The All Purpose Advice Thread

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

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  1. ColdsnapBry

    ColdsnapBry Almost "Made"

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    I only really need one knob, just boost the bass like +3 db on some tracks on SW51+. Was thinking maybe the Schiit would be more transparent sounding, but that's based off nothing.
     
  2. Steve Mannix

    Steve Mannix New

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    Hi, all. I'm dipping my toe into the waters of streaming (either through Spotify or my own files) using the Rpi 4/Pi2 P12AES setup and I'm looking for insight on a DAC/headphone amp combination. I would be listening to lossy Spotify and lossless personal files (the personal files would range from 16/44.1 to 24/192.)

    Thinking along the lines of the Modius/Magnius combination to give an idea where my budget might be (which isn't a hard limit). Thanks for any feedback on this idea, or any other combinations you think would do the trick.

    Thanks in advance.
     
  3. supertransformingdhruv

    supertransformingdhruv Almost "Made"

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    You've probably already seen the threads here on the pi2aes, modius, and magnius; all three of these are pretty good for their prices, and I don't see why they shouldn't play well together. I think you can probably save a buck on the pi2aes if you're willing to use usb out from an existing computer, since the modius has unison usb which people say sounds pretty good.

    Difficult to really say more than that about your question without more detail. Stuff like what kind of headphones you're using, what kind of software you're thinking about with the pi2aes, what your use case is, etc.
     
  4. Wilewarer

    Wilewarer Almost "Made"

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    I've had a Lyr 3 in for a bit, and I'm noticing some aspects of the sound seem to be... not quite consistent from hour to hour. Amount of vocal hiss being the easiest to describe. Sometimes greater, sometimes less, no consistent pattern to it even before accounting for listener fallibility.

    Is this something I could plausibly blame on tube burn-in? If so, how long until I should expect it to settle? It's had a few dozen hours of music playing time, but not full-out 24/7. As best I can tell this is a very good amp, but I'd like to take my best shot at hearing it as I should expect it to sound (with the stock JJ tube) before fully committing.
     
  5. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    Could be the tube. Try leaving it on all day for a few days or longer (turn it off if you’re not comfortable leaving the house or sleeping with it running) and see if it makes a difference. Some new tubes have long break in times. The other possibility, if that doesn’t fix it, is that you have a bad tube - do you have another tube you can swap out at least temporarily to see if you notice the same issue?
     
  6. Wilewarer

    Wilewarer Almost "Made"

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    Nah, I just have the stock tube, no other tube gear. It doesn't sound defective to me, just certain qualities have gone back and forth in a way I didn't expect. I don't know anything about tube gear practicalities, so I was wondering whether that sort of thing might settle in. Will try putting more hours on it, thanks.

    Mostly I'm trying to avoid having something that doesn't sound good to me on some readily available and preferably currently manufactured tube. Not totally against tube rolling, but pretty uninterested in going deep into an NOS rabbit hole, especially with current events being what they are.
     
  7. bixby

    bixby Friend

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    On the hunt for new budget iems $100 max, for on the go use (boosted bass is welcomed to overcome ambient noise and footfalls)

    @Brause and others have mentioned the Moondrop Aria and it is on my short list. I generally do not like a response that has a peak higher than the one in the main presence region (2-3khz approx). So a peak at 5 or 6 khz that is higher in amplitude than a 3khz peakfor example will not fly for me. The Aria and Starlight do not seem to violate this rule, yet it is a very gradual decline rather than a steep one. Not sure if it would be too much at 4k for example. Thoughts?

    But the big thing is fit is very important. The most comfortable iems (never mind the sound) I have owned were the Westone UM3X or Shure SE-215, and my current little Sony MH-755 & 750. Bullet iems like the Carbo Tenore, did not work for me and some like the Mee M6 pro with similar shape to the Shure but with short tubes did not stay put.

    So the question is do you think the shape of the Moondrops with their shorter tubes might work? Or are there others to investigate as well?
     
  8. shotgunshane

    shotgunshane Floridian Falcon

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    Regarding fit, nothing is going to fit like a Westone. Those are some of the best fitting universal shells. I sincerely hope the Lucid/Ety engineer team can being Westone tunings I to current times sometime soon.

    Aria fit is comfortable and easy to me. It will be shallower fit compared to Westone. I don’t have any issue with it. I generally tend to use longer tips with shallower fitting iems, like campfire audio, but am just using standard length single flange silicone tips with Aria.
     
  9. Tekker

    Tekker Facebook Friend

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    [​IMG]

    So I punctured these holes on the driver of my JVC HA-S400. First, I punctured all of them with a needle, and then made slightly larger holes with a toothpick.

    The result was less peaky treble, and slightly more bass.

    After that, I made the holes as big as possible. Reduction in bass vs no holes punctured, didn’t like it at all.

    If the driver holes are fully punctured open, what is the reason that the bass is reduced vs bass increased if the holes are punctured with just a toothpick?[​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Mar 25, 2022
  10. Cooper32

    Cooper32 Facebook Friend

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    Looking for a bit of advice on how to add a bit of gain to my speaker system.

    System: TV/PC --> Schiit Modi MB --> Saga S --> Vidar --> Magnepan MMG

    System is used for both music listening and watching TV.

    On certain quiet songs and/or passages I'm maxed out on the Saga volume control. Loud enough to be listening comfortably but sometimes I wish I had just that little bit extra gain.

    Obvious upgrade is to get a Freya S. My other thought was to buy a cheap headphone amp (say Magni 3+), stick it between the Modi MB and Saga S, put the Magni 3+ on high gain, but still use the Saga S as the volume control.

    Thoughts? Any other suggestions?
     
  11. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    Grabbing some rough specs online, it looks like with Modi maxed out you're already putting 160 W into the MMG, and the Vidar tops out at 200 W and Maggies take up to maybe 300W (I wouldn't find the specs for the MMG, but the MG-20 is 300W). So that said, even if you snuck in a little more gain you would only get a couple decibels more before you start the limits of your equipment.

    Maybe putting in a sub with boost the low end would be more fulfilling?
     
  12. Roderick

    Roderick Facebook Friend

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    I have Yggdrasil A1 + SPL Phonitor 2 with Abyss 1266 Phi. Nice system but I have to push Phonitor bit harder than I like. I also have monoprice liquid platinum but I prefer the sound of Phonitor with abyss. LP is mostly for driving HE6se V2, a job bit too demanding for LP imo. So I need more power. I also want to test Susvara and some e-stats (with transformer units provided by headphone manufacturers or something like ifi Pro iesl) Thing is I am curious about Raal SR1 too so I doubt no (sanely) priced headphone amplifier is going to cut it.

    So how about a speaker amp? I have only used active speakers so I'm completely at lost when it comes to speaker amps. I was thinking I could plug inefficient planars straight to speaker taps or or use some sort of adapter for convenience. I could use Phonitor 2 as a preamp because Yggdrasil has only one free rca output left. If I use phonitor as a preamp the (power) amp would need to have xlr inputs.

    Price: ~1300usd (new or used and I'm not looking down on cheaper options either)

    Size: About the size of yggdrasill. Wider and taller is ok but nothing deeper. Nothing super heavy stuff either, so about 20kg max.

    Sound signature: Irrelevant mostly. Perhaps nothing super bright/cold/sterile considering Abyss, HE6 and propably Susvara/Raal/Stax would not need any extra brightness. This will be a temporary solution while I figure out where I'm headed. This sort of all in one solution would help save money and space at this point. Later I can build either planar/Raal/e-stat setup once I figure out what I'm after.


    I'm thinking about LSA Discovery Warp One. I suppose that 150W@8ohm would be nice for Raal and e-stats but is it too much for planars? If I use Phonitor as preamp and plug Abyss on the speaker taps of LSA would I get any room for adjusting volume at all?


    Ragnarok would be obvious choice but it's rarely recommended these days. Maybe it's just too affordable for people with Susvara etc? ;) Would Rag be good for SR1a or paired with ifi Pro iESL or something? I know Vidar/aegir exist but if I was to use Phonitor as pre-amp for single Aegir/Vidar I would need to use XLR-RCA adapter. Would that make things worse somehow?

    What other options are there? Or is there something inherently wrong with my plan?
     
  13. Cooper32

    Cooper32 Facebook Friend

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    Yeah a sub is definitely in the future plans. I just put that off for a bit as I've read that properly integrating a sub with Magnepans is a challenge.

    I think my key issue is that my source (noticed this more when using the TV optical out as a source than when using my laptop) is likely not outputting at the same dbFS (on average) as my laptop. I don't use any special settings to boost digital output on my laptop.

    To make sure I wasn't going deaf, I did measure the average dbA SPL at my seating position (8ft away from speakers) and it was around 78-82 dB on a quiet song with Saga's volume at max. Granted the measurement was with a phone app but should be close enough to say I'm not getting very loud output out of my system.
     
  14. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    @Roderick
    - If looking at an eventual iESL, why not pair it with the matching iCAN Pro? it has lots of power on tap
    - I used to have monoblock Benchmark AHB2's powering my original HE-6. Highly recommended. I sold them off during a period of pandemic unemployment which I kinda regret, but I currently have an SPL s800 which sounds great
    - if looking at the RAAL SR1a, you might also considering saving up for the HSA-1b amp. I got the combo with a buddy of mine because we were so curious. Honestly, I like the amp more than the headphone. It's very expensive though.
     
  15. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    @Cooper32
    That's seems like a very very low output signal. Is it possible your tv has some digital volume setting in the background that you've missed? you're only getting maybe 0.1 W from the Vidar right now.

    Can you measure something similar from your laptop?
     
  16. Cooper32

    Cooper32 Facebook Friend

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    No digital processing trickery is willingly turned on. There's some settings on it for dialogue enhancement and "surround sound" but they're all off. But then again, who knows what the hell is going on inside the TV, as far as sound processing.

    Not sure how to measure the digital output of the PC or TV but what I've done before is measure the analog output of the DAC while playing a 60 Hz sine wave at 0 dBFS (usually I just find it on YouTube). I'd be able to measure the V_rms out the Modi MB when using my laptop as a source vs the TV (noticeably quieter than laptop) and see the difference.

    I gotta borrow a multimeter from a friend so I'll reply to the thread when I have the measurements.
     
  17. 7seven

    7seven Acquaintance

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    Does anyone know if high efficiency speakers generally sound better in some way to lower efficiency types? dynamics, speed, something like that?

    high efficiency woofers, most seemed to be designed for PA, generally have less sub bass extension and more ragged response than 'hifi' woofers, from I what seen/read. These are real downsides to higher efficiency but there is still a lot more to consider.
     
  18. gixxerwimp

    gixxerwimp Professional tricycle rider

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  19. shotgunshane

    shotgunshane Floridian Falcon

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