Home Source Components

A new music player: AyreWave from sbooth.org Mentioned here: Stereophile: Wavelength Leads the Way Initial impressions this morning is that it puts out better music than Amarra Mini (2.0.1). More texture to instruments (low-level detail) with my LCD-2 or borrowed O2 rigs. If I don't pay attention, but just listen to a good acoustic track in a relaxed manner in both, then I get the feeling that Amarra is a little bit more hard-edged digital in presentation and with AyreWave the music sounds a bit more "real". The simple UI is good: Select a bunch of tracks in iTunes or the Finder and click on the relevant button in AyreWave to add them to the persistent playli…

Via Various leaks on the web. http://www.wickeddigital.com.au/index.php/2011-09-04-22-32-08/news/87-new-cambridge-audio-dacmagic-plus http://mundoaudiofilo.forumotion.net/t2096-cambridge-audio-dac-magic-plus Or use google translate on http://www.sempre-audio.at/Cambridge_Audio_praesentiert_DACMagic.id.1869.htm Pricing TBD ... But "Plus" built in Headphone / pre amp for active speakers might make this interesting for the desktop.

I'm going to be upgrading my SACD playback soon. I've taken an interest in this player. Looks like it offers native DSD, which is what I want. More interested in that than getting 20 playback combinations from the Esoteric. I realize this has digital input and no USB, but I dont currently give a damn about computer based playback, I like just grabbing a disc these days. I doubt anyone has actually heard the thing, but I'm just asking if anyone sees anything that should make this instantly disqualified when only considering sound quality and build/design quality. I dont know we can tell if the balanced output is done 'correctly' from the pics or not. I…

I just recieved my MAS Link II today, and so far my impressions are good.

Denon's DVD-A1UD: world's first universal (SACD / DVD-A) Blu-ray player - Engadget SACD, DVD-A and Blu-ray player... for the small sum of $6k

Apropos of nothing in particular, I was looking at speaker cables on Blue Jeans Cables. They have a four-conductor cable that's more or less a big-ass star quad mic cable. People apparently use it for bi-wiring in a single cable. It's so cheap they practically pay you to take it away. I need a short run of cable to go from the speaker outputs of a little tube amp to a powered subwoofer in my den. It's one of those deals where there's a speaker-level input and a crossover so you can high-pass the output of your amp to the main speakers if you want. I don't have speakers connected there. I just use it to drive the sub. I don't know the z-in, so I don't know how much cur…

Well my Northstar M192 MKII arrived today, took a little while to start using it though as I was having problems with my Squeezebox. So for now I'm using it with the EMU 0404 USB via foobar and ASIO output. I'm using the rca outputs till my new balanced cables from Nate arrive . I'll post pics later but here's some early impressions: detail retrival is good resolution and extension are very good tonality seems pretty accurate soundstage (especially depth) are excellent That's about it for now I'll add more as time goes on. Hi-rez pics here 1280x1024 pics are attached below

http://www.stereophile.com/cdplayers/193/# Interesting read of Stereophile's first review of the new technology called 'Compact Disc'. Esp interesting to read about the incredible potential which was not quite fulfilled, but will be, the costs involved, and Doug Sax's and The Absolute Sound's concerns for poor sound quality. And of course, RIP, JGH ...

I've got an HP G56 laptop (no digital out), and I'd like an easy (read cheap) solution to route all of my iTunes music into my DAC. My Adcom GDA 700 DAC has toslink, S/PDIF, and AES/EBU, but no USB. Is there an outboard soundcard of some type that would work well for me? Or another solution that is cost effective, as I do plan on getting the Cambridge iPod dock at some point in the near future, and won't need the laptop at that point. I'm not up to date on CPU based music systems.

Got some pics of my black D02 which is on it's way to me, hopefully it will arrive in time for our Maritime Provinces meet.

I have been playing with idea of hooking up my netbook to my main system to play some FLAC files and WAV CD Rips that I got floating around. Most of them are HQ LP and CD rips of stuff that I can't find in any other format and that are rare as hens teeth. Burning them to CD is a nuance and I want to just play them using Foobar2000 feeding my DAC or just straight into a preamp. Not sure which way to go or what device to use. Do any of you use something like this? Have any suggestions?

I did promise some internal pics a long time ago but here they finally are. I did manage to fuck up the shots of the other side of the board so only the top part shown. The SR-X Mk3 Pro used to show just how tiny this DAC is. Not that many parts used but the quality is very high indeed.

i like new toys

Just got the PS Audio Newsletter, this replaces the DL3. Looks pretty interesting..... http://www.psaudio.c...players/nuwave/

Well I just sold off all my old stuff and I am without a system and have a handful of cash. My budget is $1000. I am considering these: 1. a new Lavry DA10 - $975 2. a used, modded Benchmark DAC1 - $825 AudiogoN ForSale: Benchmark DAC1 silver 3. A modded bel canto DAC2+ - $750 on head-fi here: FS: bel canto DAC2+ (Legendary Edwood balanced mod) - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio 4. A used, unmodded Benchmark DAC1 - $760 AudiogoN ForSale: Benchmark dac1 blk non-usb 5. Other suggestions? thank you! I was really leaning to the Lavry for a while but now I am not quite sure. Tell me what you think.

Thought I would start a new thread to ask all my newbie questions and host the pictures.

Interesting. Halide Design Bridge Review | Computer Audiophile Thoughts?

Hi Everyone, I am planning to get a new bedroom rig to replace my old sony minitower. I am thinking of erecting it around the ipod nano and then using an ipod transport to feed the signal to a dac via spdiff. As far as I can check there are two choices currently: wadia 170i or onkyo nd-s1 ipod transport I was wodnering if anyone has tried either and can tell me about their experiences because I have no idea which to get. The onkyo is cheaper but the wadia is more widely available. Thanks in advance for any information Greetings, Anouk,

Here it tis. The Apollo mod, as little modding as it is.

Hi everyone I want to create a new bedroom rig to replace my old sony minitower. I will be using the next gen ipod nano that will arrive in september as the heart of the rig and then probbably the onkyo ipod transport, i can connect a dac to that via spdiff or coax but I am not sure which one yet. I want one with xlr output and either spdiff or coax input. I want to spend 400 euro max. I was thinking about the dacmagic but the little dot dac_i uses the seem dac chip and has xlr out although the rest of the chips or implementation might be different. It is a lot cheaper though. I was also thinking about the buffalo II with placid power supply and the line stage legatt…

"Luxman has released the DA-200 USB DAC by combining the P-1u headphone amp and the D-05". link

Anyone keeping an eye on this one? Might be of some interest... Teddy Pardo TeddyDac DAC review - nightmusic - Digital Drive Teddy Pardo home of TeddyCap TeddyXPS power supply for Naim Audio replaces HiCap and XPS

So I've been giving a lot of thought to my home rig recently and given my problems with CD/DVD players I'm thinking that the Squeezebox might be the answer to my prayers. My rig is never going to be anything other than upper Mid-Fi (at best) so I'm not shooting for the ultimate sound but would like it to be as good as possible while fitting into the constraints of my situation. So my questions are as follows: 1. Tell me about your setup with it: advantages/disadvantages? likes/dislikes? 2. Is the internal DAC half-decent or should I keep my Monica2 to use with it. 3. Are there other alternatives worth looking at? I love the idea of the Olive Music stuff but they…

This is the stock layout, not columns ur or any third party! So clean and white and minimalisticly Scandinavian! Its got a freaking spectrum analyzer! No more firing up audition to check out the graphs... The graph on the pic- first half is 192 cbr mp3, then i switched to a flac, you can clearly see the ownage.

Has anyone heard this DAC? Here is a pic: Here is a link to the website: http://www.tubeaudiodesign.com/ It sells for $1000 with a remote. He offeres a 21 day trial with a $45 restocking fee. It doesn't have a usb input but he says on the site the following: "USB PC sourced digital audio sounds amazing! Need a small external 24-bit, 96k Sound Blaster USB powered data converter box ~$50 at Office Depot. The TADAC has the best sounding audiophile hardware - the PC data conversion circuitry is not built-in. Best keeping the two separate to unleash the best possible sound. Yahoo! Music from the PC is high resolution - PC audio sounds like CD's using the TADAC." …