The All Purpose Advice Thread

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

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  1. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    I don't think I ever heard the mk2's, though I believe the early run of mk2's had issues... but that was true across the brand as Mackie had just moved a lot of their production to China and it took them a few years to recover and get their quality control in place.

    You choose the 624 vs 824 based on the size of the room you're trying to fill and how close you'll be sitting. The bass and treble settings on the back help trim to where you want it after that based on placement relative to the walls. Nothing's gonna sound right when you're sitting too close to get coherence between the drivers and if the lows are overloading the room, particularly when you have that passive radiator emitting all around.
     
  2. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

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    The newer elac soft domes are decent. NHT Supers are Chinese made NS10s. A little weirder bumps but more normal. Boundary load them and they sound good.

    Small KEF will physically shit out for rock, metal, and classical. You’ll probably just break it listening to classical at a normal volume. I’m serious. Hot brunette + guitar albums from My Bloody Valentine will kill a KEF faster than anything with the extreme distortion and volume. Subs won’t help because they’re still boxy and the biggest transients on many of these rock record are not the compressed drums all recorded with compression and then compressed some more but the power swing of the guitar chords and bass and proximity effect. An LS50 is a boring low volume speaker.

    so are the Neumanns. KH310 hits limiters above 90db. Smaller ones are dogshit for anything but dialogue and old movies. Shitty Chinese poly woofers.

    The Mackies used to be cool but are now extremely cost reduced and have midrange issues. JBL 3XX you will kill the drivers. Even on the 308 II with the huge midrange hole, the tweeter gets thermally compressed after 1 album of high gain guitar

    Yamaha HS8 is cool for the price. Like you’re not gonna realistically beat it with cheap passives unless you’re in the know, know who to send certain used amps to for repair and modification, or stumble upon something like a used Bryston. The 500 elacs + a good repaired used amp will still be 1000 bucks.

    above that are the KRK V series. V8 is the only one good for listening. The V6 and V4 are ruthless. Like Yamaha meets a combination of old B&W low end and old Focal Kevlar high end.

    A7X still sounds great but woofer and tweeter timbre don’t match.

    HEDDs are supposed to be Adams with less v shape and sear.

    JBL 708 sounds huge for its size and sort of normalish but lacks detail. Cool speaker. Not sure I agree with it at all but it does sound big and very JBL. I don’t really agree with its presentation or other modern JBLs. Even the 305. Nope. I can’t live with it.

    Focal Shape 65 and Aria 906 are good. Aluminum/Magnesium alloy tweeter does not overshoot like the beryllium and the cabinet works in most rooms but has a sound. It’s not BBC warm like the older Focals but those passive radiators do have a sound and so does the tweeter. And it can be evil. It’s French.

    Dynaudio’s current drivers and reliability after being bought by the Chinese are better but their affordable speakers are mostly worse. Same as when they were controlled by TC Electronic. Their good designs were made by Andy Munroe in the 90s and guys who are probably all dead now in the 70s and 80s. the actives still had durability issues in the plate amps then. Most of the new hifi ones have fucked low end due to cabinet issues. The Lyds are very monitory.

    The only active monitors I’ve heard that use plate amps as good as what you wouldn’t be ashamed of buying separately are the ATCs and Questeds. Those active start at over 5000 dollars. The "cheap" active models from both are totally ruthless (Quested 2108 never harsh but anything dull or dead inside is six feet under) and the three way ones that sound Good with anything because they mostly just play it back as is are like 8-17k to start out.

    PMCs are cool but colored and start at 2-3k again they are COLORED in all caps.
     
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    Last edited: May 5, 2021
  3. Tekker

    Tekker Facebook Friend

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    Guys I was wondering, what would happen to the sound of a dynamic driver, if you puncture a hole with a needle on this tape? (that I marked with red)

    [​IMG]
     
  4. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    As a very rough approximation, think of the tape like the damper in mass-spring-damper system. By poking holes and reducing the damping, you'll get a faster leading edge, but also more oscillation.
     
  5. ColdsnapBry

    ColdsnapBry Almost "Made"

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    Is 2.5 - 3.5 meter USB run too long? From PC to DAC. I've read some stuff where USB quality drops off real fast the longer you go.

    I'm looking at the possibility of moving my PC off my desktop onto the floor, to give me some extra room to display my Aeolus on my desk. It would need to involve a 2.5m USB run to allow for the extra height from my standing desk. I could do a Pi solution, but that increases the project a bit beyond my budget right now.
     
  6. fastfwd

    fastfwd Friend

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    For what people call USB 1.1 or 2.0 -- Full-Speed (12 Mbps) or Hi-Speed (480 Mbps) -- the maximum length of a cable is 5 meters. For what they call USB 3.0 or 3.1 -- Superspeed (5 Gbps) or Superspeed+ (10 Gbps) -- the limit is 3 meters.

    Your audio devices are undoubtedly "USB 1.1" or "USB 2.0", so 5 meters is the limit. Quality will be unaffected by cable length if you use a USB-IF certified cable. You'll recognize a certified cable because it will have the USB logo embossed on its connectors, the word "audiophile" won't appear on its packaging or in its advertising, and it will cost no more than around ten US dollars. Belkin is a well-known manufacturer of certified USB cables; there are others, too.
     
  7. jnak00

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    New to iOS - is there no way to put my own music files on an iPhone without iTunes or some other third party software? No way to drag and drop or download from my NAS?
     
  8. Metro

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    From a Mac, a file can be transferred to iPhone using AirDrop. On the iPhone, the file will be received by the default app for that filetype.
     
  9. jnak00

    jnak00 Friend

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    Any similar solutions for Windows?
     
  10. Metro

    Metro Friend

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    Have you searched on Google?

    Open https://snapdrop.net/ in the web browser on any two devices. Seems to work.
     
  11. jnak00

    jnak00 Friend

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    I did search on Google but everything I saw required some third party software. I’ll try this, thanks.
     
  12. songmic

    songmic Gear cycler East Asia edition

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    Quick question: do splitter interconnect cables (such as the one in the link below) cause a loss or downgrade of input signal into the amp compared to conventional interconnects?
    https://www.av-connection.com/?PGr=337

    To put some perspective into my question, you know there are amps that provide a pair of passive bypass line outputs for convenience, in case you want to use more than one amp with your given DAC. These outputs are unaffected by the volume control of the amp, and works when the amp is turned off. In theory, feeding another amp (B) via the line outputs of such amp (A) should sound no different from plugging the amp B directly to the DAC.

    However, my amp, which is a Jotunheim R, doesn't have such outputs. Its outputs are preamp outputs, meaning they are controlled by the volume pot of the amp. But I wish to connect another amp to my DAC. Of course, I could switch the amps by unplugging and plugging the interconnects every time I wish to listen to the other amp, but it's inconvenient. Then I realized there exist such splitter XLR cables that can feed the DAC's signal to 2 amps.

    My question is, again in theory, will using such cables have the same effect as using an amp with passive bypass line outputs? Meaning there will be no degradation in power or sound quality? In other words, should 2 amps plugged into one DAC with those splitter cables sound the same as when they are individually connected with traditional one-way interconnects? (assuming cable conductor or length doesn't affect sound) Or will it cause a audible downgrade in sound volume or quality that it's recommended to manually switch the interconnect cables despite the inconvenience?
     
  13. Armaegis

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    In general there shouldn't be a problem as long as the input impedance of both amps is high. If they are both low, there's the possibility that it might cause clipping from the dac outputs. There's also the slight chance of ground loop shenanigans since you'll have more things all connected together.
     
  14. ogodei

    ogodei MOT: Austin AudioWorks

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    @songmic, I used this type of splitter extensively in the past. They lower the signal level slightly, its audible if you listen for it. However, if you use only one split in the chain (as opposed to daisy-chaining them) its never been a deal breaker or anything ive worried about. I've also daisy chained them in certain set ups; after about 2 or three splits its extremely noticable.

    As far as downgrading the quality: I've never noticed a quality downgrade other than the level being reduced. I presume its like any other cable though, you get the quality level you pay for.
     
  15. Beefy

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    Hey everyone,

    I'm wondering what people are using these days for power supply lines in DIY equipment? Back when I was active 10 years ago, it would be an AMB S11/S22, Salas Shunt Regulator, Twisted Pear Placid. But things have progressed a lot since then, and I think I can probably get better performance in a more compact package. Compact is highly desirable.

    AMB has the s25/s26 which are tiny, and when used with the s78/79 as higher performing regulators, they could fit the bill nicely. The complete package ends up being pretty pricy though. I'm seeing the DiyInHK options recommended in quite a few different places; lots of different models that could definitely be suitable for digital and linestage duties, although these modules are getting up a bit in size.

    Any and all thoughts are greatly appreciated!
     
  16. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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  17. Beefy

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    Yeah, they look like great options for power amplifiers. Perhaps a little bit of overkill for a DAC or headphone amp!
     
  18. Armaegis

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    How about something from here: https://sjostromaudio.com/pages/index.php/hifi-projects

    (it took me an embarrassingly large number of failed google searches until I finally got close enough to spelling his name...)

    Or maybe try building one of Bryston's power supplies from their schematics: http://old.bryston.com/pages/technical.html
    like the MPS-1 at the bottom... http://old.bryston.com/PDF/Schematics/BP25_SCHEMATICS.pdf
     
  19. Beefy

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    Thanks @Armaegis. The Sjöström (cut and paste!) SSR01 and SSR02 super regulators look nice, basically an alternative take on the Walt Jung regulators. Looks like the Jung regulator PCBs are available from DiyAudioStore at a really good price. Only problem with both of these from an implementation point of view is that the PCB is only DC-DC, so really designed to be put inside something that already has a big unregulated power supply.

    Might be able to bodge something together... but what I'm seeing in all of my catching up (continually hammering home what we chatted about over PM) is that the classic DIY designs have started making a lot less sense. Back in the day, the Salas/Sjöström/Jung regs offered massive performance improvements versus an LM317. These days, monolithic regulators like the LT304x, ADM715x, TPS7A470x now offer incredible performance in a far simpler and more compact package - IF you can handle the SMD soldering.
     
  20. Armaegis

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    Still feels like macaroni-on-cardboard for adults to me :p
     
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