The title is taken from an Ian Anderson lyric ("Slipstream"). It captures the feelings I experience when I partake in my two passions: surfing (25 years) and listening to my stereo. There's a healthy escapism in both pursuits. I've been a life-long music lover; got my first record player in middle school (1970s), and still have some records in my collection from then. While I've always had decent systems, I really got into high end during the last 10 years. First REAL system was Rotel + Vandersteen. My oh my has this upgrade transformed my system! The Luxman makes the Vandersteens dance (and sing)! And amazingly, the Oppo creates satisfying digital sound with the Luxman/Vandersteen combo. Will upgrade to the BDP-83 (possibly SE) in the next year, and plan to add the Logitech Squeezebox Touch as well. Maybe an external DAC? Analogue is just wonderful now--the Luxman's phono stage is miles above the Rotel's. I got the "ruby cantilever/optimized contour nude contact line diamond" rebuild done on my Clearaudio Virtuoso cart. Couldn't be happier. And let's not forget the headphone section. As you can see, my cans aren't the highest end (no slouches either), yet the Luxman headphone stage has been making for some tremendously satifying late night listening sessions! I listen to jazz, folk, rock, classical, and anythng in between. Probably spend 8-12 hours a week listening closely (more like 40 if you count background listening). I welcome comments and suggestions!
Thanks for checking out my system and the compliment. The information I've found on the Duet has come from two different places. The Logitech website specifications states that the Duet has a Wolfson 24-bit wordlength DAC but does not mention the model number or the sample rate. CNET says the sample rate is 44.1 and 48khz and that the firmware for the controller and receiver is upgradeable. I've owned the Duet for about a year and know they have had a couple of upgrades that just appeared (at no charge). I expect that they will upgrade the Duet to upsample to 96khz at some point as well. The convenience of having a hand held, rechargeable, and wireless multi-system usable remote is great. On the other hand I used I-tunes with Apple Lossless files when I ripped my CD collection to my PC and none of the artwork from the CD's carried over to the Duet even though most of the artwork appeared on the I-tunes program. All of the albums I've downloaded from the I-tunes store shows the artwork on the Duet remote. The missing art work is not a serious detractor for me, and getting to listen to all the free internet radio stations has introduced me to dozens (actually 100's) of artists I didn't know about and could never afford to buy music from all of them anyway. Hope this mini review is helpful. Listen every day.
Great system. I use the Logitec Duet and have been very happy with the sound using just the Wolfson DAC inside the Duet through my McIntosh preamp linestage. Suggest that the sound through your Luxman would be great as well. So try it before you invest in an outboard DAC, you can always buy one later. Happy Listening.
