Home Source Components

I recently sold my DAC-AH to a fellow HC'er. It arrived in good shape, but he had the following issues with it: I received it back today, again in good shape. I briefly powered it up without making any audio connections and there was no tingling or any other feeling of electricity. I touched the case in multiple places, including the RCA sockets. When I was using the DAC, I never had any electrical problems. One difference is in how we used it. The buyer used an optical connection between his source and the DAC whereas I always used a COAX connection. I'd like to debug this without electrocuting myself. I have only very basic electric circuit knowledge and defi…

Came across this DAC, it was mentioned and is for sale on audiogon. Looks mighty interesting.... http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?dgtlconv&1156112132 His modded denon players are really good. I wonder how this dac would sound.

Using a Headroom Desktop amp with Max module and Home DAC powered by DPS. Sounds great with the HD650. I recall reading somewhere that the HD600/650 was used to voice the Headroom amps and their CS4398-based DACs, thus providing good synergy when used all together. I'm curious what the cheapest CD/DVD players or standalone DACs would be that could be considered upgrades to the Home DAC. I'm not interested in the Max DAC (Home DAC w/ AD1896 upsampler). Other than the UDAC, would the frequently mentioned PS Audio DLIII, Apogee Mini-DAC, or even Pico DAC be considered upgrades? Can't put exactly into words what I'm looking for, but something along the lines of "more…

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.

It may possibly come to pass that I could soon be the owner of an EA Denon 9200. It will come with one EL34 tube, so I'll need to get a matched pair of tubes and fit them before I will hear it. A matched pair of Electro Harmonix EL34 will set me back

You can see what my current, primary home rig for headphone useage currently is. My sound quality is fantastic except for two things: 1.) I need to find a way to inject some more warmth without taking away from everything else. 2.) There's a touch of harshess that shows up at times that could stand to be refined out of there. This is not an earth shattering, extreme problem. That being said, I'm considering all kind of things from an external DAC that would turn my Onkyo 1000 into a glorified transport, a different set of cans although I'd hate to lose the 701's strengths, possibly a new source outright, or maybe some kind of "accessory" like this: http…

My heavily modded Philips 963SA was acting up so I just pulled the trigger on the Music Hall CD25.2 player that PartsConnexion had in their autumn sale for $499.00 w/free shipping It has their level 1 mods: RCA jacks upgraded to Vampire Feet upgraded to sorbothane Chassis deadening Cap and resistors in output stage upgraded to audiophile level Output op-amps upgraded to OPA-627 Diodes and caps in PSU upgraded as well. Will post pics when it arrives

Folks, been out frm this stuff for more than 1 year UNTIL Justin reminded me to pay up the balance for the BHSE. TBH, been considering for a refund since already quite content with what I have now and moving onto other hobby. But as soon as Justin posted the finished amp as per my order @the other site, my heart melted. Got drawn again into this mess. Currently I'm running KGSS+007mk2 with Stello DA100 on USB and been a happy camper for the last 2 years. With the arrival of BHSE (and the departure of KGSS), you guys think I have a reasonably good source? For the past 1 year the improvement of DAC seems very tremendous to me, theres W4S, NADM51, Eximus, Audio God Ref 1 …

So basically my parents' Dual 721 turntable is mine along the classic Shure V15 type III cartridge. I don't even have a proper phonostage so I just plugged it into the phono inputs of my pawn shop special Technics receiver and put my Senn 580 right into its headphone out. It's a ghetto setup if there ever was one. Shockingly, my Senns don't suck anymore, they actually sound pretty good. Yeah there's still a bit of 3-blob effect in the soundstage and the imaging is still fuzzy compared to my K340, but the veil & sulky midrange is pretty much gone. The damn thing can actually do tone and rock out, a Senn with groove, who the fuck would've thought? Playing the live ve…

This isn't a definitive tip, but I think I might have gotten the HDCD player I was looking for – free of charge. Most of us know that HDCD technology was developed by Pacific Microsonics and later acquired by Microsoft. What I didn't know was that my laptop (ASUS N56VZ-DS71) was capable of playing HDCD... my old desktop system used a Sound Blaster Audigy, which was a decent sound card for its time. This new laptop uses a Realtek High Definition Audio codec, which most of us would laugh at, since it's been the default audio solution in millions of systems for about the last decade... however, I believe it has full support for 24-bit audio. To enable HDCD pla…

I've been trying to think of a nice digital home transport that would be able to feed the digital part of my rig. My iRiver has served me well, but its optical out is probably less than ideal. It's also running out of space... I used to have most of my music LAME-APS encoded, but I've recently moved to wavpack (a lossless format similar to FLAC, both of which is supported natively on the rockbox'ed iRiver). Also, I don't want to be forced to have a computer running nearby in order to enjoy my music. Solution? Squeezebox. It can stream the music from my linux server in the closet (where I can't hear it) to my home rig. There are also various ways to remote control it (u…

Don't see much coverage around since it was released a few days ago, but the price is right for a lot of uses. Anyone heard anything pro/con? http://www.emotivapro.com/products/stealth-dc-1-a

Does anyone know of a source for tape drive belts? I'm curious as to what's out there.

Hi folks, some of my local head caser point me to this site [url=http://cplay.sourceforge.net/pmwiki.php]cMP

I`d appreciate some help I am looking for a usb powered 'dac/amp' to feed a pair of srh1540 headphones, low volume listening, no background hiss and sounds good with linux (youtube, podcasts, radio, cd`s ripped to flac/wav). I currently use the motherboards onboard audio which is a 'TI ne5532' amp chip. This does well with very low background noise but audio could be bettered. have just been using a soekris dac1101 but find it to have audible background hiss when outputing audio (this cuts off shortly after no audio is being pushed). budget of $800 or less top of my list to try currently is an 'IFI Micro iDSD Black Label', thoughts on th…

Computer audio novice trying to figure out whether an interim set up would work: If I get a MacMini could I use the USB connection on an Oppo BDP-83SE as an external DAC? OPPO BDP-83 Special Edition Blu-ray Disc Player If not, is there another way to use the player as a DAC for computer based audio until I move to an external DAC?

Can someone recommend something cheap I can use as an external USB Amp/DAC for testing purposes? Looking for something under 50 bucks.

I didn't see this posted anywhere already, but when I saw "balanced I/O" I immediately checked the price...bit steep though at around 600 Euro yet doesn't have Firewire. The VGA plug break-out cable will make DIY dead easy though, and it's not recessed like the Duet's. From: RME Delivers Babyface Audio Interface

Folks, I now have 2 rigs (amp+usb dac) and I have been trying connecting these 2 rigs into my netbook as transport. My problem is that the netbook only recognize 1 usb port so I can't play the songs to two different rigs by hooking it to 2 different usb port. Can someone enlighten me on how to make both of the rigs playable from one netbook ? Thanks in advance.......

I know about the famous Philips transport and other stuff that this player offer, but is this the end? I mean, if we are talking about sound only, what would you do? What other choices up there, which are on the same level. Meaning that CD94mkII in very good condition only. THX8)

I have a DAC1 USB to a Luxman P1u to a pair of HD820. Should I do better than the DAC1? I have limited space. Probably pointless to upgrade. Wish I had a DAC still that would not fit there:

From every possible review or posts I could find, regarding these two, I think more getting Prima CDP. Seems that M192 having a bit to smooth/laid back kind of sound, which isn't that ideal for music like TRANCE&ROCK, while Prima, even with smooth touch, keeps the dynamics&energy very well. The most 3 genres I listen to it are: JAZZ, ROCK & TRANCE/CLUB, sometimes AMBIENT/LOUNGE About the rest, sonically I mean, they seems to be very close to each other, but once again, from info I could find. About the costs, M192 cost more than Prima, but that's understandable. THX

Finally got it

Anyone looking for an SB3 should jump on this fast, assuming of course that it's the wireless version.

I've been looking for an external DAC and found this Blue Circle Audio. Haven't been able to find out much about it. One Soundstage review which didn't say much. Sketchy on detail. I haven't been able to determine the chip used. Not much info on forums regarding this DAC. Talked to a dealer yesterday and apparently it's not selling well. Introduced in March, 2007 so it's been out awhile. Has anyone heard this? Or maybe the BC501? Any thoughts other than it is butt ugly? BC owners seem to be a rabid bunch and repeat buyers, which is saying something. The dealer network seems pretty much composed of TV repair guys. Now there's an industry that's just about gone. Not…