Music Server
There are many ways of doing it, but i personally prefer a NAS with 2 drivers in RAID 1 hooked to the home network (cabled) to an "ethernet" DAC and control with an Ipad (or less conveniently with an IpodTouch or Iphone). The Squeezebox has been modded quite a bit and there are other players around. As an example take a look at Olive: OLIVE | SAVE THE SOUND ... I must add I have not heard them yet.
There are many ways of doing it, but i personally prefer a NAS with 2 drivers in RAID 1 hooked to the home network (cabled) to an "ethernet" DAC and control with an Ipad (or less conveniently with an IpodTouch or Iphone). The Squeezebox has been modded quite a bit and there are other players around. As an example take a look at Olive: OLIVE | SAVE THE SOUND ... I must add I have not heard them yet.
Yup my Panny TC P58V10 gives an annoying audible buzz too. Have your black levels risen yet? In the V10 s they rise dramatically after 1000 hours. I 've heard that the later generation Panny's are more gradual in this regard.
Best to leave the TV turned off for critical listening. Unplug it if you really want things quiet, as even in standby it spits out RFI. Get an iPod Touch or iPad and use the Remote app to control iTunes on the Mac Mini via wireless. Works wonderfully.
My 2007 Intel Core 2 Duo Mac Mini with 4G memory and SSD upgrades along with a Paul Hynes power supply running Pure Music software works very well. I'm feeding via FW to a TC Electronic Konnekt8 actiing as a SPDIF converter to a Buffalo II DAC on direct LiPO4, no voltage regs. I'm listening to 5 times the music I used to listen to on my older systems and enjoying it even more. YMMV.
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Hi Lynn, good to hear! You may already be aware of some work being carried out "down under". Namely, "The Wand" tonearm, available now for the SL1200.
Design Build Listen Ltd
No affiliation, and I haven't heard one. But it looks cool!
Cheers,
Mike
Hi Lynn,
USB isolators cost a fortune, especially if you want USB 2.0...
It is easier to isolate the SPDIF line itself. I am using a 75-110ohms transformer (canare) to convert from SPDIF to AES impedances and provide isolation in the same time, and it seems to do the job pretty well.
I'm pleased the drivers for the Ariel and ME2 have returned to availability at Madisound. Speaking of which, if any the diyAudio community, or your friends, have a good-looking pair of ME2's for sale (in North America), I'd be interested in buying them (one will replace my Dynaudio center speaker, and the other will be a spare). I have a slight preference for an external crossover, but an easy-to-get-at internal one would be OK too.
On the music-server topic, the Behringer ASRC already has transformer isolation for the S/PDIF inputs and outputs, as well as AES/EBU digital ins and outs. It provides a modest but worthwhile improvement of the sonics of Red Book CD's. Even though the resampling uses an asynchronous converter, the integer-multiple upsampling from 44.1 to 88.2 kHz is just a bit better than 96 kHz, and adding dither at the 20 or 24-bit level gives little extra smoothness for CD's recorded in the mid to late Eighties.
I'm looking for a laptop-based system to replace MLSSA, most likely a MacBook Pro dual-booting into Windows 7 and OS X, which supports the FireWire 800 interface (which is absent on the MacBook Air). Since I want to measure out to 80 kHz, internal soundcards and most USB-based interfaces aren't suitable, leaving the high-end FireWire audio interfaces, like the M-Audio ProFire 610. (Many 96/24 products have internal analog brickwall filtering at 20 kHz, making them useless for transient measurements on tweeters and ultrasonic distortion measurements for power amplifiers.)
ARTA is popular around here, but what are people's experiences with Sample Champion and other MLS-based acoustical measurement systems? I have still my Aco Pacific 1/2" condenser microphone, and it works just fine.
On the music-server topic, the Behringer ASRC already has transformer isolation for the S/PDIF inputs and outputs, as well as AES/EBU digital ins and outs. It provides a modest but worthwhile improvement of the sonics of Red Book CD's. Even though the resampling uses an asynchronous converter, the integer-multiple upsampling from 44.1 to 88.2 kHz is just a bit better than 96 kHz, and adding dither at the 20 or 24-bit level gives little extra smoothness for CD's recorded in the mid to late Eighties.
I'm looking for a laptop-based system to replace MLSSA, most likely a MacBook Pro dual-booting into Windows 7 and OS X, which supports the FireWire 800 interface (which is absent on the MacBook Air). Since I want to measure out to 80 kHz, internal soundcards and most USB-based interfaces aren't suitable, leaving the high-end FireWire audio interfaces, like the M-Audio ProFire 610. (Many 96/24 products have internal analog brickwall filtering at 20 kHz, making them useless for transient measurements on tweeters and ultrasonic distortion measurements for power amplifiers.)
ARTA is popular around here, but what are people's experiences with Sample Champion and other MLS-based acoustical measurement systems? I have still my Aco Pacific 1/2" condenser microphone, and it works just fine.
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Send me a PM so you can both visit and hear the original Ariels - I'm about 15 miles east of Boulder, not that far from Thom Mackris of Galibier Designs.
Thanks also for the many interesting comments about a music server - my usual go-to site for music-server info is Computer Audiophile, but my tastes and interests are just a bit different from most of the posters over there. For one thing, I'm still in the ladder-DAC (Burr-Brown) camp, and don't care for the sound of most Delta-Sigma converter chips, nor the solid-state buffer or I/V stages that these DACs use.
Thanks also for the many interesting comments about a music server - my usual go-to site for music-server info is Computer Audiophile, but my tastes and interests are just a bit different from most of the posters over there. For one thing, I'm still in the ladder-DAC (Burr-Brown) camp, and don't care for the sound of most Delta-Sigma converter chips, nor the solid-state buffer or I/V stages that these DACs use.
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http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/swap-meet/186787-fs-ariel-6c-speakers-me-2-a.html
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/swap-meet/186738-fs-jupiter-beeswax-paper-5-uf-caps-new-matched.html
I am currently using the Pro Fire 610 with both Win and OS X systems, but leaned toward Win only so I could use Audiotester, which in its latest version seems to be very stable with Win7. Really low noise floor with this sound card; I typically go direct to the A/D (channel 3/4). Nice to get decent measurements out to 40 kHz. You can see the LPF of the Behringer DCX2496 in this shot; D/A pins direct to a Jensen output transformer, then buffered into a Raven-style preamp.
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/swap-meet/186738-fs-jupiter-beeswax-paper-5-uf-caps-new-matched.html
I am currently using the Pro Fire 610 with both Win and OS X systems, but leaned toward Win only so I could use Audiotester, which in its latest version seems to be very stable with Win7. Really low noise floor with this sound card; I typically go direct to the A/D (channel 3/4). Nice to get decent measurements out to 40 kHz. You can see the LPF of the Behringer DCX2496 in this shot; D/A pins direct to a Jensen output transformer, then buffered into a Raven-style preamp.
Attachments
Here is clear, concise, step by step tutorial, for setting up a current state of the art music server in Windows 7. Written by Gary Koh, whose long term profession is in the IT world and whose lively hood is Genesis.
Genesis Advanced Technologies
Regardless of which operating system you decide on, you want your computer to have an E SATA port. Running your digital content from a solid state drive, plugged into an E SATA port, is ridiculously better sounding than using a spinning disk either in or outside the box. However, using solid state drives with both read and write functions on a day to day basis, as you would with an internal solid state memory drive, is not recommended. Repeated writing and erasing has been pointed to as a cause of these to fail fairly quickly.
Bud
Genesis Advanced Technologies
Regardless of which operating system you decide on, you want your computer to have an E SATA port. Running your digital content from a solid state drive, plugged into an E SATA port, is ridiculously better sounding than using a spinning disk either in or outside the box. However, using solid state drives with both read and write functions on a day to day basis, as you would with an internal solid state memory drive, is not recommended. Repeated writing and erasing has been pointed to as a cause of these to fail fairly quickly.
Bud
I know this is the case where Flash Ram have a limited write/erase duty cycle. But once you have the data burned in, you are mainly reading. Maybe service life would be less of a concern.
This is not the case with SS drives. First thing looking up SSD longevity in google is Debunking Misconceptions in SSD Longevity . I have SSD drives in my laptop and PC running the OSs, making uncountable read/write operations a day.
Price per MB don't make SSD's attractive at all as music storage devices, specially if you are keeping lossless HiRes copies on your drive. Setting up the software to copy whole songs/movements to RAM is something you can make certain players do. And you could still use traditional high capacity HDDs.
The black levels in the almost two-year-old TV have only risen slightly - the room has to be pitch dark to even notice it. The one thing that's a little weird about a plasma television is if you flick your eyes really fast from right to left, you'll see a rainbow, or a yellow/green set of images that must correspond to the persistence of the phosphors, or maybe the PWM modulation scheme to drive the individual pixels.
This is only visible as a visual trick; it's not visible when you're actually looking at the picture, which is brighter and more stable than any digital movie theater I've seen. Plus the 3D effect is more natural and realistic than a theater as well (provided you sit close enough to fill the visual field). I have to say the Panasonic P58VT25 has been one of the most satisfying purchases I've made in a long while; the color quality in THX mode is truly superb, as good as CRT televisions with precision calibration. (The previous TV was a 36" RCA/Proscan high-definition display, engineered by Thomson, one of the partners in the development of the ATSC system.)
The Marantz combo is really good on movies and, well, acceptable on music. Most off-the-shelf HT receivers are unbelievably bad on music, for reasons that are not clear to me (except maybe extreme cost-cutting in the analog circuits). The Marantz, although a long, long way from the musical satisfaction of an all-tube system, is fairly decent on music. But there really is no comparison at all between even the most high-end HT equipment and a quality vacuum-tube system.
One of the things I might do to cross-connect the two systems is connect a TOSLINK cable from the television (it has TOSLINK out) to the Behringer ASRC; that way I can enjoy 24fps HDTV along with vacuum-tube stereophonic sound, the perfect way to enjoy a 70mm movie made in the Fifties or Sixties (which had all-analog, all-tube mag-track sound).
Movies made in the vacuum-tube era feel very different when played with transistor vs vacuum-tube electronics. The tube electronics really emphasize the emotional aspects of the music, bringing it forward in the mix, and the expressiveness of the dialog is heightened as well. Transistor replay seems to flatten the emotional aspects of the soundtrack, which can alter the entire experience of a movie. Since movies made in this era were balanced with all-analog, all-vacuum-tube theaters in mind, they come off as technically primitive on modern transistor electronics, yet sound "right" on historically appropriate electronics. Modern movies - well, that's a different matter, since they tend to be driven by explosions, SFX, and a video-game esthetic.
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Appreciate your thoughts Lynn.
I was under the misconception that SPDIF was superior to USB so I guess now I'll have to look into some alternative solutions.
That is what i would have liked, but budget limited me to Edirol FA66, which has, IMO, very good bang for the buck (and i have yet to start tweaking it)
dave
I'm partitioning the requirements for listening and measurements into two entirely separate systems. The measurement system is hosted by a Firewire-capable laptop and uses a Firewire-interface I/O device with a 192/24 data rate and a hardware brickwall lowpass filter no lower than 80 kHz. Brickwall filters lower than 80 kHz gum up the transient response of tweeter measurements and make it difficult to examine the HF overshoot of various transformers in the power amplifiers. Gary Pimm is already using the same M-Audio Profire 610 as I plan to get, along with ARTA for loudspeaker measurements and AudioTester for amplifier measurements. I will follow in his footsteps and get the same equipment and software.
As for listening, well that's a different story. Not a fan of op-amps, not a fan of delta-sigma DACs, not a fan of transistor amps. Completely different than what I use for instrumentation. Measuring and listening ain't the same; for one thing, the measurements of waterfalls, IM distortion, etc. are far from complete descriptors of what an audio system does - the more esoteric measurements require custom-built lab gear. The traditional measurements of waterfalls, IM distortion, etc. covers the basics, and that's what I'm interested in doing. But I certainly don't want to actually listen to a system using delta-sigma DACs, opamps, Class AB transistor amps, etc. - that's exactly what the home-theater system does, and to me, it doesn't sound much like live, acoustic music at all - it sounds like a good-quality PA system, not an orchestra or choir.
First priority is getting the Technics SL1210 Mk5 up and running, with probably a custom-designed vacuum-tube RIAA preamp, MC step-up transformer, and who knows what cartridge - maybe an Ortofon SPU, maybe an Audio-Technica OC9 ML/III - good question there. I'm pretty satisfied with the sound of Red Book replay with the Monarchy DAC, Behringer ASRC, and modified Denon DV2900 with SuperClock II.
I have maybe 6 SACD's, and the Denon plays them OK, and maybe 6 DVD-A's, and the Monarchy plays them OK too. The titles available for high-rez download don't do much for me, so not much urgency on that front. More than 95% of the music I enjoy is plain old Red Book, with all its faults.
By getting a phonograph running I effectively double the size of my music collection, not something I can say for SACD, DVD-A, or high-rez downloads. Not only that, I really like not only the sound, but the performances of my records from the Sixties and Seventies. Remastered recordings don't always sound better - sometimes yes, sometimes no. Most of my LPs are originals bought a few weeks after original release, not reissues.
As for listening, well that's a different story. Not a fan of op-amps, not a fan of delta-sigma DACs, not a fan of transistor amps. Completely different than what I use for instrumentation. Measuring and listening ain't the same; for one thing, the measurements of waterfalls, IM distortion, etc. are far from complete descriptors of what an audio system does - the more esoteric measurements require custom-built lab gear. The traditional measurements of waterfalls, IM distortion, etc. covers the basics, and that's what I'm interested in doing. But I certainly don't want to actually listen to a system using delta-sigma DACs, opamps, Class AB transistor amps, etc. - that's exactly what the home-theater system does, and to me, it doesn't sound much like live, acoustic music at all - it sounds like a good-quality PA system, not an orchestra or choir.
First priority is getting the Technics SL1210 Mk5 up and running, with probably a custom-designed vacuum-tube RIAA preamp, MC step-up transformer, and who knows what cartridge - maybe an Ortofon SPU, maybe an Audio-Technica OC9 ML/III - good question there. I'm pretty satisfied with the sound of Red Book replay with the Monarchy DAC, Behringer ASRC, and modified Denon DV2900 with SuperClock II.
I have maybe 6 SACD's, and the Denon plays them OK, and maybe 6 DVD-A's, and the Monarchy plays them OK too. The titles available for high-rez download don't do much for me, so not much urgency on that front. More than 95% of the music I enjoy is plain old Red Book, with all its faults.
By getting a phonograph running I effectively double the size of my music collection, not something I can say for SACD, DVD-A, or high-rez downloads. Not only that, I really like not only the sound, but the performances of my records from the Sixties and Seventies. Remastered recordings don't always sound better - sometimes yes, sometimes no. Most of my LPs are originals bought a few weeks after original release, not reissues.
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Crikey Lynn !
This is nothing short of a revolution !
Has Thom been giving you some earache about the 'Vinyl issue' ?
I suggest you get a pair of Pieter's cobalt amorphous step-ups and a Ortofon SPU . There's no substitute for Alnico in my opinion .
Meanwhile I'm still progressing the speaker system ... s l o w l y ... !
audio-talk :: View topic - Something stirs in the Undergrowth
I think the pine/ply horn as per Bruce's method is a nice step in the right direction, but it will still require some stiffening ribs as part of the overall structure - resonance colouration is an issue in the bass/mid horn as I'm finding .
Cheers, Mark