The All Purpose Advice Thread

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

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  1. YtseJammer

    YtseJammer Almost "Made"

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    Hey man, I'm good and you ?

    Yes I'm in Canada so the holiday deal for the LCD-2C was very interesting for me ;)

    I'm very curious to hear your comments about the Aeon Flow Open.

    Cheers
     
  2. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    When the magnitude of the vibrations approaches the size of your absorption medium, it's kind of a weird problem to tackle because now you have macroscopic movement on top of just the vibration. The simplest is just to get a thick dampener/spring/sorbothane/whatever and put those under the feet of a small rack that sits on your desk, and put additional dampeners under your equipment.

    A silly but not implausible idea would be to hang a plank from elastic straps under your desk and put your gear there.
     
  3. shuto

    shuto Acquaintance

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    I was putting my Jotunheim through its paces last night with my idsd Black Label and isine 20 (the only mid-fi iem/headphone I have until my AFO arrives). I have some test tracks I listen to on Tidal which are pretty well recorded and mastered (the playlist was put together by a friend with much better ears than mine). In my listening, everything sounded pretty good. Then I decided to put on Power from Kanye to see how the system does with something very bassy. Not really sure why I had the urge as I can't stand the guy and there's other hip hop I enjoy a lot more. The treble was very hot and unpleasant. I had to change the song.

    So here's my noob question: Might this have been some compression artifacts that I found so unpleasant, or did my chain just hit some frequencies in the treble region that I'm sensitive to? I've never experienced this with my test tracks. But to be fair, this was my first time with this setup.
     
  4. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

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    Sounds like a plan.

    Solidsteel stuff is sort of local, I'll make a trip over when it's time, then slap sorbothane on all interfaces.

    Unless I find something cheaper, since bespoke machined isolation spikes wouldn't help me anyway.
     
  5. Metro

    Metro Friend

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    There are also shelving systems that hang from the ceiling.
    Make sure that you protect objects that touch the Sorbothane — it releases chemicals that stains surfaces.

    Am I to understand that you feel the train vibrations but don't hear them? If you can hear the trains, it's really a lost cause (you'll still hear the train no matter how well you isolate the equipment). If it is vibrations only, I wonder how microphonic tubes are to such low frequency vibration. Anybody know?

    Something to explore further is that vibration is a real problem in industry and manufacturing, and there are far more products for controlling vibration than discussed in the audio world. For example: http://www.vibrationmounts.com/
     
  6. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

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    Its going onto a ikea desk, not worried about that :)

    Correct.

    The tunnel exit is on the other side of the house, where I'm renting.

    Upstairs you can't hear them at all - except when some bored jerk cargo driver decides to honk his horn at 3am, and even then it's not as loud as car horns/alarms nearby >_>

    No idea, but I doubt it's good for them in the long term anyway.

    It certainly isn't for mechanical hard drives.

    Thanks, I'll take a look.
     
  7. Riotvan

    Riotvan Snoofer in the Woofer

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    Well they have been used in figher jets by the Russians. I reckon they have been to space too so there should be some rugged tubes or solutions to your problem :)
     
  8. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

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    The hardened stuff, yeah, sure.

    I can't even use *normal* nos tubes because of the silly stuff my paranoia throws me at night :p

    "But what if x and you can't find the one you like again" well I'm sure I could find something else that "LOL NOPE YOU'RE NEVER SLEEPING AGAIN ELOELOL"

    Also that doesn't really help the solder joints at the socket-pcb interface.

    Could I get away with doing nothing? Maybe.

    Will my paranoia let me? Nooooope.

    So it's kind of a moot point :D
     
  9. Kattefjaes

    Kattefjaes Mostly Harmless

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    It can sometimes matter for tube amps, at least. However, you don't need to spend a fortune. There are cheap hacks possible there.

    For your Bifrost Multibit, you could do a lot worse than buying some generic sorbathane feet on Amazon- you can usually get them with 3M adhesive on, it's a decent option that won't break the bank.
     
  10. Riotvan

    Riotvan Snoofer in the Woofer

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    Hehehe, if i were you i'd look into sorbothane as suggested earlier.
    What i do is get the total weight of the item you want to decouple. Say your rack weighs 100kg and it has 4 legs so get 4 pads that can handle 25kg each. They usually have a range for example there are pads rated for 25-45kg, 15-35 and 5-25. I would pick the 15-35kg ones, note that this is an example and not actual available values, you can also use multiple pads per legs to get the desired effect.

    And if all your transformers in your gear are off to one side and you use multiple pads per leg and put some more on the heavier side. You can do this for individual gear as well.

    This should take care of any decoupling ocd ;)

    As for tubes i stay away from tubes i can't replace financially or can't obtain any more. I think tube differences are more subtle then people think, proper biasing and triode balance(where it matters) have a greater effect when they are off.
     
  11. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

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    Yup yup.

    The place @Metro linked has all sorts of neat stuff apart from sorbdomes, their silicon gel pads will come in useful too, for a start.

    As for distributing the weight, digital scales for cooking are cheap and plenty precise enough, I'll just get 4 and put one under each foot, no guessing required :D
     
  12. Colgin

    Colgin Friend

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    Is there a source for your comment that sale is ending today. I have been on the fence on these. I was hoping to hold out until the NY meet next weekend where all candidate headphones will be present. But if deal is ending imminently I may have to just place the order with fallback of 30-day return window.
     
  13. Garns

    Garns Friend

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    Also experiment with three feet in a T formation. Unless your desk is very flat (like IKEA ones aren't) you usually get more even weight distribution with 3 than 4.

    Totally agree with @Armaegis, I would go for a platform with sorbothane or similar to isolate from the grosser vibrations. Then footers under the amp on top if you feel you need them. The IKEA bamboo chopping boards are good for the platform. Sometimes a bit of extra mass on top of the amp itself (like 200-300 grams) helps too.
     
  14. TwoEars

    TwoEars Friend

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    Does the sbaf community have an opinion on integrated speaker DAC/AMP units such as the NAD M32, Devialet 120 or Moon 340iX for instance. Anyone heard a "good 'un", or know one that's supposed to be good? Or are separates still king?

    [​IMG]
     
  15. Colgin

    Colgin Friend

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    I spoke to an Audeze rep today who said intro pricing on the Classic should be ending any day now.
     
  16. imackler

    imackler Key Lime Pie Infected Aberdeen Wings Spy

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    If anyone has both an ipod touch and Andromeda, could you check on the hiss level? I was given a touch and thinking about pairing it with an Andromeda... Really, any quick impressions would be appreciated. I've "read" that the OI is around 2 on the 6th generation.
     
  17. Elnrik

    Elnrik Super Friendly

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    Hey all.

    Thinking about upgrading the DAC in my headphone setup. As it currently sits: PC - USB - Bifrost Multibit G5 - Saga - BlackWidow 2 (or heavily modded BH Crack) - ZMF Eikon.

    The Crack doesn't get near as much play as the BW2.

    Looking for something with spot on tonal accuracy. Resolving but not bright or overly analytical. Just natural sounding. Must not be bass anemic, but not looking for bass to be a focal point either. Priorities for audio quality are: Tone and timbre >= resolution/plankton > headstage > etc. Preferred music is blues, metal, prog, classic rock, with some techno/edm, jazz, and symphonic classical tossed in for a little spice.

    I was thinking Gungnir Multibit. Seems to be hard to beat for the money. Has the added bonus of being able to fit on my desk (barely). Just doing a sanity check to make sure I'm not overlooking something that might be clearly better than the Gungnir Multibit. Not sure I have the desk space for a Yggdrasil. Not concerned about price at this point - within reason - just looking to evaluate options at this point. Thinking about Metrum stuff? Onyx, perhaps. Chord need not apply.

    Thanks everyone!
     
  18. captkirk

    captkirk Khan's BFF

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    @Elnrik

    I don’t have a wide variety of DAC experience, but I have run the Schiit DAC gambit, having owned the Modi Multibit, Bifrost Multibit and Gungnir Multibit. I still own the Modi Multibit for it’s insane value and keep it as a stand-by...

    I will say that my Gungnir Multibit and BW2 pair very well. Tonality of both components harmonize well, with the Gungnir Multibit’s dynamics slightly boosted, but not to excess by the BW2 - slams impressively, but not too much to not sound genuine or artificial. The pair also excell at resolving fine detail, plankton and micro dynamics, holding a fine line between detail/analytical and “musical”.

    Solid pairing, and the two stack perfectly for space saving.

    I think @Ringingears and @insidious meme run the same setup, and I know both have more experience than me. ;)
     
  19. Elnrik

    Elnrik Super Friendly

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    Thanks! It's not the first time I've heard that the Gungnir Multibit and BW pair very well, which is one of the reasons it's the prime contender.

    I've been so focused on real life stuff and family for the last 5 months or so, I'm just now trying to catch up on some of the DAC and headphone changes and releases that have occurred. I thought I'd poll the audience before I told Regis "final answer". =)
     
  20. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

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    Metrum DACs are great if you like NOS DACs, but I don't think you can compare them to OS - that's like asking, a piano or a sailboat, which is better?
     
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