Home Source Components

I understand the importance of wanting to bypass all of the Windows filters and crap to achieve bit-perfect output to feed a DAC, but what's with these converters out there with their own dedicated power supplies? Is that really necessary? I'm not technical by ANY means, but what I do understand is that they are basically taking a digital signal (via USB) and...converting it...to...a digital signal (via Coax). How should that process have any affect on the sound? And if it does, doesn't that mean you just bought a crappy product with a nice external power supply? Please, enlighten me, my head hurts.

I am thinking about upgrading one of my E5's. I like the sacdmods zap filter/ LC audio clock combination but I was curious about RAM. First, has anyone had any experience with this company in general; good or bad. Secondly, they do a transformer type modification to the output stage of the E5. Since they claim they remove all the transistors, op amps etc.. what drives the trasformers? Are they driven directly from the dac chip itself? Has anyone eve heard a RAM player with this output transformer type output stage? I am definitely intrigued by this clearly different approach. www.referanceaudiomods.com ..... just click the E5 link and you can read all about the $75…

Vinyl Source: $400 direct drive turntable first manufactured in 1978. It has gone through no changes since then. It is generally believed that there is too much rubber in the design, and the tonearm is obsolete. $200 phono stage with a 12ax7 tube from some company called Bellari $85 Audio Technica cart. Total: just shy of $700 Digital Source: Modwright Sony 999es. The mods alone cost $1150, I don't know what the 999es goes for on the used market. Mods include: So what we are probably looking at is the digital source runs roughly twice the cost of the analog, and it just doesn't sound as good. There is a realness, a presence, and a delicious liqu…

Well I am fucking sourceless again . My Exemplar 3910 developed a problem in March. I sent it to the most experienced (at working on modified Denons)repair depot in the country. They took seven weeks . ,$320 including shipping, and it?s got a fucking worse problem than when I sent it to them . Now it?s going to be at least another $100 in shipping and however long it takes them this time. I?m not totally sourceless, but I am lacking a quality source. I?m pissed.

Auspicious name, though I know not if it is indeed in reference to the goddess. WM8804/2*PCM1794/24 bit-192kHz/Jensen trafo-coupled output stage/$1295.

Anybody else interested in the Olive One Music Player? I am kind of surprised that this interests me, but it does.

So I just bought a CKKIII with a built in Alien DAC and the Alien just isn't cutting it for me. The CKKIII is a big upgrade for me, and I thought it was amazing from USB until I hooked it up to my parents cheap CD Player ( JVC XL-FZ158 ) and then it sounded a LOT better. So I think I need a new source to bring to college. Problem is that I don't have a lot of money to spend. For reference I have K701s and Headphiled SR225s. I like the K701s better as of right now. My budget is around $300. I was thinking of several things: The cheapest solution would be to use the Wolfson in my iPod. I could hook up my iPod to my Meier Move, which would function as a pre-amp. I'…

I bought a NOS dac (audiosector/audio zone) and love the sound and am wondering about these (audial see below) or other higher end NOS dac's. I know the arguments against these (noisy, no resolution etc) not interested in a debate. Any help with these dacs would be appreciated. Audial :: High Quality Audio Equipment

Anybody have experience with one of these Wifi (instead of Bluetooth) music box/DAC's? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wireless-Music-Box-wifi-transmission-decoder-APE-WAV-player-remote/222130019641?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D20131003132420%26meid%3Dfdb19f1b78464569a2db8ce509a62715%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D3%26sd%3D142031670826 Kind of difficult to decipher the poor Chinese translation, but does this DAC seem to be using the Wifi Direct technology or something else? Can't tell what DAC chips are used, etc. Just trying to set up a little bedroom speaker setup, with my Android phone as the main …

Okay, I'm behind the times, but needs are simple. My analog and limited physical media needs are met and otherwise only stream Tidal/Qobuz. No need for everyones favorite Roon at this point or support for media stored on a HD. Used an Airport Express to get a digital signal to a DAC until Apple retired and it eventually became a little flaky, then Chromecast Audio until Google retired and it eventually became a little flaky. Just looking for a simple way to stream audio over wifi (ideally with Airplay2 support) to a digital out. Know Audioengine has a similar device, though next to no specs. I'm sure there are Raspberry Pi options as when are there not? Anyone have a reco…

Sony 9100ES and Denon 3910 mods. Disclaimer: To start with, I am NO WAY affiliated with APL, HRAM, or SACDmods, All mods done were at full retail price. Sorry about the ?fan boyishness toward some modding retailers. It is all there to see you get the biggest bang for the buck and not get burned. About the owner: I have and can mod my own equipment to some degree as well as build my own equipment as I have done so to many ?Amateur Ham Radio? pieces over the years as well as licensed to do so. However at age 56 my hand is shaky and the expensive items are left to the ?so called pros?. The ?so called pros? we will attempt to ferret out for you here in limited quantit…

Good news! My new turntable supposedly shipped yesterday. It?s usually one day from NJ to Boston, so it should be here today. I?ve also confirmed that the Ginko Dust Cover and my VPI-16.5 Record cleaning machine should also show up by the end of this week. http://www.vpiindustries.com/products_ssm.htm And http://www.vpiindustries.com/product_supplatter.htm Once set up and playing I?ll be sure to take pictures and post a little info. Damn! I?m so excited.

first impression: the sound is extremely clear. second impression: the UI is a tad user unfriendly without RTFM.

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…

I thought this great little device deserves a thread, the pre-order with an intro price is now on: HeadAmp Pico Upsampling USB DAC - Pre-Order Now at intro price - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio

I agreed to trade my RSA XR-10B for a Koetsu Rosewood Signature Platinum cartridge, which arrived yesterday for a trial before I ship out the phono stage. I gritted my teeth and decided that, dammit, the first cartridge I ever install might as well be a $6,000 wood cartridge without a cantilever cover for protection! The cart was re-tipped already by van den Hul due to a defect that was original, so you will see the sticker in place on the cart. I had a couple beers to steady the nerves, and spoke with my life coach, JP Numbers, to get some perspective and some tips on how not to break off the tip of this beautiful creation. After various oaths and regrets that I …

Hi Folks, This is my virgin post here at Headcase I just sold my Zapfiltered E5, and now am eyeing a mod for my 3910. Alex at APL suggested one of his mods: General PSU mods Add new transformer and linear PSU w/reg. for the digital section Custom clock to replace all 6 clocks on the 3910 Bypass DSPs for best digital to the DAC (loose source direct i.e. SACD>172khz PCM, no: bass management, time alignment, level controls on FL,FR) Double DACs (one 1796 per channel) (loose MIX L R outputs) Analog stage mods with SE mosfet buffer output stage. He says this will kill very respectable $10k vinyl rigs... All for $1xxx Anybody have experience wit…

DAC1 PRE - Benchmark Media Systems, Inc. I have never heard a DAC1, and I get the impression that they are generally frowned upon here at Head-Case, while the rest of the audio world seems to be impressed. The review of the new Benchmark DAC1 PRE in the most recent Hi-Fi news was nothing short of glowing. Ken Kessler couldn't seem to find enough good things to say about this unit, including that it made one recording "...sound as lush and room-filling as a mint original vinyl pressing." So anyone heard one of these? Its level of functionality truly is enticing at its price tag of $1575.

Folks, just got an O2 and when paired to kgss and neko d100 i ended up with a sound sig darker than well for lack of a better word, dark..... After switching around with sources i have, i settled with stello da100. Its much better and suit my taste more or less. I also liked dacmagic my friend had. Are there any alternatives dac that would complement this rig well? Say price ranges between 1-2k ? And those that supposedly bettered than stello? Any advice as always is much appreciated

So I have been running Roon as my go to audio software for listening to my digital library and integrating it with Tidal and Qobuz. The software works very well and they have kept upgrades. I have been using a 2018 Mac mini to run my Roon server and it has worked very well though not without a few hiccups in keeping it running on a continuous basis. A picture of that setup is below. It consisted of the mac mini and a 10 TB USB disk to hold my library and Roon backups, a 27” monitor, wireless keyboard and mouse. The previous generation of Roon nucleus appliances were quite pricey compared to the Mac mini so I never really considered buying one. However when they…

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…

Just thinking of grasping this but there're little reviews out there. I wonder how does it stand against other commercial DACs like the DAC1,DA10 and DA220MKII? And, most importantly, can it be configured to have USB input?

It was posted on the other forum here: DA11, Lavry new DA - headphone feature - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio It was mentioned that the USB is up to 24 bits and 96KHz. I copied and pasted the info below: Introducing the LavryBlack DA11- Lavry Engineering takes stereo DA conversion to a new level! Features like a USB input, programmable settings, infrared remote capability, and the proprietary >PiC< Playback Image Control

This journey has been long and painful, after many dacs, and much lost money, I have yet to find a dac that I can settle on, or at least be happy with for now, until i can afford a high end piece of gear. I thought it would be easy.... people with tin ears tell us that just about all dacs sound alike... with wide spread concensus one would think that the decisoin would be easy. well, it's not. 1. The raves about the modded zhaolus convinced me to buy one, but that's where things went wrong. it's not that the zhaolu isn't a good piece of gear, it's that the one I got is horrible. Ori did his famous mod on mine.. and it broke 3 times! wires became loose, there was all kin…

There are two cards that I'm looking at right now, does anyone have any ideas or know of a review? Onkyo SE-U55SX USB and the internal ONKYO SE-200PCI, 115dB, 24bit/192kHz,