Home Source Components

At Auriculares.org, the Spanish headphones forum a mate has posted a link to an Ebay shop in Taiwan. They sell a NOS DAC with USB and coax inputs, which doesn't look bad at all and is selling for USD180. I wonder if any of you have tried that unit or has some reliable third party opinions. I'd be glad reading them

Vinnie has released his new modular amp/dac/phono stage/headphone amp device he calls LIO. I like Vinnie at shows but have never owned any Red Wine Audio gear. How does this thing look to the HC tech folks and critics? Discuss. http://vinnierossi.com/

The story starts here: http://www.head-case.org/forums/home-source-components/5712-vintage-dac-sonic-frontiers-sfd-2-a.html So to summarize the story: last week I bought a vintage Sonic Frontiers DAC and I come home and the right channel is completely distorted. Although it managed to work for a few hours (giving me a taste of its magic), afterwards the distortion came back and never left . So I take it to a repair shop and the person confirms it is the right DAC is at fault. Yes, the one with the bizarre foil on it . So I've been had. The D20400A chip is probably quite hard to find these days and probably obsolete as well so a solution occurred to me which …

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?

So I've been researching a problem I've had for a while now. Mostly since I switched to the Denon DL-110 cartridge I've been encountering groove echo. It hits between tracks, or during quiet parts, and I'll hear a faint echo just before the sound hits (one revolution before, to be exact). It also tends to be a faint echo on the right side, even if the actual music is shifted more to the left. I have never heard a post-echo but can assume that they are present but being masked by the music. My copy of Keith Jarrett's Koln Concert is especially annoying, since there are so many pauses followed by a quick stab of piano. I've also heard it strongly before The Rolling Ston…

Ok, after the wife of all people told me to get the records and turntable out, not used since the 80's... here is where we stand, remember this was bought on a high school/college student budget... Technics SL-D3 mechanically still works Cartridge: ADC PSX-30 stylus is slightly bent Denon 3806 Receiver has phono input (MM type?) Where do I start to get going fast, and get the most improvement for the least $$ ?? I am thinking a new cartridge may be the first step.... Suggestions?? New name (analPete??)

So I've been listening off and on to my Thorens TD160 and so far I've got to say that I'm pretty unimpressed. Now, I know full well that I've probably got a crap cart on there and that it's not setup right but before investing in at least a Mid-Fi cart (you can expect a thread on that one too) I figured it'd be a good idea to at least get what I've got setup right. I'm not averse to spending a little money on this project but if someone tells me that I need hundreds of dollars of kit to setup my $200 vinyl rig that'll be the end of it. So what's the sane way of going about this? *paging postjack, paging postjack*

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…

First Listen: Wadia 151 PowerDAC mini | AVguide Seems to make quite a lot of sense for desktop/second systems.

Hi Everyone, I am planning to get a new bedroom rig to replace my old sony minitower. I am thinking of erecting it around the ipod nano and then using an ipod transport to feed the signal to a dac via spdiff. As far as I can check there are two choices currently: wadia 170i or onkyo nd-s1 ipod transport I was wodnering if anyone has tried either and can tell me about their experiences because I have no idea which to get. The onkyo is cheaper but the wadia is more widely available. Thanks in advance for any information Greetings, Anouk,

Hi everyone I want to upgrade my current soundcard which is the RME HDSP 9632 for my PC? can you recommend me some brand or cards which are better than mine? thanks

hi, right now my main source is a PC I want to buy a good used CD player which can play mp3 disks because most of my song are mp3 files. I know you may recommend me to use flossless files but I mainly download music from internet so flossless files are hard to find cables i have had so far are virtual dynamics digital RCA and analog RCA my budget will be around 4k when you recommend me the player, can you also give me a good price tag for it? which brand should i consider? thanks for your time

AudiogoN ForSale: Nakamichi Dragon CD - rare I haven't seen one of these for sale in a long while...

I was on A'gon and saw this for 1000 and couldn't resist..... and i actually was the first to get it... i pondered, i searched, i asked and found no rea answers or reviews... except engineering jib jab about it's interface. So i went ahead and bought it. now i'm left wondering if i should sell it the second i get it... the insides don't look all that impressive... and the reviewers seem so enchanted by it's USB input that they forgot to check how it sounds.

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

Price unknown, but if it's sensible they should sell plenty. Since this is almost certainly using the exact same receiver board that's in the Wavelength and Ayre USB DACs, it'll probably also be upgradable to support 192kHz sample rates eventually.

Alright, so I'm still debating my next source upgrade, I had pretty much decided on a Storm Digital D02 (or baby D02 depending on whether I feel my shelf can handle the over 20 lbs of the regular D02) to be paired up with my Headamp GS-1 but in the past couple of days I've been reading more about people using the balanced outputs of the Lavry DA10 and I've also been reading more about the benefits of recabled, balanced headphones which has brought the DA10 back into consideration. I expect the D02 + GS-1 combo would give me a similar but improved sound over what I have now and because of the GS-1's versatility it would give me a very flexible system that can easily be …

I've recently bought a Lite DAC-39 second hand. At that time I did not have a proper coaxial line-out cable so I substituted it with a box-standard rca cable. I got imbalanced sound. So I bought a Zu audio Firemine and I thought the problem went away. But upon closer analysis, the problem persists in a different form. The left channel of the unbalanced output sounds "out of phase" the highs are pretty decent but the mids and bass are washed out. The right channel on the other hand is full bodied and sounds fantastic. I've troubleshooted my entire system and the problem definitely lies with the DAC. Both coaxial and optical inputs produce the same imbalance. I have alre…

Might be useful to a few folks if the price is not too outrageous.

Oops, that's Nylon Jungle Ahhhh the analog sounds of a rock being scraped over a piece of pressed plastic. Can't beat it. I was bound to get here at some point. I've resisted it for awhile, mostly due to cost and upkeep hassle and the pesky need to flip over something when 1/2 the album is over. But a friend mentioned the new Rega P1 turntable, it's great price and the fact that it's plug and play...so off I went to the local Hi-Fi shop to greet my smiling Rega dealer. Of course so thread is complete without pics: This is my first real dive into hi-end vinyl and it's a budget entry for sure, but so far, I gotta say, not bad at all. I'm run…

I'm looking a few different options. I'm looking for a [redacted] that let's the [redacted] do the heavy lifting and retain its signature sound. So I guess the [redacted] has to be clean and [redacted]. I'm looking at the [redacted], [redacted], [redacted] and also the [redacted]. What are your thoughts on my selection?

I've been looking through 10 pages of google results and nothing. If there is a webpage somewhere that lists sources and their respective DAC chips I'd love ot have a look. Or if someone here owns a Marantz vc5200 and knows the answer that'd be great. I got this 5disc player back in 2001, loved it, and was never curious about what's inside. But recently I crawled out of the rock I was living under and bought an entry set: hd650, gilmore lite, pico dac. So while I'm biting nails through this 3-4 week wait time until shipment I research what I have, feed my curiosity, and try not to bother justin everyday ..wasn't sure if I should have put this post in the "Genera…

HeadRoom runied my life with their new Max Modules. I can hear everything wrong with my source that I was blissfully unaware of. I think I'm going to go back to the Desktop Module so I can enjoy my music again! I'm using the stock Desktop DAC (fed by APX). It's good for what it is, but the class A/B OPA134's as the output stage really limits its sonic potential. Though, the Desktop and Home DAC boards are the same board, so if someone was very handy with surface mount opamps and transistors, it wouldn't be difficult to turn it into a Home DAC. Does anyone have any relatively low cost external recommendations to spice up my life in the source department? Doesn't rea…

I understand the importance of wanting to bypass all of the Windows filters and crap to achieve bit-perfect output to feed a DAC, but what's with these converters out there with their own dedicated power supplies? Is that really necessary? I'm not technical by ANY means, but what I do understand is that they are basically taking a digital signal (via USB) and...converting it...to...a digital signal (via Coax). How should that process have any affect on the sound? And if it does, doesn't that mean you just bought a crappy product with a nice external power supply? Please, enlighten me, my head hurts.

I sold a Valab NOS DAC I had in preparation for the $320 Chameleon NOS DAC group buy. I loved the Valab, and it delivered on what I wanted it to (musicality and vocals), and I assumed the Chameleon would only better that. However, I read through the NOS DAC bashing thread with Dan Lavry, and now I'm wondering if my love for the Valab is only because I haven't heard any other half decent DACs. What's yall's opinions on NOS DACs as a whole? Would you advise getting the Chameleon, ever? The only other DAC I've read of that has the traits I desire (warmth, musicality, etc; basically analog sound) is the DAC19MKIII, which is unavailable until later this month and costs…