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With my 4-channel Beta22 being assembled by thrice and only having had an H120 fed piccolo dac then my current H120 or usb fed mini-dac I have a question. How do usb fed dacs compare to cd sources ? I am particularly curious about the balanced redbook cd sources in the sub $2000 and sub $1000 price brackets either new, secondhand or pre-built diy.

Hi everyone I want to upgrade my current soundcard which is the RME HDSP 9632 for my PC? can you recommend me some brand or cards which are better than mine? thanks

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

Got the Audio Advisor catalog in the mail today and the big push is on the recently-released $1,995 Bryston BDA-1 DAC, which looks quite interesting on paper. Any thoughts from the resident DAC gurus on the basic design? The manual is here.

I've made sure all of my cart is correctly connected but I'm not getting any music through the right channel and there is a loud buzzing hum that sounds like perhaps it's not properly grounded or something. Can anybody help me figure out how to fix this problem?

I'm wondering if anyone has heard a Exemplar 3910? I know some of you have the 2900 Exemplar and feel it is a great redbook player. Here is the link of the sale I am looking at: AudiogoN ForSale: Exemplar Denon DVD-3910 Thanks for your help and input

Contemplating replacing my SqueezeCenter/Squeezebox 3 x3/sometimes iPeng setup with an Airport Express x3/iTunes/Airfoil/Remote-iPhone app deal. Tired of scanning my library for new music and would be a plus to capture other audio streams (with Airfoil). The Squeezebox internet radio steaming is nice though. And the Remote app is just smoother than using iPeng (at least at this point and likely near future at least with laptops ... hunting for IPs...). On a MacBook and will likely stay on OS X as primary operating system so no problems using iTunes. Anyone else do this "downgrade"? Any comments?

I know APL's slow speed and poor communication aren't new, but I stumbled across some more interesting posts here. Someone finally called him out in public, and it gets even better toward the bottom of the page. Just another headsup to anyone, like me, who is considering something APL. I still really hope the mythical APL DAC pans out...

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

I've been exchanging e-mail with Barrows over at PS Audio about the DL-III I have and how it handles high sample rate data streams through the SRC. He mentioned that PS Audio is looking to release a new Ultralink DAC.

This is pretty much the first time I've had a chance to spend any quality time with the Pico DAC prototype that Justin was kind enough to send me since I've been out of town all weekend. My system in transition at the moment so I only have the Duet as my headphone amp and won't have me monoblock back for my speaker rig until Wednesday. At the moment I'm using the mini out of the Pico for my 650's with the Pico connected usb to my Mac Mini. I'm using the volume control of itunes to control the Pico. I realize this isn't the optimum set up but it's the best I can do until later in the week when my speaker rig is back in action. I have to say that Pico sounds great. …

Does anyone have experience with effectively demagnetizing vinyl and how? I have Nitty Gritty record cleaning machine and this helps some. I use a carbon brush on each side of play. I also have a Zerostat (slow squeeze in near the record and then discharge away fro the rrecord) but I hear little effect with this. I know there are a several of machines, one in the $300-400 price range, which I'd consider if it was truly effective. I am looking to cut down on the crackling and/or static type of noise. Am I correct in attributing this noise to static charge?

There is a basically new Pro-ject RM-5 SE table on the 'Gon right now for a pretty good price, and I know someone here has one (can't remember who right now). Just wanted to know what the owner thinks about the table.

I've got a netbook running XP with redbook FLAC files played by Foobar, that I hooked up to the miniDAC via USB, so I should just set the Apogee USB ASIO driver to 44.1/16 bit, right? Any reason to set it at 24 bit? (Still waiting for my PICO to arrive, but I dusted off the miniDAC to try with the netbook. I've been using the 840C primarily, and I'd forgotten how good the miniDAC sounds!)

My babies transport has died today, was working earlier but now she just makes a clicking noise.. She has had her use over the years sometimes playing 10 hour days sometimes even 24 strait for burn in... i called Meridian and they are sending me an email on what to do next, expected turn around is about three weeks from start to finish. no clue on repair cost as the machine is way out of warranty. been offered $5000 on a used 808 yesterday also, but i don't have the time nor use for such a player now. i just hope the repair cost don't hurt me... please pour a bit of coffee out today for my fallen homie!

I have been sucked in the spiral of Stax and I feel I might end with an Omega II+SRM-717 before or later. I'm wondering what DAC would be up to the job. I am considering the OMZ 4.1 since it seems to have a soft tonality that I might like, and I am waiting with interest for the AMB Gamma 1, which still is "just" a small DAC (probably Pico competitor). Would these make justice to the Omega's, or should I go up to a Cambridge 840c and such? Thanks for any hints you can throw.

Bitstream: CEDIA: McIntosh's SACD/CD Player Not cheap, obviously, but considering all that it does and such, this might fill a void for some folks around here, especially if you kill a bunch of birds with one stone like what this thing does.

heard the AMR CD-77 this morning. a/b'd it with the reimyo -- brief impressions to follow...

I am constantly thinking about getting a turntable (not like a high-end one, just something basic that can do the job), but one thing that is holding me back is my worry that headphones, due to their close placement to the ears, might exacerbate vinyl surface noises to the point of distraction. Is this worry warranted? I will probably get a basic vacuum cleaning machine if I do end up with a table. And of course a lot depends on the table itself, cartridge, phono stage, and set-up, but in general, has anyone found that using headphones to listen to vinyl has picked up surface noises to the point of distraction? And if so, how have you dealt with it?

I bought it last year May 27 from Sweetwater. Obviously it's well over a year old now so that means its past manufacterer's warranty. It's the model that has neither USB nor firewire on it but the slot is there for a person to add the USB slot if they want it. The unit has always been perfect for me. I would call it mint condition outright were it not for slightly crude looking little hole in the back with the tape over it where the USB should go. Another quibble of mine: The optical audio input is very loose and finicky. You have to fiddle with the optical cable to get it to situate just right. The cable will properly secure but you need to be a little extra min…

Hagerman Bugle + DL-103 Associated Equipment: Technics SL1200MK2 Sumiko Headshell Cambridge Audio 840A Quad 22L Introduction I remember when I first got into vinyl blah blah roy gandy is a swell guy. The Story While the DL-103 > Cinemag SUT > Bottlehead Seduction sounds great with rock recordings, I've been experiencing some brightness when listening to certain jazz records which I know aren't mastered bright (Hoffman 45s). After trying to do everything I could with my speakers (move to and fro front and side walls, toe-in), and confident that my cartridge is setup perfectly, I remembered something I read about cartridge brightness usually ha…

Just received my Squeezebox Duet that I have been waiting two weeks for. It appears the receiver is DOA. The light on the front doesn't light up. It appears everything on the powersupply side works fine. Guess I have to ship it all back and wait a month for a replacement

Anyone have pointers to the differences between AA DACs, particularly the DDE series (1.0, 1.3 is it?, 3.0, etc.) I'd like to pick something up (cheap) with AD1862 DACs and PMD100 that I could play with (ouput stage, etc.).

Just curious what the real benefits are of running a low output MC cart vs a high output MC? For example my next phono will be best suited for medium to high output carts unless I used step up transformers. To use an example with the Dynavector 20X. Is there any benefit to getting the .3 mV with SUTs vs the 2.8 mV without any transformer in the signal path? Quirky enough I know I've read that some people prefer the high end SUTs (OOP S&B silver transformers) with normal phono-stages... Just looking to maybe learn a thing or two