Home Source Components

HF thread here This guy's review and measurements here I'm not about to comment on the legitimacy of the measurements, but the uDAC-2 is apparently pretty shitty. NuForce seems to agree but not really care that it's shitty. John Atkinson measured a NuForce CD player, and it was also real shitty. This doesn't speak of the entire NuForce lineup, but I do find it amusing considering the relative popularity of that brand over thar. Can I safely conclude that HF has terrible taste in everything?

I was advertising for a used Zhalou with a zap filter discrete output stage on head-fi. I received this pm from Ori at Oritek .... Perhaps this would do the trick for you... I'm offering a modded Zhaolu D2.5A with a discrete output stage. In my opinion it has several advantages over the Zapfilter. We can talk about that if you have an interest in purchasing the unit. The price is $475 plus shipping. A second set of RCA outputs is $40 extra. I'm also offering now a discrete headphone amplifier option for $254 extra. It will drive any dynamic headphones with the possible exception of the AKG K-1000. I've tried a K340 and it is LOUD and clear! In addition, this hea…

I bought it last year May 27 from Sweetwater. Obviously it's well over a year old now so that means its past manufacterer's warranty. It's the model that has neither USB nor firewire on it but the slot is there for a person to add the USB slot if they want it. The unit has always been perfect for me. I would call it mint condition outright were it not for slightly crude looking little hole in the back with the tape over it where the USB should go. Another quibble of mine: The optical audio input is very loose and finicky. You have to fiddle with the optical cable to get it to situate just right. The cable will properly secure but you need to be a little extra min…

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.

I've been looking for an external DAC and found this Blue Circle Audio. Haven't been able to find out much about it. One Soundstage review which didn't say much. Sketchy on detail. I haven't been able to determine the chip used. Not much info on forums regarding this DAC. Talked to a dealer yesterday and apparently it's not selling well. Introduced in March, 2007 so it's been out awhile. Has anyone heard this? Or maybe the BC501? Any thoughts other than it is butt ugly? BC owners seem to be a rabid bunch and repeat buyers, which is saying something. The dealer network seems pretty much composed of TV repair guys. Now there's an industry that's just about gone. Not…

So pretty soon I'll have an ECD-1 in the house, which means I'll be able to compare it to the North Star m192 mk2. I've heard such great things about the ECD-1 that I just impulsively pulled the trigger when I saw it on the 'gon. But I also have grown very fond of the North Star. It will be fun to compare. I'll save this space for my impressions...

Anyone check out the measurements from the Zanden review in the November issue of Stereophile? Not that Stereophile or in particular Michael Fremer had any credibility left. But how the hell did he manage to be floored by a combo that had a roughly 4 db channel imbalance and a thd+noise of 25% at 50hz.

I am constantly thinking about getting a turntable (not like a high-end one, just something basic that can do the job), but one thing that is holding me back is my worry that headphones, due to their close placement to the ears, might exacerbate vinyl surface noises to the point of distraction. Is this worry warranted? I will probably get a basic vacuum cleaning machine if I do end up with a table. And of course a lot depends on the table itself, cartridge, phono stage, and set-up, but in general, has anyone found that using headphones to listen to vinyl has picked up surface noises to the point of distraction? And if so, how have you dealt with it?

Is it just me, or is this bad timing now that USB 3.0 is finally on the horizon (and years after the Cambridge Audio DacMagic's launch)? I'm not sure what the list price is going to be yet.

As I am further developing my computer as a source set up I have come to the realization that placing a Mac Mini in the rack might be my best option. Right now I can run audio from my Mac Pro or my Macbook Pro via, USB, Firewire or AES/EBU from the Pro. Unfortunately I do not want to give up the Macbook Pro as my listening room computer and the Mac Pro is several rooms away. My plan is to put the Mac Mini in the rack with iTunes and Amarra installed. Then I believe I can control the Mac Mini either by my laptop or with my Touch if I leave Amarra up as it interfaces with the Rowmote App. I could then take the Squeezebox out of the system and run USB or Firewire ou…

as many of you know, i sold my vinyl rig (& saturn) to sport the reimyo cdp-777. yet, even though i sold every bit, i could not part with my meager vinyl collection--particular the beatles, lennon, rush, miles, led zeppelin, coltrane etc... when i would read posts raving about the vinyl experience, i jealously longed for it and at the same time dreaded it because i never really achieved it, lack the knowhow to properly set-up a tt, and the whole process seemed overly involved. so now and again, i had been thinking and researching how to do vinyl on the cheap and easy--vintage tables and rega were likely contenders. i wanted to keep it well under a grand and more o…

http://www.musicdirect.com/product/73106 Am I correct in assuming that I can connect a turntable and headphones to this phono amp and be able to use it without my reciever connected? If so, what are your opinions of it based on sq or value, or is there someting better that would allow me to do the same thing. I do wish it was MC instead of MM but oh well. I have an old Dual 721 that I wouldn't mind moving to my office, but really don't want to have to deal with the reciever and speakers in there also. Thanks

Hi everyone may i ask how much you think it will be a fair price for a used accuphase dp-65v cd player in pristine condition? thanks

Hey guys, The rig has landed. Now, I am completely overwhelmed by this thing. I've put up the basic pieces, and the motor is spinning the platter fine. Now comes the arm. The cartridge is pre-mounted on the arm. The issue is that the arm seems to be tilted inwards a bit. I'm trying to read the manual, but I'm just not going to get anywhere by myself. I'm extremely wanting to learn this stuff, but I need some sort of guide / teacher. Is there anyone in the Southern California region who would like to help me at my place? Dinner's on me! Great Indian food or maybe something else. Basically I want to make sure all the settings are correct before the firs…

http://nwavguy.blogs...c-released.html Audio Formats: 16/44, 16/48, 16/96, 24/44, 24/48, 24/96 Interface: USB Audio Class 1 Native Driver OS Support: Windows XP & Later, OS X x86, Linux Operating Systems Tested: XP, Vista, Win7 (32 & 64), OS X Snow Leopard, Ubuntu 9.1 32 bit Line Output: Approximately 2 Vrms into 5K ohms or higher Dynamic Range: > 110 dB A-Weighted Distortion: < 0.005% Dimensions: 49 x 58mm (see drawing to right) Claims aside with this specs for 100$/£ sounds like a nice deal.

DV137

I'm considering getting a cheap cd player/transport so I can conveniently put on discs without the need to rip them first. I would be feeding (probably) the toslink to my miniDAC and from there balanced out to my Beta22. The player would need to sound at least as good as the ripped CD's do when fed from my H120s' toslink out. The player doesn't need to be portable and the only format it will need to play are redbook standard CD's. I've tried using my cheap technics system but that is thin and tinny compared to my H120. Are there players that fit this bill ? I will be saving up for a Cambridge Audio 840C in my future but as this will likely take until the winter…

So I finally have space for my TT, and I have my Denon DL-103 all set up, but I have no phono pre! If there's a really really good option for $500 that kills everything under I'll go over budget, but otherwise I'd rather not. Any suggestions?

Possibly. Stereophile: Channel D Pure Vinyl

As someone who thinks standard 16/44 redbook sounds fantastic, I'm pretty skeptical about this whole hi-rez 24-bit movement. I did some blind testing with a buddy and I thought our results were worth posting. I'd love to hear what people think. TL:DR Folks: Just read the BOLD stuff. So my buddy and I conducted a few blind tests to see if we could hear a difference between 24 and 16 bit versions of the same tracks. We used two albums, the 24/96 version of Alison Krauss & Union Stations Paper Airplane from HDTracks and a 24/48 rip (using dbPoweramp) of Tool's Lateralus HDCD. Obviously using the same tracks but with different mastering jobs from different versio…

Although the title of this thread is the CH Precision C1 DAC, I'd like to start off by saying that when I first got the BHSE ( June 2012 ), it obviously came with stock Mullard tubes, and Earspeaker's used were my 009's. Now when I first heard those 009's with the BHSE I was very impressed with the first few songs I listened to, it was when I started listening to Peter Gabriel's " Sledge Hammer " and " Big Time " the problem started which was a piercing uncomfortable treble, and I found that piercing treble was with a lot of song's in my collection. Because of that problem, I was going to sell my 009's and get a pair of 007's, but decided to try some Psvane PH tubes inste…

I often play a movie to help me fall asleep. Of course, this means that a DVD can run overnight or even for days at a time if I forget to remove the DVD. I've gone through a series of inexpensive (<$100) DVD players. They run fine for a couple of months and then I'll find the image frozen on the screen and the player will no longer initialize a DVD. I thought that maybe the laser lens was dirty so I took the most recent failure apart to see what was going on. It turns out that the drive will no longer spin the disk. The machine is a Toshiba SD-K840 (a Costco special) and the drive seems to be direct (i.e. no belt). I considered getting a new drive, but decided inste…

Bel Canto USB Link 24/96 Debuts

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

As promised. Naykid pictures. Actually, this is one big nice sized board, very well populated. You look inside some CDP's and find a very tiny unpopulated board, in a very thin walled flimsy case. The Apollo's case is thick cast Alum., and built like a tank.