Sonny may correct me but I think it uses the 5v's to handshake but it doesn't power any part of the dac.
Seb
For those looking into the preamplifier, I've been doing some burn in and listening to mine for two weeks now, I was working on the chassis before and had very little time with work and the holidays but all done now, just missing the headphone amplifier hookups but nothing to rush.
I will do a full review of the preamplifier on the French forum as I always do but just to share a little with you all my listening impressions, which BTW changed over the course of the second week and this mainly due to burn in time.
As always, I'm using Mirand's AK4490 DAC with discrete output stage and the latest firmware using filter "0", which is the default filter and my preferred one. Actually I like both "Short delay slow rolloff" and "super slow roll-off" but I have a preference for the first one as it sounds much more natural and instruments decay is much more like the real thing (piano notes slowly fading away in a natural way, etc...).
At first when I started listening to the preamplifier two weeks prior, I liked it a lot but realized that at low volume levels I was missing more than I should, if compared against my balanced LDR3x or balanced DCB1, this bothered me a lot since I'm doing lots of night listening when the whole family is asleep... Was it a gain issue? Nope, both the DCB1 and LDR3x are passives and the Mirand preamplifier has 6dB of gain. Was it an impedance match issue? Not at all. I decided to give it a full 24/7 burn in of white noise while I was at work and music when back home then two days ago it was time for serious listening again, and WOW!!!
I was REALLY impressed by the results!! Now with the same equipment as before (same source, music, amplifier, DAC and speakers) and at the same listening level as before, I had finally all the nuances, micro details, subtleties of the music and still even some good bass, mind you nothing like if played at higher volume levels but very articulated for a low level listen. What is even more interesting is that the preamplifier does not add coloration but keeps everything as neutral as possible, compare it to a "wire with gain". The results are nothing short of amazing, especially the soundstage wowed me. Many are afraid of adding a preamplifier in between gears in fear of losing details, tone, air, etc.., and I'm one of those, hence the reason why I have the LDR3x and the DCB1, but this fear is a thing from the past for me, the Mirand's preamplifier is like I said, a wire with gain. I can now use low voltage output sources with lower gain amplifiers with very good results. I already gave my impressions on the DAC and discrete output stage here and here and since it is based on the same circuit as the preamplifier I decided to use a CD transport connected to a different input to hear what it was capable of. Sooo... going back to physical medias, I had to open some boxes of CDs which were packed... I used the TBM Sounds and of course Jorane's 16mm album and some other albums. The CD transport was connected using The Link Transparent cables (not the best and not the worst of cables, but well ok for me). Now, this is interesting... I was expecting good results since I know the CD transport but it was even better than I thought it would be, not at the level of the AK4490 with Volumio but still really enjoyable and remarkable. The detail retrieval was excellent, better than I remember it with some micro details I just couldn't hear before from the CD using this transport and a passive. The soundstage extend "outside my walls" on some of the TBM tracks and the depth is really convincing, with layers of instruments and lots of air in between keeps the stage as real as possible. Nothing ever becomes muddy and this can be easily tested on Jorane's 16mm album on Battayum 2 track where at around 1 min. into the track it starts to get extremely busy with layers upon layers of instruments added (this also requires a very good amplifier). Everything stays very distinguishable, instruments are kept separate with each their own space and volume, the dynamic is really good. I have found so many flaws in many amplifiers, DACs, speakers, etc.., only with this track. Leonard Cohen's voice, although always a little too emphasized in most of his recordings, is very well staged with proper height and weight (for this recording), the tone is just beautiful here. Another good track to listen to but also for testing is Patricia Barber's Cafe Blue, Nardis track which has good dynamics. Here the piano is sublime with notes fading naturally. This song has a lot of rhythm once at around the 3 min. mark and shows off how good the preamplifier is at keeping pace, dynamics and separation without altering the tone.
Another extremely nice feature is the very high end volume control built into the preamplifier. This is for me one of the best features since I hate to always have to get up the couch to adjust volume from one song to another when in playlist (albums are not recorded all the same). The volume worked right away with my Apple remote and I had no configuration to do. Although you can also program different remote controls, I kinda like the Apple remote, even-though I'm far from an Apple fan... The best part of the volume control is that it seems "almost lossless", to my ears, I did not detect any degradations of SQ compared to high quality TVC (add slight coloration), Stepped attenuators or PGAs (many get muddy when in complexe music passages). Channel tracking is a total non issue and for those who want to adjust left and right channels volume independently, there's a balance control built in the software! I of course don't use it since I listen to the music the way it was recorded but the feature is there.
So as you can tell, this is to me a must have if you have multiple sources and even just for the volume control with remote it is worth every penny!! Just give this unit some break in time and you won't be dissapointed at all!
Ciao!
Do
I will do a full review of the preamplifier on the French forum as I always do but just to share a little with you all my listening impressions, which BTW changed over the course of the second week and this mainly due to burn in time.
As always, I'm using Mirand's AK4490 DAC with discrete output stage and the latest firmware using filter "0", which is the default filter and my preferred one. Actually I like both "Short delay slow rolloff" and "super slow roll-off" but I have a preference for the first one as it sounds much more natural and instruments decay is much more like the real thing (piano notes slowly fading away in a natural way, etc...).
At first when I started listening to the preamplifier two weeks prior, I liked it a lot but realized that at low volume levels I was missing more than I should, if compared against my balanced LDR3x or balanced DCB1, this bothered me a lot since I'm doing lots of night listening when the whole family is asleep... Was it a gain issue? Nope, both the DCB1 and LDR3x are passives and the Mirand preamplifier has 6dB of gain. Was it an impedance match issue? Not at all. I decided to give it a full 24/7 burn in of white noise while I was at work and music when back home then two days ago it was time for serious listening again, and WOW!!!
I was REALLY impressed by the results!! Now with the same equipment as before (same source, music, amplifier, DAC and speakers) and at the same listening level as before, I had finally all the nuances, micro details, subtleties of the music and still even some good bass, mind you nothing like if played at higher volume levels but very articulated for a low level listen. What is even more interesting is that the preamplifier does not add coloration but keeps everything as neutral as possible, compare it to a "wire with gain". The results are nothing short of amazing, especially the soundstage wowed me. Many are afraid of adding a preamplifier in between gears in fear of losing details, tone, air, etc.., and I'm one of those, hence the reason why I have the LDR3x and the DCB1, but this fear is a thing from the past for me, the Mirand's preamplifier is like I said, a wire with gain. I can now use low voltage output sources with lower gain amplifiers with very good results. I already gave my impressions on the DAC and discrete output stage here and here and since it is based on the same circuit as the preamplifier I decided to use a CD transport connected to a different input to hear what it was capable of. Sooo... going back to physical medias, I had to open some boxes of CDs which were packed... I used the TBM Sounds and of course Jorane's 16mm album and some other albums. The CD transport was connected using The Link Transparent cables (not the best and not the worst of cables, but well ok for me). Now, this is interesting... I was expecting good results since I know the CD transport but it was even better than I thought it would be, not at the level of the AK4490 with Volumio but still really enjoyable and remarkable. The detail retrieval was excellent, better than I remember it with some micro details I just couldn't hear before from the CD using this transport and a passive. The soundstage extend "outside my walls" on some of the TBM tracks and the depth is really convincing, with layers of instruments and lots of air in between keeps the stage as real as possible. Nothing ever becomes muddy and this can be easily tested on Jorane's 16mm album on Battayum 2 track where at around 1 min. into the track it starts to get extremely busy with layers upon layers of instruments added (this also requires a very good amplifier). Everything stays very distinguishable, instruments are kept separate with each their own space and volume, the dynamic is really good. I have found so many flaws in many amplifiers, DACs, speakers, etc.., only with this track. Leonard Cohen's voice, although always a little too emphasized in most of his recordings, is very well staged with proper height and weight (for this recording), the tone is just beautiful here. Another good track to listen to but also for testing is Patricia Barber's Cafe Blue, Nardis track which has good dynamics. Here the piano is sublime with notes fading naturally. This song has a lot of rhythm once at around the 3 min. mark and shows off how good the preamplifier is at keeping pace, dynamics and separation without altering the tone.
Another extremely nice feature is the very high end volume control built into the preamplifier. This is for me one of the best features since I hate to always have to get up the couch to adjust volume from one song to another when in playlist (albums are not recorded all the same). The volume worked right away with my Apple remote and I had no configuration to do. Although you can also program different remote controls, I kinda like the Apple remote, even-though I'm far from an Apple fan... The best part of the volume control is that it seems "almost lossless", to my ears, I did not detect any degradations of SQ compared to high quality TVC (add slight coloration), Stepped attenuators or PGAs (many get muddy when in complexe music passages). Channel tracking is a total non issue and for those who want to adjust left and right channels volume independently, there's a balance control built in the software! I of course don't use it since I listen to the music the way it was recorded but the feature is there.
So as you can tell, this is to me a must have if you have multiple sources and even just for the volume control with remote it is worth every penny!! Just give this unit some break in time and you won't be dissapointed at all!
Ciao!
Do
It is correct. We only use the power as handshake. It is part of a reset cycle and to notify the slave the state of the host.
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I thought most of the DAC is powered by the +5.5Vdc supply and the output stage by the +/-15Vdc supply.
Do
Hi Do, I was reffering to the computer's 5v presented from the USB cable.
P.S. for anyone using a Raspberry PI.. I would highly recommend to add an LPS to the pi, I was extremely surprised at the improvement to be honest from a simple supply using an lm338t...
P.S. for anyone using a Raspberry PI.. I would highly recommend to add an LPS to the pi, I was extremely surprised at the improvement to be honest from a simple supply using an lm338t...
Thanks for the great review Dominic.
We have assemblied this board. The LPS from it Will serve as basis for the LPS for the chassis.
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We have assemblied this board. The LPS from it Will serve as basis for the LPS for the chassis.
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Do someone have compared a pc playing files upsampled to 24/192 or 384 with unapsampled ones?
Anyone have compared a pc "against" raspberry pi?
Anyone have compared a pc "against" raspberry pi?
Never been bothered to do a direct comparison. When a friend popped by with his laptop, we both agreed the pi sounded better on unsampled 16bit flac. I also prefer it to my work laptop, imac and media server.
Sonnya, have you thought of designing a simple but good PSU for the Rasperry Pi (not my first choice because of reported compromised USB), Udoo, Beagle Bone Black, etc?
I have been reading about the improvements, not without skepticism, but what sebbyp reports here is commonly reported.
Sebbyp, have you tried the ipurifier2 or the uptone regen? Would be nice to hear if you have.
I have been reading about the improvements, not without skepticism, but what sebbyp reports here is commonly reported.
Sebbyp, have you tried the ipurifier2 or the uptone regen? Would be nice to hear if you have.
Ok, i ask because i'm really interested to use a Ras pi2 instead a pc it's possible to try the upsampling with the rasp? Which software do you use for it? Volumio or something else?
Load regulation is the Word..
The one i have here jumps less than a mV for 150mA.
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The one i have here jumps less than a mV for 150mA.
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I would buy one if the price is right or construct per design.
No way I am dropping the amount of money asked for the few I have found to be praised on a few computer audio forums. Perhaps the ifi, but it's not a LPSU anyways.
Last edited:
Sonny, may I know if you send me the new set? I am stacked since long time.
Thanks,
Enrico
Yes know Enrico
I AM sorry for the waiting time.
We have a delay in production.
I Will compensate as soon as we ship.
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