Jump to content

Laurenta

  • Posts

    12
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Country

    country-ZZ

Retained

  • Member Title
    Newbie

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

  1. Glad to hear things work fine for you, now. Actually Daphile (as well as VortexBox audio distribution, in the same league) uses very light processor ressources ; only a few %. This is great because fanless computers are then easy to built based on Haswell Pentium or I3 processors. Moreover, adding a linear power supply is not too difficult/costly. I use a small and simple Paul Hynes 12V SR3 model. More importantly, Daphile / VortexBox sound best compared to a Mac Mini with Audirvana or compared to JRiver on a laptop. VortexBox is significantly more cumbersome to install, though. And Daphile user interface is ' prettier looking '. Regarding SQ here in France you have guys who prefers VortexBox, some other are more fan of Daphile ....
  2. Internal drives for a Daphile computer should be formatted as ext4 (ie. linux type of formatting). External drives connected via an USB port can be in FAT / FAT32 or use other formatting schemes. Note: I'm almost sure of that specificity, although not 100% certain. Just give it a try ;-)
  3. Typically any Daphile based audio computer will take approx 25 sec to boot, notebook or desktop it is same for me.
  4. the findings of ggraff forum member. I've tested today my MacBook (first gen. white MacBook, Intel based) connected in optical format [Mini-Toslink] to my LAVRY DA10 DAC. Using an external IOMEGA 500Go connected to the Mac via FireWire 400 (stock and basic FW cable). The external HDD has a pure copy of the files stored on the internal HDD since it's my back-up drive. There is a significant improvement in soundstage, depth, precision of placement for instrument, 3D effect and more naturalness overal. It sounds also a bit more dynamic, but I think it's more a twister perception due to better imaging/ease of music flow than a true reality. Since it costs nothing for me, I'm very please to realize that reading the file from an external HDD is bringing nice SQ improvements. ps: the "player" used was Wave Editor, from Audiofile Enginering, that is much more 'transparent' to the source/file than iTunes, at least to my ears. ;-)
  5. After a few months passed, do some of you have more insights about the true quality (and also weaknesses) of the Ayre QB9 USB DAC? I' m seriously interested in this nice piece od electronic. The NAIM DAC is also anotherpossible contender. I had the NAIM gear at home for some days. But I can't test the AYRE DAC in-house. So, it will be a blind purchase (aside from 10 min quick audition early Dec. in a shop outside of France). I own WILSON SOPHIA and very transparent CELLO monblocks (E150) with a vintage SHINDO tube preamp. Using MacBook as a source for computer audio. Thanks in advance for your comments and detailled feedback on the QB9. Cheers
  6. Wots, I don't understand the true purpose of your (humoristic, I hope...) post. What do you want to say exactly?
  7. Dear DanRubin, I like very much your approach for comparing different audio gear. It's even more true when you need to decide for cables. The cables need to stay in the system for some says or weeks then swap with the other cables live also with them for a while. Only then one can decide which cable matches better in term of system synergy. On the other end, with digital sources, the differences in Sound are not that huge some time. But the differences how the Music is played and the Emotion/individual Involvement induced (at the listener level) can be still quite massive. That's weird, to differentiate the sound from the music, but this is how it goes for me. I hope some of you share the same feelings...
  8. There is something very weird in your description. Having a 'gain difference' (as much as an impression of 3dB) for three similar products simply doing in pure digital the USB to S/PDIF translation job is simply impossible... I don't know what's wrong in the set-up. But level output (at least your auditive impression) should be very similar if not exactly the same. Otherwise this would mean the HiFace is playing with the bits somehow ;-)
  9. The NAIM DAC has RCA but also BNC for S/PDIF input. Have you taken care of the proper mains supply phasing when auditionning the NAIM gear? This is absolutely essential to be 'in-phase'. It makes a stunning difference.
  10. Hi Clay, I think I'll give a try to Pure Vinyl when I have some time. Even with my simple LAVRY DA10 I should be able to hear the differences if they are as proeminent as posted. Have you ever tested the sound editor called 'Wave Editor'? This is not so practical to use on a day to day basis for playing lots of files, but to my ears the Sound Quality is just superb! When I got the Naim DAC for a loan, it was a joy to use Wave Editor for critical listening sessions. ;-)
  11. In order to drive the iPod or USB memory key, the NAIM DAC / USB interface needs to be the 'Master'. While, if the DAC is attached to and receiving data from the PC/Mac, then its USB interface needs to behave like a 'Host'. That's probably the reason why it can't be directly connected to a computer. It's also possible that NAIM recognize they can't (yet?) achieve the best possible Sound Quality on the USB interface so they prefer to hold off until they master the asynchronous transaction with a computer. (who knows if an upgrade would come later...?) That's a limitation for sure! But everyone here is happy with a Berkeley Alpha DAC also not proposing any USB interface. This NAIM DAC can be connected via Toslink or S/PDIF or playing the file directly from the USB stick and/or iPod. It's already a lot of options ;-) I would have appreciated to see AES/EBU, though. Finally, only the SQ matters and on that regards the NAIM DAC is not lacking anything to my opinion.
  12. Hi from France. My first post here, guys. ;-) I had the chance to get a loan (for 6 days) from mylocal NAIM dealer during Xmas time. This DAC alone is already stunning. Smooth but ultra detailled mids and highs. Very lively and foot tapping. Never aggressive nor tiring even on Wilson Audio speakers. Just a joy to listen to on the long run. Clearly another league than my Lavry DA10. My own reference DAC so far is the LAVRY DA2002 that I also auditionned in my system for several days more than a year ago. When you partner this NAIM DAC with its dedicated external supply (NAIM XPS2), then it becomes rather close to a DA2002 and also very similar to my usual CD player (also a NAIM CDS3 + XPS2). Despite its sophisticated anti-jitter scheme, I still feel the SQ was better with my FireWire interface (ECHO AudioFire 2) to S/PDIF than using a direct optical Toslink connection from the MacBook as recommended by Naim Audio's user manual. ps: I also much prefer Wave Editor sound rendition compared to iTunes (a bit 'hollow' and soft). But this is not DAC related (same behavior on the Lavry DA10). Cheers.
×
×
  • Create New...