Golden Schlong Awards 2024 - Nominations

Discussion in 'Tales from the Bully Pulpit' started by purr1n, Dec 26, 2024.

  1. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    In some ways, the comparison is actually somewhat fitting...

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amar_Bose
    upload_2025-1-13_22-19-26.png
     
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  2. Grattle

    Grattle Friend

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  3. SofaSamuraiX

    SofaSamuraiX Almost "Made"

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    I nominate Vali 3 for V&E, is crazy how good that little thing sounds!
    And if I can, Meze 109 Pro for E! Best cans I own by a long shot! (I know they aren't new.... Why I said if I can!)
    Edited for Pietus Maximus V+E!
     
    Last edited: Jan 14, 2025
  4. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    Yggdrasil GS2+ for V, E. It's insane that we can get an Yggdrasil in the new chassis for $1700, literally $100 more than the Gungnir 2. Yes, it's A1 but some of us want the A1 and the fact that it's not available for the new production Yggdrasil means you're actually getting a sonic experience that the main Yggdrasil isn't currently offering. And the new chassis means it's easy to swap the card if down the line you want another flavor. I got it a year ago and I haven't regretted it for a single second. It's a cut above any other DAC I've ever owned, one of the few that gets close enough to vinyl that I don't feel like I'm compromising by listening to my digital setup, and in fact I had to upgrade my phono pre and cart for my vinyl system to beat out the Yggdrasil.

    To date Yggdrasil is the only product Schiit has released that has been fully upgradeable and has never warranted an incompatible second/third release. It's the most versatile platform they've ever made and I feel confident that short of an entire rethink of what they could do with a TOTL DAC (with corresponding much higher price point) it will remain fully upgradable to any improvements they offer.

    Consider that the original release of the A1 Yggdrasil, in the older, bulkier, far more difficult to open and upgrade chassis, was $2,300 nearly ten years ago. Now we're getting a better chassis, better USB for those who use it, NOS mode, a three year warranty, and a remote for $1,700 in 2025 dollars. That's crazy. This is a staple of our hobby, the benchmark for many.
     
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  5. JK47

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    I second that nomination even though I have a gen1 GS. I know there are bigger and better out there, but I’m not interested in going down that road or shelling out for that expense. It also captures the magic of vinyl on rips of tracks that I made with my Tascam DA-3000.
     
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  6. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    The TA-66 OTL is amazeballs. Review upcoming.
     
  7. darmok

    darmok Almost "Made"

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    I hereby rescind anything bad I've said about the Modius. Evidently it just needs transformers on the output to shine. In fact I'm going to nominate Pietus + Modius + Jensen PI-2XX for the Golden Schlong Synergy award, or A(u)SS for short. No, I don't care that it doesn't exist. If this is anything close to what Modius sounds like with Cinemags, then that gets the nomination too.

    There's a bit of a rolloff on the bass with the Jensen that surprised me given the specs, but it's a small price to pay for what this does everywhere else. It's not even that the bass is attenuated but that it seems to lose a bit of the punch that the Modius otherwise brings, which I'd attribute to the increased distortion in low frequencies. It's not bad though: >100dB THD+Nads at 1KHz end-to-end through Pietus with my shitty measurement setup, and while the distortion at 0dBFS 20Hz is pretty high, bringing that down even 6dB will get you ~75dB THD+Nads at 20Hz. That's mostly second and third harmonic, with the third being higher than the second by a few dB. This is unweighted, so in general this isn't a huge deal, and outside of EDM it's unnoticeable.

    A couple of months ago, I threw a bunch of gear in my trunk and drove to Toronto to meet up with a friend who's been surviving on DT880 600ohms for approximately forever. We worked our way up the headphones and signal chains until we finally got to the dac1421 + Pietus + modded HE6se V2. The look on his face when he heard that combo was priceless. I felt the same way when I got the Jensen transformers hooked up with Modius. I'm hearing new things in albums I've listened to dozens of times on the same amp and headphones. How cool is that?
     
  8. joch

    joch Friend

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    If it's not too late, I'd like to add the JDS Labs Synapse to the list for value. It does clean the USB feed a bit. I believe it was mentioned by a few folks here in the Streamer discussion thread and @darmok's profile update. I thought the USBridge that I used on my desk was alright, feeding into Unison, but adding the Synapse in the chain puts the notes more into focus. $49, and comes with cable and adapters. (The aluminum casing version is a bit more.)



    [Edited: reason for nomination]
     
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    Last edited: Jan 20, 2025
  9. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

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    EDIT: No Kalis. No.

    Focal Aria bookshelves. VEL.
    ATC SCM 11/12. VEL.
     
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    Last edited: Jan 27, 2025
  10. Lyander

    Lyander Official SBAF Equitable Empathizer

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    The LP-8 V2s aren't neutral to my ear per se but that could just be the fact that they're in a really chaotic space. You can get pretty damned low I think for these being 8in, and while it's not super clean to my ear (I'm still primarily a headphone user so my context for speakers is useless, these could be terrible for all I know!) it's a great deal of fun for movies.

    Could still do with a proper sub but for these being monitors it's pretty impressive, plus they're in the middle of a fairly large space, I feel like the extension could improve a bit if they were near some walls. I'm getting good results with the Doin It Right test haha.

    I can't remember what music I was playing for this one though, might have been Deadcrush by Alt-J? Either way for whatever reason playing music gives a more accurate impression of how well these extend down low than doing sine sweeps, so music test it is.
     

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    Last edited: Jan 21, 2025
  11. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

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    They're a bit more resonant than the LP-6 and IN-5 so are a bit worse speakers despite going lower and louder. The smaller ones with a good sub will be a better system but why not just buy a better speaker to begin with? I'm having shipping damage woes with the Kali SM-5 because they still ship in double boxed cardboard but they sound excellent. These manufacturers, distributors, and retailers really need to go back to shipping heavy, expensive speakers in crates and flight cases just like how expensive mics come in Pelican and metal briefcases.
     
  12. Lyander

    Lyander Official SBAF Equitable Empathizer

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    Just needed something for Netflix and karaoke (yes really) so loud enough for outdoor parties was about all I really needed, plus they were on sale which was nice. But yeah I'm already getting the sense that they're not the most controlled through the frequency range. Still, I'm the only massive audio nerd in the family so didn't feel it was necessary to spend too much, plus eh the personal audio rig is what I use for nerding out still.

    I get you on shipping damage, would much rather make a drive out to pick anything even remotely expensive up. Wasn't familiar with the SM-5, holy crud you'd think that they'd put a bit more care into boxing those things up.

    All this to say I think Kali stuff is pretty decent at least in my VERY limited experience, so I'm seconding your Value nomination for the entry level stuff. Not sure how the higher end stuff fares, not a thing I'm willing to touch lmao.
     
  13. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    For outdoor/karaoke parties, I would have looked at some sort of battery powered PA... JBL Eon, Yorkville Mobile, Bose S1, EV Everse, Mackie Thump, Alto Busker, Peavey Solo, etc.
    I have the Yorkville, but that's a very Canadian brand. I'd probably pick the JBL next. Sure these all cost more than the monitors new, but PA gear is cheap like borcht on the used market from all the wannabe DJs out there and some of it is decent as long as you aren't trying to do nearfield.
     
  14. Lyander

    Lyander Official SBAF Equitable Empathizer

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    The idea was to also occasionally steal them to try and develop a baseline for what actual monitors might sound like in my space so that COULD have informed my decision a bit :p

    But yeah they get the job done and unless I'm aiming for near-infrasound, they could be worse. Might try slapping some damping around the chasses to see if that doesn't help the excess resonance any (I've been meaning to stock up on Dynamat Xtreme) but they're rather fun all told
     
  15. darmok

    darmok Almost "Made"

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    Thanks for the reminder; I've just ordered more of these to sprinkle around. It clearly works as I ended up with a nasty ground loop on my desk setup and this cleared it right up. It's cheap insurance! I also ordered a Neutron Isolator V1 which supplies up to 400mA through its regulated output, and I'm eager to see if that works well enough for running a typical dongle off an iPhone or iPad.
     
  16. DrForBin

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    hello,
    i would like to nominate the recently released Sennheiser HD490 Pro for all three categories.
    preparing a rant/wall of text for the Headphones thread where i hope to make my case.
    cheers!
     
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  17. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    Random note, but shouldn't this thread be in the Leaderboards subforum along with the previous years schlongs rather than in the Bully Pulpit?
     

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