Vic Damone

Christopher, thanks. I'll enjoy the benefit for The Bridge School that much more this year. There have been some great advancements in recording (Burl products) and the fidelity after the first A-D / D-A can be stunning. With all the multiple reclocking, compression, and ham fisted mastering for an ear bud and Beats consumer digital fidelity isn't even a consideration for most clients.

I had similar issues with slowly increasing skipping, pinwheeling, and a balky keyboard and mouse, with a 2011 Mini with 420 GB used on the 500 GB hard drive. After deleting and housekeeping the problem continued. I replaced the hard drive with a 2TB kit (and helpful on line DIY video) from Other World and it performs like it did on day one.

TDR measurements? Are those impedance measurements made by using a Time Domain Reflectometer? Looks like an expensive piece of equipment whose measurements should accompany all cables and receiver equipped components?

Why am I not surprised by this poll at this site. The interest in electronic control over the effort required in manually tuning a system within a room to enjoy the delicacy of playback that begins with a mechanical source amplified by tubes. I don't mean to pass judgment or declare a superiority, it simply makes me wonder just how many here have yet to hear a well tuned system outside of an audio show? Powered systems are advancing very nicely and are a wonderful in the right circumstances. Unfortunately second order distortion can only be found in tube amplification a decidedly subjective preference.

Meyer Sound Labs has a room tuning method for performance stage projection called Constellation that allows a venue to tune the room for a lecture and re tune the room for a rock concert in a matter of minutes. It's explained in much more detail on their site. If I'm not mistaken Zellerbach Hall was recently equipped with the Constellation system.

Nu Prime as in NuForce? Go the source. https://www.nuforce.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=itemlist&layout=category&task=category&id=53&Itemid=2362 I love this site and I learn something every time I'm hear and I must apologize in advance. Don't get all side tracked with delicate audio suggestions from the new school digital community. Even though you're using switching amplification your back end is essentially old school analog. With a clean 20 amp circuit and a good analog source your amp is capable of producing a wide, deep, and congestion free, presentation. I was using NuForce version three 9se's with their cables for years in an analog only system. Cabling switching amplifiers is a whole other challenge which is just one of the reasons so many have an unusual impression of class D amplifiers. Typically silver anything is a horrible combination I've gone back to tubes and Cardas Golden Ref but I still have a pair of Hypex switching mono's in the studio connected with NuForce cables. Those are some bright people over in Milpitas and they have big ears. Let your gear run in for at least 500 hours without futsing around with it and you should be there. Enjoy

PS Audio DirectStream (DS) DAC

Since the development of the Trinitron, their continued media investments and Sony's continued development in SOTA image sensors, I value Sony keeping at least one foot in subjectively sensibly priced higher quality audio. Unfortunately, straddling the fence of affordability and and innovation seems to get them in these unusual marketings. I can't help but think they see their track record with SACD as a negative rather than simply a marketing misstep. There is a huge mass market of both consumers as well as audiophiles that own a multi channel devise that accepts multi-channel HDMI. Does anybody know why they omitted a multi-channel output as well as the ability to interface with SACD?

Absolutly, I couldn't agree more. Personally, I find the cost to develop exalted high dollar no compromised designs and the market it takes to finance it of great value and proving the term trickle down that we all benefit from. I'm also not suggesting that an all inclusive devise reach that level. I hated digital for the longest time but I'm really enjoying its strong points now. I guess I simply came away very impressed by what the Antipode did in my system. I decided not to jump in the dedicated audio specific server/streamer market just yet. Since the first consumer MV Sony players, convenience has always been the digital strong point. I'm hoping for a convenient and easily upgradable one box solution that gets me to that 95-98% of the SOTA. Barrows, your always an interesting read, thanks for the chat.

Barrows, I can see your point and I have personally gained a great deal from your contributions here. Yet, as digital audio rapidly progresses I can't help but wonder how the trade offs you've just mentioned will actually compare to the loss of performance caused by digital cable and connectivity issues. And then there is the simplicity of plug-n-play for those who don't want to spend the time or those who can be challenged by simply installing a wireless devise. Recently both the Marantz/Denon group and Sony came very close to a single digital component with (subjectively) fairly well reviewed sonic performance. I can see this type of product simply being relegated to a Receiver like level of performance just as easily as a high end company like MBL or Meridian taking up the gauntlet and developing an all inclusive devise.

I had a few nights out with the lower end Antipodes, ripping discs using their paranoid mode to uncompressed FLAC and I'm convinced that my 2009 Mac Mini with SSD would quickly re-enter the eBay stream if only… The aurender's cleaver engineering and the attempt at Swiss'ish is obvious. Call me late to this party but for 16G's I could easily forgo the McBlue meters and the decorative fins for the ability to rip, convert, backup, attenuate, with a padlet provided. Okay, so maybe I get my own flavor padlet. When do us dummies who dislike net work get the complete high quality integrated server/streamer/player/DAC? When will my nice long pair of balanced cables be enough? Lets face it, all the silver wire won't make up for questionable digital termination thats designed for everything but audio.

I've experienced that everything matters in the audio chain. Before the proliferation of ripping software I ripped my small 800+ CD collection simply using Apple Losless. There was a distinct improvement over my Truth modded Denon universal player. I would quantify the difference as a bit more than replacing a well worn phono cartridge with a new one. On a 1-10 scale with a substantial speaker upgrade being a 10 I'd call this a 3. My upgrade from an early budget Musical Fidelity DAC to my current Metrum Acoustics Octave is at least a 4. I understand the subjectivity involved but what would be your estimated improvement of re-ripping using ripping software?

Thanks for the answering my questions. This helps a great deal. Vic

My audio world hardly revolves around DSD playback or even my digital front end, but I am enjoying the improved sonics and the convenience associated with the digital evolution. I have a few SACDs and DSD discs and I'm looking into some upgrading. I'm becoming increasingly confused by DAC manufactures claims as well as the fundamentals of DSD speak. The TAS article in their December issue was timely but it left me with even more questions regarding DSD. Their list of DSD "capable" "without first converting to PCM" hardware compiled by TAS does not mention the method used to play DSD. I'm going to assume that the DSD recording process and the SACD disc were developed by Sony and according to the article, "SACDs are copy-protected, so (except for the aforementioned Sonys (SACD players and VAIO computer) they can't be read by any other consumer equipment that can play pure DSD files." The article goes on to explain PCM and DSD over PCM (DoP) which seems to be the method used by DAC manufactures to play DSD. Does the term, "native format," mean the ability to playback DSD without any conversion to PCM or DoP? Is this "pure DSD"? Does Sony make the only products that play pure DSD or do they use DoP?

As a lurker trying to understand, I'm not even close to the consumer that ecwl so accurately describes on the first page of this thread. I made a mistake of understanding what DoP is so I smoked some dope instead. So now I'm a dOpe who could care less about what DoP is because I just want to hit the on switch and maybe get around to washing that LP this time. I DO understand the Gong Show (currently a Sony franchise) and the consequences of fooling Mother Nature. Those days when humor trumped the scourge of the modern Male, being correct! Sony beguiled us with the first transistor radio that actually fit in a shirt pocket (mine is now relegated to the Baseball season only). The Trinitron television that provided good skin tone color without constant adjustment. And lets not forget the technology that put the incompatibility handwriting on the wall, BetaMax. Fast forward and here we are. Blatant lying has transcended the political arena into commerce and daily life fooling Mother Nature and your dUped customer, Mr. Correct. I'm almost glad I'm still a dOp if it weren't for these four DSD discs I can't listen to not to mention what Sony is threatening to do with their only sensible asset, their music library. I swear, if I have to purchase a Windows PC to enjoy DSD I might as well drop one of those last hits of Stanley's Blue Sky I've been holding onto all these years or just let it go at that. I'm listening on gear that you and your circle of contemporaries have touched. So if you put on a Chuck Barris hat I ain't calling you a Hipster, you rant on...