Aha, now we’re talking…

I’m surprised the Cambridge Audio died on you, they (used to) have a really good reputation. My last amp before my current one was a Denon, it lasted a good 10 years. Before that, I had both an Arcam and a NAD, and both were awesome, but I sold each of them after about 4 years each. Nothing ever went wrong with them. I suspect that this might be a case of our beloved modern times and the enshittification of everything (aka planned obsolescence). Even high end audio isn’t immune…

Are you still into tube amps? I dearly miss my old headphone tube amp built by some Japanese guy in Brooklyn. Wish I’d never sold that…

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Anyway, on to my setup:

So, my current setup is a hifi/home cinema combo…

Amp:

The centrepiece of the whole thing is the magnificent Marantz Cinema 30: https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/marantz-cinema-30-av-receiver

This bad boy set me back 4 grand but it was worth every penny. It’s perfectly detailed and refined, and handles every single dolby config you can find. It’s an AV receiver so it handles both my music and cinema needs. It currently powers 11 speakers in my living room (I have a 5.2.4 setup, more on that below) and no matter how high I turn it, I never get any distortion. Plus Marantz still build everything in Japan, not China. A mighty beast.

Speakers:

Long story here… so I had an existing 5.1 surround system, the mission m3 cube: [https://www.whathifi.com/mission/m3/review]

It sounded great, and the little cube speakers are cute as a button. But I had to upgrade eventually, so I splashed out on the Q Acoustics 3050c 5.1 with Q SUB100 [https://www.whathifi.com/tv-home-cinema/surround-sound-systems/q-acoustics-3050c-5-1-with-q-sub100], except with the 5040s as the main front 2 [https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/q-acoustics-5040]. But I decided I also wanted to keep my old mission 5.1 setup and have a 5.2.4 configuration, so that’s your standard 5.1 system, with an extra subwoofer, and 4 little satellite speakers on the ceiling. Total immersion! The Q Acoustics speakers are amazing.

Sources:

Digital: Apple Music Lossless. It’s CD quality and has pretty much anything I could ever want to listen to. Streamed via Apple TV.

I also have a large collection of super HQ flac files on my media server for whatever isn’t on apple music.

Analogue:

I still have a sizable vinyl collection, so splashed out on the Linn Majik LP12: https://www.linn.co.uk/us/turntables/majik-lp12

Phono Stage:

The Linn Majik deserves a top quality phono stage, especially since it uses MC not MM. So I splashed out on the Musical Fidelity MX6:

https://theaudiophileman.com/m6x-phono-amplifier-form-musical-fidelity/

It’s as clear and crisp as a winter morning in Calgary.

Slightly regret not getting the Quad 24P (https://quad-hifi.co.uk/products/qc-twenty-four-p), tubes sound so beautiful, especially with vinyl.

TV:

Sony Bravia XR77A95LU [https://www.richersounds.com/sony-bravia-xr77a95lpu/]

Sony’s flagship home cinema model. How did I ever live without this? Perfect colors, perfect blacks.

Apple TV 4K

Combined with my media server running Plex with about 20 TB of movies and TV shows…

Headpones:

LOL. I have about 10 pairs. But with my setup I’ll be using my beyerdynamic DT 1990. I also have various other pairs of beyerdynamic, sennheiser, grado, akg lying around… and of course when I’m on the move, my trusty Apple Airpods Max.