Spec me: Integrated Speaker Amp, Headphone Amp, DAC

If you like the look of the pa7 as the pre/speaker amp and want simple then it should pair fine with their e30 dac https://www.electromod.co.uk/topping-e30-i-i-lite, sound-wise though I cant imagine you will notice a huge difference between that or the fosi stuff, the fosi does use a pot for volume control so may have issues at low volumes with balance that the pa7 wont have as I think it uses relay control although I could be wrong on that.
 
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Damn that didn't last long at all :/

Yeah PA7+E30 combo would be great, otherwise for a one box solution without headphones I can vouch for the Aiyima A80, also very powerful with a good quality DAC inside with room to scale if you wish to OpAmp roll down the line.
 
Given the budget nature of this setup, I think I'm going to resist the temptation to let the budget creep up. The speakers were only £90 years ago :)

Fosi ZA3 + ZD3 looks like a nice neat little desk combo and good enough to do these speakers justice. £270 for the pair with various coupon shenanigans. I can live without a headphone amp as I've got a pair of XM6s for the rare times I want headphones.

Although the Aiyima A80 looks a good value option, and one box. Although loses points for aesthetics.
 
Don't think I have seen any other brand have a dedicated video showing how their product is actually made lol:

 
I would still have had it if it were not for some specific preferences I have in my use-case, otherwise it's amazing value for money and sonically excellent.
 
A80 arrived and plumbed in.

First listen, it sounds narrower in sound stage than the NAD 3045.

Nice tidy little box though, even if it's fairly utilitarian.

Hopefully it'll loosen up a bit after running in properly. It's not bad sounding at all, definitely not letting down these speakers and sub.

The VU meters are a bit of a useless gimmick mind, as they don't actually move at my listening levels driving these speakers. Should be an option to show input level.

The whining on the display when you turn the brightness below 100% is annoying, but it's not distractingly bright as is.
 
mid_gen said:
Well, you were right @mrk The NAD 3045 hasn't lasted two weeks. Went downstairs to make a coffee....and thought the builders working two doors down were starting to pour the concrete with a particularly loud pump.....

Then realized it was coming from my study, the subwoofer and speakers were going nuts with a rhythmic clicking noise across the frequencies. It's not responding to being reset at all.

Junk. 300 quid down the drain :mad:

So.....re-opening the thread.......I need a DAC and amp again.

Got a Fosi ZA3 and ZD3 in amazon basket at the moment.
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That's a shame but a lot of the 3045s out there now are very old, I wouldn't be buying one S/H, It's unfortunate as the NAD will imo sound better than the A80, my recommendation is the Mission 778x if you have room and change again in the future.

Considering you've not had the NAD very long is it not worth trying to get in contact with the seller and see if they will give you a partial refund at least?
 
mid_gen said:
A80 arrived and plumbed in.

First listen, it sounds narrower in sound stage than the NAD 3045.

Nice tidy little box though, even if it's fairly utilitarian.

Hopefully it'll loosen up a bit after running in properly. It's not bad sounding at all, definitely not letting down these speakers and sub.

The VU meters are a bit of a useless gimmick mind, as they don't actually move at my listening levels driving these speakers. Should be an option to show input level.

The whining on the display when you turn the brightness below 100% is annoying, but it's not distractingly bright as is.
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Give your ears a bit of adjustment time like a day or so.

The 5532P OpAmps are good but the soudstage with different pairs did become wider as I documented in my past post when I was in the rolling rabbit hole. You now have an up[grade path when you want to try different OpAmps which is good.

Yes one of my quirks was with the display in low brightness via the remote causing display whine, you can however use the menu to fine tune brightness and not have the same whine at lower levels I found. The remote has preset brightness modes whilst the menu has lot more range for it.

Aiyima did acknowledge that they should use VU meters that show input level not by output volume, probably for a future product though.
 
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Things change I've changed said:
That's a shame but a lot of the 3045s out there now are very old, I wouldn't be buying one S/H, It's unfortunate as the NAD will imo sound better than the A80, my recommendation is the Mission 778x if you have room and change again in the future.
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Very old? It launched seven years ago. I've got loads of kit that's much older than that. Most of my Naim kit is coming up 20 years old and no such problems. The NAD D series is just junk with some fundamental engineering mistakes.
Things change I've changed said:
Considering you've not had the NAD very long is it not worth trying to get in contact with the seller and see if they will give you a partial refund at least?
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I will drop them a message but tbh buying used on eBay that's kinda the deal. I've had plenty of second hand stuff that's worked perfectly so win some/lose some.
 
Yeah as I said before, I have owned all of the NAD D series and all of them had flaws right after warranty expired.
 
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I wouldn't say it's "junk", I still like the 3045 even with it's flaws, it's a lovely sounding amp and the capability to handle 200w peaks into 2ohms allows it to handle low ohm speakers like a champ, I would just by one new.

mid_gen said:
Very old? It launched seven years ago. I've got loads of kit that's much older than that. Most of my Naim kit is coming up 20 years old and no such problems. The NAD D series is just junk with some fundamental engineering mistakes.

I will drop them a message but tbh buying used on eBay that's kinda the deal. I've had plenty of second hand stuff that's worked perfectly so win some/lose some.
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If you have Naim kit at 20 years old you may not be aware but they will need recapping, Naim recommend every 10 years although you can stretch it a bit longer than that but at 20 years the frequencey response of the amp will definitely be effected.
 
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Even buying new raises an eyebrow since it's not a cheap amp, reason why i didn't just get another one even though it sounded amazing. Who wants to spend that money on something that has a big question mark on whether it will still be alive after its warranty period expires given that every single one of the series has had issues right after expiry? NAD are not empathetic to their design flaw either and will quote you nearly the cost of a new unit to repair it outside of warranty. Modern NAD is not the same NAD of old sadly, but I have fond memories dealing with NAD support of old who sorted a transformer issue with an old C Bee series by collecting it, investigating, and returning all with direct comms with the actual engineer working on the amp.
 
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mid_gen said:
I will drop them a message but tbh buying used on eBay that's kinda the deal. I've had plenty of second hand stuff that's worked perfectly so win some/lose some.
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I only just caught up with your experiences; sorry about the bad luck and all that. I think as you said there are some wonderful bargains out there in the world of second-hand audio (or anything) really, but it isn't without it's risks. Wonderful when you get something nice, but law of averages and all that.
 
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