Home Source Components

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!

I know that some of my pals here are transferring their vinyl collections to digital. Most are using some kind of DAW to split, trim and perhaps add fades to the resulting files which are usually the size of an album side. I'm a big believer in "less it more" in audio and that goes double for editing digital. Light weight programs tend to sound better, are much faster and above all, are a breeze to learn. To that end, I have 5 different programs that I use for audio editing/processing depending on what needs to be done. I could have one DAW that does all that (maybe lacking one or two of the functions) but they tend to be what folks call "bloatware" and have 100's of …

I posted this on HF, after a bazillion threads appeared about the latest players. Seems like a few random, and some not so random developers have come out with iTunes alternatives. Here is a list of the players currently available that I know of, along with some basic information about them. I figured there'd be some interest in this here as well. Note: I haven't included Cog, as it is no longer being developed and doesn't work properly with 10.6. Amarra by Sonic Studio http://www.sonicstudio.com/amarra/ Commercial, demo available for download. Comes in three flavours: Amarra, Amarra Mini and Amarra Junior with varying features and prices. The player int…

http://www.needledoctor.com/Furutech-GT-40-Headphone-Amp-DAC Good review of this unit in the new issue of Tone Audio. This thing is a serious swiss army knife: -24/96 DAC over USB -Headphone amp -MM/MC Phono Stage! nice. -ADC! handles needledrops up to 24/96. All for $480. This is cool because I was just thinking it would be cool if more of these "all in one" type audio devices (benchmark, peachtree, etc) started incorporating phono stages. I could see this unit sitting on a desktop next to a Rega RP-1 or some other budget deck making a really awesome rig. The review in Tone Audio is worth a read, but in a nutshell they say any of the individual features (D…

Phasure NOS1 DAC... I'm just trying to find more info on this...possibly from someone who has the means to own a 2900 euro DAC:)... seems to be a little more info elsewhere in the XXHighEnd forums...

New DAC from Rega: http://www.rega.co.uk/html/DAC.htm Wolfson chipses. I like Wolfson chipses. Discuss.

Bravo !!! I was hoping this site was serious.... First question... Thread closed after 2 answers.... Obviously, I was wrong.... No, I never had any "welcome" message.... You guys don't worth much... Denys

Good day everyone, I am in the process of purchasing a new DAC.... So Far, I bought a pair of Sennheiser HD800 and a WOO Audio 6 SE headphone amp. All my music is on Apple Lossless on an external hard drive. My last step is the purchase of a new DAC..... AUDIO-GD is what I have in mind so far.... This company has a lot of fans on Head-Fi, but it doesn't seem to be the same thing here.... The DAC I will buy should last at least 10 years.... maybe more, like my HD800 amd my headphone amp. As I will not have the chance of listening to the DAC before I buy it, I seek for your help... I am thinking of the Audio GD NFB 8 or REF 5 or Wyred 4 Sound Dac 1 o…

we're using this player in our room at CES 29-321, it is mighty impressive. My choice for a reference level CD Player, smoking Good. The VAC Preamp and amps also impress mightily. The Symposium speakers after several years as a not quite ready for prime time are finally Readyfor Prime time. Still the system without cables and racks sells for $70,000 Here's hoping I get. good job so upgrading the audio system might become possible. I'm going to try and take some pictures to post.

b-DAC Features & specs • USB, SPDIF and optical inputs, low jitter SPDIF output • Balanced and single ended outputs, including volume control, drive your power amp directly • Low jitter Tentlabs clock (<1ps rms jitter) feeding the sample rate converter and dedicated reclocking stages • 12 independent supply regulators • SRC4382 upsampler, selectable sample rate • 24 bits 192kHz PCM1792 DAC, all inputs reclocked • -117dB distortion at 0dBfs (thd 0,0006%) • Selectable filters and phase • All functions remote controlled • Striking design, includes milled aluminium front panel and stainless steel cabinet Updates • Expected delivery: next batch mid Janu…

Anyone keeping an eye on this one? Might be of some interest... Teddy Pardo TeddyDac DAC review - nightmusic - Digital Drive Teddy Pardo home of TeddyCap TeddyXPS power supply for Naim Audio replaces HiCap and XPS

"Luxman has released the DA-200 USB DAC by combining the P-1u headphone amp and the D-05". link

Just caught this on computeraudiophile's site. I've got ayrewave, amarra, I've used pure music and twilight and this one is nice. I just drag and drop the cd I want to play from my music folder in itunes and it loads right up. Has memory play and auto sample rate change as well, best of all it is open source and free for the moment at least. http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/New-OSX-Opensource-audiophile-player-Audirvana

I was always under the impression that so long as you got "bit perfect" out to your DAC, it was all good. Is this true? Am I dumb? Learn me.

Ok it all started with the desire to get away from browsing 2000 plus cds and the desire to have it all computer browsable and searchable. Then came the transporter, cosecant (god the margin on that thing), various dacs with usb>spidf convertors (do they all suck) Then the software Now it's back to the hardware and dang if an SSD isn't a freaking huge improvement, please call the cult extraction team now. Compared the the steaming pile of shit otherwise know as my DROBO, moving my 24 bit Beatles and 24/96 HD tracks stuff to the SSD was a fairly impressive improvement (or I am ready for me meds) Anyone else take the leap to an SSD and hear a difference

OPPO BDP-95 Blu-ray Disc Player

What are some of the contenders in the under $1k range new? Just stick with Sony?

I know that Audio-gd products are not popular here, but under my budget, I'm looking at Audio-gd NFB-11(Sabre32 9018 ) and NFB-12(dual WM8741s). Since they are the same design except for the D/A chip, I'd like to know how Sabre32 9018 compared to WM8741. There are negative comments about 9018. DIY'ers didn't like the fact that the chip cannot be obtained thru "normal means" nor even the white paper. MSB even concluded: "So the hot new 32 bit DAC is actually a 6 bit DAC! Right from their own white paper. It is undoubtably a good DAC for the mass consumer market it was designed for. It is certainly nothing of interest to the high-end community, especially as the the D…

A buddy is looking to buy one of these for himself and I was wondering if there were any other units that cover the same features any better. The DAC1 is a DAC, preamp, headphone amp, and has a remote control. He would be replacing a larger preamp and likes the smaller form factor of the DAC1 all-in-one. Your thoughts would be appreciated.

... is your video card. When combined with an AV receiver, the current generation of video cards, both ATI and Nvidia, offer HDMI 1.4a support, allowing your video card to digitally output lossless 192 kHz quality to your AV receiver (Dolby TrueHD and all that jazz.) Could this possibly be the solution to building a decent computer listening rig, when noisy internal sound cards that everyone has been shying away from have proved to be incompetent? The only problem I see with this is that most DACs and stereo receivers do not accept HDMI input, which raises the question, are there any components out there that can effectively utilize this? Or more specificall…

I can't find it on the HR page, and Google searches aren't turning up much that is useful. It's still pictured in a few of the HR-BUD photos and a PDF of the manual is still online, but that's about it. I did some preliminary searches on head-fi, but I can barely navigate that site these days. If it's in fact gone, it seems like an odd move to me. The "build your own Max" option of buying a HR-BUD, HR-UDAC and DPS is no longer possible. Not to mention the lack of a top of the line source for the HR power amps + Harbeths. Where's Tyll when you need him?* *Yes, I realize he's no longer directly affiliated with the company.

Audiolab, design by John Westlake. I'd like to hear these. Sabre32 DACs, really reasonable price. Audiolab 8200CD and 8200CDQ CD Players - eCoustics.com A forum that John has been posting on as of late: At last...................... - Page 29 - pink fish media

What do you guys think the SQ on lower end DAC (ESI Nano/Gamma 1/Ordnance DAC/Go Vibe DAC fed by losless from computer vs a direct play using CD from a standard issue DVD player ($100 or lower price) ? Which is better in your opinion ? My take is on this lower end DAC, DVD player playing CD is better.....

I got an HRT Music Streamer II for my parents Mac Mini. Just needed a cheap DAC and wanted one that didn't need a power supply. In theory, this DAC fits the bill. In practice, that's not the case. For anyone out there considering the HRT, be forewarned that you very likely will need to run it off a powered USB hub. It appears to simply draw to much power to run reliabily out of a 'puter's USB ports. There are a bunch of posts about this on the internets, but I figured I'd give a heads up here, too.

A new music player: AyreWave from sbooth.org Mentioned here: Stereophile: Wavelength Leads the Way Initial impressions this morning is that it puts out better music than Amarra Mini (2.0.1). More texture to instruments (low-level detail) with my LCD-2 or borrowed O2 rigs. If I don't pay attention, but just listen to a good acoustic track in a relaxed manner in both, then I get the feeling that Amarra is a little bit more hard-edged digital in presentation and with AyreWave the music sounds a bit more "real". The simple UI is good: Select a bunch of tracks in iTunes or the Finder and click on the relevant button in AyreWave to add them to the persistent playli…