Home Source Components

I haven't seen this DAC being talked about here so I will just leave this here. Designs-wise, the DAC interesting because apparently it uses 4 "industrial-grade" non-oversampling DACs (2 per channel) whatever they are and it doesn't have a digital filter. Price-wise, it seems reasonable enough. The most expensive model with black anodized case and external PSU will set you back €710 or a little less under $1000. Shame it's still single-ended and has no built-in USB. Here is the home-site and a white paper posted there detailing this NOS digital filter-less concept. I wonder what do our resident DAC experts like Filburt and Colin have to say about this as the con…

So pretty soon I'll have an ECD-1 in the house, which means I'll be able to compare it to the North Star m192 mk2. I've heard such great things about the ECD-1 that I just impulsively pulled the trigger when I saw it on the 'gon. But I also have grown very fond of the North Star. It will be fun to compare. I'll save this space for my impressions...

Listening to one right now... sounds excellent for the cost (~$25) and time spent building (~3 hours). I wish the position on the PCB where the coupling caps are could alternately accommodate a PCB mini-jack, as I'd prefer to use input coupling caps on each of my amplifiers (as opposed to the output coupling caps on the Bantam)..... this way I could tune the input cap values to the impedance of the specific amp I'd be using. Probably the output caps are more idiot-proof though. I've tried both the suggested Wima and Black Gate coupling caps and now prefer a pair of blue OS-CON caps that I stole off of swt61's old Opus More info: BantamDAC Overview

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?

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…

Long story short, I'm thinking about completely overhauling my speaker rig. I'm going to do something I haven't really done before: work back from the transducers. I've decided on a pair of Lowther DX4 drivers. More data. Everything else is up for debate. Opinions? Enablers, start enabling!

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

Guys, do you like Dave, how is it?

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 ordered one of these DACses and will post impressions, pics, and random musings here.

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

HF thread here This guy's review and measurements here I'm not about to comment on the legitimacy of the measurements, but the uDAC-2 is apparently pretty shitty. NuForce seems to agree but not really care that it's shitty. John Atkinson measured a NuForce CD player, and it was also real shitty. This doesn't speak of the entire NuForce lineup, but I do find it amusing considering the relative popularity of that brand over thar. Can I safely conclude that HF has terrible taste in everything?

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.

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.

Well, as you may or may not know I really love these cartridges. In fact, I will never own any other brand, save a Denon DL-102, or some other mono cartridge, and even then I'd have a custom mono cartridge made when I could afford it. Here's a product listing: http://www.sibatech.co.jp/ZYX/ZYXcatalog.htm as well as a picture of the R-50 Bloom: My cartridge is a special ordered low-output version, which comes in around 0.24mV. One nice thing about these cartridges is that the vertical and horizontal compliance is the same across the line, as is recommended tracking force, stock weight, recommended load, etc. etc. This makes moving up (and down) the line pretty…

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.

Because I am the way I am, I'm considering upgrading my source, but am not sure. Right now, I'm using an Exemplar modded Denon 2900 as my main source, which I like as much as any I've heard for redbook in a price range that's feasible ($3000-5000). Both the Esoteric DV50 and SA10 beat it out for SACDs imo, but I don't have too many, and probably won't get too many more. I could go the route of the Transporter and the like, but so far, I've only heard the Transporter, which I thought was good, but not good enough to spend my money on. So here's the question: Since I think my redbook player is damn good, would it be worth upgrading now, and if so, what direction to explore?…

The Denon DA-500 I started a thread back when I bought my first Denon DA-500. Since then, Deepak has picked one up, and I've picked up a second one, and others have been looking for one. So it's generating a little more interest. Now talk has turned towards possible improvements. The basics: PCM-1702 based buffered op-amp output stage? 3 optical inputs 2 coaxial inputs 1 optical output 1 coaxial output 1 analong output This isn't meant to be strictly a modding thread. But I thought it would be good to grab the posts regarding the DA-500 from some other threads and get them all together. From my previous threads: A good modding threa…

I'm still using the Trends UD-10.1 but since it is limited to 16/44.1 I'd like to upgrade to something newer. Has anybody any experience with the newer models out there? Multiple outputs is a plus (I'm catching up to Dinny with the number of DAC's here) and I don't really care about the price or the size. I did a quick search and the M2Tech Evo looks good but what else is out there?

I'm currently using an Accuphase DP-500 and Chord DAC64 MkII. I've had the Accuphase for four months and the Chord for more than a year. Both are Red Book-only. Most of the time I listen through iTunes or foobar, using the digital outputs of an RME HDSP 9632 sound card. Playing a CD on the DP-500 sounds better than its digital input fed by the RME sound card. However, I think the RME -> Chord is roughly equivalent to CD on the DP-500, with each doing some things better and some things worse. It is very close. This was disappointing to me, because I expected CD on the Accuphase to sound better. I really like the convenience of PC-as-source and currently have over …

Hi all, there's someone selling one locally for $300 CDN, do you guys think it's a fair price? The seller said the unit is clean and I'll be going to his place tomorrow to see the unit for myself, but since I haven't bought used gears at this age(10 years for this DAC?), what should I look for particularly? Thx **Pending sale to Alec** Parasound DAC 1100 HDCD - Canuck Audio Mart

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

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…

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…