steve lonner

I can confirm that it does not play native high rez files. I don't think it is supposed to, but even if it is mine doesn't. I got it because my local hi-fi guy who sells Sonos told me that I should buy it from w4s instead of from him because he thought it was such a dramatic improvement on cd quality files. He lost the sale by pushing me to it and I decided to go for it. He is a great guy and one thing I love about him is he'll give his opinion even if it costs him money and he's done that more than once to me. The people at w4s are great and will explain in detail what their products do if you call them (I'd asked them about other products before although ironically not the one I bought from them). I also think they are quite honest about their opinions from my admittedly smaller experience with them. I confess that I am a really bad computer audiophile in that I have one modded one and one that isn't and have never AB'd them to make sure the mod is worth it to my ears. (They are currently parts of different systems and I'm pleased with both, but the modded one is in a much better system/room). I'll try to remedy that within the weak if I can get a break.

Cool, that is the exact kind of hands on info I was hoping for. I'd love to hear from more people on their impressions. I certainly understand that not many people will have actually used all three: a CAPS, the MIND and the Sonos as the Mind doesn't seem to be mainstream yet, but CAPS vs Sonos is of great interest in and of itself. (As fun as building it would be, it is hard to justify the cost if it isn't better given that I already have the Sonos. The cost of Sonos plus the W4S mod would make the cost much closer if I were choosing between the two and hadn't already bought the Sonos, but Michael, you are laying the foundation for building the Caps and feeling justified in the expense .).

I started reading about the CAPS and thinking how fun nice they seem and that it would be fun to build. I'm pretty sure I read that Chris feeds his from a NAS. So here is my question - would one of the following be likely to sound better Synology NAS -> CAPS Carbon -> DAC (thinking of picking up a Bifrost uber with USB) vs Synology NAS -> Simaudio MIND 180 -> DAC (still Bifrost uber with USB) and for lower res files those would either of those be likely to top my current set up... Synology NAS -> W4S modified Sonos -> DAC (thinking of picking up a Bifrost uber with USB) It seems like the CAPS/MIND/Sonos is mostly in charge of giving a good interface for moving the digital music from the NAS to the DAC, so my hunch is given a fixed resolution, it would really be more about taste than sound, but I'd love to be corrected if I'm under false assumptions. thanks for any wisdom ----------------------------------------------- Background in case you want my specific equipment since responses often ask about that but not necessary for the answer... I have a Synology 711, which I hard wire to a Sonos bridge and then stream to a Sonos connect (upgraded by W4S) which then currently feeds a peachtree Dacit and then to a Simaudio i-1 and onto Dynaudio X16's. Cables are mostly Nordost for what that is worth (although I'm not totally sold on good cables really sounding different from each other but that is another thread another time). The sound is already quite good for my ears, which admittedly probably aren't pitch perfect etc. I'm streaming lossless recordings of CD's. I'd love to be able to play with high rez, and see if it sounds even better, but Sonos can't do it thus my thoughts of CAPS or the Mind. One last tangential note, geography of the room makes hardwiring the NAS to the Sonos connect a no go for now, but I can probably get around that in the future.

I am playing a Sonos connect into a Rotel RSX-1056 (to Paradigm Studio 60's) for 2 channel music. In an ideal world I'd add in an external dac, and I probably will someday, but for now which should sound better - Sonos analog out to the Rotel or Sonos coax digital to the Rotel as a dac and amp? Obviously I will try both, but if one should be better than the other it might make sense to invest in one good set of cables instead of comparing mismatched cables where it could be the dac or it could be the cables. Thanks for any insight and advice!

I am looking for a NAS in roughly the $300 range before adding the drives. I loved the CA review of the DS411 slim and was about to pick it up when I noticed a number of user complaints on Amazon for the unit running really hot (I can't tell if it is a bug or all units etc). I don't see the complaints on the DS411J, which gets slightly better user reviews. Will it have the virtues of the DS411 slim that earn it a spot on the CASH list? Also will either of them or another one in that general price range be able to be stored in a closed cabinet out of sight or will they run too hot? thanks for any advice. PS I already have a couple external USB drives so I'd also consider a converter to turn one of those into a NAS if there were a good solution along those lines from a C.A. perspective. In case it matters, I want to use the drives mostly for back up of my computers and for a server for a Sonos. I only have about 250g of music at the moment and it won't skyrocket too quickly. My primary listening will probably be done from a mac mini hard wired into a dac, so this will be in some sense a secondary server.

Gordon, Is it safe to assume that you are saying that for those of us who are not experts (for example me) we should listen to things before we comment on them, but not that we shouldn't state opinions about the dacs we've heard? If so I agree, but if you are saying non-experts shouldn't even state opinions about equipment they have listened to (after making their experience level clear) then I disagree. It is of great value to me to read what other people like me think. The expectations of a professional reviewer and/or product designer are loftier and more nuanced than mine and it is probably more helpful to me to hear what average people think about a product I might buy. All that said, I have ordered one of these based on the great things I've read about your products both by pros and average home users and can't wait to hear it in person.

I have some Audioquest Copperhead cables that I used to connect a CD player to an amp. They are not in use as I migrate away from a CD player to a computer. Is there any reason why a converter that lets you go from a mini headphone plug to rca together with the copperheads would be inferior to a cable that had the mini plug built into it (for sake of argument of comparable price as the Copperheads, which if I recall are around $100)? Perhaps this question is too specialized and should be broken out to its own thread, but it certainly applies to the Dragonfly. Second question if you can do well this way, I found a $10 converter from A.Q. does it need something more expensive and if so any suggestions are welcome. I'd love to avoid buying new cables.

Any hunch on how this will compete with the DacIt, Schiit, Dac Magic type Dacs for listening through an amp? (ie not as a headphone amp). This seems like a really cool product. (I do have some high rez stuff, such as the b&w SOS) but will mostly play cd quality music).

Okay, I'm sold on trying for something that has at least a reasonable USB implementation. I don't want to go over $500 so even though I keep hearing great things about the wavelength stuff I think even the Proton is off limits. I am leaning towards the DacIT between the great reviews and the fact that the people at Peachtree seem like great folks. Behind that are the Schiit (in spite of the name, which I could ignore if it were clearly a better sounding dac) and the W4S uDAC. I haven't seen any professional reviews that go to the level of the one here and the one on Stereophile for the DacIT. Given that I can't compare them myself (and that I haven't seen more or less any direct listening comparisons of the three) that leads to the DacIT lean. Peachtree is upgrading their USB interface in both the Nova125 and the Decco65. I wonder if they would do the same for the DACiT. That would make it an easy choice for me. (Although I am always skeptical that higher numbers will necessarily correlate to better sound as specs sometimes lie, but they are easy to compare). Thanks to all for the comments so far.

I am looking at a couple dacs and some have better optical resolution than usb. I am planning to buy a mac mini (based on the advice I've found here). Is the USB out of it going to be better than a mini plug/TOSlink? ie should I pick a DAC whose best resolution is on the USB input or does it matter - can I just pick the best DAC independent of input? I did read somewhere that an HDMI cable disables the optical, but this will be a dedicated music server so I won't use an HDMI or any other direct connect screen (more likely an IPAD again driven by ideas found here - thanks!)

I don't refer to my wife as the management, but she does introduce me sometimes as "her first husband."

I don't know if these should go in a different thread or if this is as good a place as any, but since I'm getting so much good advice here I'll try here first (and since I am the OP I don't have to worry about offending him)... 1) does an apple TV give sound equal to a mac mini directly connected (assuming both are going into a fairly good dac)? My assumption is it might for low quality sources, but probably no for better ones, but I can't seem to find out if, for example, high rez stuff will downgrade over an apple TV. Most reviews I find are not of the aspiring audiophile kind. Perhaps that answers the question already. 2) I'll probably pick up one of the new Peachtree integrateds (the decco65 or Nova125) when the come out or the other main thing I'm considering is the W4S Mint, but until then I'm using a Rotel RSX-1056 which doesn't have HDMI or USB (but does have optical, coax, etc and thus the consideration of an Apple TV for the short run). Is there a good way to connect a Mac Mini directly to optical/coax without spending a lot since it is only a short term solution? If not it gives me a good reason to wait to buy the mini and see if they come out with a new one before the Peachtree products come out. 3) And this is leaving the Mac Mini theme - is there a good way to connect an Ipad without spending a fortune if I wanted to play music directly from it? I'm using the headphone jack, which is fine but certainly not the optimal solution.

yes, I'd love to get as much as possible out of sight simply because that is what my wife would like. I have a cabinet where I'd like to put the gear, but when I tried putting an amp in there it got too hot and I worried all audio/electronics would get too hot. Does the mini run cool enough to be encased in a cabinet? That would be great.

The thing that gets me about used mac mini's like the cowboom ones and the ones listed on ebay is the prices always seem extraordinarily high compared to new ones. given that, thanks to Akapod for pointing out how to take care of the usb sharing issue as this does seem to make sense that the old ones had an advantage in that respect (although again I'm enough of a novice that I don't know if I could hear the difference or not, but if there is an easy solution that has not cost, why not?).

No apology necessary for me as OP. It actually does add value to in reading responses. I currently have Paradigm Studio 60's that were far less than 2k when I bought them, so if speakers under 2k can't tell the difference between the SSD and the standard drive then I can't and while I may upgrade speakers some day it probably won't be in the next few years - ie life span of the average hard drive. I classify myself as someone who aspires to be an aspiring audiophile as opposed to someone who aspires to be a true audiophile. It does crack me up that the world seems to fall into two groups - those that think I'm crazy for having bought Studio 60's because they cost so much (non- audiophiles and therefore most people I know) and those who think I am crazy for buying them because they cost so little (audiophiles). In either case it is helpful to know what others expect and aspire to when you take their advice.