Hahaha!
This to shall pass.
As for solder, make interconnects using solder as your wire, test that way. (and no, I have not done this, haha)
This to shall pass.
As for solder, make interconnects using solder as your wire, test that way. (and no, I have not done this, haha)
Ahhh, twisted pear feller! You have any dacs with full dsp control?
I’ll take the copper wire upgrade also!
Thank you...
Thank you for the above. There seems to be a notion among a few here, that the home audio business is full of charlatans out to fool the hapless consumer. In my 20 years in the business I have not found that to be the case. The people i have worked with in the audio business have been all about trying to produce their idea of the best possible sound quality. This business is full of mostly genuinely good persons, music lovers, engineers, and tinkerers, and of course a few Legendary folks like John Curl. I suspect that the few who think the audio business is full of charlatans are the most removed from it, as if they had any real experience with it, their position would be subject to change.
Now marketing and sales folks may make crazy claims about products, but this is no different from many different areas, and not restricted to home audio products.
Just because a DIY enthusiast may be able to build a good performing audio component for a fraction of the price of a commercial equivalent (often based o someone else's IP, generously donated!) does not mean anyone is getting "ripped off", folks who make these claims apparently have no understanding of what it takes to run a business, and the accumulated costs of things like rent, payroll, insurance, inventory, and of course interest payments on loan capitol. Very few are successful in this business, and no one with even a little bit of understanding and intelligence goes into this business if their primary concern is making money! If one wants to make money, they go into IB, or insurance, or any of a myriad of other things where compensation is much higher.
Thank you for the above. There seems to be a notion among a few here, that the home audio business is full of charlatans out to fool the hapless consumer. In my 20 years in the business I have not found that to be the case. The people i have worked with in the audio business have been all about trying to produce their idea of the best possible sound quality. This business is full of mostly genuinely good persons, music lovers, engineers, and tinkerers, and of course a few Legendary folks like John Curl. I suspect that the few who think the audio business is full of charlatans are the most removed from it, as if they had any real experience with it, their position would be subject to change.
Now marketing and sales folks may make crazy claims about products, but this is no different from many different areas, and not restricted to home audio products.
Just because a DIY enthusiast may be able to build a good performing audio component for a fraction of the price of a commercial equivalent (often based o someone else's IP, generously donated!) does not mean anyone is getting "ripped off", folks who make these claims apparently have no understanding of what it takes to run a business, and the accumulated costs of things like rent, payroll, insurance, inventory, and of course interest payments on loan capitol. Very few are successful in this business, and no one with even a little bit of understanding and intelligence goes into this business if their primary concern is making money! If one wants to make money, they go into IB, or insurance, or any of a myriad of other things where compensation is much higher.
No...
If I was going to use DSP (and I do, I oversample all rates to DSD 256 for playback), I would not attempt to incorporate it in the DAC, why bother! I prefer to have as little "processing" in the DAC as possible, to keep noise down, and do as much processing as possible in a computer, which is not resource constrained in any way. I have also been experimenting with DSC-2 style DAC, which is strictly a converter with no processing, and am also experimenting with a Topping D-90, running in direct DSD mode, to reduce processing.
The (noisy) computer is then connected to the audio system via optical Networking, in order to avoid noise transfer from the commercial computer gear (in another area of the home) to the audio system.
If I was going to use DSP (and I do, I oversample all rates to DSD 256 for playback), I would not attempt to incorporate it in the DAC, why bother! I prefer to have as little "processing" in the DAC as possible, to keep noise down, and do as much processing as possible in a computer, which is not resource constrained in any way. I have also been experimenting with DSC-2 style DAC, which is strictly a converter with no processing, and am also experimenting with a Topping D-90, running in direct DSD mode, to reduce processing.
The (noisy) computer is then connected to the audio system via optical Networking, in order to avoid noise transfer from the commercial computer gear (in another area of the home) to the audio system.
Barrows, you mean you use Toslink for the digital connection? You are right to avoid all the bad noise from the PC entering into the DAC, but Toslink has its own problems like high amounts of jitter. Furthermore the DAC will have to adapt to the speed of supply from the PC, so that is not ideal either.
Have you tried other means of "galvanizing" the DAC from the PC? Maybe it is a choice between two evils...
No...
No, I use a Networked connection, specifically:
In the computer area there is a Mac Mini acting as a server, running ROON, with local storage of music files. It is on the local Network, connected to a Router (or Ethernet switch) by CAT 6A Ethernet cable. Then I have an optical Ethernet cable (OS2 SMF) bring the Network to my audio system. In the audio system i have a Sonore Signature Rendu SEoptical which is an Ethernet Renderer with optical Ethernet input, and USB output. Then the USB output connects to the DAC.
With this scheme, all the noise associated with the commercial computer gear is in another part of the home, well away from the audio system, isolated both by distance and by an optical connection.
I have experimented with HQPlayer as well, and really want to upgrade to using it, but I need to put together a much more powerful computer/server so I can run HQP4 with the EC modulators.
No, I use a Networked connection, specifically:
In the computer area there is a Mac Mini acting as a server, running ROON, with local storage of music files. It is on the local Network, connected to a Router (or Ethernet switch) by CAT 6A Ethernet cable. Then I have an optical Ethernet cable (OS2 SMF) bring the Network to my audio system. In the audio system i have a Sonore Signature Rendu SEoptical which is an Ethernet Renderer with optical Ethernet input, and USB output. Then the USB output connects to the DAC.
With this scheme, all the noise associated with the commercial computer gear is in another part of the home, well away from the audio system, isolated both by distance and by an optical connection.
I have experimented with HQPlayer as well, and really want to upgrade to using it, but I need to put together a much more powerful computer/server so I can run HQP4 with the EC modulators.
Thanks for clearing that up. Seems a good solution. Computers can feed a lot of garbage into an audio system, and then things start to sound less open and less relaxed.
These are very good times to build a PC system just for audio. Especially the AMD Ryzen 3800X can be had for a low price. Combine it with an Asus X570 Pro motherboard and 32 Gb of high speed memory, and you have a very potent system. HQPlayer can use the Cuda of a Nvidia GTX1660 super or GTX 2060 super as its DSP offload.
Hello John Curl,
What do you think about the disapearance from several years of some usefull stuffs as TO92 pakage as the bc560, for illustration ? do they their smd cunterpart as good sonically (thermal behavior, how it is produced) ?
My dac has discrete parts for the linear regs and I'm quite happy with them. As these little smd transistor have pors and cons vs their previous bigger package ? I liked those bigger package, easy to do thermal coupling or cooling with radiators...
Though it's not a dac going above 50 K Hz clock.
Wht is the best today about voltage ref please ? still soe diodes or ref filtered or the brand-new chip case ones from ESS, AK, etc ?
Thank you, hopping I'm not too much off topic.
What kind of result would that be?
I'm not frustrated with audiophile PR world. There are more honest ones but they are not the problem. I enjoy calling out audiophoolery shills for what they are and that benefits uninitiated / unsuspecting readers who are about to waste their time and money on audiophoolery.
That would be your own perception which you've chosen the right vocabulary for.
How do they evaluate the sound quality in attempts to achieve that?
It probably has a lot to do how one phrase and express oneself. Either as one that shares a personal experience or one that express a fact. In this seemingly trivial difference lie 75 percent of all controversy on this site I think. (see how I ended that sentence . ..)
Stay cool.
//
The result is what is more convincing to MY ears… No universal truths here.
Evenharmonics, when I was “an angry young man”, I too believed to have a monopoly on wisdom, but time has fortunately made me a little more modest. I too liked to ridicule folks that bought expensive stands to put their loudspeaker cables on.
Nowadays, I realize that we can easily laugh at others, but in the end we all have our own peculiarities and preferences. It is nice to try get a framework for oneself within to look upon things, but it’s never all-encompassing, nor is it a universal truth. The study of physics itself is a volatile undertaking as we gradually move from one layer to another.
I will never buy such cable stands, nor will I ever buy mega buck cables, but I won’t judge others who do. If they like spending their money on these things and enjoy these things, who am I to belittle them? Others spend money on fast and extremely expensive cars that have no use in our congested traffic. If it makes them happy, so what?
Again, live and let live, Evenharmonics. Concentrate on your own ideas and express those freely instead of crusading against the ideas of others.
They probably use their own ears, and that may not convince others (including you), but when they feel they gain and have gained that way in their listening experience, why not grant them that right?
Right, as long as the time and money spent for audible improvement isn't in vain.
Then it is just as well that it is not for you to make that call for others.
This is a hobby site. People build things for their own personal enjoyment and sometimes the building is the fun. So if someone spends a few hundred in parts and 50 hours of their own time on a fancy case for something that they get satisfaction from and has sod all effect on the sound then good on them and none of us are in a position to judge.
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