Home Source Components

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?

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 …

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…

My apl denon 3910 arrived today, early impressions are extremely positive, it might be the best digital I've heard. I've attached some pics, including some internal shots. Some of the pcb and parts added are mounted in what I'd call a questionable fashion using some sort of epoxy looking material. It does sound really fantastic though.

I was thinking of picking up this computer to use as a transport for the Pico Dac: The Dell Online Store: Build Your System It comes with XP Home, 1 gb ram and 8 gb ss hard drive. It's $299 and has a 8.9" screen. I would be running itunes only with an external drive connected to it containing the music files. It seems perfect as it has a small screen if any issues come up requiring reboots, etc. I would use the remote on my iphone. I had the mac mini, which was great but also had to have a separate monitor attached. This will save room and should do exactly what I need.

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

Recently upgraded my DAC from Stello to MSB Power DAC (no USB, but with remote volume control). Some basic ergonomic gaffes: - No volume indicator - Volume setting isn't saved after unplugging the DAC, and the default seems to be minimum volume - No mute button - Remote control's power button doesn't do anything (the DAC's power button switches between pure battery to battery + charger) Also, the volume control is digital, so I have it at max whenever possible. Tested using either HP-2 + ECSS or Tetra 120U + Gainclone. As of now, I only have my integrated sound card's digital out (waiting for a decently implemented and priced USB->SPDIF converter). Sound…

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

Link to thread on Slim Devices' forum.

Hagerman Bugle + DL-103 Associated Equipment: Technics SL1200MK2 Sumiko Headshell Cambridge Audio 840A Quad 22L Introduction I remember when I first got into vinyl blah blah roy gandy is a swell guy. The Story While the DL-103 > Cinemag SUT > Bottlehead Seduction sounds great with rock recordings, I've been experiencing some brightness when listening to certain jazz records which I know aren't mastered bright (Hoffman 45s). After trying to do everything I could with my speakers (move to and fro front and side walls, toe-in), and confident that my cartridge is setup perfectly, I remembered something I read about cartridge brightness usually ha…

Has anyone here listened to it? I've read some reviews and it sounds like it would fit my needs fairly well for moveability and convenience. I also like what I read about its sound, but I'd be interested in other opinions.

Neko Audio D100 Impressions After being a speaker only guy for awhile I wanted to put together a headphone rig again for late night listening sessions. I had never sold my 650's so I had the headphone part covered and then I was fortunate enough to get a Dynahi at a fantastic price. Leaving the source as the only thing left to get, I knew I wanted a dac as I was planning to use the Squeezebox as the transport. I've heard quite a few dacs in the $1k price range over the years and none really ever satisfied me and some I flat out hated then I recalled reading this thread about a new transformer coupled dac. I've had very good experiences with transforme…

Guys, do you like Dave, how is it?

Indie bands have been releasing cassettes for a few years, but now a new cassette player has been released. I was cleaning my place and stumbled on some old cassettes... taking some time to listen through all of them (especially since many of them are unlabeled/mislabeled) on my ancient Walkman. Unfortunately, this new player doesn't measure or perform very well, but perhaps it will stir the big players into producing something better. https://www.wearerewind.com

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

Im looking for a new dac and I stumble across an Adcom GDA700. Has anyone tried this one compared to gamma 2. It seems the Adcom is a good choice, but im not very technical so I have not been able to compare them based on the specs.

My son is getting into vinyl and I'm not much into it myself so I don't know what a good entry turntable is. Any good suggestions?

I've finally accumulated enough SACD and DVD-A titles that both of these players are cheap enough to probably warrant a purchase. A used 2900 on Audiogon is roughly $200. And there are so many Oppo models I don't know which are the good ones. Video playback doesn't matter, it won't be used. Or any other options in the $200 range that I didn't think of. I like a slightly warmer sound, not the stereotypical "digital playback", so from reading this is sort of pushing me towards the Denons. Modding capability is a plus since I wouldn't be opposed to that in the future. Basically I'm tired of spending so long figuring out the copy protection on DVD-A discs tearing my hair o…

Around the time I first joined over there it seems like there were fewer choices in DACs. Benchmark and Lavry seemed to be the go-to options, though there were certainly other contenders: Apogee, HeadRoom, Grace, Bel Canto, Monarchy, Channel Islands, and others, as well as various experiments in NOS: Ack!, Lite, etc. Then came Zhaolu, and it seemed to usher in a new micro-era of willingness to tread away from the beaten path. Audio-GD's extensive DAC lineup is a good example of the proliferation of options these days. I really have no sense for what the standouts are anymore (among similarly priced products). I'm not sure review reading is terribly illuminating, sinc…

Does anybody know anything more about this system? http://ifi-audio.com/portfolio-view/retro-stereo-50/ Color me intrigued.

I have a friend overseas whose previous old Aune DAC (limited to handle 24/48 PCM) stopped working. Due to lack of most other products availability in his country, he has purchased the Ifi Zen DAC V2. First impressions were not good, but with some tweaking on Windows configuration and playback software he got it working kind of OK. He has found out that Foobar and AIMP (which for some reason he loves) can't deliver to the DAC the files at the same sampling/bit depth that they originally have. They go up or downsampled according to the settings he chooses in the player software, but he can't get the system to send the audio stream thru USB at its original bitrates automati…

I thought about putting this in the DIY forum but mostly it's about a modded new source, so here it is. Full credit goes to Brain Donegan (of Twisted Pear Audio) who showed me one of these when I was at his house picking up some other parts. He also pointed me to the thread at DIY Audio where some guys had figured out a nifty little mod for the units, more on that in a minute. In stock form this is essentially a poor man's Squeezebox. It's setup to work with a MusicMatch library file and allows you to stream mp3's from your PC wirelessly and connect it to your amplification device of choice via the unit's analog outputs. Not all that special until you factor in three …

With my 4-channel Beta22 being assembled by thrice and only having had an H120 fed piccolo dac then my current H120 or usb fed mini-dac I have a question. How do usb fed dacs compare to cd sources ? I am particularly curious about the balanced redbook cd sources in the sub $2000 and sub $1000 price brackets either new, secondhand or pre-built diy.

Did anyone see this? https://schiit.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=0&products_id=11 Sounds promising. They seem to have been building pretty good products in the 200-400 price range and it's nice to see them getting more ambitious. Specs alone look quite good!

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