Home Source Components

Hi everyone. I'm thinking about upgrading my source. Right now I have a stock Denon DVD-2900 to a DAC1. I've been looking at either a Exemplar DVD-2900 or DVD-3910 or Purks rig which is a Modwright with Kern Modded Sony SCD-777ES w/ Tube Rectified PSU or even a Cambridge 840C. There is a Exemplar DVD-3910 on sale at Agon http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?dgtlplay&1214828507, but I'm not sure if that is a good price or not. Just a little background on sources, I'm pretty much a noob when it comes to sources. I read reviews on all the products mentioned, and read Tkam's great review on the Cambridge 840C. They all sound like they would be good, but I'm not sure…

http://www.needledoctor.com/Furutech-GT-40-Headphone-Amp-DAC Good review of this unit in the new issue of Tone Audio. This thing is a serious swiss army knife: -24/96 DAC over USB -Headphone amp -MM/MC Phono Stage! nice. -ADC! handles needledrops up to 24/96. All for $480. This is cool because I was just thinking it would be cool if more of these "all in one" type audio devices (benchmark, peachtree, etc) started incorporating phono stages. I could see this unit sitting on a desktop next to a Rega RP-1 or some other budget deck making a really awesome rig. The review in Tone Audio is worth a read, but in a nutshell they say any of the individual features (D…

Hey all, I'm always a little nervous about posting here because...well we all know why. It's part of the reason I love this forum so much but mainly lurk and learn. Anyhow, my primary DAC has for many years been the good old' E-mu 0404 USB, and sadly it's had its last day. Now I need a new DAC to connect to my Asus G73 gaming laptop (no S/PDIF sadly so USB is a requirement) and the rest of my rig is my prototype (though awesome) CTH I acquired from a very nice chap on that other site and my beloved Wenge-cup Thunderpants TP1s. Which, by the way, I was delighted to see such positive praise for here when I showed them off after I got them back from Smeggy. Just …

Well it happened, our old Philips DVP642 finally gave up the ghost last night and it couldn't come at a more inopportune time with Christmas just around the corner. I had figured my next DVD player would be one of the Oppo's but given the time of year and the fact I can't get one here and it would probably cost over $200 to get one online and have it shipped here I'm not sure if I can sell the wife on it or not. The DVD player will be used mostly for Divx capabilities so maximum Xvid and Divx compatibility is a must. It will also be used with a Mission Cyrus 1 and Paradigm Atoms for music, mostly background, but we still like it to sound decent. There's also the possib…

The AKM 32bit Dac is interesting to me as I commonly see people refering to it as a wonderful sounding Dac. Also to add that it seems to be found in a couple very high end sources such as the APL NWO 3.0 GO and Esoteric D-05 Dac. I myself have auditioned the APL NWO 3.0 and I do realize that it has something insane like twenty 32bit converters in each channel, but I cannot forget that smooth yet detailed sound I enjoyed so much. This is why I want to audition the D-05 and APL Denon 3910.(with the AKM dac) I have a couple questions about sources that would help clarify my understanding. First, im sure that its not just the dac in a source that determines the sound qual…

Hello The player turns it off itself during playing ..after10 minutes or a few hours. The green light on left turns to red. Goes back to green by pressing on load, play or forward. Sometimes it is able to load the cd and play music. Many times, it's locked in. No control with remote. Impossible to reach Alex who did mods on it.

Hey guys, i have done extensive reading both here and on "that other site" and i more or less decided on buying a Pico because i read some glowing reviews from experienced and well respected members,but then i read some not so glowing reviews ,not a suprise since this happens with just about anything in audio. plus it is really hard to keep up with all the new DAC's,so i was wondering if you could tell me that the Pico is still the best at it's price range or would you recommend i'll go for something else,all i care about is SQ and not features and connectivity etc. thanks!

Anyone here own an Aurender or Lumin or something similar as a music server vs a PC or Mac. I use a mac mini and lately my mind has been infected with the thoughts of the Aurender N100 anyone else go that route or hear comparisons?

Just got the PS Audio newsletter, an interesting product coming soon. Phono Pre and A-D Converter. Snippets: Info on digital output

I have all my FLACs across three hard drives, and all my MP3s in the default iTunes directory under My Documents. I have not pointed Slimserver to my iTunes directory, but it won't stop pulling MP3s. The result is I'll be listening to an album, and there are duplicates of every track: first the FLAC, then the MP3. This is annoying. How can I get my Squeezebox to stop pulling from my MP3 directory?

I'm still doing research as to what type of hirez player I want. While a universal unit would be cool, the fact is that I have tons of SACDs but only a handful of DVD-A's. So in addition to universal (modded) units, I am considering stock SACD players. I see the Marantz SA-11S1 and Krell SACD Standard mentioned quite a bit, but have not really heard anything about their performance from anyone whose opinion I trust. So give me your opinions, people I trust! Anyone ever own or hear or know someone who has owned or heard one of these players? Or even better, are there any other SACD only players you'd like to recommend? My price range is <$2000, and I want something that…

Continuation from THIS thread. Thanks! The noise floor/pops/clicks has nothing to do with the actual rig. The noise floor/pops/clicks mainly depend on your cart and the quality of the vinyl. The vinyl in this case was good at best. FAR from mint. I have to go out right now, but later I will post some examples of mint vinyl on a very high-end rig and some cheap poor man's rig. One clip was transferred on an $18,000.00 turntable. One was done on a used $35.00 turntable and $80.00 cart. The others were transferred on complete rigs that cost $2,000.00 at most. Which is which? All of the vinyl was either mint or near mint. This is why I think some vin…

Found this Techmoan video on MQA-CD when I was checking out Meiko's latest album from Chesky Records, Playing Favorites: I'm going to sit this one out for a while. It seems to be a Japan-only phenomenon for a while, and there are no mainstream players.

Hey guys, I'm in the process of getting a CD-transport at the moment, with an eye for modding later on down the road. For those of you who have heard the modded Denon units, is there a big difference between a modded 2910 and a 3910? If there's a somewhat substantial difference, I'm willing to pocket the difference and go with the 3910. Oh btw, I'm going to have them modded by SACDmods if that makes a difference.

Is there any way to keep artist title info of the tracks as I rip them to my computer? Everytime I rip a CD I just get, Track 01, Track 02, etc. I want to condense my CD's onto my computer, but this is tedious as hell to have to do each time, especially if using iTunes to organise my music, I have to do it AGAIN when I import the files to assign the meta tags. Otherwise, it just arranges it by the name of the file as "Oasis - Wonderwall", not sortable by artist, or album, etc. Suck ass. Even on the CD's that display text in your car CD player(most all of them), still don't rip with artist and title, just as tracks. Is it the program(s) I'm using? I'm using iTunes,…

I went to my local audio shop and had an audition of the dCS Paganini player (transport, DAC, and clock), which is about $50,000. It was hooked up to Audio Research HD220 amps and Sonus faber Elipsa speakers. I had a nice, extended listening session by myself in a properly set up room in a comfy chair. It was a beautiful, natural sound. I really thought this combo broke through the technological limits of previous disc players. The $50,000 question is: can this be done in a less expensive way in a single box? I played the following pieces on it: Anna Netrebko - Sempre Libera, SACD layer Verdi - La Traviata (E strano! E Strano! - Sempre libera), I haven't ever …

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.

So, I bought that Capitole SE CD player on Audiogon, sent off my check, I'm a happy lil' clam and...Let's go look and see the "sold" sign. Yeah, that's the ticket. But to my horror and dismay, the post...poof, up in smoke, gone with the wind, etc, etc, etc. Now I thought it was customery to keep posts up and put a bold "sold" so everyone would know that one lucky person got the prize and everyone else didn't. I mean, isn't that the good 'ol American Way? So did something BAD happen here? Or are there mysterious ways that things dissappear that I don't know about and...most importantly: Does this decrease the likelihood of me ever seeing my Capitole come hither? …

I rarely post praises of commercial gear as a prefer to build my own, knowing that each component is used in the correct topology is important to me. I am no shill as you can see from my 2000 posts on head-fi. I have to say that this 19MK3 is an outstanding piece of gear. They have done three things extremely well: 1. PMD100 - I'll say it till my death it is the pinnacle of the digital golden age. One day these will be worth $1000 a chip, mark my word. 2. PCM1704K - Erno Borbely told me personally that this is the finest DAC chip ever made, some would argue the AD8162(Jocko) or the PCM63K, but regardless it is a much better design than sigma-delta chip…

5.1 Headphone experience *Foobar configuration for all stereo music files* - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio Sorry if the H-Scroll is a little off here. I hope this isn't bad form for me to post in regards to a thread at Head Fi like this and someone else's work but I certainly give Graphicism at Head-Fi full credit for this and if he posts here under a different screen name than kudos. I wanted to post this here just to match notes with the regulars around here and see if anyone else has tried this and what they think of it up or down. I went into it skeptical just because I tend to be pretty leery about post processing an…

If you've got a recommend on a DAC that'll take a USB 24/192 feed, I'd love to hear your thoughts. I like the sound of Sabre, but Wolfson chips would be OK too. I'm willing to spend up to $2K. Should have the new amp sometime next week, but won't have a DAC to feed it. T.

Just got this stack last week (except the top bit). As a combo, it sounds really fantastic and it's really got me listening to my headphones again. Way better than the Desktop DAC in that little convertible (that isn't wildly surprising...). I was somewhat skeptical about the X-10 (tube buffer), but I think it sounds better with than without so it can't be complete BS. Anyone else heard this setup? (I'm selling the X-CAN v3 that came with it if anyone wants it...). I see there is a new MF X-DAC v8 (3 + 1 = 8?) which includes the PSU, and tube section, as well as USB input in 1 bigger box. Glamour shot attached

I'm contemplating picking up a Transporter (which I can get a discount on), but would consider other options up to $1400 (to then use with a Squeezebox). All my music is streamed and it would be to the Extreme Platinum and/or srm-007t in my sig. Any other DACs you would recommend? Had the DA10 recently, and while I liked its signature, looking for something new.

...to either replace or chain off of my 0404 usb. Music: Rock and Electronic, not much jazz or folk or acoustic, the occasional classical listen. Amps: aside from the 0404 are a Rockhopper M^3, a Gilmore Lite Headphones are: HD650, K601, DT250, K271. Long, wordy version: I'd need it to either have toslink or coax inputs, or if usb only be able to fully replace the I/O functionality of an 0404 usb - I make use of the analog in and occasionally the second digitial input (it will mix the usb and spdif inputs). This unfortunately rules out the duet, as it won't play nice with everything else. Keeping the 0404 is fine by me, though. I had an eye on the amp-le…

Well these look interesting: zodiac_rubicon I watched a video and he let drop that it uses a Burr Brown DAC. the video is here: Musikmesse 2009 - Audiofanzine I dunno though. I wonder when they will be out. The quoted SNR and Dynamic ranges are insane. I assume with those numbers it would need to be the PCM1794A/PCM1792A.