Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Suggestions for a new amp?
Brian Ritchie;663379 Wrote: Yes, it's a possibility... but... Part of me would love to have surround-sound... It would be mainly for movie-watching, though the number of 5.1 remixes seems to be rising. Also, one of my passions is ambient music (I have an insane number of Steve Roach albums, and my ambient dynamic playlist probably gets more hits than anything else) and I've always thought they'd sound great in surround-sound (albeit faked). However, our living-room just isn't geared-up for it; there really isn't anywhere suitable to put the rear speakers. I do wonder whether one of those soundbar things would be good enough for us. I think for now at least, lots of inputs is a requirement. Basically, I'm hoping I like the Cyrus 8 XP tomorrow :-) But if my relationship with the guys at Audio-T/Sevenoaks is the same as it was 15 years ago, I'll probably come home with the Arcam surround-amp, lots of speakers, and plans for a radical rearrangement of the living-room :-) . -- BrianThe high end Yamaha sound bars are a very good alternative to rear speakers. They are very happy with a 5.1 mix going in. Avoid using them for stereo though... -- Phil Leigh You want to see the signal path BEFORE it gets onto a CD/vinyl...it ain't what you'd call minimal... Touch(wired/W7)+Teddy Pardo PSU - Audiolense 3.3/2.0+INGUZ DRC - MF M1 DAC - Linn 5103 - full Aktiv 5.1 system (6x LK140's, ESPEK/TRIKAN/KATAN/SEIZMIK 10.5), Pekin Tuner, Townsend Supertweeters,VdH Toslink,Kimber 8TC Speaker Chord Signature Plus Interconnect cables Stax4070+SRM7/II phones Kitchen Boom, Outdoors: SB Radio, Harmony One remote for everything. Phil Leigh's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=85 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=90915 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Considering a dac
ralphpnj;663301 Wrote: I can understand a bit of swaying on your cycling journey home especially after a stop at the local pub for a pint or two. But swaying on the way to work? Then again you appear to work evenings so perhaps you're getting a head start on those pints :) LOL. That was actually a typo, although I'm not averse to the occasional pint! -- gruntwolla Debian sheeva plug running sbs 7.5.4 SB3 + my hifi Duet + AE5's 2 Booms 1 Radio Squeezecommander on htc desire ipeng on wifes iphone gruntwolla's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=35645 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=90939 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Considering a dac
cliveb;663292 Wrote: My personal advice is that it is all too easy to think that a change of DAC will make a difference and as a result you do hear a difference where none actually exists. (Expectation tends to be self-fulfilling). Pretty much all competent DACs sound very similar. My moment of enlightenment happened several years ago when I bought/borrowed a Lucid DA9624 on sale-or-return. (Thanks to Digital Village in Barnet - nice people to deal with). The Lucid was an entry-level 24bit 96kHz professional DAC - about £800 at the time - and I compared it to the 16bit 44.1kHz DAC in my CD player - radically different DAC technology. I thought the Lucid sounded marginally better, but was surprised the difference wasn't greater. When I did a level-matched blind test, I scored precisely 50%, ie. there was *no* audible difference between the two. DACs are probably the electronic component with the least influence on the sound. Preamps are *way* more variable. IMHO a £200 DAC isn't going to make much if any difference compared to the SB3's onboard DAC. I'd spend the money on some more music instead, or start a speaker upgrade fund. PS. seems we have a Hertfordshire thread going on. What's that chap from Leeds doing butting in? :-) If the general consensus is that the CA dacmagic or similar wouldn't make much difference, then I guess I'd better start saving. Difficult to prioritise hifi over holidays/kids/wife etc etc though. Regards, Trev -- gruntwolla Debian sheeva plug running sbs 7.5.4 SB3 + my hifi Duet + AE5's 2 Booms 1 Radio Squeezecommander on htc desire ipeng on wifes iphone gruntwolla's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=35645 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=90939 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Transporter, right channel not working ok.
S2K;663353 Wrote: In my current setup the Transporter is pretty much useless now and it seems a have to put a pre amp between the Transporter and power amp. how does this solve your problem, unless you mean that your are sending digital out into a DAC in your preamp -- garym System 1: Vortexbox Appliance 6TB (1.10) SbS 7.6.2 Transporter, Touch, Boom, Radio w/Battery (all ethernet except Radio) System 2: Win7(64) laptop SbS 7.6.2 TouchBenchmark DAC I, Boom, Radio w/Battery (all ethernet except Radio and laptop) Retired: SB3, Duet Receiver Controlled at both locations with: iPhone (iPeng), iPad (iPengHD SqueezePad), CONTROLLER, or SqueezePlay 7.6 on Win7(64) laptop Ripping (FLAC) - dbpoweramp, Additional Tagging - mp3tag garym's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=17325 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=90832 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] soundcheck's Touch Toolbox 2.0
pippin;656569 Wrote: The real fun starts when you do double-blind tests (yes, I know, never do double-blind tests with audiophiles. Scientific methodology is evil by definition) with low-bitrate mp3s. Yes, people will be able to tell the difference. The fun is what they find to sound better. So much for trust your ears Have you got a reference, as in where I can find the article? Thanks! -- Gadgety1 Gadgety1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=33223 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=84742 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Considering a dac
The problem is, you always get such a more significant improvement with changes to speakers. The old 'source first' mantra may have made sense in the 70s (maybe), but now any digital source is going to sound pretty good, whereas speakers of the same price usually have notable weaknesses. I have run my SB3 via the DIY charlize amp into my Lowthers, and it sounds really great - £300 of source and amp is all. Sure my proper DAC and amps are better, but if I desperately needed a grand or two I could sell those and not be that worried. If you asked me to downgrade the speakers much, you'd make me miserable! Put that in reverse, and you have my 'sort the speakers first' plan. Although I do appreciate that once you have the wife happy with speakers, getting her to accept change can be a challenge. You are welcome to bring her here to see mine, which are incredibly large and ugly; after she's seen them, you can introduce new speakers with impunity! -- adamslim MPD on Linux PC, Young DAC, DIY Kondo M7 pre, 6B4G SET, Lowther monsters SB3, Charlize 2, DIY open baffle speakers Boom x 2, Radio adamslim's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7355 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=90939 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] soundcheck's Touch Toolbox 2.0
soundcheck;663288 Wrote: Hi folks. FYI. I'll release TT3.0 next week on the 22nd. On the 20th I'll release a Beta, just to get some feedback from the early adopters . Sorry for the delay. You can expect lots of changes an improvements. I guess many of you will like it. ;) USB DAC support is still not supported (I had it implemented though). Some of you might have followed the USB DAC thread over here. We won't get it working without running into XRUNS (buffer over-/underruns) - you call it ususally clicks, scratches asf. on most of the DACs out there. Cheers Second thatlooking forward to it. Thanks for the update Klaus. -- Sligolad Sligolad's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=43150 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=84742 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Considering a dac
cliveb;663292 Wrote: My personal advice is that it is all too easy to think that a change of DAC will make a difference and as a result you do hear a difference where none actually exists. (Expectation tends to be self-fulfilling). Pretty much all competent DACs sound very similar. My moment of enlightenment happened several years ago when I bought/borrowed a Lucid DA9624 on sale-or-return. (Thanks to Digital Village in Barnet - nice people to deal with). The Lucid was an entry-level 24bit 96kHz professional DAC - about £800 at the time - and I compared it to the 16bit 44.1kHz DAC in my CD player - radically different DAC technology. I thought the Lucid sounded marginally better, but was surprised the difference wasn't greater. When I did a level-matched blind test, I scored precisely 50%, ie. there was *no* audible difference between the two. DACs are probably the electronic component with the least influence on the sound. Preamps are *way* more variable. IMHO a £200 DAC isn't going to make much if any difference compared to the SB3's onboard DAC. I'd spend the money on some more music instead, or start a speaker upgrade fund. PS. seems we have a Hertfordshire thread going on. What's that chap from Leeds doing butting in? :-) my partners brother lives in Hemel Hempstead, can I be let in? :-) -- socistep socistep's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=18860 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=90939 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Suggestions for a new amp?
Well, we had a listen to several amps at Sevenoaks (nee Audio-T). First was the Arcam FMJ A38. It got off to a bad start: we thought that Elbow's The Birds was a bit too muddy, and our existing system sounded better. Other discs fared better, especially Shostakovich's 10th symphony, where we were wowed by the detail, especially in the quieter passages. After a while, we switched to the Cyrus 8 XP - and were immediately more impressed. This was more our kind of sound! After that, we tried the Naim NAIT XS; this was a closer-run thing, but we still preferred the Cyrus. So we've ordered an 8 XPd QX (on offer for the same price as the 8 XP; not sure we'll need the DAC, but maybe in future...) We'll see how it goes... They had a Yamaha soundbar in the demo room, but we didn't have time to try it out (nor indeed inclination, after nearly 2 hours of intent listening.) Thanks again for the advice and suggestions. -- Brian -- Brian Ritchie Brian Ritchie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2319 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=90915 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] soundcheck's Touch Toolbox 2.0
Mnyb;663310 Wrote: be carefull with Wellborne labs , they are a known fraud ( google ), they does not always deliver a product sometimes they just take your money, it's a lottery . for details just ask me. Technically it migth not be anything wrong with the PS enjoy your product . With that kind of bussines ethics , would I plug some of thier product in to the 230V and leave my home ;) sorry for ranting about this every 2 months when Wellborne pops up in a tread, I just can't stop myself, it's very OT . This is the second time I buy a Welborne PSU. The first time (for the Duet) I bought it directly from them. They took their time in sending it which was very frustrating, but I did get my product. This second time I bought it second-hand so I didn't have to deal with them. The PSU are very good, but I can understand how selling ethics could prove cumbersome. Maybe I was just lucky. best regards André -- reverendo reverendo's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=32850 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=84742 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
