We have 2 lounges at home and decided one would be a music room and the other a TV room, however we seem to prefer the TV room as we spend most of our time there with the TV off so I decided to build a 2nd system buying cheapish items from ebay. I actually prefer the new system to my main system. I am feeding this system with a cheap campridge audio dvd player using a very long optical cable under the floorboards into a dacmagic as its important to keep this room not looking like another hi-fi room from a domestic bliss POV I managed to snipe a pair of Linn kabers, I've never been a fan of the Linn sound but they were such a steal at £200 and they looked nice (aesthetics are important in this room). I wasn't overly impressed with them initially, they had a lovely open and detailed sound but seriously lacked low frequencies. I googled a bit and found my findings were similar to others findings. I was driving them with an old Rotel amp I had lying around, I guessed it just didn't have enough oomph, however for a 2nd system and what I had paid it sounded pretty good and I was happy. I decided to try it with my Cyrus VSII purely out of interest and as expected there was a marked improvement, nicer high and mid and much more bass weight but still quite light, having a remote control was a boon considering the amp is hidden under the couch and I had to get on the floor and reach under to change volume. So I decided to try and pick up a cheap remote controlled amp so the cyrus could go back to my main system. Realising the kabers were a difficult load I looked for something with a powerful output and managed to bag a campridge audio 100wpc rated 740A for £250. Since putting the 740A in place I'm amazed at the transformation, the top and mid are still sparkling but even sweeter with no harshness even at crazy volume, but the LF weight is beyond anything I've had before and the 740A drives the kabers with a level of control the cyrus just couldn't manage, the sound is so precise without being clinical it makes my Cyrus 8VS, CD6 Si and Monitor Audio studio 20SE sound muddy and slooooow. Admittedly the room is better acoustically damped because its smaller, and has more furnitur. The other room will always be compromised because it has large double patio doors that fill virtually an entire wall. I'm just surprised how much sound you can get for your hard earned these days, true I already had the dac and transport but you could pick something up equally as good if not better for £150ish but for £450 the Linn/cambridge combo is the bargain of the century.
