The All Purpose Advice Thread

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

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  1. fastfwd

    fastfwd Friend

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    No. One pair is connected only to the woofer(s), and the other pair is connected only to the mid(s) and/or tweeter(s).
    If you only connect to one pair, you will drive either the woofers or the tweeters/mids -- not both. So if you want to use only one pair of cables, you must also have a connection between the upper pair of posts and the lower pair of posts. Often this connection is made with short jumper wires or bars (almost certainly included by the speaker manufacturer), but sometimes there is a switch to make the connection.
    No.
    Biwiring is using two sets of speaker cables per channel. Using one set plus jumpers is not biwiring.
    The two arrangements are equivalent; it does not matter.
     
  2. LetMeBeFrank

    LetMeBeFrank Won't tell anyone my name is actually Francis

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    My personal nervosa is to connect the + wire to the high and - wire to the low (with the bus bars in place of course). It probably doesn't matter but it makes my brain happy. I do this with both my KEF Reference model three's and my Klipsch VF-36.
     
  3. Don Quichotte

    Don Quichotte New

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    Hi everyone! I'd like to ask for a USB dac recommendation for a very specific task. I have a pretty revealing speakers setup (the speakers are Martin Logan Impression 11A electrostatic hybrids) that I like quite a lot, but there's something with it's tonality that bugs me. I don't have a dac yet, only a CD player, and before investing in a serious converter I'd like to verify if the aforementioned tonality issue can be corrected, and to what degree, by means of digital EQ (Crave EQ and DMG EQuick are two plugins I'm considering) or maybe digital room correction software with user adjustable target curve (Dirac, mainly).

    So, I don't know if such a dac exists, but I'd like it to:
    - have a decent enough resolution so I can assess if the possible negative effects of digital EQ-ing are acceptable for me or not
    - have a reasonable USB implementation (Windows PC, fwiw)
    - not sound very glare-y (does this word exist?) as this is approximately what I'm trying to EQ out of my system, a certain upper mids / lower treble proeminence (no, it's not because of my source)
    - be cheap - I'm actually only buying in order to do some tests, so I'd prefer to stay below, say, 250-300 Euro...
    Buying used is OK for me in this case.

    The options I'm considering so far:
    - Schiit Modius - unfortunately, out of stock for a long while now here in EU
    - Behringer DEQ2496 + Schiiit Eitr or Gustard U10 - but I've read the analog out is rather noisy and really not great overall
    - Mini-DSP DDRC 24 - a bit more expensive but, more importantly, again, some people are saying the analog out is rather noisy and really not great sounding
    - Motu M2 - tempting because of the price and Marv's approval of its relative, the allegedly warm and musical sounding UltraLite MK4; however, there are some user reports claiming the Wndows drivers are bad and result in frequent drop-outs etc.
    - a used Parasound D/AC 1000 that I can get for about 400 Euro - a bit too expensive, again, and would require an Eitr or something similar; I could consider it if I knew it is really that much better then the others in this list
    - something else such as Musical Fidelity V-link II or i-Fi Zen?

    Thank you in advance for any suggestion you might have!
     
  4. zerodeefex

    zerodeefex SBAF's Imelda Marcos

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    Use EQ. Loki works wonders if you're SE.
     
  5. EagleWings

    EagleWings Friend

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    @Don Quichotte , I used to be a big time EQ user and what I learnt the hard way was, the treble glare from a digital source is really hard to get rid of with EQ, or even tube amps. When I owned the Lotto Paw Gold and Hugo2, I tried EQ, different digital and analog cables, burn-in and what not to solve the digital glare issue, but none worked. Switching over to the Cayin N8 as a DAC was a dramatic change, that I stopped using EQ even for my HD800. So switching over to a DAC that is free of glare might be the most effective solution.

    That said, Modius does exhibit a bit of digital glare via the SE outs. Folks here have confirmed that the glare is less present on its Balanced outs. What I cannot say for sure are 2 things:
    1. How much worse/better the Modius is going to be in terms of glare, relative to you current CD player.
    2. How easily your speaker picks up digital glare. Some transducers pick-up and reveal even the tiniest amount of glare more than others. For example, the HD650 is more revealing of the glare than the LCDi4.

    The only way to find out is to try it in your system. Try one solution at a time though.
     
    Last edited: Oct 6, 2020
  6. Tennstrong

    Tennstrong New

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    Hey all, apologies to request advice again so soon, but I'm quite likely to be picking up an LCD-2 (or 2 Classic) in the coming weeks. I know there is the likely chance of a b-stock sale in the next ~month, but after doing shipping & import tax calculations I'm a little more comfortable buying from a domestic (Canadian) vendor; I found one who has a decent deal (bringing the price of the 2 w/ leather-free to the 2C) / might give me a bit more off on top for a pair of the 2s since they don't have stock atm. So I'm leaning towards the 2 currently, although the 2C has been my general plan for a while.

    Questions are: (1) The more recessed treble / increased bass slam of the 2C seems to be a little more up my alley, however I'm not opposed to EQ (as I understand it currently). Am I sacrificing anything tangible (post-EQ) SQ-wise by going with the 2 over the 2C? And is the soundstage discernibly different between the two? To my knowledge the 2C is supposedly a little more open, with a couple bands of deadzones in imaging that are more filled in by the fazors in the 2.
    (2) So now that Audeze is using a sealant on the wood / wood treatments aren't beneficial, does that have any implication for the expected longevity or maintenance I should keep (outside of not using wood treatments anymore)? Have people have issue with the newer black separated connectors? Most issues I see with cracking have been units from older generations.

    Supplemental Information (probably unnecessary for the questions, but if needed):
    Intended Use: Music listening, general media consumption, I don't care at all about gaming with these (though I may use them occasionally for immersion).
    Genres: Really all over the place but primarily hip-hop. Reason for including this information is because I personally believe most hip-hop music is not recorded with the artist believing it will be played back on a controlled neutral system somewhere (DIlla's stuff was recorded to play in your car for instance), so I am more than accepting of something that can hide a few recording flaws, and maybe be a little darker / more similar to a decent car audio setup with dedicated amp. I am treble sensitive yet enjoy a lot of genres with aggressive treble (and a lot use rougher quality samples to begin with).
    Source Quality: Sometimes really poor, I'd say maybe 30%+ of my listening is leaked hip-hop ranging 192-320kbps. I also listen to Spotify frequently. My core audio library however is around 800-1200kbps FLAC audio. Lastly I also would like to use these for vinyl listening, which gives me a slight concern regarding EQ if the headphone is going to be overly reliant, though this is going to be one of the less frequent use cases.

    To make sure I'm not entirely off-base, my hopes: I would ideally like them to be an easier listen, a little heavy on bass naturally but extremely clean and able to be pushed up without issue, highs recessed, wider soundstage (doesn't need to be ad500x level, but being open and forgiving of tendencies for closely staged recordings to sound piercing). Not aiming for neutrality, but something closer to my speaker system (tannoy pbm 8 ii) or car audio (ax1000, 10" subwoofer [can't remember driver off hand], stock tweeters since they performed significantly after the head unit swap & some crossover tuning) in terms of bass response & quality, capability to be EQ'd to a darker or slightly lighter response without seeming like I'm pushing the drivers beyond their intention.

    An aside: Really enjoying the magni 3+/modi I was recommended compared to my creative t20 headphone passthrough (this wasn't the worst, but I'd still get listening fatigue rather quickly, and it was comparatively quite close, flat, & narrow) and mobo (z-170a, power output was fine but it had a lot of [what seemed like] interference, about the same SQ as the t20 passthrough). Thanks again for that, and for reading/considering my question here!
     
  7. Bigpond

    Bigpond New

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    Suggestions for the best way to adjust volume from source>dac>amp?

    Longer version-I’ve been running my dac with onboard active volume control directly to my amp (which has adjustable gain).

    I read elsewhere adjusting volume with the dac was likely to reduce resolution. So, I cranked my dac to max gain, dropped the gain on my amp to compensate and sure enough, sound quality seemed to improve.

    I have a different amp arriving in a few days that does not have variable gain and has very low internal gain essentially requiring I use balanced inputs.

    I plan to stream Tidal and cds through a connected laptop.

    Is there a better way to adjust volume while keeping my dac at max gain?

    I have a passive preamp that won’t help and an active, tube based pre that probably will, however it is unbalanced and I would prefer to keep it out of the chain if possible.
     
  8. EagleWings

    EagleWings Friend

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    Why wouldn’t the passive pre help?
     
  9. Bigpond

    Bigpond New

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    Need approx 5v gain to fully power amp.
     
  10. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    Your info seems a bit incomplete and somewhat confusing. So will using the balanced outputs from your DAC give you the 5V you’re looking for, and therefore you only need attenuation? Or you need something that will push you up to 5V (in which case, you have no choice but an active preamp)?

    If this was a roundabout way of asking what balanced passive preamps are out there, there are many, but what people generally recommend around here is JBL Nano Patch+ or Mackie Big Knob if you want something cheap (and decent) or go up to something like a Goldpoint XLR preamp if you want something higher end (and more transparent). No remote control with either of those options though. Of course there are many other options, including Schiit Freya if you want to go all the way up there (although this is massive overkill if you only need passive attenuation).

    If you’re looking for purely digital attenuation, others may have to reply with suggestions. I’ve used Roon for this in the past and found it pretty transparent (it upsamples everything before applying attenuation, which avoids resolution loss, and then downsamples before output to the DAC), but if you’re not using Roon currently, probably not much help (and expensive to go there).
     
    Last edited: Oct 7, 2020
  11. Bigpond

    Bigpond New

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    Thank you! I’m trying to find a solution that doesn’t result in the purchase of a balanced preamp. I will look in to Roon.


     
  12. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    Just want to point out, there may be other digital volume solutions out there that work as well, I am just not aware of them (I use Roon for other reasons). Also, how much were you attenuating digitally before? If it was quite a bit in some cases (of course it’s track dependant) then yes, it may have affected resolution. But if it was generally only a few dB, I don’t think it would have made that much difference, and it may have been the change in your amp gain that actually changed the sound of things more so.
     
  13. lcmusiclover

    lcmusiclover Friend

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    Can you reveal the identity of your DAC and amp. I don't see that anywhere -- not in this post, not in your profile, not in your introductory posts.

    Essentially, you've asked a specific technical question without providing much of the information needed to help you.

    For example, you indicate that your amp requires 5V for full gain. But we don't know your DAC's output voltage.

    It really sounds like you need to see how the DAC and amp play together once the amp arrives. If when you put the system together, you find you need more gain (not just attenuation), then an active preamp is pretty much the only way to solve the problem in the analog domain. If you don't need to increase the voltage your amp sees above your DAC's output voltage, then passive attenuation can get it done.

    On the other hand, if you're willing to up-sample (so as to not 'lose bits') and manage volume in the digital domain, then, as others have mentioned, there are various solutions.

    There's a whole thread about passive analog volume control here:

    https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/passive-volume-control-for-dacs-sources.860/

    Personally, I've moved from an active balanced pre-amp (Emotiva XSP-1) to passive balanced pre-amp (Hattor Mini). But my amps have plenty of gain, so I only need attenuation ... and a remote control :) The passive is the least colored solution I could find. Really, the Emotiva wasn't 'bad' and was fine with my previous SS amps (Violectric V280 & Bryston BHA-1) but the sound became too wet when I switched to my tube-hybrid amp (Liquid Platinum). All to my ears of course.
     
  14. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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  15. DEATHxMACHINE

    DEATHxMACHINE Friend

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    The THX 789 has an rca pass through so you can daisy chain your amps.
     
  16. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    Does that sound ok? I guess the same as an extra RCA cable.
     
  17. Ksaurav402

    Ksaurav402 Friend

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    If you are Ok with a box then Schiit SYS is a good option for a switch box. It can work as 1 input and 2 output box but with this setting keep the volume at 100% or in a more traditional way of 2 input and 1 output. With this 2nd configuration you can use it as a passive preamp as well.
     
  18. DEATHxMACHINE

    DEATHxMACHINE Friend

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    Sounds just fine. Doesnt effect anything.
     
  19. Metro

    Metro Friend

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    Y cables from Blue Jeans Cable are very high quality, and only $10.
    In the subwoofer page: https://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/subwoofer/index.htm
     
  20. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    thanks, I’ll use those when I get a subwoofer some day. It will happen. It will happen.

    also great prices on good quality RCA cables. I forgot about Blue Jeans Cables. They’ve been around forever though which is kind of rare in the cable business.
     
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