Home Source Components

So I'm gonna have around $400 soon (yay for selling my supermacro ) and I'm looking to upgrade from my Entech Number Cruncher to be used with a CK2III and Grado 225s (woodied hopefully in the near future) The DACs that I'm thinking of are the MSB Link III w/o upgrades, Headroom MicroDAC (new and old) and OPUS dac. If you have any suggestions, tell me!

I'm not in the rarified source world that a lot of you are, but I've been looking for a decent sub $500 universal player. I'd been leaning towards the oppo, but found that Cambridge makes a universal that is pretty well regarded that has an audio-only setting. Anyone know anything about it? The few reviews I've' found make it seem decent.

I like how the tubes look like they're in those tubes like from Event Horizon or whatnot. Click pic for info link.

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

This looks to be a very nice DAC. He offers a blank boards with smd chips already soldered on if you want to put your own together. I'm considering putting one together, but I think I'd have to sell the Opus to do it, and I don't want to do that You can see the DAC at http://www.ecdesigns.nl/dacs/di16/di16.html

Hi, I'm thinking of getting a Lavry DA10 but from the pictures I see, it only has XLR outputs. Can I connect it to my single-ended amp using XLR to RCA cables? Will there be any problems in doing so? Also, I don't need the headphone out on the DAC. Is there any DAC with equivalent quality but doesn't have a headphone out (and cheaper)? Thanks!

So I was leant a Dac-Ah for no other reason than to get my opinion. There seems to be some sort of distortion on it (I'm listening to Camille's Le Fil, and it seems to show up on her voice and the bass, and any other prominent sounds like that) -- is this something that will go away with burn-in, or is there something wrong and needs to be fixed. I forget which exact version it is, but could find out if it's important...or is this something that needs to be diagnosed on a case-by-case basis?

I've been thinking about getting a squeezebox or a sound card with bit-perfect output. I'll be feeding the digital out from the squeezebox or sound card to the digital input on the Opus 21 (coax in only). The squeezebox would be the more convenient solution but I really hate the slimserver software. The last time I really used it, was early this year (february or march) and I couldn't stand it. It was slow, and seemed very buggy. Has it improved at all? Now if I go the sound card route, it'd be cheaper as I'd just need something with a good digital out (coax). Plus I'd get the benefit of using foobar which I absolutely love. The downside to the sound card idea is t…

If any owners (or former owners) could offer impressions of the Wavelength USB DACs I would appreciate it. Or any good user reviews on other forums. Thanks

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 …

After over 12 years of service, my "home" source, a portable Panasonic SL-S160 player, might be finished. Yesterday afternoon, I heard a popping sound (like static) every few minutes about a half hour into listening to some Jane Monheit - suddenly, the volume dropped out entirely. I turned the amp off, disconnected the line-out and re-connected it, and turned the amp back on. The sound came back, but much quieter, very echoey and distant. At first, I panicked and thought either my headphones or amp was dying. Some testing today proved that both seem to be fine. If I fiddle with the line-out (pull the plug slightly out) on the player, I can get the volume back without e…

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 …

So they finally dropped the price on an Arcam FMJ CD36 in Canada. But... 1) Will there be a replacement soon for the CD36? 2) I'm still waiting for reviews of the upcoming Oppo DV-983 - it's supposed to have the same audio output section as the DV-980H. 3) Can a TweakAudio modded Oppo beat an Arcam flagship CD player? 4) Does an Arcam transport beat an Oppo transport? 5) The Oppo can play HDCD and SACD discs - does Redbook quality trump Hirez playback? 6) Oppo has video output - is it worth sacrificing great DVD upsampling video for brilliant audio? Also, I listened for about an hour this weekend to the $2,500 NAD M5 on a NAD M3 amp with (green) Audioquest …

i'm assuming "home source components" qualify as anything that needs to be plugged in or is too heavy to transport...so i'll post here ) i used to own a lavry da10, feeding an hd650 balanced through a moon audio blue dragon. sold it off a while ago. it has always been my favorite headphone rig, partially for the transportability of it. i think i'm going to pick one up again... i fed the da10 with either a cheap dvd player via coax or an airport express via optical, depending on the situation. now that i have a macbook, i plan on using optical out of the laptop directly. just wondering if anyone has any experience using the macbook's optical out and how it compares a…

Per the review, it is quite good: http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/shanling5/3000.html In the $2k range with basic mods, more for better mods http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?dgtlplay&1200364575, and another $400 to 'modify' the balanced outs. I'm thinking of taking a shot on the stock (or mini-mods pkg) and roll some tubes. Thoughts / experiences?

Worth a listen? I have the chance to get one of these for fairly cheap at $279. http://www.consumer.philips.com/consumer/en/us/consumer/cc/_productid_MCD908_37_US_CONSUMER/DVD-Micro-Theater+MCD908-37 Reads that it has "Hi-Fi tubes". Although it doesn't say which ones, you think it roll-able? Also, it has HDMI slots, and a 720p and 1080i output abilities. Doesn't sound like a bad deal for $279... Even at the $459 street price, it doesn't sound like it'd be a bad deal. Anybody hear one of these?

Hi! I've had my Juli@ for about a year now, and I'd like to give it some new OP amps and some OS CONs. I only want to modify the output channels (both RCA and TRS sides) as i hardly ever use the input. AFAIK there are 10 JRC 4580 opamps in total on the card; does anyone happen to know how many (and which) of these are used for the output? I will probably change all the capacitors but I'd like to limit the opamps as National only gives you 3 LM4562 samples at a time.. thanks!

Anyone have any thoughts on this battle? Have the opportunity to pick up a Transporter discounted, but curious if others have compared?

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,…

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…

Looking to add in the Ack Dack 1.2e using my EMU0404 as transport..with my n_maher M^3 w/steps amplifying my W5000's or K340's. Any idea how it will do in my system? I haven't heard one, but I've read good things. Any opinions are appreciated.

This is the stock layout, not columns ur or any third party! So clean and white and minimalisticly Scandinavian! Its got a freaking spectrum analyzer! No more firing up audition to check out the graphs... The graph on the pic- first half is 192 cbr mp3, then i switched to a flac, you can clearly see the ownage.

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So I'm finally getting off my lazy ass to seriously start planning for my wireless music setup. My question is, disregarding SQ difference since this will be used only for casual listening via speakers, what does Squeezebox have over Airport Express? I will be using it to feed a DAC via one of my Macs, most likely my iBook, and just about all of my music files are in ALAC or AIFF. Squeezebox sure do look pretty, especially in all black, but is it worth 3x that of Airport Express for my application?

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?…