Home Source Components

Hey Guys, A head-fi'er larryminator is bringing a couple turntables to the Toronto meet that look interesting: http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=248953 What do you think of these two offerings? I know next to nothing about vinyl, but Thorens seems to have a good name, and the other one looks pretty nice. I've talked to the seller through PM and have been reading his posts in the meet thread and a few Grado threads and he seems to be a good guy. Is the price good? They look to me in nice shape, and it would save me delivery. Since Ray and Peter are coming to the meet, I am sure I will have enough people on hand to make sure it is setup properly. I've ask…

... I kind of lost the will to live when faced with 'ripping' (i.e. Dig out to Puter) them in real time. Is there seriously not a method or a company who will rip DSD's and I dunno, maybe put them in 24/96 or something. Failing that a regular 16/44.1.

Good news! My new turntable supposedly shipped yesterday. It?s usually one day from NJ to Boston, so it should be here today. I?ve also confirmed that the Ginko Dust Cover and my VPI-16.5 Record cleaning machine should also show up by the end of this week. http://www.vpiindustries.com/products_ssm.htm And http://www.vpiindustries.com/product_supplatter.htm Once set up and playing I?ll be sure to take pictures and post a little info. Damn! I?m so excited.

Vinyl Source: $400 direct drive turntable first manufactured in 1978. It has gone through no changes since then. It is generally believed that there is too much rubber in the design, and the tonearm is obsolete. $200 phono stage with a 12ax7 tube from some company called Bellari $85 Audio Technica cart. Total: just shy of $700 Digital Source: Modwright Sony 999es. The mods alone cost $1150, I don't know what the 999es goes for on the used market. Mods include: So what we are probably looking at is the digital source runs roughly twice the cost of the analog, and it just doesn't sound as good. There is a realness, a presence, and a delicious liqu…

Has anyone here used an iPod as a jukebox? I was thinking of getting DLO's Music Remote and use my video iPod to play through my stereo. I will re-rip my music at a very high bit rate. My main concern is what effect the dock will have on the sound in the way of noise. Does anyone here have experience with this?

Hi, I bought some shiny new records for my vinyl collection but they seemed a little odd. These things are like shiny silver on one side with graphics and stuff on the other, and they're smaller than my 45's. I put them on my record player and tried the 45 RPM setting, but it didn't work, and I couldn't get music out of them, only a horrible scratching sound. I tried the other side and got the same thing. What am I doing wrong?

Ok - its time for me to spend a little $'s on my hobby. I'm trying to decide what I want next. I bought the Sony c555es with the intention to have it modded - but it hasn't happened yet. Instead I ended up with a squeezebox & a DA100 DAC. Now I'm wondering if the modded 555es will best the DA100. I don't have lots of experience with sources so hopefully someone will have some good suggestions for me. My amp is a SP PPX3 slam & my cans are RS1, Darth Beyer V3 & AT 900 ltd.

Just reading this review over at audio asylum. Chinese made top loading/upsampling (192khz) redbook CDP. Employs two 12ax7 tubes. $689 at Pacific Valve. Your thoughts?

I've gone through a few random setups and listened to a number of dedicated amps here and there over the past two years. A few days ago, however, I realized that I longed for a new beginning. My rig has been a total mess with cables running here and there, and equipment piled on top of each other at odd angles. I wanted something simpler. I started thinking about Jason's (jjcha) simplistic m902 setup and Peter's (Iron_Dreamer) multiple encounters with various all-in-one pieces. When I first started out in this hobby, my goal was an USB DAC and headphone amp all-in-one unit. Something like the Apogee Mini-DAC. I, as time has progressed, digressed and went the way of sep…

Anybody heard this cart? Rumor has it the 440MLa pairs well with the SL1200, and I'm thinking of picking one up not just for varieties sake, but also so I can get some practice adjusting cartridge alignment. http://www.needledoctor.com/Audio-Technica-440MLa-Cartridge?sc=9

Northstar M192 DAC (thanks Reks) Neat optical illusion. the faceplate is not wavy aluminum like it looks from the front. Back: Certainly a dynamite looking product. just some chicken scratch (upsampling turned on at all times, will mess around with it later), all testing was done switching back and forth. Started off with some John Zorn's Electric Masada and then some early King Crimson and Tool. I think the Lavry is still a very dynamic DAC, but the Northstar takes it to a whole different level. Loud sounds are huge, dynamic shifts (both macro and micro) sound incredibly lifelike. Dire Strait's Brothers In Arms/Communique (both WG Target discs) …

looks like a pretty interesting combo. still looking for that perfect <$1000 dac.. anyone have any experience with the p-3a in particular? this combo is years old but hey, worth a shot. has i2s which is nice. i think modwright has a mod for these.. edit: yes, they do.

I'm really enjoying the flexibility of this litte source, but it's led me to a decision on my computer setup. Right now, I have all my music on an external HD(2 actually) but it's time to bump up the space available as these are pretty much filled. So, is it better to continue with the external HD connected by USB2/Firewire or should I upgrade the aging HD on my server/desktop? I could bump up the HD on the desktop and keep the external HD's for backups. The desktop HD hasn't given a problem but it is an older drive which for my peace of mind could stand an upgrade. What's the thought? Btw, anyone got tips on a quick and painless way of cloning my existing HD onto the…

I got a TT for my birthday. It has usb and stuff for converting to digital, which seems convenient. *watches bank account implode*

I'm running a pair of monsoon mm 1000's off my stock soundcard. I'm thinking of a source upgrade but I'm not sure what my best option is. The speakers are self powered so I'm looking at: -cheap soundcard + external dac -good soundcard -usb dac The combo needs to be able to play music and games. Performance isn't an issue. I'm wondering where I'm going to get the best sound quality and bang for the buck from. Price range is whatever it takes to get something nice. Biggie.

This was linked from /. http://www.cepro.com/news/editorial/18229.html Kinda obvious, but hey maybe other will begin to take notice?

Just some pics of the nude stylus I thought were cool. You can see the dust on it, I need to get a record cleaning machine.

So basically my parents' Dual 721 turntable is mine along the classic Shure V15 type III cartridge. I don't even have a proper phonostage so I just plugged it into the phono inputs of my pawn shop special Technics receiver and put my Senn 580 right into its headphone out. It's a ghetto setup if there ever was one. Shockingly, my Senns don't suck anymore, they actually sound pretty good. Yeah there's still a bit of 3-blob effect in the soundstage and the imaging is still fuzzy compared to my K340, but the veil & sulky midrange is pretty much gone. The damn thing can actually do tone and rock out, a Senn with groove, who the fuck would've thought? Playing the live ve…

What do you guys think are some good low cost DACs? I'm not opposed to going the DIY route. Just needs a set of analog outs and one digital in (size/form factor not an issue, same with looks could be used uncased for all I care).

You can see what my current, primary home rig for headphone useage currently is. My sound quality is fantastic except for two things: 1.) I need to find a way to inject some more warmth without taking away from everything else. 2.) There's a touch of harshess that shows up at times that could stand to be refined out of there. This is not an earth shattering, extreme problem. That being said, I'm considering all kind of things from an external DAC that would turn my Onkyo 1000 into a glorified transport, a different set of cans although I'd hate to lose the 701's strengths, possibly a new source outright, or maybe some kind of "accessory" like this: http…

I just recieved my MAS Link II today, and so far my impressions are good.

Well, the package arrived! Wuhoo! Unpacking... Hmmmm... What is it? The Denon DA-500 With its most important feature, to me at least... The ALPHA processor! I've long loved the Denon pieces as mid-fi sources. I like the smooth presentation and warmth that their DAC and ALPHA processors provide, and it's something I've kind of built my headphone and speaker rigs around. Unfortunately my luck with Denons as transports has been, well, horrible. And now they only offer the ALPHA processor in pieces well out of my price range. So I started looking for other options. I came across this, which I hadn't seen before and figured it was worth a shot. I was…

For all you guys who are banned: Granodemostasa, another fellow Berkeley Head-Case'r, has graciously dropped off his Lavry DA10 for me to compare against my newly acquired Stello DP200. I think this will be a good comparison because both units are DAC/headamp combos, both can act as a pre-amp. That's where the similarities end. The Lavry is a non-upsampling DAC employing op-amps in Class-A mode in its analog output stage, while the Stello is a upsampling DAC (up to 192, with an option to bypass upsampling altogether) using fully-discrete, Class-A, balanced output stage. The Stello has a remote-control while the Lavry does not. Some pictures will better illustrate th…

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

Bought a Sony Modwright 999es second hand over at HF. Just got it in today! I've only listened to a few SACDs I purchase to check it out, but so far it is pretty magical. Couple of pics: Dedicated power supply: Only immediate impressions are that vocals on SACDs (depeche mode sofad, roxy music avalaon, harnoncourt mozart's requiem) seem much more real. Everything sounds wider, more rounded, all the various instruments seem to have a specific place they exist in. Very cool. The Mozart sounds wonderful. Looking forward to doing an AB test with the redbook FLACS of this through my DA100. The DM sofad I have mixed feelings about. The mix is very, ver…