xcortes

Thanks Mani, Additional Question. In another forum you asked for advice on how to connect the PM2 to a single ended preamp and the answer you got was: "You will not have problems to drive with balanced Pacific your single-ended amp. Juts buy a good quality XLR to RCA adapter or order XLR to RCA cable and you will be set. You do not even need to care about the pins layout as it might be configurable by the unit itself. You will lose 3dB but Pacific has plenty output in its D/A section, I do not remember exactly but at 0dB digital it will swing near 7V or something like this. I do not use digital gain/attention with it." I've been researching about the same and the PM2 manual says: "If the audio input from the Model Two must drive an unbalanced load, use pin 2 as high, pin 1 as ground, and lift pin3 at the load or use pin 3 as high, pin 1 as ground, and lift pin 2 at the load. CAUTION: Never connect the unused low pin to ground, (pin1) as that will short circuit one side of the Model Two's actively balanced, DC coupled, output amplifier, and seriously degrade performance." I'm not expert in XLR to RCA adapters or cables but I know that at least some DO CONNECT pin 2 or pin 3 to ground. I'll make my own so that's not a problem but anyone using adapters should make sure they leave the unused pin lifted. What did you end up using? Thanks again! Xavier

Thanks. I'll PM Manishander. And I already changed the thread title. Thanks too!

Thanks Eloise. An INT202 or Vesta are out of the question because they lack word clock. But an AF1I looks like a really nice option. It would certainly make my life easier vs the tower with it's inherent fan noise. It would be great to know what should I expect, sound quality wise, to be the differences between a Mac Pro with Lynx AES16e vs Mac Mini with Weiss AFI1. Educated guesses are fine since I doubt many people have actually compared the two options. In any case I would use Amarra, HRx or similar quality music files, SSDs, extra RAM, etc. through a very high resolution system. Thanks, Xavier

yes, I was referring to physical nise. Sorry for not being clear. I suspected I would need to put it in another room but you confirm it. Shouldn't be a major issue with some careful planning.

Hi, I'm new to this forum and, except for some brief experiments with a Wavelength Proton and a Macbook Pro with Amarra mini, new to computer based music. I have a pretty high resolution system(both speakers and headphones). My music is all analog (vinyl and tape). I enjoy a lot master dub tapes from the Tape Project, Quinton Tapes, etc (15ips 2 tr). Therefore my bar is kind of high. I've been following computer based music and this site for quite some time now since I do think that high resolution digital is the future. And now I decided to take the plunge. I am now the proud owner of a Pacific Microsonics Model Two. My idea is to go with a Mac Pro with maybe 4 MB RAM and two SSDs, one for the system and the other for the media. Amarra. A Lynx AES16e card. Maybe a Jensen PC-2XR converter since my preamp is single ended and the Model Two is balanced. For starters I'll but all the HRx records. If I'm trying digital I'm going with the best. What's the consensus as the noise level of the Mac Pro? I could set it in an adjacent room but I'm not comfortable with long digital cables. I could set the Model Two next too it and run long balanced interconnects of course. In any case my preference is to keep it in the same room unless there's audible noise at 3 meters or so. I'd love feedback and advice. Xavier