The diary entries of a little girl who is now 30! ~ Part 2 - Page 229

Quote:

Originally Posted by driver 8 

******* FedEx made me wait until 7:30PM for my amp >: (

 

I haven't actually used it yet since I've been busy but I must say I love its presence on my audio table thing even though the front panel is 2mm off center, which... is kind of complaint worthy at this price?  Iuno, the thing's still beautiful. 

 

I love the power light; it's charming.

Oh damn, I thought all the lettering on the amp was painted on until I looked at it really closely and realized it's engraved in the metal.  That's cool as ****.

@tomscy

If you're going to Montreal I highly recommend you learn a few phrases of French or at the very least a few words. Montreal folk speak English but if given the choice they would rather speak French. If you mispronounce a few words don't worry Montrealers are quite understanding and helpful and will politely correct you and meet you half way and help you along in trying to learn the native language. Overall the general vibe in that city is rather nice. The only way I can describe it is it's like millionaire playboy Mr New York married Mrs tre chic Paris and had a child named Montreal. When you're there be sure to check out the local nightlife and cafe's. Quebecers have a very strong devotion to their local artists and the musical style in that city you won't find anywhere else in Canada. Montreal music and culture is very much onto itself. As for McGill University I've never been there but it's one of Canada's premier ivy league schools. Mostly the very rich get schooled there and a lot of old money have sent their kids there for their education. Be prepared to run across some snooty people.

@ MuppetFace

When my feet cramp up I usually soak them in very hot water for 15 minutes and then I'll take a bottle of frozen water and roll the bottle across my heel for a minute or so. Usually that clears up the cramps and any discomfort for the day.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiteki 

 

Actually... jeez, their new tiny DAC does look pretty good!  It's using CM6631, AK4396 and AD8616.

 

 

As I've written before, the AK4396 is a very 'complete' sounding DAC (at least the one I had...), in the first diary thread I used to post links about one since it transformed my audio experience.  I PM'd a person which has it too and he replied "yes I still use it, no need to look further".

 

When the AK4396 was new it was called "the miracle DAC" for various technical reasons, like it can oversample at 128x even at 192kHz and yada yada, and it's made in Japan, hahaha.

 

 

At the moment, with DAC's, all I really want is the Hifimediy CS direct out and I'm waiting for the iBasso ES9018 x4.  Ah, and I want the new KORG of course which went out of stock all over Japan.

 

In the meantime I'm supposed to be modifying my Lite DAC-AH with the help of an EE at diyaudio but I'm lazy with that project.

I'm actually liking my $50 Hifimediy dac and can't complain about it, but I have this secret love for audio stacks. Such as the Asgard/bifrost, AudioGD NFB-16, or anything of the source. Nom.

Quote:

Originally Posted by compoopers 

I don't remember why but I've never been a fan of schiit products. However that looks amazing. Hopefully it stacks up technically (nopunintended) against the O2/ODAC and I'm sold.

That looks sweet. I loved the build of my Asgard but wasn't sold on the grainy sound... I'd give this a go though.

Originally Posted by mosshorn 

 

I'm actually liking my $50 Hifimediy dac and can't complain about it, but I have this secret love for audio stacks. Such as the Asgard/bifrost, AudioGD NFB-16, or anything of the source. Nom.

Did you get the Hifimediy version with optical-out?  If yes, then you could connect it to a Lite DAC-AH, just putting that out there, nice and analog, 10x better than the Hifiman HM-60x.

Quote:

Originally Posted by compoopers 


I don't remember why but I've never been a fan of schiit products. However that looks amazing. Hopefully it stacks up technically (nopunintended) against the O2/ODAC and I'm sold.

Quote:

Originally Posted by a_recording 

 

That looks sweet. I loved the build of my Asgard but wasn't sold on the grainy sound... I'd give this a go though.

For 200 bones I'm also quite interested. If this new stack can outdo the O2/ODAC as well as any Fiio products at such a cheap price I'm sold. Our good buddy Majik apparently just pre ordered himself some Schiit. I patiently await your impressions kind sir. Who knows I may be looking at the gateway to finally owning a home rig

Quote:

Originally Posted by a_recording 

 

That looks sweet. I loved the build of my Asgard but wasn't sold on the grainy sound... I'd give this a go though.

Unless addicted to audio stocks it, we would have to use a US mail forwarding thingy. 

Originally Posted by compoopers 

I don't remember why but I've never been a fan of schiit products. However that looks amazing. Hopefully it stacks up technically (nopunintended) against the O2/ODAC and I'm sold.

Uh, the DAC section does for sure, the amplifier is discrete, so NwAv will say it sucks, he says discrete is an exercize in pointlessness pretty much.

By the way I think you asked me about speakers recently, was it you?  Anyway, have a look at the Mordaunt Short Aviano 2's, they're the best booksheves I've heard so far, you know under $1k or so.  The Aviano 8's were extremely captivating too.

Hi-fi magazine reviews suck, they get sent a pair of speakers, write a few nonsensical paragraphs, and then send them back and collect their check.  Maybe KEF sent a fat check for the Q300 reviews, I don't know, they reminded me of the Hifiman HE-6, just not quite as good.

The Aviano 2's had near-perfect levels of bass, they don't need a sub-woofer imho unless you love sub-bass or you want to watch DTS 5.1 movies, or listen to DVD-A 5.1 surround.

NwAv thinks op-amps like the NE5532 or JRC4556 have 'already reached amplifier perfection', so then what's the point in designing a discrete amplifier, (like the Audio Technica AT-HA5000?), that pretty much sums up his view.

An op-amp is a chip full of tiny capacitors, resistors, inductors and diodes, a discrete amplifier is exactly the same except 20 times larger, neither is inherently better or worse than the other in circuit design, only in size, where discrete may have an advantage, or tiny IC's may have an advantage.

Old Voldy seems to have a beef with everything under the sun nowadays. I stopped going to his forum awhile back due to boredom and the feeling I wasn't learning anything useful. Seems like his followers are all over the place nowadays. The sound science forums seems to be overflowing with tons of wanna be Voldys.

Quote:

Originally Posted by compoopers 

What's voldy's beef on discrete amping? I'm pretty conservative when it comes to amps/dacs and the main reason I was looking at the O2/ODAC was because for my first pair of amp/dac I'd rather just get as 'accurate' amping as possible. Then if I feel like I want to mess with things, go from there.
Also yes, the speakers world is so foreign to me. I was considering the Emotiva airmotiv4s or possible 5/6s. But honestly, I don't know how they sound. I'm merely going off a recommendation. Unlike headphones, for some reason speakers are very hard to find sound descriptions of. I'm starting to get the idea that all speakers kind of sound really similar. The differences in speakers are not as apparent as they are with headphones. I'll definitely bookmark the ones you suggested though.
I'm also confused about if subwoofers are necessary or not o.0

Oh, no way, speakers sound all kinds of different. The other issue with speakers is that interaction with the room also becomes really important. For instance some speakers are great, but rear ported, so they need to be positioned away from the wall to avoid getting additional boominess from having the entire wall resonante with the speaker. There are all sorts of other factors, like how some speakers disperse sound and therefore may sound better on-axis (ie, ears in line with the drivers), whereas others have a bigger sweet spot. There are all kinds of crazy factors and they are even more severe for desktop monitors because you are sitting so close (near field), usually close to the wall and with a large flat monitor in between the speakers; it can be a real puzzle (but fun) trying to get the best placement.

And this is just in terms of one speaker sounding different in different situations. Different speakers can sound totally different, and compared to headphones that mostly share basic design principles, speakers have all kinds of different kinds of designs that each have their advantages and disadvantages. The thing is that I think speakers are harder to find descriptions of because less people collect them, and therefore less comparisons are available outside of hi fi sites or magazines. As Mupps suggests you kind of end up wedding yourself to them for years and years. 

I think subwoofers are necessary to get adequate sub-bass performance with most speakers, but then a lot of people shun subwoofers because they interact even more severely with the room and can be difficult to match in sound to the main speakers. For instance its generally accepted that you actually need two subwoofers in a room arranged in such a way so as to even out the way bass disperses in the room, but then the subwoofers may cancel each other out if arranged incorrectly.