bengl3rt

Interesting, my 9038 experience is actually via their brand new UDP-205 as a USB DAC, and I wouldn't say it glares any more than the (admittedly much less resolving) Schiit Modi 2 which I believe is an AKM chip. Obviously nothing can top a big box of resistor ladders

ESS 9038 or bust! Unless I’ve misunderstood the design of the new Vega entirely

The official MQA software decoder is definitely not open source. However, as far as I know, Auralic's in-house developed firmware components are also not open source. So, what difference does this make to the end user? I understand Auralic's reluctance to work with a mysterious binary blob from Meridian, but unless they actually open-source their alternative, whatever they came up with is as mysterious as the official version.

This was the most suspicious piece of the whole writeup in my opinion. In my testing, defeating the software unfolding in the Tidal desktop app and playing the "direct pass through" on my Musical Fidelity M6si's USB input (which has never heard of MQA) sounded noticeably worse than the Red Book versions of the same tracks. Duller, flatter, less dynamic and with a narrower stereo image. Software unfolding is a must to make these files sound passable. It would also be great to get some clarity around Auralic's plans concerning software unfolding on its Aries line - their Facebook page made some mention of a forthcoming "proprietary upsampling" algorithm, but it sounds like MQA unfolding is more than a simple up sample.

What case is that? Homemade?

It would appear the only two servers from SGC that offer onboard CD ripping are the microJukebox at the low end and the sonicTransporter AP at the high end. Does the MJ have the power to run Roon Core over a small library (10k tracks)?

Sorry, I mistyped. The cheaper Audioquest I was looking at was the Pearl, not the Cinnamon.

Heh, the music still has to live somewhere and I don't have a NAS or a spare computer that I feel like leaving on all the time. But the microrendu is definitely on my radar for driving a separate dedicated headphone rig.

Fellow audiophiles, hear my tale of woe. For about two years, my system has been as follows: Auralic Aries Mini -> Monoprice 1.5ft "gold plated" USB cable" -> Musical Fidelity M6si integrated amp (which has an onboard 24/96 DAC) -> generic bulk speaker wire -> Ascend Acoustics Sierra Towers with ribbon tweeters. (Spoiler: clearly a system put together by someone who likes solid gear but believes that any old vaguely cable-shaped piece of metal will do for getting your electrons from here to there) And for about two years, I haven't *quite* been happy with the way digital audio sounds through it. The center of the stereo image was never especially stable, and something always felt a little cool and mellow and dull about the presentation of the music. The textures weren't quite there. And I made excuses, oh did I ever... Well, the amp is British. That's just how Brit stuff sounds, buy American next time if you want bigger and boomier and sparklier. Well, maybe the DAC built into the amp just isn't that great - after all it is basically based on their V90 standalone DAC which is a several years old design at this point and wasn't even really top of the line when it came out. Maybe I just need an Antipodes server instead of this little Auralic thing. Maybe I just need a PS Audio DirectStream Jr for the balanced inputs on the amp. Heck, maybe I need the PS Audio running straight into Moon mono blocks before this thing will sound the way I want it to. Maybe I need a Linn Majik. But then a few things happened. First, I was surprised at how a Rega integrated (which I had pre-judged inferior to my MFi) sounded through Rega speakers (which I have no particular opinion on one way or another) at the stereo shop using Nordost Blue Heaven speaker wire. The idea started to form in my mind that cables matter. Second, I started hanging out on this forum again after some time away for unrelated reasons (I'm grumpy about MQA). And lots of people who post very reasonable, articulate, and often technically intricate stuff list some pretty $$$ cables amongst their gear in their specs. And finally, I was doing some rejiggering of my headphone setup at work anyway, and wanted to use the 1.5ft USB cable there instead for optimum elegance, plus a slightly longer USB cable at home would let me move the Aries Mini out of sight (since it doesn't have a nice display or especially elegant housing like its big brother anyway, no great loss). And a little voice inside my head said, "Maybe cables do matter. An entry-level 'audiophile' USB cable isn't that expensive. Take a risk, give it a shot, it's a drop in the bucket relative to what you've spent on other parts of the system, why not..." So I added an Audioquest Cinnamon to my cart ($28) before realizing that the Forest is only $10 more so to hell with it. $38 for a 2.5ft Audioquest Forest USB cable. Here comes the end that you already knew was coming. Night and day SQ difference. I actually have bass now. I actually have imaging now. Things have weight and attack and air. I don't have to turn the thing up to near-uncomfortable levels (for my living companions, I personally like it LOUD) to hear enough detail for things to actually sound like music. My system is healed. It finally sounds the way I always knew it could. From one stupid little USB cable. I will now be thinking twice about taking that Monoprice cable to work to use with the headphones. The moral of the story is, something really small and simple could be holding your system back. I feel like an idiot for being in denial for so long without conducting what ended up being a very fruitful yet low cost low risk experiment. I still want the Antipodes server but it feels so much less urgent now. Instead, the "generic bulk speaker cable" is the next thing up for scrutiny. Come to me, Nordost....

Quick SQ test into the USB input of my Musical Fidelity M6si, playing the same album... MQA (software decode defeated) from Tidal desktop app on my MacBook < FLAC from the MacBook < MQA (default settings - software decode enabled) from the MacBook < FLAC from the Auralic Aries Mini Presumably the AAM lacks the software decoder that the Tidal desktop app has so all of us with pre-MQA DACs are left with worse SQ than before.

Per the other thread, It disables software MQA decoding (which I thought was contractually prohibited from existing?) so that the raw MQA bits can be passed to a capable DAC. Whether you leave that option on or off, the stuff Tidal's servers are vending to your computer over the network is bits from the MQA-decimated "master" file. I would like the option to continue listening to the FLAC/ALAC master.

+1 I would love to have a link to this available to share with all kinds of folks

That's subtly different. It disables software MQA decoding (which I thought was contractually prohibited from existing?) so that the raw MQA bits can be passed to a capable DAC. Whether you leave that option on or off, the stuff Tidal's servers are vending to your computer over the network is bits from the MQA-decimated "master" file. I would like the option to continue listening to the FLAC/ALAC master.

Hear hear. Looking for a "force FLAC/PCM" button in settings.

Bear with me... has anyone ever tried this? We know that wireless composite video links conveniently provide the 6Mhz of requisite bandwidth and 75ohm connectors that enable stable wireless transmission of a SPDIF signal. I've seen this transmitter recommended for that purpose: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008Z9E4DW/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=BWVCYTZJGAA&coliid=I3MVWG2CTCO3AQ That works because it fundamentally treats the SPDIF signal as an analog video signal and happens to reconstruct it properly on the other end. Would folks expect I2S over HDMI to work similarly with something like this? https://www.amazon.com/DVDO-Air3C-60GHz-WirelessHD-Replacement/dp/B00N24FKSI As I understand it since the HDMI protocol does some amount of handshaking and other negotiation (not the least of which serves to enforce the movie studios' precious DRM), and the I2S over HDMI protocol does none of the above and just uses the physical format of HDMI because it's a convenient connector with the right number of conductors, I am doubtful. The 60ghz link most definitely has to treat the HDMI connection as a digital signal and probably even interpret some of the traffic to work properly. However, hope springs eternal so I will cast my fish hook here to see if anyone has thought of this