Home Source Components

As I am further developing my computer as a source set up I have come to the realization that placing a Mac Mini in the rack might be my best option. Right now I can run audio from my Mac Pro or my Macbook Pro via, USB, Firewire or AES/EBU from the Pro. Unfortunately I do not want to give up the Macbook Pro as my listening room computer and the Mac Pro is several rooms away. My plan is to put the Mac Mini in the rack with iTunes and Amarra installed. Then I believe I can control the Mac Mini either by my laptop or with my Touch if I leave Amarra up as it interfaces with the Rowmote App. I could then take the Squeezebox out of the system and run USB or Firewire ou…

We talked a lot about R2R dacs on Stax thread because of some bullshit design choices, And given the attention of the R2R, especially discrete dacs, I wanted to post all the findings in this thread. Discrete modules I found to play with: Transient Modules (the dac modules of 2nd and 3rd gen Metrum dacs) and Diy parts based on it (most of the parts they are selling as oem but diy parts are also avaliable): http://www.transient-audio.nl/ all parts can be found under this website http://www.transient-audio.nl/Ordering.html this is how to order guide Soekris Modules (there are two modules avaliable on each segment [oem and diy line], t…

I think it may finally be time to do away with CDs for the meet rig. Plus, shipping the CD player back and forth to meets is costly and takes up expensive table space, and they eventually break. Time to go DAC-only. At RMAF, i did have a few people come up to me wanting to play their files off SD cards or USB flash drives, and I was not equipped to do this with my CD player...another DAC advantage as I know some of them support this. Something small and lightweight would also be a plus as it makes travel/shipping easier. any recommendations?

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

Just wanted to see what people think is good in this price range. I am thinking about the DA100 as it will accept new sources in the future.

I could probably find this by searching the site, but I'm lazy and stupid when it comes to using a PC as a source. I ordered the Ayre QB 9 last week, and intend on trying to use my computer as a source in an attempt to downsize my CD collection on the boat. I want to use lossless format and get the best sound I can. I have just a regular Toshiba laptop and a generic terabyte drive. Can anyone advise me as to whether I should get a better computer (such as Mac laptop dedicated for music only), any specific hard drive, which program to use, and if there are any high end USB cables for sale? I have some pretty good source equipment, and I am very picky about the playback qua…

Has anyone heard any of the Audio-gd dacs? Specifically the Reference One. Not sure on the details of the output stage but at $1300 for a fully balanced pcm1704 dac. It's awfully tempting.

I'm new to head case so take it easy on me folks. I've read a bunch of posts and it seems like a great place to call home! I think I'm going to buy the TTVKJ/Millet 307A tomorrow having never heard it but having done my homework and knowing that I have Todd's permission to take a 30 day trial and his guarantee that there's no chance I'll return it. I'm looking for something full, involving, resolving well so many of the things said already in this thread. I primarily listen to accousitc music emphasizing voice and guitar (Did someone mention Sam Phillips and "Fan Dance?" That's a perfect example!) and jazz, and I want to experience all the life in the music as well …

Silly name, but it certainly looks the part and the price is nice. Who's first? Press fluff follows.

Pardon the mess; I'm moving next week so I don't have a nice table to put everything on. I knew I had to buy it as soon as I heard Voltron's set up at CanJam. I got it about three hours ago and it's terrific like I remembered it. So far, I'm using the AES input on my Primare DVD30 to compare the DACs between the two devices. It's my very first piece of individual equipment that costs this much so I'm experiencing a whole new level of sound. For example, I always discounted one recording as flawed because of strange background noises but the higher resolution of this DAC makes it very clear that it's just sound from the audience. Apparently, I'll get even more mileag…

https://www.mhsecure.com/mhdirect/product.php?productid=49&cat=0&page=1 Wow UNL-8 without mic pre amps for $4K great price and now for those that wanted a stripped down version here it is. I love my Sonic 305 (ULN- but this is $2 less and the dac section is absolutely world class.

Okay, just kicking around an idea here. Kevin at KAB does a Cardas rewire terminated in a 5 pin DIN phono plate. I emailed Kevin and asked if this was a truly balanced connection for use with a balanced phono stage. His response: "That is the one single advantage of the din connector. carrying a balanced connection from the cartridge to the preamp. it has 5 pins. + - right, + - left, and a sheild. RCA's cannot be used for that, of course your phono stage must be able to accept that kind of connector as well." ...so I could get this done to my TT, and run XLRs to something like the Aqvox Phono 2Ci MKII Balanced Phono Preamp, and then of course the balanced amp,…

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…

Guys, do you like Dave, how is it?

I was advertising for a used Zhalou with a zap filter discrete output stage on head-fi. I received this pm from Ori at Oritek .... Perhaps this would do the trick for you... I'm offering a modded Zhaolu D2.5A with a discrete output stage. In my opinion it has several advantages over the Zapfilter. We can talk about that if you have an interest in purchasing the unit. The price is $475 plus shipping. A second set of RCA outputs is $40 extra. I'm also offering now a discrete headphone amplifier option for $254 extra. It will drive any dynamic headphones with the possible exception of the AKG K-1000. I've tried a K340 and it is LOUD and clear! In addition, this hea…

Just got the PS Audio Newsletter, this replaces the DL3. Looks pretty interesting..... http://www.psaudio.c...players/nuwave/

as many of you know, i sold my vinyl rig (& saturn) to sport the reimyo cdp-777. yet, even though i sold every bit, i could not part with my meager vinyl collection--particular the beatles, lennon, rush, miles, led zeppelin, coltrane etc... when i would read posts raving about the vinyl experience, i jealously longed for it and at the same time dreaded it because i never really achieved it, lack the knowhow to properly set-up a tt, and the whole process seemed overly involved. so now and again, i had been thinking and researching how to do vinyl on the cheap and easy--vintage tables and rega were likely contenders. i wanted to keep it well under a grand and more o…

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

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.

Oppo BDP-93 Networking Universal Blu-ray Player — Reviews and News from Audioholics There's a lot more to this article including pretty pictures so just click on the link. This is a no brainer for me. It's coming out around November of this year. I'll be preordering first chance I get. The 80 is discontinued. I'll be surprised if they discontinue the 83s vs logical price drops. That's the same video processor, probably slightly refined, that the now completely obsolete $2000 Pioneer 09FD has. I wouldn't be surprised if that's a new chip. ' There WILL be an SE variant to this new 93 well into 2011 sometime. I ordered an 83 direct from Oppo ba…

Why does the Assemblage dac I just bought say 2.7 on the front faceplate and 2.6 on the back ? Which is it? 2.6 or 2.7 ? I'll use this thread to post impressions later as well ...as soon as I can get a couple power cords from monoprice.

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…

Hello Head-case, As you can see, I am new here but I have a question on a vintage DAC that will probably be better answered here than at the other place. I recently came across someone local selling a Sonic Frontiers SFD-2 DAC (MK1) locally for a decent price (around USD$900). This DAC is around 15 years old and got glowing reviews from Stereophile when it was released: Stereophile: Sonic Frontiers SFD-2 D/A processor I was thinking of buying it tomorrow evening but I was wondering if anyone here knows any reason NOT to get it? Can anyone guess how it will compare with modern DACs?

Ok it all started with the desire to get away from browsing 2000 plus cds and the desire to have it all computer browsable and searchable. Then came the transporter, cosecant (god the margin on that thing), various dacs with usb>spidf convertors (do they all suck) Then the software Now it's back to the hardware and dang if an SSD isn't a freaking huge improvement, please call the cult extraction team now. Compared the the steaming pile of shit otherwise know as my DROBO, moving my 24 bit Beatles and 24/96 HD tracks stuff to the SSD was a fairly impressive improvement (or I am ready for me meds) Anyone else take the leap to an SSD and hear a difference

http://nwavguy.blogs...c-released.html Audio Formats: 16/44, 16/48, 16/96, 24/44, 24/48, 24/96 Interface: USB Audio Class 1 Native Driver OS Support: Windows XP & Later, OS X x86, Linux Operating Systems Tested: XP, Vista, Win7 (32 & 64), OS X Snow Leopard, Ubuntu 9.1 32 bit Line Output: Approximately 2 Vrms into 5K ohms or higher Dynamic Range: > 110 dB A-Weighted Distortion: < 0.005% Dimensions: 49 x 58mm (see drawing to right) Claims aside with this specs for 100$/£ sounds like a nice deal.