high fidelity source unit decision

This is officially my first post guys by the way my name is Andrew. Some of the more knowledgeable users drew me to this site, so keep posting it up! Although I have a huge Mind battle going on with a tuff decision. I am an up and coming audiophile, what can I say I love my music. I also dig deep into the things that fascinate me in life and this is one of them. Although my debate is this, I have learned much since I only purchased all my audio equipment a little more then a year ago. I fell it is time for an upgrade! I do not have the industry background or the veteran years that a lot of you have to fully attack this issue from all angles and weigh in the pros and cons. Well to the point I want to upgrade my source unit. I can not choose between the Clarion DRZ9255, Alpine DVA-9965, or to just wait it out and save my money and get the infamous Alpine F#1 Status. The Clarion looks very appealing on paper, as does the Alpine, but my heart is and has always been with Alpine! However, if one or the other was going to make my system better I would not hesitate to get either. I would appreciate any input on any thing! Also would getting an external DAC do me much good or would I be fine with the internal DAC’s built into the source units. I know that each unit is going to sound different from the other as the same goes for amps... :confused:

Let me give you an idea on what i already have.

Alpine CDA-9855

Source unit:Alpine F1 Status

Amps:Audison VRX Series, they will also come with LBT's and RCA's I believe

Speakers:Dynaudio

On the contrary my friend the Focal TN-47 Titanium inverted dome tweeter which you refer to is used only in the Polyglass and Access 1 classes of the Focal line. My K2 series uses the famous Tioxyd 5 inverted dome TN 52 tweeter, used in many of their award winning Home HiFi setups. Although the issue that lines with in all tweeters and speakers in that they must be broken in and tuned to ones liking! Most owners find that the speakers become noticeably smoother after 3 or 4 days of moderate volume playing time. Most of the benefits of break-in are to be with in the first 3 weeks. I am sure the Focal’s you herd were at your local Audio shop and let us face it do they really know what they are doing in the first place; I doubt they even took the time to break-in or tune the speakers to be more “American” like? The Focal’s are also infamous for being very sharp out of the box as any focal owner would tell you. Although the Focal’s are superior in design compared with anything else on the market today. Some companies other companies that can weigh in with Focal K2 Class / Utopia Class are the more exotic brands in the industry for example Morel, Hertz, Brax, and MB Quart all which have developed their own ways of eliminating the high-Q resonant cavity that "metallic" coloration caused by the HF peak intermodulating with the inband sound. Although the Focal’s are not designed in this light their tweeters use a unique inverted dome design with a centered tweeter phase plug designed to smooth the frequency response of the tweeter. Cloth is then used to connect the tweeter diaphragm to the housing. The inverted dome are designed to provide better mechanical coupling between the dome and voice coil which results in finer resolution of details and increased dynamics. I have spent many hours and visits to all Audio shops in Texas and everyone seems to have their own opinions on a good speaker. I will although agree with you the French are known to like their music a little shaper then we Americans would prefer this is why I have my crossovers tweeter level control set to -4dB. Nevertheless, really in the end it is what you as the individual can hear and experience that matters.

I took your advice –haemphyst and looked into the eclipse the specifications on the CD7100 are with-in my expectations of a HiFi deck it does have a 24 bit D/A but what turned me off was it didn’t have a 96kHz D/A converter but non the else either does the Alpine units only the F#1 Status. I have a few CD I would to spin in this baby this weekend once I find a store who has on of these on display =] thanks for the tip.

I think the harshness/brightness of Focal speakers comes more from the crossover voicing than the cone material employed.  I dislike the Focal sound too.  On top of the harsh upper frequencies, I felt their low extention to be greatly lacking through their entire line.  Also no matter how much tweaking I couldn't get decent imaging from them, with the exception of one of their 3-way sets.

If you really want a crazy deck, the shop I work at has an old school Denon head unit for sale.  It's the one with a brushed aluminum face and balanced outputs that originally sold for $3k.

< >WOW the Denon's I have read some info on them they seem to be legendary head units but I cant seem to find them, anyone know where I can look for one I would like a new one I hate used items but ill take what i can get... I would also like to get a hold of an old Alpine CDA-7990 those have won awards at IASCA also well as the 9255.

yeah dude Steven that would be awesome i did some googling and found one for $700 it looked mint and still came with all the original packaging’s so idk what these baby’s are worth now days but they still seem to blow away a lot of source units out on the market today!