Home Source Components

Thought I would start a new thread to ask all my newbie questions and host the pictures.

So a few weeks ago I had the chance to get together with some folks and listen to some nice vinyl rigs. Crap, I'm now ruined, because I've now heard what vinyl can really do, and it's goddamn scary how good it is. What was most shocking to me was the soundstage and the amount of low level details. With vinyl, I could be practically anywhere in the room (other than right next to a speaker or something absurd like that) and the soundstaging would still be as good or better than sitting in the sweetspot with CDs. In the sweetspot, it's like there's no speakers in the room, even with non-audiophile records like a 30 year old Bob Marley LP. In terms of detail resolution it was…

So they finally dropped the price on an Arcam FMJ CD36 in Canada. But... 1) Will there be a replacement soon for the CD36? 2) I'm still waiting for reviews of the upcoming Oppo DV-983 - it's supposed to have the same audio output section as the DV-980H. 3) Can a TweakAudio modded Oppo beat an Arcam flagship CD player? 4) Does an Arcam transport beat an Oppo transport? 5) The Oppo can play HDCD and SACD discs - does Redbook quality trump Hirez playback? 6) Oppo has video output - is it worth sacrificing great DVD upsampling video for brilliant audio? Also, I listened for about an hour this weekend to the $2,500 NAD M5 on a NAD M3 amp with (green) Audioquest …

While helping my older brother move a couple weeks ago he mentioned that he was going to ebay his TT. I had remembered it being a decent player so I offered to keep it in the family. So as of today, I'm the proud owner of a pretty mint Thorens TD 160 MKI. It has the original tonearm and cartridge, the latter of which will be replaced as soon as funds present themselves. Also, tomorrow I'll be ordering up the DIY version of the Hagerman Bugle which I've been told should fit nicely into my mid-fi vinyl plans. Best part is the TT came complete with 30 albums or so including some original Zeppelin and other stuff my brother had picked up along the way. Nate

The first review for the Sony box thing is out: http://www.whathifi.com/sony/uhp-h1/review $349 USD seems like a reasonable price if it competes with the Oppo BDP players. I'd love to see a head-to-head comparison of their video and audio performance.

I've been thinking about getting a squeezebox or a sound card with bit-perfect output. I'll be feeding the digital out from the squeezebox or sound card to the digital input on the Opus 21 (coax in only). The squeezebox would be the more convenient solution but I really hate the slimserver software. The last time I really used it, was early this year (february or march) and I couldn't stand it. It was slow, and seemed very buggy. Has it improved at all? Now if I go the sound card route, it'd be cheaper as I'd just need something with a good digital out (coax). Plus I'd get the benefit of using foobar which I absolutely love. The downside to the sound card idea is t…

Looks like the Abrahamsen v6.0 DAC is shipping in Norway, according to a thread on HF. But it's only shipping in Norway.

Just got the June 2010 issue of Stereophile today and a review of this DAC was in there. Every important input (coaxial, optical, AES/EBU, USB), USB upsampled to 24/192, and it has both RCA and XLR balanced outputs - for $879! And it's also a headphone amp. I think I might have to try one. The review says the DAC chip is the PCM1796. Here's a pic (it's the one on the top):

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'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…

I am looking for a good way to implement a music distribution system in a largish space. The space is ~10,000 sqft with several rooms and several levels. The space is a noisy workshop, so audiophile sound is not really a consideration. I would like to have multiple nodes that play music and that can be synchronized, or be used independently. The more wireless the system is, the better. I would like to accomplish two distinct things: - the first is to allow multiple users to play music from a central server to one or more nodes. - the second is to allow users to play music from a device (laptop/phone/etc) to send to the rest of the system. There is a large ser…

A couple of highly respected members here have reccomended the DEQ2496 as a DAC. I am very interested and would like to hear some other opinions on this cool piece of equipment. I also do some home recording and can see where some of its feautures would help me there. My main concern is how it would sound as a DAC. I understand that being pro-audio gear vs. audiophile gear that it will probably be a little more cold and anylitical. But paired with my Bijou amp which is very warm and lush, though it might make a good combo. Anybody have some comments or reccomondations. I am looking for a desktop DAC. It does not need to be portable in any way. I would like …

I'm wondering if anyone has heard a Exemplar 3910? I know some of you have the 2900 Exemplar and feel it is a great redbook player. Here is the link of the sale I am looking at: AudiogoN ForSale: Exemplar Denon DVD-3910 Thanks for your help and input

Has anyone ever built and/or heard one of these? It looks pretty interesting to me, having transformer coupled output and all.

Can find absolutely nothing else about this new hawt new box apart from the clip on Simaudio's own site, but thought it was worth posting just to give Dinny a stiffy. Looks dangerous, and expensive. But a kickass (universal?) player with properly implemented digital input would be pretty damn sweet. And eight 32-bit DACs per channel is, like, a whole bucket of bits man!

No doubt there will be plenty of announcements at CES 2012 of interest to us, so I thought I'd start a thread to keep track of the sources announced at the show . Who knows, maybe we can encourage Tyll, or other visitors to get a closer look for us. I'll start off with something that might interest Dinny CES 2012: Arcam to launch £2000 FMJ D33 DAC With the market now full of new-generation digital audio devices and sources, Arcam is proud to introduce its latest and highest performing DAC to date, the D33 SuperDAC. Using state of the art dual Burr Brown PCM1792, 24bit / 192kHz converters (one per channel), twin toroidal transformers in the power …

So I just bought a used G4 Mac Mini for $89.00. Thought I'd try it out, now that I have a USB DAC. I guess at this point my plan is just Mini to Zdac via USB, and iTunes as player. Not sure what operating system is on the Mini (should arrive before the first of Dec.) I've browsed for small LED monitors, but with no luck. Is there an iPad sized monitor out there? Curious about how everyone else is running their Mini based setups, all advice welcomed.

Hey y'all, first post since coming from Head-fi... Filburt graciously turned me onto Headcase this past weekend (thanks, Filburt!!) I was wondering if anyone has had personal experience between the ECD-1 and the Northstar M192... both in an unmodded state. I currently have an opportunity for both. I'd prefer to use them stock (not ready to plow funds into mods right now)... but may want to mod them in the future. So, I guess... how would you rank them stock... and how would you rank them EA'd? ...some "why" would be really helpful, too! BTW, I'll be using them with an EC ZD and Senn HD580's... and I seriously dig Filburt's modded Assemblage 2.6 with the ZD/HD580's.…

Hi, I hope this isn't a stupid question, but anyway: How is a $2000 CD transport better than a $200 one? As far as transports go the output is entirely digital, there are no analog stages that can be affected by inteference/component quality/etc. So what's the difference? Digging through doesn't seem to yield any definitive answer. I wish I could A/B them, but unfortunately its hard to come by in my area. Thanks!

I see, on the Rega web site, that they have just released the Saturn. And you can read the details there.

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 …

It arrived yesterday, didn't get around to taking any pics till tonight though. here's some internal shots of the external tube rectified ps: and a few shots of the 9100es internal and external: Initial impressions are positive so far, it has absolutely killer bass and I'm pleasantly surprised by it's ability retain a coherent stage regardless of the complexity of the music.

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…

I was recently able to pick this up after a year or two of searching. I figured I'd post some pics that I had on hand, only internals atm. It uses 2 AD1862s, and has two outputs. One of them is fixed level while the other can be attenuated by a TKD pot. Supposedly this was a CES prototype so there's no power switch. Sounds great, a shame I can't compare it to my Spectral which recently melted down. Using it with a Legato 2, which was designed by the same guy (Jocko Homo)

Have any of you Parasound DAC owners tried these ASE-Audiotuning "upgrades"? http://www.audiotuning.de/english/index.html?1-54-digital.html