25s I had rebuilt a few years back with new caps and replaced the tweeters with some that were recommended in several threads here on AK.
Well it took forever to get it all hooked up since we don't have wifi at the lake but with a verizon hotspot and some technical wrangling I was finally able to get a google chromecast to play lossless Tidal via an optical link into the Bifrost and then onto the Marantz. Of course I was worried about the synergy, how would the Dynacos do with the 30 wpc, etc but the sound I felt was really actually quite good. I was worried about the size of the room as well (you can see from the pics which make it look even bigger than it actually is) but the Dyancos held there own and I was impressed with them overall.
The interesting thing to me was everyone's response. Most if not all were intrigued by the "glass things" on the marantz and had lots of questions about the setup, what each box or piece did, etc. All were impressed by the sound and remarked how much better it was than the in wall speakers at the lake house and at some of their own houses but some people were really blown away and controlled the playlist for hours. This is the first time I have ever really done this with a crowd and the positive response was more than I had hoped for. Next year with some planning maybe I could bring a whole different setup and keep it going. It was fun stuff and I thought AK might be interested in the response.
This year for the first time I brought an amp and speakers that wasn't currently in my main rig rotation. I loaded up my beloved marantz 8 (I just got a SET amp I have been listening to) and a pair of Dynaco A-25s in the car with a Schiit Bifrost Multibit DAC and a Schiit Saga pre-amp. The A-25s I had rebuilt a few years back with new caps and replaced the tweeters with some that were recommended in several threads here on AK.
Well it took forever to get it all hooked up since we don't have wifi at the lake but with a verizon hotspot and some technical wrangling I was finally able to get a google chromecast to play lossless Tidal via an optical link into the Bifrost and then onto the Marantz. Of course I was worried about the synergy, how would the Dynacos do with the 30 wpc, etc but the sound I felt was really actually quite good. I was worried about the size of the room as well (you can see from the pics which make it look even bigger than it actually is) but the Dyancos held there own and I was impressed with them overall.
The interesting thing to me was everyone's response. Most if not all were intrigued by the "glass things" on the marantz and had lots of questions about the setup, what each box or piece did, etc. All were impressed by the sound and remarked how much better it was than the in wall speakers at the lake house and at some of their own houses but some people were really blown away and controlled the playlist for hours. This is the first time I have ever really done this with a crowd and the positive response was more than I had hoped for. Next year with some planning maybe I could bring a whole different setup and keep it going. It was fun stuff and I thought AK might be interested in the response.