The All Purpose Advice Thread

Okay, here's the long story: I just got my Campfire Audio Cascade in and want to upgrade the cable to their SXC 8 cable. Since I use a Dragonfly Cobalt (DFC) for mobile use I'd get the cable with unbalanced 3.5mm connector. The cable is quite expensive, though, and I always prefer balanced connections. So maybe there's an alternative to the DFC with balanced output that I am not aware of.

I just sold my Sony NW-WM1A and my Andromedas, because I want more bass and use my smartphone instead of a DAP. I really want to avoid a second device that's bigger than a dongle DAC and having to care for another battery.

 

Gotcha. Since that size of balanced output from amps is more unusual, I'd lean towards the 3.5mm. Also, it appears Campfire is offering a free cable upgrade with the Cascade, you may want to email and see if that is available if you just bought yours. I mean, if you're within the return window, I would tell them it would be silly to return your Cascade and then re-purchase to get the free cable.

 

I got the Cascade used, so contacting Campfire for the cable is no option. But the cable is on sale right now, so I am in a hurry concerning the decision which connector to get

The Lotoo Paw S2 is exactly what I was talking about. I know Lotoo, but the dongle DAC world is new to me. So many thanks for that suggestion, I will try to find out now if the sound is on par with the Cobalt or even better.

 

Sorry, I'm having trouble keeping track of these things so started a notes document, I wanted to clear up - What version of the Gugnir Multibit sounds like the Bifrost 2. And did it come with the option for unison USB. And how bad is the RCA on it? Thank you in advance for any info you can provide!

 

The A1 Gungnir MB should have a more similar sound to the Bifrost 2. It did not come with Unison but should be upgradable. Many A2 Gungnirs didn’t come with Unison either. I mostly used the BNC input when I had the A2 Gungnir and when I tried the A1 and it’s good.

 

The Luxury & Precision W2 has received good reviews.

Not shipping yet, but Cayin announced an R2R USB dongle with balanced output (4.4mm Pentaconn).
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/cayin-ru6-r-2r-usb-dongle-dac-with-head-amp.960113/

The other option is numerous dongles with balanced output such as Qudelix 5K, FiiO BTR5, Shanling UP5, iFi GO Blu, etc. that are combo USB DAC/amp + Bluetooth receiver. Although these do have a battery, they operate off USB power when connected and you don't have to deal with maintaining the battery.

 

I'd love some advice on a good neutral, natural sounding DAP with lots of power for iems. I love the sound of the M6 Pro 21 but I don't like the upward tilting FR (Shanling says it's their brightest DAP) or the clunky OS and crappy touch screen.. It's frustrating to use.

I'm thinking of gettin the M6 21 (non pro) on Black Friday sales because Shanling said it was warmer. And I don't know any other DAP's.

Also considering the M3X.

Anything else I should consider that sounds better/equal and maybe has newer Android that works better with a better screen? I'm trying not to spend too much, under 600 hopefully. Though the new M9 is so tempting. but will surely be 1,500$ which seems crazy for a DAP.

 

Here's my situation. Current setup is laptop -> Schiit Wyrd -> Prism Lyra (or RME Babyface Pro FS) -> optical spdif to other downstream dacs for comparison purposes. The issue is that the spdif output from the Lyra is meh, the RME isn't much better, and whatever is downstream winds up sounding basically like the spdif source and not as good as native usb input.

I know there are a bunch of DDC's available these days that take usb in and spit out a half dozen formats simultaneously to feed a bunch of dacs simultaneously which is what I want... but I'd like to avoid the inconvenience of having to swap usb cables back to my Prism or RME when I need to record.

Does there exist anything like the Wyrd that allows two way USB communication but also outputs good spdif/AES/etc?
Or would a DDC that accepts optical spdif be able to clean up the Prism output and split it into multiple outputs to feed a few more dacs downstream?

 

Looking to get a sw51 repaired, but all I get is Surf City USA. Trying to get my friend some help for his beloved sw51. Also had him send a email to Ruslan. any suggestions would be great.

left channel killing tubes or losing a channel. maybe its a heater issue hard for me to know. he mentioned some small popping

updated with owners words

 

Any idea what the problem is?

 

updated my original post with a better description

 

One channel only rules out power supply. The potentiometer isn't the issue either. Since it fired up fine with a new tube, it sounds like some component is going bad and gets out of wack as it heats up. I don't believe there are any caps in the amp so likely it's a resistor somewhere. It may be the output transformer but if it's gone bad it would probably make humming/buzzing noises. Or it could be something as simple as a marginal solder joint that misbehaves once heat is introduced. Sorry, that's all I got for you.

Probably a good idea to post this in the SW51 thread since @Zampotech can be found there.

 

I have the w2 and btr5. I like both, but I think the w2 has better sound quality when the btr5 is used as a wired USB device, and is considerably smaller. The btr5 has an app that allows for far more control of the device and its sound, but it's not very well organized. The w2 has only the options appearing on the device's menu. For cabling purposes, the balanced output (better than se on both) on the w2 is 4.4mm, the btr5 is 2.5mm. The w2 is on sale for $270 at Musicteck, but that is still twice the price of the btr5, and about the same as the Lotoo s2. Pretty pricey imo. But the sound definitely suits my tastes. Finally, as @Metro said, the btr5 has a function to turn off charging when used wired, but the default is to charge, and it defaults if you unplug it or power down.

 

You can use splitters on optical or cabled spdif to get those multiple outputs. I've done this to a/b two DACs running off the same digital source.

Eitr does USB to SPDIF, and sounds like it might do what you want from a DDC.

It's also possible to set up a Pi + Audio hat (eg Pi2AES) as a Super-Eitr that takes USB and outputs AES/ SPDIF/ etc. Super because it's powerful enough to do DSP along the way, and mine does HQplayer upsampling and a convolution filter for headphone DSP. Possible, but not easy to setup or user-friendly to use yet.

 

I do have an Eitr actually.

What I was trying to avoid was the need to go unplug/replug gear when I switch to my recording gear, but I think that's just going to lead me chasing down a very complex solution.

 

I'm curious enough to buy a Bottlehead Crack tomorrow during the sale. Should I go with the base crack or the speedball? I think I want something super tubey because I've got a Hagerman Tuba, SW51+ and Jotunheim 2 on my desk at the moment.

 

Just buy the speedball while it's all on sale. The recommendation is always to build it stock first anyways, before you swap in the speedball.

 

My zen dac signature started having noise 4 months since I bought it. The noise sounds like the popping noise on old vinyl or scratched CD. I tried the dac on both my laptop and my PC and the noise was still there (though it was smaller on my PC). My dongle and Schiit dac work flawlessly so I don’t think the USB ports on my laptop and my PC are broken. What should I do? I found IFI has been selling some noise-cancellation products such as Idefender, Isilencer..but I don’t know if they works on my case. Anyone here tried those products? Thanks

 

I would not look at the "noise reduction" units as a solution.

Try the obvious if you have not already: different usb cable, change driver settings to ASIO, WASAPI, or direct sound to see if there is a change. Update Win OS, update or revert your player SW version. If none of these makes a change the dac is at fault.

 

Denafrips Hermes or Gaia could do that, a bit costly though