Home Source Components

The line out of the motherboard in the desktop is as noisy as anything I have ever heard. It does have an optical out though... Last night I pulled out the bottlehead crack and hd650s and they sounded mighty fine. I loved them with the emotive xda1 and the xda2 is only $219 right now but I don't have the room for it. I haven't kept up with the dac market for the past few years. The PS Audio DL 3 works well with the speakers so I am not inclined to do anything with it but it is already being fed by an Apple TV and only has one optical input. Any suggestions for a dac that has an optical input in a similar budget (if need be I'll try to make room for the xda2 but I'd ra…

The Absolute Sound gets mobbed in the comment section: http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/comparing-sacd-to-a-dsd-download-a-follow-up-report/

My brother left his Apogee Centaur speakers with me to sell when he left for South America. I've had an ad on US Audio Mart for quite awhile, and while it has attracted some responses (including 1 local, but couldn't meet up the same night he was looking at some Maggies), has not resulted in getting rid of these for my brother. I just got an offer for a trade for a Monarchy m22A, plus some Tek Line power cord. Anyone have an opinion on this DAC? It certainly would seem easier to sell for something without requiring me to pack or crate the speakers (dude would come and pick them up). Thanks for any input! p.s. And I know this is more like a bar... I am drinking…

Im considering one of these for a portable rig any suggestions? Im obviously looking for a very high quality portable device. Astell&Kern looks awesome but $2500 is steap....The Geek Wave looks like it might trump the AK240 in SQ based on the specs and the designer plus its a fraction of the cost. Thanks in Advance

I find myself in a pickle today. I turned on my old, Win XP audio PC/music server and found it broke. Specifically, 2 separate components were malfunctioning. One was the Rocketfish eSATA hard drive enclosure, which housed my 3.5" drive with Win XP OS AND music (I do have data backup), which developed some kind of error, leading to my PC not even booting up, at times citing "disc read error" or "I/O error," depending on which time I rebooted. I temporarily solved the issue by simply moving my hard drive inside my PC in SATA bay. This is not optimal because I had previously found my system to sound cleaner and purer with the hard drive outside the computer via eS…

So I'm kind of a dummy when it comes to speaker wiring. Right now I have two large spreakers that are also subwoofers(Pic 1). It's an old system but it still sounds great. The problem I'm having is that I don't want the large clunky thing that connects it all together(Pic 2) I only use it to play my iPod and to adjust the bass. The CD player/tape player/ and radio all don't work. Only AUX works, which is fine because I don't need the other ones. What I need is a converter so I can just plug the speakers into the iPod. It's not so simple however since the speakers are subwoofers AND speakers(Pic 3) So anyone know what kind of converter I could use? I'm not trying to …

Ok, so I know you guys don't like long posts or reviews, so I'll make this as short as possible. I recently got to spend some time with the PureDAC and found it to be a really interesting DAC. I'm very sorry if this ends up being an unwanted topic, but maybe someone's interested in it, so hey... maybe it's worth the risk. I found it to be a fine use of a Sabre chip. Sounds colder than both my Abrahamsen V6.0 and Electrocompaniet ECD-1, but comparatively more tonally correct. Mids take a step or two backwards and are more relaxed. The V6.0's mids, surprisingly, end up sounding harsh in comparison. It's just a very cohesive, linear and incredibly refined and transparent…

A friend of mine who is a music producer and is not nor ever will be a DJ wants to build a phono rig for digitizing vinyl. His budget is $1000. He needs a phono pre with a line out (he's got the ACD covered), a turntable and needle. He's asked me, but my phono knowledge is too DJ-centric. Any HCers have some suggestions for those three components that fit within his budget constraints? Are there any turntables with built in pres in that range that are not utter crap? Also, he'd like to be able to play back 16 and 78RPM records but that requirement is is secondary to the above needs.

Looks like a cheap fun way to mess around with DSD. http://www.ifi-audio.com/en/Nano_iDSD.html

I get the jitters reading this. http://www.audiostream.com/content/qa-john-swenson-part-2-are-bits-just-bits

Finally have a little cash to become active around here again. Looking for a USB DAC to match up with the Lambda normal bias + SRM-T1 I just bought from Birgir. I've narrowed it down to these 2. Any have any personal experience with either? Anything else you'd recommend? Looking to keep the price under $500.

This may be interesting, thoughts: http://www.psaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/DirectStream-DAC-white-paper.pdf http://www.digitalaudioreview.net/2014/02/ps-audio-to-rescue-pcm-with-directstream-perfectwave-dac/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ps-audio-to-rescue-pcm-with-directstream-perfectwave-dac http://www.monoandstereo.com/2014/02/ps-audio-directstream-dac.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+monoandstereo%2FHOym+%28MONO+AND+STEREO+Ultra+High-End+Audio+Magazine%29

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/high-end-pc-audio,3733-19.html I'll be in the funny pictures thread.

A little bit back I sold all my dynamic stuff and went complete electrostat. I was tired of the admittedly lovely, but nit picky Grado GS1000's which sounded like god on certain stuff but which would fall apart on certain other tracks (think early 80's, very thin, sharp in the highs Husker Du tracks, etc.). I haven't been disappointed with the decision. The Stax SRM-323S amp ... Stax SR-307 and Koss ESP950 headphones that I chose are pretty much a dream combination in so far as working with my entire collection of digital music which spans everything from Black Tusk to Bach to Dana Kurtz to Alela Diane to Judas Priest to the Swans. Pretty diverse and on constant rando…

This could be end up being a nice solution for some. http://store.acousticsounds.com/d/94817/Sony-USB_Hi-Res_DAC_System-DA_Converter_or_Processor

Hello, need some suggestions for a DAC to use with PC. I realize there are a wide plethora of options listed in the forum, but would like some help narrowing the list down to budget. Currently using the Pico DAC/amp for everything, but was wondering if there is a better option, specifically for desktop use with USB. I've been contemplating upgrading to powered speakers, and STAX, so it's probably time for a source upgrade as well. What options do I got?

No professional reviews of this $2,000 box yet. 2 slavering 5-star fanboy "reviews" on the Sony site. Now in stock at Amazon. Who will be first in line for Sony's other new digital box thingy? http://www.theonion.com/video/sony-releases-new-stupid-piece-of-shit-that-doesnt,14309/ I am enjoying my Azurite Blue PS3, though. It works OK... I guess.

I know a few here jumped on the Geek Out DAC/amp when offered on Kickstarter. Rumor is the desktop version is going up on Indiegogo in a couple hours. http://parttimeaudiophile.com/2013/10/28/light-harmonic-introduces-desktop-geek-pulse-on-indiegogo/ “Geek Pulse” provides superb sound quality from a wide range of high-resolution formats, in an easy-to-use plug-and-play device. “Pulse”‘s DAC natively decodes PCM files up to 32-bit/384kHz, as well as native decoding of DSD64 and DSD128 files, and features the Patent-Pending 3L buffer introduced by Light Harmonic in Da Vinci DAC. The amplifier is pure Class-A, utilizing a super-quiet DC power supply to produce 3,000 …

any recommendations for low cost or free EQ software that handles an 80dB range with more than 10 adjustable frequencies ? for OS X 10.8 or Windows7 I was looking for a means to evaluate my comparative sensitivity to different frequencies across the audible spectrum, found this site and gave it a go. http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/hearing.html the range indicated seems to be over 75 dB (image attached below) I use both a mac ( OSX 10.8 ) and a pc ( Windows7 ) I would like to experience whether EQ'ing my systems to meet my seeming audio sensitivity/insensitivity will be good or not. audio sources will be games, youtube, soundcloud and lik…

A pre with a MM/MC stage, a 24/192 DAC and a sub-1K price. Could solve a few problems, no? Parasound Halo P 5 Stereo Preamplifier Preview http://www.audioholics.com/av-preamp-processor-reviews/parasound-halo-p-5-stereo-preamplifier http://www.electronichouse.com/article/parasound_halo_p_5_delivers_2-channel_audio_goods/C37

Ancient Dac, but has anyone heard one of these? How does it compare to the Parasound D/AC-1600 I have? Supposedly the 2000 was touted as being a noticeable step up and was much more expensive (I think 2x the price) at the time. I see them come up a few times a year on ebay and was wondering if they're worth the 600-800 dollars they normally go for. I'm a huge Parasound fanboy and have wanted one for a while. Anyone ever hear one?

Don't see much coverage around since it was released a few days ago, but the price is right for a lot of uses. Anyone heard anything pro/con? http://www.emotivapro.com/products/stealth-dc-1-a

Just got the PS Audio newsletter, an interesting product coming soon. Phono Pre and A-D Converter. Snippets: Info on digital output

So I was looking through Sound & Visions report on new products in NY show, came upon a turntable section. They had a picture of the new Pro-Ject Essential turntable, and I realized it's used to play those old 1970's albums backwards to get all the satanic messages. Little surprised no one has corrected that picture, it's been up for a while

<p>Since Justin's thread wasn't really about a DSD DAC, I thought I'd continue the discussion here.&nbsp; I'm far too lazy to split out the discussion from there and point it here, so I'll just point to <a href="">it there from here</a>.&nbsp; Of particular interest is Torpedo's post <a href="">here</a>.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>So...seems the cheapest points of entry are the <a href="http://www.teac.com/product/ud-501/">Teac</a>, a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Korg-Ds-dac-10-Digital-Analog-Converter/dp/B009YD4NVQ">Korg</a>, the pre-outs from a <a href="http://www.pioneerelectroni…