Smitty77_7

If you have an asynchronous USB connection in the line to the DAC, would the Decrappihier add any value? Or is the purification of clocking from that kind of connection also addressing the 'crap' that may be in the line? Example Musical Fidelity V-Linkii USB connected to the computer. Then coax or toslink connected to the DAC. Would a Decrappihier add any value/help between the compuer and the V-Linkii? (The DAC in this case is built into a Meridian F80 'Boombox' used in RV travels.) It's a low cost item in the scheme of things, but wonder if the V-Linkii inline to the DAC is doing the same and more? Still learning, still having fun, Smitty

Is 'cloud storage' as an additional 'off site' backup an option? Tagged onto the streaming comment, as it was close to my question. Smitty

A counter point on that thought, is many music lovers have grown up with MP3 as their primary source of music. I always have fun playing first an MP3 sourced Dire Straights Brothers in Arms. Followed by a conventional Red Book CD over my tried and true Meridian 508.24. My daughter asked if this was the same recording, it was. But then I play my newer remastered cut 180g LP (Ex Great Northern Sounds breathed on AR3 with my third set of rolled tubes. Spinning accomplished by a VPI Scoutmaster, with a simple but surprisingly refined NEO Adcom Cartridge.). She is sitting in my sweet spot listening position, and asked me to play three times back, as she was hearing things that she had never heard before on the song. I asked her to try and describe the differences, and after few minutes I was able to explain to her what a good quality reproduction over medium to higher quality properly set up sound system brings to the listening experience. Sound stage, closer to as when live presence of sound. She then listened to her MP3 again, and was so aware of what she had been missing. She spent several days coming over to listen to CD's that she had long put away, and over the Meridian 508-24 she said she felt like she was listening to a whole new collection of music. (Hell, I even got her to sit down and listen to one of my favorite Sunday AM LP's, Belafonte live and Carnegie Hall. She said she felt like she was sitting in the middle of the audience, hearing sounds beside and behind her:)!) So as we have a large population that have never really heard music as it was intended. I have hope that as the masses slowly discover that ear buds, beats and iPod like music has been shielding them from what the artist tried to give them - a new wave of audiophiles will be born. So many of these younger people are tech savvy - the world of Computer fed finer audio systems should not intimidate them. $.02, Smitty

I'll ask this more crisply:)! Opinions on if converting from coaxial to toslink digital carrier will impact the 0's and 1's adversely? Will, could, clocking be impacted? I see converters from under $10 to over $85 - but none seem to reveal any specs to make a decision off of... (This all may be a mute point, as I have one gent on another forum send me a PM on trying different ways to clean the out port optical on my V-Linkii. I need to get get what was recommended, but will try this before the weekend. Hoping to restore the V-Linkii optical output. But, if this fails, I'm curious to the impact on this digital path sending of music being converted midstream.) Thanks, Best to all! Smitty (Still tuneless while traveling...)

It's simple logic to me. The older I get, the more disposable income I have for component upgrades, wires, sound isolation footings - coupled with increases in new component technology. This is balance by two main factors: 1) As much as I enjoy the convenience of the digital world, I find I spend more and more time building my LP collection, and spinning, when it comes to serious listening. 2) Probably the most important element in the listening line, are my ears. And as I age, they consistently tell me that what I'm hearing is much better then before. (Oddly, I find as I get ready to head out on important nights out - that I look much better now too. I really must remember to wear my glasses before preparing to head out...! I'm a real believer in all of us, and all things, can improve with effort and time. Best to all, Smitty (I may be a rookie poster, but I'm a long time reader of the for forum!)

Was not sure where to post this, so chose Genral Forum. In our RV for travrels we use: Laptop with USB Drives storing our ripped and downloaded tunes Out to a Musical Videlity V-Linkii V-Linkii optical out to a Meridian F80 'Boombox' (The Meridian F80 does not have coaxial input, available also on the out of the V-Linkii. And the Meridian F80 Optical 'in' is a Mini Optical termination, not readily available in stores like Best Buy, Radio Shack or even most HiFi stores.) My problem is we're traveling, and the Optical out of the V-Linkii seems to have a problem. The Mini Optical reflects no red light glow of sound. And while it could be the cable has been damaged, I suspect it was my recent poor handling of the V-Linkii. (When traveling, I place the V-Linkii in a large zip lock baggie. And I admit, I do not put the protective plug into optical receptacle - a bad habit.) We recently had the V-Linkii out of the RV to help feed sound to a wedding's music, and then carried back to the house where we streamed music for the reception. (Both were via coaxial connection.) Back on the road again, no Optical out working to the Meridian F80 now... Suspect I got dust/dirt into the V-Linkii Optical Receptor, and cleaning it has not helped. Sorry for all of the long winded background:)! My question is opinions please on if I were to go V-Linkii coaxial out into a coaxial to toslink/optical converter, do you feel this 'conversion' would impact the sound quality very much? I was thinking the signal was just 'reclocked' via the asynchronous magic of the V-linkii. Figured the 'conversion' from coaxial to toslink would probably not be as pure of 'digital' signal to feed into the Meridian's F80 DAC portion? Thoughts appreciated on degradation, if any (I may be wrong, and it is digital to digital without damage) of the signal. TIA, Smitty (On the road, long ways away from larger cities at this time:)!)

LOL! So first I thought I had spelled base as bass (accurate spelling is by chance). Then I thought it was a slang for spam as in fishing. So I checked Slang for bass: * BASS Bad Ass Sound System * BASS Beneath A Steel Sky (video game) * BASS Big Ass Spread Sheet Now I do have some good size spread sheets, but I'm going with the first slang item above, Thank you:)! Piece, by piece over a decade to get this pulled together. Burning as I learned, and swapping in and out components along the way. I 'stopped' not because I got to a point where I just wanted to 'enjoy' vs 'always tweaking and checking out the next piece'. I know it is as being a very satisfying system, and though my wife does not agree - moderate in cost compared to what could be spent on this hobby:)! When my ears got to the point they could not detect any difference between the next few upgrades I tried - I knew it was time to sit and enjoy! I'm going to try and find a local dealer to let me try the BDP-105 in my system to hear what I hear, and see the picture quality too. (Older 1080I Panasonic Plasma, so real possibility it is time to move to a newer TV too - so the ripple effect is possible:)!) Best to all, and though I don't post often, I visit the board and learn as I read frequently. Nice mix and open discussions and opinions are neat to read! Smitty

The sad truth is, I've probably played less then 5 CD's on the 508 this year! I do respect it, and thus have been hanging onto it. A fun fact, is a test I did with my 'just back from college' daughter about 7 years ago. She felt that true music was her ear buds and her Apple nano, and MP3 this, or MP3 that... We picked out Dire Straits Brothers in Arm as our sample music, and started from my opinion of lowest sound reproduction to highest (All feeding thru our Cary Cin 11 Pre, and using for two channel play back a Meridian G57 Amp, to a local Southern California speaker manufacturer that most people have never heard of Kenleigh Speakers.): -Nano MP3 -Redbook CD via Toshiba SD9200 DVD player -Ripped CD FLAC via Squeezebox Duet > Lite DAC60 -Meridian 508-24 -200G LP (VPI Scoutmaster > Great Northern Sound Modified AR PH3 Phono) She was saying the CD via the Toshiba was not that much better then the MP3, but, she heard a difference. The first magnitude of her eyes (ears) opening, was at the very end of the song via the Squeezebox/DAC60 playback - she said she had never heard the last 10-15 seconds as it fades away. Her comments on the Meridian were mostly about 'base and improved imaging' (My choice of words on the imaging, she just said it was like she was sitting in the audience.). Her favorite was the LP, which put a grin on my face, as she thought it was a 'Old Man's' toy. The base again was commented on, the smoothness of the vocals, piano and guitar strings. She said she thought she cold hear his fingers moving on the strings at one section. Now again IMO, as much fun as it was for her to 'learn' about the difference between them - I think the most important lesson she learned out of this - is that 'New, is not always better.'. For our causal weekend listening, I've settled with the Squeezebox/DAC60 for most of our listening. Even capped at 24bit 96kHZ, the sound to my old ears is very pleasing. I've had fun tube rolling, and found an old NOS 6922 that is quite detail, great soundstage, warm vocals/piano/strings - but without the bloom overkill that many tubes bring into a mix. Besides liking the sound, it is the ease of access and the world of the internet bringing in all of the different options of MOG/Pandora/Etc. But gang, being this is the CA Forum - you guys are way ahead of me in understanding what the combo of the internet/DAC's/Computer marriage has brought to both 'ease of use', and very nice sound quality reproduction. Going up the food chain to a higher quality 24/192 Asynchronous USB, as well as box consolidation, is my reason for now thinking it is time for a change. Add in the side benefit of better video reproduction, and seems like the way to go... Having fun, and still researching:)! (I mentioned I move slow on change out of components.) Thanks for the feedback so far. And I will assure you, when I go to sell the Meridian, if I don't get the price I'm thinking is fair - I'll hang onto it! Smitty

I move slowly, and like new tech to mature some before considering it. I'm thinking it is time to start weeding out some of my older equipment, possibly consolidating some components into a single box. With HiFi remaining my main sound objective, and movie and concert watching being secondary to HiFi, please share your thoughts about what I'm thinking of doing. -Remove old, real old, Toshiba SD-9200 DVD player -Remove GR Research Modified Lite DAC60 DAC -Remove Meridian 508-24 Redbook player Replace above with Oppo BDB-105. Feed OPPP DAC with m old Squeezebox Duet (MOG is the primary play back, with a dash of Pandora for the wife.) Feed OPPO via USB with our ripped music, FLAC. TV Movie watching of course from the OPPO, and with the OPPO BDP-93 in our RV, I know this will be a big jump in quality of picture. I'll retain my Cary Cinema 11, primarily as it has direct feed thru for my Phono (LP's are still some of my fun time listening:)!). And today, it passes thru the DAC60 Lite. Will keep doing this. Opinions? Other items to consider? Thanks, Smitty

Though not as portable as some, and a bit pricey - you might want to look at close out stock on the Meridian F80. With a little talking, you can get it for $1500. We picked one up for our RV travels, and I'm pleased with the results. Totally different league then the Bose line. Has enough connectivity options that you can feed it from your Mac, or even smaller Nano or other Apple products (comes with a docking station.) I was playing with it in our home, a and b'ing it in the normal listening area. My wife walked thru one time, and commented that my 'HiFi' was sounding good. I was playing the F80 at the time, and it shocked her that it was putting out such good sound... Best of luck, Smitty

I've got myself confused, again... Ethernet feed into SB Duet > COAX out (Understand this is supposed to bypass the Duet's DAC?)into a GR Research Lite DAC60 > Analog L/R out to Cary Cinema 11. The Cinema 11 gets set to PCM, for play back. If I'm correct that the Duet's internal DAC is bypassed by Coax out feed. Then the DAC60 is doing the conversion to analog. What is the Cary Cinema 11 setting of PCM doing? Is this taking the analog in, and then 'massaging it' with more conversions? I like the sound, but seeing three pieces of equipment in the chain, all with DAC's, got me to wondering... Thanks, Smitty

I've done more research from my first post. So thought I'd ask for input on my current path, and suggested improvements. Layout of current path: Main PC Upstairs Main listening area Downstairs Have Cat5 run between the two locations Currently come out of a four way router upstairs, to a SB Duet, using the RJ45 plug. Coax out of SB Duet to DAC (Believe this bypasses the SB Duet's DAC) I feel the sound is better via the hard wire Cat5 then it was via the wireless feed to the SB Duet. I've seen the ICRON type adapters that go USB to/from RJ45. Was wondering if I went out of the PC USB to the RJ45 and then to a V-Linkiii (or other) product. If the asynchronous bit stream would result in a less jittery feed to my DAC's SPF? (basically putting USB adapters on both ends of the Cat5). I would then look into using this Main Upstairs as my place to build my media sound storage from. Think I knew what I was trying to ask. Would like to use this PC, so as not to need to buy another one, or move this one. Thanks, Smitty

Mark - Yep, I should have typed V-Link3, not the 'two'. It's available now for about $349 or so, providing up to 192. David/Mark - It's more then just making it easier for my wife, it is also for us to have all of our music available with the ease of one source of data. We are RV'ers too, and plan to do several months on the road over the years ahead. I'd like to have all of our music copied and available to us on a portable external drive. (Have not started the upgrade to the RV HiFi system yet, but Peachtree I've been following as a possible all in one capability. As we also will be watching movies, I'm considering a Meridian G95 too, as it is a 'one box' solution. The V-link would be pretty easy to move into the RV while heading out, to feed the Meridian. Admit this is not Meridians best all around DAC, but the lower ends of Meridian's DACs, are better then many manufactures top of the line. (For the record (some pun intended) - I suggested to my wife that we remove the RV's washing machine, and that it would allow me to install my turn table, phono and related gear. Oddly, she did not jump on this...) I'm going to take a bit more time on the home front. As I do enjoy the 24/96 sound from the current SB Touch to DAC 60. I'll play with the 192 downloaded music, after I do a bit more 'thinking' on the basics of computer audio feed to HiFi... Appreciated both of your responses, and I'll keep banging around and reading on the site - and ask other questions as they come up. Smitty

Thanks David! (And, my advance apology for long winded questions...) I have A/B between the Cary and the DAC 60 upon occasion. I liked the tube influence, and the BB PCM1704 DAC chip does a good job. I use the SB Touch coax out as the source for this. So that has let me test the waters at 24/96 I'm not running the SB3 Touch in a wireless config, using the CAT5/RJ45 input. My main PC is in an upstairs office, and I did not run any USB cable sources to the Audio/Media center when pulling wires (two CAT5 runs were pulled). So, that is my thinking about converting RJ45 to USB. And with the asynchronous V-link USB, expect a cleaner feed to the DAC's, whichever one I end up using. (I may have misunderstood this, but I think even a less jitter/better timed feed from V-link2 to my DAC 60, would be better then the SB Touch Cat5 feed?) Vinyl has been fun, and is my choice of audio whenever available. But, the wife does not spin LP's. So, by expanding to a computer fed system, one with all of our available music ripped and or downloaded if new - this should provide her with a simpler method of listening? It is the move to expand our options with ripped CD's and downloads of new songs in the higher rates, that makes me ponder the move to 24/192. As you mentioned, new DAC's are expensive... One other question. At the level of my gear, if I call my 24/96 fed DAC 60 (GR Research mod's with items like Black Gates, and other goodies.) with 6922 tubes that I've settled on - let me call that the a current '8.5' on a scale of 10 in sound listening enjoyment. With 24/192 via the V-Link2/Cary DAC combo - any opinions of sound improvement, if any? Any thoughts of level of improvement percentages? Or, on levels of improvement with the asynchronous USB feed to the same DAC 60? David/Gang I apologize if I don't ask this in the right way. I'm very much a rookie on all of this, and continue to surf/read/learn as much as I can absorb. Just don't have a full grasp on things yet:)! Best, Smitty

Greetings and many thanks as a 1st time poster. Have done much reading, and searching - and appreciate this boards knowledge bank... Background current path: Computer > Cat5 > Squeezebox Touch 'DAC bypass' > Coax to GR Research Lite DAC60 > RCA's out to Cary Cinema 11 'bypass' > to Amp/Speakers. I've been tube rolling with the DAC60, and overall enjoy the sounds. A mix of Pandora,Internet Radio, etc. The DAC60 is limited to 24bit 96kHz - which I've enjoyed quite a bit. What has changed: New PC for the house, with Windows 7. A desire to try downloading of up to 192 sounds. Questions and request for opinions: -The Cary Cinema 11 is supposed to have a pretty good DAC with the Burr-Brown PCM 1796 - that supports up to 192. -PC is upstairs in the office, with 90' run Cat5/RJ45 cable to HiFi area. -(Question/Opinions) Convert RF45/USB > to Musical Fidelity V-Link2 > coax to Cinema 11 DAC? -Will the RJ45 to USB cable conversion hurt much, if any? -Is the V-Link2 for this USB conversion - a reasonable price approach? Wanted the ASYCHRONOUS - and can't afford a Wavelength:)! I have other questions, but still searching to see if I can find those answers. I do enjoy the GR Research mod'd DAC60 sounds (the tube rolling has been a blast) - but, thought for less then $150, I could start to learn about the higher content sound streams available now. (And yes, I hope this does not get me in trouble with the board members - I do still spin LP's, and find I continue to like this sound quality the best.... Thus, my desire to compare the higher quality sound streams to the LP's...) TIA - and best to you all, Smitty