[Delta9K]

I have what may be considered a silly question, what is under the logo on the right front panel that looks like a mini grill or opening?

Another question not so silly - is there anyone here from the US that has purchased from Vinshine - were there additional customs fees etc. for import into the states? It's not clear to me.

 

[jwilliamhurst]

I have what may be considered a silly question, what is under the logo on the right front panel that looks like a mini grill or opening?

Another question not so silly - is there anyone here from the US that has purchased from Vinshine - were there additional customs fees etc. for import into the states? It's not clear to me.

I am unsure what the mini grill is or it’s purpose. I’m in California and ordered from Vinshine with no problems and no extra fees at all.

 

[FooFighter]

are all you guys streaming from PC/Mac or is anyone using a dedicated streaming box?
interested as my yet sent back blue sound node N130 streamer was sounding a tad off to me.

The high end streaming boxes like from NAD are costing a fortune.
Rasperry Pi solutions could be built by oneself but no dedicated audio components with noise/jitter filter available there as far as I know.

New IFI ZEN streamer looked interesting to me at first but though it seems to have some nice noise/jitter filters built in, it's otherwise a tad basic if you want to stream beyond Tidal/Spotify/Quobuz

 

[jwilliamhurst]

are all you guys streaming from PC/Mac or is anyone using a dedicated streaming box?
interested as my yet sent back blue sound node N130 streamer was sounding a tad off to me.

The high end streaming boxes like from NAD are costing a fortune.
Rasperry Pi solutions could be built by oneself but no dedicated audio components with noise/jitter filter available there as far as I know.

New IFI ZEN streamer looked interesting to me at first but though it seems to have some nice noise/jitter filters built in, it's otherwise a tad basic if you want to stream beyond Tidal/Spotify/Quobuz

Just Mac here. I’ve thought about a streamer but haven’t taken the plunge yet..as I have a pretty powerful computer that is mainly just used for music.

 

[FooFighter]

Just Mac here. I’ve thought about a streamer but haven’t taken the plunge yet..as I have a pretty powerful computer that is mainly just used for music.

Speaking of powerful.
Have you experimented with upsampling with the likes of Audirvana vs Pontus built in upsampling or anyway mostly using NOS only?

 

[jwilliamhurst]

Speaking of powerful.
Have you experimented with upsampling with the likes of Audirvana vs Pontus built in upsampling or anyway mostly using NOS only?

I upsample via roon. I had some serious issues with Audirvāna-song would skip backwards every 30 seconds or so. I tried everything to adjust it and even audirvana couldn’t help me not refund my license fee so I’ve pretty much washed my hands of them. I upsample via roon to dsd 256 before Pontus and to my ears it is the most dynamic and resolute. Def sounds more analog letting the Pontus do the work but the soundstage really opens up with dsd and the details are impressive but not fatiguing.

 

[FooFighter]

Hmm, yeah Roon is another way to go forward, haven't taken the splunge yet...

 

[Delta9K]

are all you guys streaming from PC/Mac or is anyone using a dedicated streaming box?
interested as my yet sent back blue sound node N130 streamer was sounding a tad off to me.

The high end streaming boxes like from NAD are costing a fortune.
Rasperry Pi solutions could be built by oneself but no dedicated audio components with noise/jitter filter available there as far as I know.

New IFI ZEN streamer looked interesting to me at first but though it seems to have some nice noise/jitter filters built in, it's otherwise a tad basic if you want to stream beyond Tidal/Spotify/Quobuz

At my desktop headamp setup I am running from PC into a Matrix Audio X-SPDIF 2 (DDC) and then into the DAC (PC - USB -> DDC - AES/EBU -> DAC). For a couple of other Roon endpoints I'm using pi's with Digi hats (no dac, just transport, and the USB on the pi's is disabled) - But I have one setup that is using the pi only where the USB from the pi goes into another X-SPDIF 2 and then using a USB out instead of coax or AES of the X-SPDIF - I'm using USB into a DAC that only has USB input. So something like this roon/pi USB -> DDC - USB -> DAC -> 2ch amp

EDIT: The MA X-spdif 2 DOES NOT have USB out - I had to use a different DAC that had other inputs. That is my downstair setup not used often and I had forgotten what I did there.

 

[FooFighter]

Can you make a picture of this PI + X SPDIF 2?
Are you using any kind of housing or everything exposed?

 

[shafat777]

Please could you tell me your impressions. I also intend to buy the Hermes to connect with the Pontus II

Even though its only been 3 days since I received my Hermes DDC, and honestly I haven't had much time for critical listening, I can say that the change in sound was almost instant......

Unlike my previous dacs, which have all been Delta Sigma (topping, Matrix Audio), known for their sharp, clean, dark background tonality, the Denafrips R2R dacs (Ares 2, now sold, and Pontus 2) really sounded gooey, warm and euphonic without the crystal clear imaging, or super sharp, crisp treble. Paired with my Feliks Audio Elise OTL, the pontus 2 gave me the warmest, smooth, laid back sound ive ever heard. To me, that was endgame. Not until I decided to use my Bifrost 2 with the Elise, I realized that i do indeed miss some of those delta sigma characteristics in my sound signature. The Bifrost 2 was cleaner and sharper, in some aspects, than my Pontus 2. Its still a multibit (r2r variant) dac, but it retains some of those sharp edges, dark backgrounds of my Topping dac. So I decided to buy a Hermes.....

My initial plan was to buy the Hermes and use it to clean the usb signal because my gaming PC isnt the best source of clean music. My triple GPU setup, along with liquid cooling and a NAS server was the biggest source of noise in my USB signal. As soon as I hooked up the Hermes to my pontus using a cheap walmart brand HDMI cable, I noticed the change that i kept hearing about from peeps in this forum. ITS CLEAN. The sound is clean. the imaging is dark with no noise or muddiness. Everything is really precise and crisp, without losing the R2R characteristic. This for me, NOW, is the way music should sound like. The Hermes helps the Pontus, or any other dac for that matter, retain its original sound, all the while keeping everything clean. As a result, the music seems more open with a bit more air in the high end while the low end being extremely tight and controlled.

Overall I am extremely satisfied with the Hermes and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to improve the quality of sound. Hope this helps.

 

[FooFighter]

Definitely interested in Hermes though my budget this year is over stretched.
Would be nice to see a silver Hermes fitting to my silver Pontus II...

 

[Delta9K]

Can you make a picture of this PI + X SPDIF 2?
Are you using any kind of housing or everything exposed?

You will have to forgive my old man brain. That setup is my downstairs and I had it all confused. I am not using USB all the way thru, the MA doesn't have USB out. I had to use a different DAC. I apologize for my haste and erroneous info. I will edit the original post to not mislead anyone else.

To answer your other question about the pi's and cases. I attached photos of a couple of the pi's and their cases. I pulled the USB only pi that I'm using with the x-spdif and the DAC I'm using with it out of the shelf so you can see how it is really configured. So not what you are after if you were looking to go USB all the way through. You could use the Optical out of a MA or other DDC with optical out as an option, if the N130 has optical in or, you can use a pi with a hat that has an optical out - like the pi in the Hifiberry case in the second photo. That HAT is a Hifiberry Digi2 pro.

 

[FooFighter]

Thx for your efforts for making the pictures.
Actually I don't have a Streamer anymore besides my Shanling M8 DAP.
I was quite content functionality-wise with Bluesound N130 but its rather bright coloring with elevated upper mids was a no go.
I cannot use a Streamer which sounds worse than my standard iPhone out of USB.
The point now is to find a comfortable solution to play music through my Denafrips Pontus but not needing to sit in front of my Macbook for it.
Currently solving the situation by using a 7m long USB cable to play straight out of my IPhone / IPad or remote controlling Audirvana running on my MacBook but actually I wanted a hardwired Streamer connected to Ethernet plus Pontus II and stream my typical services like Tidal, Amazon, Apple Music.
So far only the Bluesound could cover that.
The new Ifi Zen Streamer seems to work like a modded PI running volumio in the background potentially from what I read but less comfortable and lacking Amazon Music HD for example

 

[FooFighter]

I might give the Zen Stream a shot in order to find out if the sound signature differences I recognized between my previous N130 Streamer and usb sources are related to the streamer or to the Pontus implementation of the different digital input types.
If that was the case then I might prefer USB input in general, still wondering though...
In that regards I am also wondering about how a d-d converter like Hermes will influence sound signature or "just" cleans up / synchronizes the signal which might be more subtle than what I recognized before regarding the different sources (see above).
So if it turns out to be the Pontus input type I might return to N130 at some point as soon as that one supports USB out through a future firmware update.
What however can also be a reason is that N130 might not play bit perfect whereas IPhones / IPADs do that natively without any additional settings...
Priorities for me are SQ > convenience.
When SQ is equal I of course opt for better convenience.
Talking about convenience in streaming services, the best option for me here is the support of true casting abilities from cloud to the end device which at the moment only Spotify and Tidal are supporting.
If Spotify is going hires at the end of this year and is sounding good I might fully change towards Spotify as that one is still having the best user experience and AI Imho.

 

[FooFighter]

Sorry for spamming the thread but I find the question why different theoretically bit perfect sources sound different very important actually more important than dealing with more subtle enhancements of the chain.
That thread here is e.g asking the same question https://www.avforums.com/threads/why-do-bit-perfect-streamers-sound-so-different.2242522/

That's the statement I find most interesting:

"The other things is that a digital connection (SPDIF/Optical) may not actually be bit transparent unless the receiving device entirely synchronises itself to the extracted incoming clock. Often a DAC always runs off its own internal clock and therefore it will asynchronously resample audio data received via SPDIF/Optical, but not for example with its own internal digital sources or USB. This is not always the case."