The All Purpose Advice Thread

Discussion in 'Advice Threads' started by purr1n, Sep 26, 2015.

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  1. Case

    Case Anxious Head (Formerly Wilson)

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    Rob, I'm far from an authority here, but I think staying put is a good idea. Sounds like a case of nervosa. Spend that money on some music.
     
  2. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    agreed with the post above. Sounds like random upgraditis. If you don’t even know how the transport sounds you shouldn’t be upgrading it. How will you know how the “better” one sounds? Go to some meets and listen to some other rigs. That will give you an idea of what is possible and what you like. Then you can start pointing fingers if there’s an actual problem with your setup.
     
  3. Rob the Comic

    Rob the Comic banned from ASR

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    Thanks guys. Don’t worry, the set up sounds fantastic at present and I’m not looking to throw money away; I had heard that these were legendary old transports. However, with my 60 year old ears and the law of diminishing returns, I think I will sit tight as suggested. Appreciate the advice as usual
     
  4. Rob the Comic

    Rob the Comic banned from ASR

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    Hey Wilson, great advice but I have about 20,000 classical music CD’s ha ha - which is why there is no streaming kit in my chain; I’m happy with the music I’ve got. Regards your well intentioned advice; if my Missus the Greek seen me sneaking in one more CD ...

    Rob
     
  5. sphinxvc

    sphinxvc Gear Master (retired)

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    Yggdrasil A2 and WL*
     
  6. AdvanTech

    AdvanTech Friend

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    Depends what your goal with a DAC is. If you want to rank them with similar percentages on an internet forum, then it's probably not worth the money. If you want to use them to tune your setup so that your slightly fatiguing rig can become an all-day-long setup, then we're talking about something else.
     
    Last edited: Oct 16, 2020
  7. sphinxvc

    sphinxvc Gear Master (retired)

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    Yeah, I agree with both of you guys (@AdvanTech, @PTS). Money being a relative type of problem, what a piece of gear "provides" will always be worth it to some, and not worth it to others.

    At the same time, we do need to get better about the standard we hold upgrades to, and how we assess and describe the relative magnitude of changes.
     
  8. A Child of the Jago

    A Child of the Jago Facebook Friend

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    Extreme long shot but does anyone have any experience buying used gear a) from Russia and b) specifically from this Russian website (which has its own active forum as far as I can tell):

    https://www.hi-fi.ru
     
  9. k4rstar

    k4rstar Britney fan club president

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    this is a very popular forum in Russia, but the classifieds section is basically like kijiji or craigslist, you will have a hard time to find someone who will want to ship outside of the country, arrange payment details (many russians dont use paypal), etc.

    your best luck is if you have a native speaker in the country who can purchase on your behalf
    do not bother with this Esoteric machine, the VRDS mechanism is really nothing special or worth shelling out big money for and the mechanism alone does not make a good transport. if you really want a top tier CD transport buy a philips CDM1 player and modify it with a better clock and s/pdif buffer.
     
  10. lcmusiclover

    lcmusiclover Friend

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    Actually, it’s every venue for US sellers. If we’re selling internationally, unless it’s to Canada, it’s ‘overseas’ and it immediately becomes expensive.

    I sold a Liquid Platinum to a guy in Oz. Between international PayPal fees, currency exchange fees & shipping I netted about 30% less than I wanted. Meanwhile he wasn’t happy with how much he had to pay. Perfect example of an international sale being unsatisfactory to both parties.
     
  11. Empyah

    Empyah Facebook Friend

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    I am stuck with Amazon Music HD till the end of the year and am having a bitrate dilemma with its "exclusive mode".
    My chain is as follows:
    "Audio PC" Amazon Music HD > Lynx AES16-E > Yggdrasil A1

    I am aware that it still isn't a true exclusive mode since it doesn't switch the sampling rate according to the tracks.
    The halfway solution seems to be to set a fixed bitrate in Windows and then activate the "exclusive mode".
    My only question is if I should set it to 16/44.1, or the Yggis max 24/192? Does it even matter? Throw away Amazon?
     
  12. A Child of the Jago

    A Child of the Jago Facebook Friend

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    Interested in this - I bought a Black Widow 2 in the UK from a US seller - I received an invoice, which included shipping, from him via PayPal. I paid that invoice, which was converted to dollars from Sterling at PayPal's rate (I lost about $75 on the bank spot rate) - he received the exact amount he requested and I then paid import tax in the UK. So the US seller in this instance, to my knowledge, received exactly the amount he requested. How come you lost 30%?
     
  13. neogeosnk

    neogeosnk Friend

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  14. lcmusiclover

    lcmusiclover Friend

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    I can’t imagine any way to connect them doesn’t involve some piece of equipment in the middle that converts light pulsations (optical) to an electrical signal. In addition the optical signal is digital. If you want to input it to a component via S/PDIF over coax then the device you linked will work (say to feed a DAC).
     
  15. Rob the Comic

    Rob the Comic banned from ASR

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    Thanks mate, great advice.
     
  16. gixxerwimp

    gixxerwimp Professional tricycle rider

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    Chain: BF2 > Liquid Carbon v1

    With only the LC's XLR inputs connected, I'm hearing some humming/buzzing from the 6.3mm SE out with the balanced input selected (sometimes 60Hz plus overtones, sometimes just overtones, gets louder as volume is turned up). Only with low Z phones it seems (Clears), not higher Z (HD800). No noise from the LC's balanced XLR headphone out, or from the SE out if SE input is selected (nothing connected).

    If I then connect the BF2's SE outputs to either one of the LC's L/R coax inputs (or both of them), it's dead quiet from both channels of the SE headphone out with balanced input selected.


    TL;DR: I hear the humming/buzzing out of the SE headphone outs when only the LC's balanced inputs are connected. But if I also connect one or both of the DAC's SE outputs to the LC, the noise goes away. The noise gets louder as volume is turned up.

    Is this the dreaded ground loop that pops up all over the place?
     
  17. ogharaei

    ogharaei New

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    I need some advice on an R2R DAC for my chain. I am looking for some warmth without giving up any detail, mainly because I find the cup reverb of the Verite Closed Monkeypod grating with a dry DAC out of a solid state amplifier, but pleasing with a slightly warm floor, mostly through a tube amplifier.

    Below are the options I have narrowed it down to thus far. It has been an arduous journey. My thoughts are mostly based on impressions of others, or full-fledged reviews for said DAC, though finding legit reviews wasn't always easy. I would, as such, love to hear from people who have or are using any of these DACs in their audio chain(s).

    Metrum Acoustics Pvane Level 3 -- potentially too warm with a tube amplifier, but with a wide stage. That said, customer support is apparently not up to par since Metrum Acoustics was sold.

    AQUA La Voce S3 -- more clinical than the Pvane, but still natural, slightly more forward, with only a tinge of warmth. Also a nice option because these units are modular and can be upgraded.

    Used Aqua/Acoustic Quality La Scala MKII Optologic -- not sure how this DAC would affect the chain, I am worried about the tube stage. I believe they are at the moment shipping with Telefunken tubes.

    Holo Audio Spring 2, Level 2 -- probably too warm in combination with a tube ampflifier and the Verite Closed Monkeypod.

    Soekris 2541 (once available over Soren) -- if the Soekris "house" sound is anything to go by, dry, but precise and natural, slightly forward and dynamic, which should work well with tube amplifiers.

    Used Sonic Frontiers SFD 1 MKII or 2 MKII/MKIII -- mainly because it supposedly sounds incredibly natural. These seem to pop up semi-regularly, but also sell quickly; I just missed one the other day.

    My tube amplifiers would be the DNA Starlett and Feliks Euforia /w GEC 6080 and PsVane CV-181 Mk2 Gold tubes.

    Any help is much appreciated. The more I have dug into the topic on my own, the harder it has become to make a definite decision with confidence.
     
  18. saint.panda

    saint.panda Friend

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    Hi to a fellow Berliner. I enjoyed the Verite closed with both the Yggdrasil 2 and Sonnet Morpheus (similar to Pavane, search this forum). Warmth shouldn't be your main concern here mainly because it can mean many things (midrange elevation, highs roll off, tube distortion, bass amplification, etc) and because you're probably better off trying different amps to get that result. I suggest trying different DAC and amp combinations to see which direction you like before going for the TOTL options. Also different pads! Suede hybrid sounds warmer for example than the universe pads.
     
  19. ogharaei

    ogharaei New

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    Nice to see other locals on this forum, saint.panda. This hobby can make you feel all by your lonesome amongst friends and family, especially in the current COVID situation. Yep, I agree, pad swapping on the Verite Closed changes the sound signature notably—in my opinion more so than with other ZMF headphones. I have gone through several pads and settled on solid lambskin Verite pads for tubes and solid lampskin Universal pads for SS amplifiers, but such things are always in flux.

    The idea of trying different DAC and amplifier combinations to see which direction to take before settling on a TOTL offering is sound, of course. While I have already been on a journey of sorts, I'll admit that it probably hasn't been nearly as arduous or long as it should be before settling on such a DAC. A motivation behind my post is in all honesty also the avoidance of money lost by cycling through a bunch of gear before settling on a TOTL option I find wholly satisfying. I think I've come close twice thus far. I suppose, I am hoping to cut that journey short a bit by drawing on those with hands-on experience, however subjective, which I do need to keep in mind.

    My list (mostly) consists of NOS R2R DACs because I have come to the conclusion that I prefer the NOS R2R sound. As of right now, I am going off my impressions with the Feliks Euforia and other solid SS amplifiers in combination with the Soekris dac1421 (not a NOS R2R DAC) I used to own.

    The Soekris dac1421 on its own was dry, at least to me, which made the Verite Closed difficult to listen to over longer listening sessions; that is, out of its integrated amplifier and to my ears, as well as other SS reference amplifiers. I tried the Violectric V280 AE, SPL Phonitor SE, and Lake People G111 before coming to that conclusion for myself, and while the Violectric V280 AE is colored, that facet seemed oddly off as well. I kept listening to the Soekris dac1421 on its own and concluded that it is the combination of the cup reverb on the Verite Closed Monkeypod and the DAC being dry I found bothersome over longer listening sessions. All of this took place over several months. That said, having done so, I figured I do like the R2R sound outside of that and was ready to try a tube amplifier, which I considered a small victory of sorts, so not everything was in vain.

    Adding the Feliks Euforia with GEC 6080 and PsVane CV-181 Mk2 Gold tubes was a huge step in the right direction and had me conclude that a NOS R2R DAC—having listened to the AQUA La Voce S2, though only briefly and not in my chain, and with no one describing NOS R2R DACs as dry—is a sound next step. However, I don't want to add too much of a warm / vintage R2R sound to the chain with the NOS R2R DAC itself as it would be too much in combination with the Verite Closed on tubes, even out of a tube amplifier like the Feliks Euforia.

    As of now, I am relatively happy with the Feliks Euforia, as well as the Verite Closed, but feel I need to add a DAC that meshes well with those components based on my preferences—that would be a dream, especially after a hard days work.
     
    Last edited: Oct 19, 2020
  20. saint.panda

    saint.panda Friend

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    Sending you a pm. You can borrow my morpheus to try.
     
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