Finding your groove: getting into vinyl with Audio-Technica
I’d like to think that I could’ve been friends with the late Hideo Matsushita, founder of Japanese Hi-Fi powerhouse Audio-Technica. If I could, I’d travel back in time to 1960’s Tokyo, where a young Matsushita curated “vinyl listening sessions” at the Bridgestone Museum of Arts, exposing visitors to the sounds and possibilities of high end audio and the warmth of vinyl records. I imagine sitting with him in a mod coffee shop, listening to the stories of what he witnessed in those sessions, the conversations he had with visitors, and what ultimately motivated him to head back to his small apartment above a ramen restaurant and start an audio company of his own. In the histories I’ve read regarding AT’s humble beginnings, Matsushita’s motives seem clear. Produce high end audio at affordable prices, bringing audio excellence into spaces and to customers that simply didn’t have access to it before. His first two products, the AT-1 and AT-3 phono cartridges did exactly that, and...
Dec 6, 2023
- The absolute must is that the sound quality would be significantly better than the one on Fiio K5 Pro. I'm not looking to get 100% performance and my budget is limited, so if some DAC/AMP combo can do like 10% less than the one that costs 100$ more, the cheaper one is fine for me.
- Harshness is an issue for me and I feel like Fiio K5 Pro is making the audio more harsh, maybe I'm overthinking it.
- Ideally I'd like it to be a USB UAC 1 type of dac/amp so that I could avoid the mini-usb dac I'm using to connect to a game console, deliver audio to the dac/amp and then to headphones. This isn't a requirement but would benefit me.
- If UAC 1 isn't an option, I need it to have optical or coaxial (preferably coaxial), so I could use that mini usb dac.
- Budget under 500$, the cheaper the better unless a more expensive option is miles ahead. Let's say option A is 200$ and B is 450$, if the option A is 10-20% less quality, I'll be fine. But if there's a major boost, I'll consider... likely won't buy but I'll consider and see if I can save up for it.
- Needs to be a DAC/AMP combo and not separate units.
Any suggestions?