[Triode User]

Did you observe the same with the Antipodes K50 ? That Squeezelite was superior to Roon ?

Yes.

 

[sm60]

Interesting Nick, thank you for the quick response. I did try that a couple of years ago and I did find it superior to Roon but not necessarily to Blu II as a source. I have always used Blu II CD as my yardstick and once I’d beaten that, I considered the job done. In the past, there has always been an observable ‘digital’ element which presented itself as a slightly hard edged brightness which I found fatiguing whereas what I have now is warm and relaxing whilst still delivering great clarity and detail. This may have been a case of ignorance is bliss for me.

If Blu 2 is your current best source, boy are you missing out! There’s a whole new level you can reach with better digital transports. I’ve tried many over the years, far too many to list. But my current player is the ultra Uber CEC TL0 two box transport with a belt driven suspended chassis unit connected by an umbilical cord to a massive power supply. This completely blows away the Blu2 in my system. I lucked out a few years ago when I bought the CEC TL0 on eBay for significantly less than what Chord charges for the Blu2. It was the best decision I made. Fortunately the CEC authorized repair center is just a few minutes driving distance from my house in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is convenient.
I would keep a lookout for the CEC models on eBay or Audiogon. Avoid the cheaper models, they are not as well made. The TL1 is more easily available but not as resolving as the TL0. There’s a new version of the TL0 Mk3 available that seems mostly a minor variant of my earlier model. Even my wife, who is not an audiophile by any means and usually listens to music as background can almost instantly tell me when I’m playing a CD through the CEC. Of course the M-scaler in the Blu2 and the Dave play their role in this system as well.

Ofher choices: the Levinson 31.5 comes up often and is a bargain for the level of performance and build quality. Avoid the cheaper 37, which has an unreliable drawer mechanism. The higher end Esoteric models are worth considering, and a few years ago I owned the P03. It’s not as good as the CEC TL0.

 

[ekfc63]

If Blu 2 is your current best source, boy are you missing out! There’s a whole new level you can reach with better digital transports. I’ve tried many over the years, far too many to list. But my current player is the ultra Uber CEC TL0 two box transport with a belt driven suspended chassis unit connected by an umbilical cord to a massive power supply. This completely blows away the Blu2 in my system. I lucked out a few years ago when I bought the CEC TL0 on eBay for significantly less than what Chord charges for the Blu2. It was the best decision I made. Fortunately the CEC authorized repair center is just a few minutes driving distance from my house in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is convenient.
I would keep a lookout for the CEC models on eBay or Audiogon. Avoid the cheaper models, they are not as well made. The TL1 is more easily available but not as resolving as the TL0. There’s a new version of the TL0 Mk3 available that seems mostly a minor variant of my earlier model. Even my wife, who is not an audiophile by any means and usually listens to music as background can almost instantly tell me when I’m playing a CD through the CEC. Of course the M-scaler in the Blu2 and the Dave play their role in this system as well.

Ofher choices: the Levinson 31.5 comes up often and is a bargain for the level of performance and build quality. Avoid the cheaper 37, which has an unreliable drawer mechanism. The higher end Esoteric models are worth considering, and a few years ago I owned the P03. It’s not as good as the CEC TL0.

I don't know if you're also using a server but am wondering how CD's ripped to the hard drive on a server would compare to a CD played using your CEC transport.

 

[Malcyg]

If Blu 2 is your current best source, boy are you missing out! There’s a whole new level you can reach with better digital transports. I’ve tried many over the years, far too many to list. But my current player is the ultra Uber CEC TL0 two box transport with a belt driven suspended chassis unit connected by an umbilical cord to a massive power supply. This completely blows away the Blu2 in my system. I lucked out a few years ago when I bought the CEC TL0 on eBay for significantly less than what Chord charges for the Blu2. It was the best decision I made. Fortunately the CEC authorized repair center is just a few minutes driving distance from my house in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is convenient.
I would keep a lookout for the CEC models on eBay or Audiogon. Avoid the cheaper models, they are not as well made. The TL1 is more easily available but not as resolving as the TL0. There’s a new version of the TL0 Mk3 available that seems mostly a minor variant of my earlier model. Even my wife, who is not an audiophile by any means and usually listens to music as background can almost instantly tell me when I’m playing a CD through the CEC. Of course the M-scaler in the Blu2 and the Dave play their role in this system as well.

Ofher choices: the Levinson 31.5 comes up often and is a bargain for the level of performance and build quality. Avoid the cheaper 37, which has an unreliable drawer mechanism. The higher end Esoteric models are worth considering, and a few years ago I owned the P03. It’s not as good as the CEC TL0.

That is interesting info, thanks. The Blu II is not my best source, the Statement is and I don’t use the CD transport. I previously had an MBL 1521A CD transport which was excellent and that was better in isolation compared to the Blu II but, when used with Blu Dave, there was little difference so I let it go.

 

[Lgn3]

Yes.

Thanks. When I get round to installing a new O.S. on my streamer I will compare the two players.

 

[Darkliner]

Posted this on the wavelight thread too..



comparing the Rockna Wavelight and the mscaler/Dave combo.

Both playing from the same Roon endpoint. Both playing the same songs, started at exactly the same time. XLR into inputs 1 and 2 on my wa33. So to change between the two dacs, I just flick the input selector switch (takes a split second..)

44.1khz into the rockna dac (innuos phoenix, Singxer su-6, i2s to rockna)
705.6khz from mscaler into Dave
Volume matched as close as I could get it (volume knob unchanged on the wa33, volume adjusted to near equal using the dac pre amp).

I am finding it nearly impossible to make out any difference at all.. If I was pressed to say, perhaps a super slight tinge more low end and slam on the Rockna, and a slight tinge more air/separation with the chord combo. But that's it. Can't make out any difference anywhere else..

Differences in setup with xlr and usb cables, and rockna setup has su-6 and i2s connection + innuos phoenix.

I noticed you are using xlr cables to connect dave/mscaler to wa33. Sometime ago i tested xlr vs rca outputs from dave to wa33 and found that rca is actually superior to xlr. Of course this is my personal opinion and i was able to use the same grade of cable for xlr and rca. This is something you might wanna try out.

 

[Sampajanna]

Nick, Do you think the iPeng vs Roon applies to streaming via Qobuz/Tidal or more to do with tracks on the hard drive?

 

[Triode User]

Nick, Do you think the iPeng vs Roon applies to streaming via Qobuz/Tidal or more to do with tracks on the hard drive?

With the Innuos it is really to do with playing tracks from the hard drive because when playing from the hard drive with iPeng or Squeezebox the Innuos player loads the whole track to RAM for playing and that gives the best sound quality. With streaming Qobuz/Tidal it cannot load the whole track to RAM in any case.

However, don't forget that there is still the issue with Roon of all the extra traffic it creates from communicating with Roon HQ whilst playing.

 

[grokit]

Sometime ago i tested xlr vs rca outputs from dave to wa33 and found that rca is actually superior to xlr. Of course this is my personal opinion and i was able to use the same grade of cable for xlr and rca.

Interesting, because in WA22 country there is a consensus that xlr is superior to rca. But I've found that when using my Qutest it sounds better out of balanced headphones, compared to when they are plugged into the 1/4" socket. This was unexpected, and needs more exploration on my part. More of a topic for a Woo thread though.

 

[Darkliner]

Interesting, because in WA22 country there is a consensus that xlr is superior to rca. But I've found that when using my Qutest it sounds better out of balanced headphones, compared to when they are plugged into the 1/4" socket. This was unexpected, and needs more exploration on my part. More of a topic for a Woo thread though.

Well im referring to the inputs from dave to wa33 here rather than the outputs from wa33 to headphones. The balanced outputs from wa33 definitely sounds better than the 1/4" socket.

 

[Malcyg]

Well im referring to the inputs from dave to wa33 here rather than the outputs from wa33 to headphones. The balanced outputs from wa33 definitely sounds better than the 1/4" socket.

I agree with you and have always found RCA SE output from Dave to sound better than XLR and I do usually prefer SE generally. Having said that, I can appreciate why some people might prefer the way music is presented using the XLR balanced out of Dave and I would guess, from anecdotal feedback, that more people might actually be using balanced than SE, despite Dave being a single ended design. One has to account for gear, ears and preference as ever which is why there is often no universal ‘right way’ to do things and people can often disagree. Disagreement can be good and I have changed tack a couple of times on my route due to someone challenging my thinking. It’s when people insist that they are right that things can get out of hand a bit.

 

[moemoney]

Interesting, because in WA22 country there is a consensus that xlr is superior to rca. But I've found that when using my Qutest it sounds better out of balanced headphones, compared to when they are plugged into the 1/4" socket. This was unexpected, and needs more exploration on my part. More of a topic for a Woo thread though.

But the WA 22 Is a balance amp.

 

[grokit]

But the WA 22 Is a balance amp.

Right, but it accepts both rca and xlr. It has an internal transformer, that also makes it single-ended. Just sharing what I'm hearing.

 

[grokit]

More of a topic for a Woo thread though.

 

[grokit]

.