Audio Accessories

In my new source/transport thread Yikes made an interesting point, that optical is an inferior solution to coaxial (or something to that extent I suppose). Why is that?

Hey guys - we're going on a lengthy road trip early next month [2,500 mi] and are considering not taking a rental. Our prehistoric (2006) Chevy Malibu does not have any sort of connection for an iPhone, and I sure as shit need to be able to use Spotify/iTunes for this trip if I plan on keeping my sanity. There's no aux, USB, etc. Anyone have suggestions? I'm not handy with cars and do not want to try taking apart the dashboard to access our CD changer or anything like that. Seems that something like this might be my only option with the limited amount of time and effort I'm willing to put in. Will it actually sound close to cd-quality? Thanks for the help.

The two receptacles in the wall by my computer and assorted audio equipment are both quite poor. They're at least 25 years old and don't hold plugs well anymore. I'm looking for some quality replacements. I balk at the idea of paying $100+ for boutique audio outlets, but I don't want $3 pieces of junk either. There must be some middle ground in the market. Any suggestions on brands, models, and where to look would be muchly appreciated.

Due to a change in the configuration of my system, I'm looking at getting a passive volume control/preamp for the odd occasions when I want to listen to my monitors rather than my headphones. Does anyone have any experience with the NHT ones? Or any thoughts on whether it's worth the extra tenner (and cable costs) to go balanced all the way through my system? (They go for far less than MSRP online. The Goldpoints look nice but are way too spendy.) The HP4 converts balanced input to SE, but the Quads have XLR ins and -- given it's a desktop system -- there's a lot of RF interference about. All cable lengths will be pretty short once it's properly set up.

I'm in need of a new tone arm cable. I am presently using the stock Van den hul cable on my SME V arm. It's copper but is not as resolving nor as rich as I would prefer. I was thining Cardas Golden Reference or Cross, but they are pretty pricey, as is the more revealing but more linear Hovland and Graham 2.2. Any suggestions?

Hi all. I suffer from acute audio placebo. I have broken the 10 percent rule with cables. My interconnects now cost 120 perc of system and have experimented with power cables - now at 100 perc of system. My cables have costed me more than my system. I now run a pure sine wave inverter with two car batteries powering my system. I hallucinate a better soundstage and superior sound with these devices. I have been banned by Head - Fi for calling a member a "fag" for pointing out the errors of my way. I seek refuge here and hope for some rehabilitation. These headphones drove me insane and I hope to share my experiences. My name is Spanimal and I have a problem…

Many of you probably know that I just bought this Samsung HTIB. All I need to finish setting it up is a pair of cheap 28" (more or less) speaker stands for the front L/R speakers. These Sanus stands at Amazon is the best deal I've found. Before I act on this, I thought I'd ask here to see if anybody knows of a better stand and/or deal. Thanks in advance for your advice.

So I just bought some Iron Lung Jellyfish Power cables, an improvement from the stock stuff on my amp and DAC. But I was wondering if having a fairly cheap power strip (an absolute necessity in my dorm room) would negate the effect of the better power cables? I don't really know much about electronics, cables, or anything that has to do with anything in my entire audio set-up... so some good input would be much appreciated. Alternatively, do any of you think that I just wasted my money on the power cables and that they won't make a noticeable difference in sound quality? I'd be interested if that's what you thought as well.

At the risk of being lined up against a wall.... do Power Conditioners work for anyone in a typical high end headphone setup? I have a (small) amount of low level periodic but irritating static going on in my amp, and was wondering if these power line devises actually work. I live in a city and no doubt the mains is as dirty as hell! If anyone could recommend an affordable unit for 220-240v. Or tell me I am an idiot, Either is fine.

i replaced my crappy wall outlet with a cryoed pass and seymour 8200H from cryo parts like 2 weeks ago. i got a really nice improvement on imaging, and the blackground hash also dropped a bit, resulting in a better sense of transparency and speed. out of boredom i plugged my lavry directly to the receptacle. to my surprise the sound isn't that different from the clean, open sound i get from plugging my rig into the running springs haley. take the improvement i get from the cryoed P&S further, and you get the haley. the p&s is more expensive than the normal receptacle we use, but its physically larger, and the clamping mechanism is better built. it also doesn't …

For primarily budget reasons, I am using a PreSonus Central Station as a pre amp in my living room speaker system. The PCS has a pretty decent built in dac which I am feeding with a modded Onix cdp via spdif. Due to the fact that my Flying Mole custom amp that had been providing amp duties over this past year has suddenly decided to take the vow of silence, I am in the market for a new sub $1.8K amp and perhaps going balanced if that is doable at that price point. The PCS has TRS outputs so I was thinking that if I had a pair of TRS to XLR connectors to a "balanced" amp(s) I would have a true balanced speaker system. Am I right or am I blowing smoke? (Leaves self open f…

Somebody mentioned this on head-fi and how it basically eliminates any of the problems associated with cables. What exactly is it? If KG came up with it it must be good.

I just bought a Duet this weekend. The salesman (Lorne at Executive Stereo in Toronto) says it will take a while to break in, so I'll try to record my impressions along the way.

I was wondering if aftermarket powercables strive to achieve the same effect as a power conditioner and vice versa? I've seen some users only use one or the other so im not sure if they are suppost to compliment each other by using them together, or substitute each other by using only one or the other? Can anyone clarify this? I've been looking at the Shunyata Hydra 4, but was wondering if a better power cable is all I need.

Being an electrician I came across these spec grade receptacles that they were just going to throw out. Knowing that they were not cheap and could possible make a difference to my system; I snatched them up. Skeptical... but I figured it wouldn't hurt to try them out. Well I have to say it was worth the 30 seconds to swap this guy in. Tightening as much as I could, utilizing the bottom half of the receptacle bypassing the tab I heard an improvement right away, not huge but defiantly there. My system seemed to have allot more oomph, Bass is heavier and more pronounced. The whole sound had more weight to it sounding like more power was getting through. These receptacles…

I've never had an audio rack before, and I think its probably about time I get one. My days of horizontal desk annexing have come to an end, now that I will be adding a transport, and, in a few months, possibly a transport/player combo, or just an upgraded player. My home rig currently a Bel Canto Dac3, an Ear HP4 amp, and coming soon, Oppo Digital transport. I plan on adding a Hydra conditioner as well. There is always the possibility that the HP4 will become my office amp, should I spring for the Millet/TTVJ 307A if it remains available. Here is what I'm debating buying: http://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=SMA5 Thoughts?

I ordered two of these a while ago to plug my Duet into my HP FEEL 200se amp. I didn't realize it at the time, as I was in a hurry, but I ordered two mono cables, thus they are both white. There is no red or black. Does that matter for sending left + right stereo signals from the Duet to the headphone amp's RCA inputs (white and red)? Are red ones somehow grounded any differently? I'm going to be plugging in normal red + white RCA cables to these adapters. Maybe I should stop buying stuff at 3am?

So I'm considering running two amps off a single source, and was wondering if anyone had any experience with and could comment on signal degradation with Ys/2-for-1 adapters such as ... ? Was avoiding a switch box if possible.

Have any of you heard of or used this place? I guess it's in Vietnam. The guy has some ridiculous nice tubes but his prices are outrageous. Audiophile I would love some of those metal base sylvania 6SN7s . Doubtful i would make the leap though.

I finally unpacked the old Lafayette tuner that I bought from Miguel Arroyo many months ago. Besides needing a switch box, I need an indoor FM antenna. Can anybody recommend one? I'd like to spend no more than $50. Thanks in advance for your recommendations.

I don't want to say money is no object, as I would soon find myself owning a $40,000 cable or something crazy like that, but I'm willing to drop a few pennies. I just ordered a modded Opus 21 cd player and will be purchasing an amp soon (can't decide on whether to get some Stax Omega IIs with the tube amp or maybe just get a balanced amp of some sort for my HD650s). I'd like to get cables that are in "the right league" for this kind of product and am completely overwhelmed by the amount of cables available.

I just talked to an "expert" in high end audio, acoustic theory and application. He went into a dissertation on the primary importance of room acoutics, proper power cables and power conditioners in getting the most out of excellent speakers(#1 consideration and cost factor for a sound system)... even more important than the cd player as a source. His theis is if the sound is not clean from the git go than a good cd player will still be working with a distorted signal. He talked about secondary considerations like room devices such as "bass traps" and other assorted construction on walls and ceilings. As you all know by now: "I know nuthing!" So...anybody buying? …

Introduction Ok so everyone here knows me as a cable freak who is also obsessed with connector quality. Yes i am , so bear with me, i promise i am not going to go patrick82 here . anyway, as many of you guys know i am one of those who do not use a dedicated headphone amp, instead i use the ghetto trick of directly driving my senns directly from the two xlr outs of my apogee/lavry dac (pioneered by none other than the brilliant fotm starter iron dreamer ). because of that, the headphone cable has become the critical link between the dac and the headphones in my rig. To maximize the sound quality i need to get the best sennheiser headphone cable i can find. Over the …

Not sure if we've discussed this, or even if this is the right sub-forum to post this in, but this looked semi-interesting. Ripserver

Featured on Woot today is this: Kind of neat for $40. I may get it. Comes w/ 1year subscription that you can cancel and get rebate if desired. www.woot.com