Home Source Components

I've recently bought a Lite DAC-39 second hand. At that time I did not have a proper coaxial line-out cable so I substituted it with a box-standard rca cable. I got imbalanced sound. So I bought a Zu audio Firemine and I thought the problem went away. But upon closer analysis, the problem persists in a different form. The left channel of the unbalanced output sounds "out of phase" the highs are pretty decent but the mids and bass are washed out. The right channel on the other hand is full bodied and sounds fantastic. I've troubleshooted my entire system and the problem definitely lies with the DAC. Both coaxial and optical inputs produce the same imbalance. I have alre…

A black one. I got the Apollo home and plugged it in. I did not wait for any warm-up what-so-ever. Holy cow! What great sounds. Way better than the E5 and I still have to break it in. I coulden't even think of how much greater a sound the upcomming Saturn might be. How could it be any better??? The sound is like analogue or being like Single Power's finest amp and most all other source units sounding like an OK solid state amp in comparison. I heard the G08 at the last meet for a limited time and was not bowled over. However it was only a brief few selections and A/B'd it with the E5 and found it only slightly better. The Apollo beats the G08 by a wide margine, at least. …

Just got this baby installed. It sounds a little better than my Moodlab did, still breaking in, only 1 hour old. Have a 1962 GE tube in it, been conjuring up the wallet resources to get a fancier tube like a 396 or a Bendix *shudder*. Seems to be more musical than other DACs as people have told me...you really get a feel for the instruments not just fancy bold noises and sounds. And with that, I'll take any questions. MHDT has good service, they took about a day to get back to me and then I got set up. DAC took 4 days to come. Shipped Saturday, came Wednesday. They're turbo fast, it cleared customs in 4 hours luckily enough. There was a powdered Chinese tube …

Has anyone heard this turntable? A friend of mine is having one sent to him for in house audition. I might get a chance to hear it.

I'll put up unresized images either when I can access my FTP or when Head-Case makes the switch to the new forum software.

Will someone with familiarity in the subject area please break down the difference(s) between these three? I was going to just get the 970, but it doesn't have the Faroudja chipset -- how important is this? Someone on another forum said the 981 is supposed to be a replacement for the 971, but takes away the Faroudja chipset (I think he meant the 970, because the 981 explicitly has the Faroudja chipset). This is what I get: 970 -- entry level 971 -- Faroudja chipset 981 -- 1080p Or are there other important differences? I will be using it with this, amongst other things. I am interested in sound, especially SACD and DVD-A, as I can always use an outboard DAC …

Introduction When I put my money down for a Berkeley Alpha DAC, I learned about a piece of software called Amarra that allegedly improved the performance of computer audio playback. I believe this was at CanJam along with the Berkeley Alpha but at the time, I dismissed it as a custom skin for iTunes since I didn't know what it was then. Naturally, I was skeptical since everything I've read online indicates that bit perfect audio is easily possible with freeware on both Mac and PC platforms. I didn't see why or how you could squeeze more performance past this or why it has to be Mac OS X exclusive; a quick survey of the internet reveals that many share similar misgiv…

Mainly due to a desire to try an amp with a more linear volume control I've picked up a TTVJ Slim with DAC, a Pico Slim amp and I'm looking at picking up a DAC only Pico all to compare with my current Pico DAC\Amp. To be honest I've been quite happy with the Pico DAC\Amp's performance so I haven't really paid much attention to the market over the last couple of years, is there anything else out there in a reasonable price range that I should be looking at? My preference is for something fairly small, battery or USB powered, that I can cart back and forth between work and home every day but depending on how the amp side of things shake out those requirements might not …

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

I'm planning on getting a universal player within the next few months, so I can play dvd audio discs. Probably the Ayre DX-5. Headphone rig only for now, so stereo only. I noticed some dvd audio releases are advertised as a standard cd and dvd with 5.1 surround. If the release does not specifically mention a high resolution stereo version too, will the surround mix not get sent to stereo correctly? I want to avoid getting something if I can only listen in surround, basically.

I had occasion to open up my ECD-1 a few nights ago to dim the bright blue LEDs, and I thought I'd take some pictures. I didn't have the proper hex wrenches for the digital section, so the aluminum cover remains in place for now. Should anyone be dying to see it, I'll happily pop it back open. The external hex bolts were a bitch to get off, so I had to dremel two of them into flathead bolts. Having done that, the cover comes off easy now

I'm not too good at home theater stuff, so I need some help. I need some suggestions on the absolute cheapest way to get 5.1 surround sound out of my tv, using it's optical out, and then going to Logitech Z-5300e speakers. The connectors for the speakers are 1/8's, so obviously this poses a slight challenge. I'm stressing cheapest, cause medical school is killing my wallet. Thanks, Dave

I just paid DigiPete for his SACDModded Denon 3910, and damn, I am itching to try all my SACDs out.

So, my dad's ponying up like 10 grand for a McIntosh integrated tube amp and a pair of B&W speakers and needs a source to go with them (as well as interconnects). I'm not well informed about high end sources so can some of you guys help me find something that's up to par with the amp and the speakers? Looking for DACs or CD/SACD players Lets say $5000 limit

Hello every one Like you know I was asking alternatives for the rs1,silly me... but now I completely threw that out of the window(yeah mexican you were right), they are definitely a keeper and I can relate to those of you who have been offended by comparing the rs1 with a ms1:palm:. Some already may know from the chat but I will give the details for those who don't. So a "random" stranger borrowed me an DacMagic and right from the beginning of the first music I was totally blown away by the quality of the sound, uh the details ..the details.. I was speechless .. warm sound ..everything sounded so right, the soundstage before didn't exist exist with the rs1 and now…

First, does anyone have dimensions and a guess on weight? Second, how's the headout on this unit? Decent or great job with Grados? Finally, anyone know of a good online source for purchase of this DAC?

Well after some futzing I have modified Exact Audio Copy to check to see if a file has HDCD Data and if it does use this: HDCD Software Decoder [Archive] - Doom9's Forum or: Index of /~cjk32/hdcd to convert it to a 24 bit file and then encode to a lossless WMA at with 24 bits. The files aren't much bigger than the 16 bit files because most of the extra bits are zeros anyway. Pretty cool Can I hear the difference? haven't tried yet but I certainly like knowing that I can get everything out of the HDCDs. Only problem now is that I will have to go through and re-rip my HDCDs.

hi, any good recommendations for a good amp or tube amp with sub outs and hopefully a good headphone output as well? good synergy with vinyl? thanks

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…

Well, I finally got my last piece of gear yesterday: the Phonomena II. I had it sent to my parents' house since I'm hardly ever home to receive stuff. I will pick it up today (ordered it along with new inner sleeves for LP's - no point washing if I put them back in the old ones). I will also compare it with the highly-regarded as bang-for-buck CA 640P (which I got a good deal on in Audiogon). The 640P wasn't a planned purchase, but I read it is a good piece of gear. We'll see how the Phonomena II (at $600 new) does against it. Not to mention there are two cartridges in the house now (used MC cartridge ZYX Bloom and new MM cartridge AT150mlx). I won't begin any test…

Just wanted to throw out there that I may possibly want to move away from the Meridian sound that I have been listening to for the past year or so, and try out something else. Budget is around $1500 +/-, the more below that the better. Used is just fine, in fact I would prefer used because that means it is probably a $2000+ unit and we all know that the more expensive something costs the better it sounds What I have liked and enjoyed about the Meridian sound: Great soundstage - to hear actual soundstage depth that is cohesive and captures all of the spatial information on a recording, probably the best Meridian trait. All of my headphones and amps that I have run t…

I was on A'gon and saw this for 1000 and couldn't resist..... and i actually was the first to get it... i pondered, i searched, i asked and found no rea answers or reviews... except engineering jib jab about it's interface. So i went ahead and bought it. now i'm left wondering if i should sell it the second i get it... the insides don't look all that impressive... and the reviewers seem so enchanted by it's USB input that they forgot to check how it sounds.

I've been looking through 10 pages of google results and nothing. If there is a webpage somewhere that lists sources and their respective DAC chips I'd love ot have a look. Or if someone here owns a Marantz vc5200 and knows the answer that'd be great. I got this 5disc player back in 2001, loved it, and was never curious about what's inside. But recently I crawled out of the rock I was living under and bought an entry set: hd650, gilmore lite, pico dac. So while I'm biting nails through this 3-4 week wait time until shipment I research what I have, feed my curiosity, and try not to bother justin everyday ..wasn't sure if I should have put this post in the "Genera…

Has anyone here ever done his own needle drops? And so, how are the results?

Hi Everyone, after getting advice from Icarium, I think I will skip Esoteric DAC lines. Right now , I have just known the Plantinum DAC III and plan to hunt for a used one. Does anyone know how much it will cost for a used one so i can save enough money for it? any owners, here?? thanks