[sandchak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tim3320070 /img/forum/go_quote.gif True but you are forgetting that you can connect the Ref-1 to the Phoenix with CAST, further refining the sound (vs. RCA or XLR), if only slightly to my ears, with my equipment (FBI-500 and Mirage speakers- maybe more noticeable with the Phoenix and HD800's).

I don't disagree, going CAST does seem to improve SQ as far as I have heard and continue to hear ( CIA400 - REF1 - CD7 through my B&W speakers), but I was looking at a more even field because B22 doesn't have CAST. Yes, you are right, CAST would be a plus for Phoenix and can make a difference. But more than anything as Yikes pointed out in his latest post, taking everything into consideration, Phoenix becomes more attractive + there seems to be some talk about distortion in B22..

 

[ServinginEcuador]

Moving this to the meet thread.

But, after listening to some samplings of other amps at the meet I can say without reservation that the Phoenix is going nowhere anytime soon. That is unless Kingwa remakes the PSU and does some upgrades like Yikes suggested...

 

[n3rdling]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sandchak /img/forum/go_quote.gif But more than anything as Yikes pointed out in his latest post, taking everything into consideration, Phoenix becomes more attractive + there seems to be some talk about distortion in B22..

If you're referring to my meet impressions post, I highly doubt the distortion was the B22 and was instead the source material. None of the B22's I heard at Canjam had this distortion. I really wish I gave this shootout a proper and more lengthy listen.

 

[Pricklely Peete]

Maybe the CDR disc was burned with replay gain engaged and it caused some clipping on the peaks ?

Peete.

 

[johnwmclean]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sandchak /img/forum/go_quote.gif there seems to be some talk about distortion in B22..

 

[IPodPJ]

I'm not even sure what distortion you were hearing, Milos. No one else heard the distortion and I have listened to the album many times and have never heard a drop of distortion anywhere. That's why I said it might be the amp if you were hearing it because there's none in my system.

 

[IPodPJ]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pricklely Peete /img/forum/go_quote.gif Maybe the CDR disc was burned with replay gain engaged and it caused some clipping on the peaks ? Peete.

No. It wasn't a CDR disc. I ripped it from the actual CD, as is the case with 95% of the music in my collection.

You want to know how anal I am? Originally I had ripped all my CDs with iTunes as either lossless .m4a or AIFF. But when I heard people talking about how EAC does a better rip, I spent a week re-ripping everything with EAC. It took awhile to get EAC configured initially because it kept showing errors in the rip. Eventually I got it set right and since then every rip has been verified as 100% accurate with no errors.

 

[Pricklely Peete]

Quote:

Originally Posted by IPodPJ /img/forum/go_quote.gif No. It wasn't a CDR disc. I ripped it from the actual CD, as is the case with 95% of the music in my collection. You want to know how anal I am? Originally I had ripped all my CDs with iTunes as either lossless .m4a or AIFF. But when I heard people talking about how EAC does a better rip, I spent a week re-ripping everything with EAC. It took awhile to get EAC configured initially because it kept showing errors in the rip. Eventually I got it set right and since then every rip has been verified as 100% accurate with no errors.

Your like me in this regard....thanks for the clarification PJ.

Peete.

 

[sandchak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by n3rdling /img/forum/go_quote.gif If you're referring to my meet impressions post, I highly doubt the distortion was the B22 and was instead the source material. None of the B22's I heard at Canjam had this distortion. I really wish I gave this shootout a proper and more lengthy listen.

No, I wasn't referring to your impressions. In fact I think I owe an apology out here, what I meant was coloration and not distortion. This was going by PJ's feeling that maybe there was a coloration in B22 as he never heard any amp that gave HD800 the bass slam as the B22 did. and maybe it artificially bumps up the bass and mid-bass.. Sorry my bad, maybe I used the wrong term.

 

[Yikes]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ServinginEcuador /img/forum/go_quote.gif Moving this to the meet thread. But, after listening to some samplings of other amps at the meet I can say without reservation that the Phoenix is going nowhere anytime soon. That is unless Kingwa remakes the PSU and does some upgrades like Yikes suggested...

When I first read this post I interpreted it as you thought that somehow I was saying that the Phoenix sucked (or that you were saying it sucks), I thought What! Then I realized that you purchased one, and that you were basically agreeing with me. Yes the only way the Phoenix is going anywheres is if it is being pried from my cold dead hands

. Either that or I find something that I like better, which I don't think is going to happen anytime soon.

Quote:

Originally Posted by IPodPJ /img/forum/go_quote.gif No. It wasn't a CDR disc. I ripped it from the actual CD, as is the case with 95% of the music in my collection. You want to know how anal I am? Originally I had ripped all my CDs with iTunes as either lossless .m4a or AIFF. But when I heard people talking about how EAC does a better rip, I spent a week re-ripping everything with EAC. It took awhile to get EAC configured initially because it kept showing errors in the rip. Eventually I got it set right and since then every rip has been verified as 100% accurate with no errors.

It only took you a week to re-rip your collection? Your collection must be Tiny. Do you know what they say about a man and the size of his music collection? No.... seriously what do they say? I've been asking for years and no one will tell me, like it's a freaking secret or something.

When I got my Exemplar Music Server I ripped like crazy for about two months and I think I got about 1/3 done. Now after another year I might be up to about 1/2. No rush now that I'm left with disc's that I almost never listen to. Maybe I should consider selling the 1/2 of my collection that I hardly ever use. Once the collection gets large enough Foobar2000 becomes a little less than a joy to use.

 

[les_garten]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yikes /img/forum/go_quote.gif When I first read this post I interpreted it as you thought that somehow I was saying that the Phoenix sucked (or that you were saying it sucks), I thought What! Then I realized that you purchased one, and that you were basically agreeing with me. Yes the only way the Phoenix is going anywheres is if it is being pried from my cold dead hands . Either that or I find something that I like better, which I don't think is going to happen anytime soon. It only took you a week to re-rip your collection? Your collection must be Tiny. Do you know what they say about a man and the size of his music collection? No.... seriously what do they say? I've been asking for years and no one will tell me, like it's a freaking secret or something. When I got my Exemplar Music Server I ripped like crazy for about two months and I think I got about 1/3 done. Now after another year I might be up to about 1/2. No rush now that I'm left with disc's that I almost never listen to. Maybe I should consider selling the 1/2 of my collection that I hardly ever use. Once the collection gets large enough Foobar2000 becomes a little less than a joy to use.

If you come up with something other than Foobar, do tell us!

.

 

[Yikes]

One of the secrets to getting the best sound from Foobar is the way that ripping is done with EAC. Each disc is represented by two files one super large Wave file that is in essence the entire disc (Usually 400 MB to about 650 MB) and a small CUE file that I believe tells Foobar what's what in the large WAVE file. When I rip in EAC I hit the IMG button.

I've already written too much. The secret to having a truly great sounding server is 5% hardware (Talking about the server only) and 95% setup. I'll give another key, if you're running Windows Update you're system won't be optimized after most updates. In fact to keep the server optimized the system should pretty much only be used as a server (The act of installing most significant programs can screw it up). The strangest little things can screw up (Change) the way key programs load and run.

The only reason the Exemplar Music Server is pretty much only sold within the audio industry is that it doesn't have it's own GUI. So when using it people think of it as a computer (Which it is) and start installing software on it and running other programs which usually screws up how well it performs as a server. So it's sold to people in the industry who John Tucker knows and trusts to not be sending the systems back for reconfiguring every two weeks. Amazing sounding product that because of the lack of a Custom GUI is not quite ready for prime time.

 

[Pricklely Peete]

Yikes have you tired Mediamonkey with the otachan ASIO driver ? I found it to be better than Foobar by a fair margin in terms of SQ.

Peete.

 

[haloxt]

I tried asking rockbox about rockboxing a laptop (rockbox is an open source firmware for mp3 players, lol) but no one would write a port for me. If anyone manages to turn a computer into an mp3 player and notices it has better SQ than current software, please let me know

.

 

[les_garten]

Quote:

Originally Posted by haloxt /img/forum/go_quote.gif I tried asking rockbox about rockboxing a laptop (rockbox is an open source firmware for mp3 players, lol) but no one would write a port for me. If anyone manages to turn a computer into an mp3 player and notices it has better SQ than current software, please let me know .

I'm totally confused what you are trying to do here. My Laptop plays MP3z like a Mofo!

.