[wuwhere]

Good stuff jam. I'll probably do my iHP-120 coax mod this weekend.

 

[wuwhere]

oops! double post.

 

[wolfen68]

 
Quote:

Good stuff jam. I'll probably do my iHP-120 coax mod this weekend.

wuwhere or Jamato....would either of you mind snapping and posting a pic of the internals of your completed coax mod?  I recall hearing about this and where the spdif_tx point is, but have never seen the actual alteration.  

 

[rhw]

Quote:

 
edit: I am listening to "Out West" Lucinda Williams and the dynamics now will scare the hell out of you, well me anyway. :^) Wow. . . There is such clarity to the control and transparency. I still look forward to making a "quality" digital cable. While I know a longer cable of a few feet works better, due to reflections, this one will be about 4cm, as for me, that is reasonable for a portable though a long one might be interesting to compare to. Some say bits are bits but it is what happens to those bits in transit that can affect the sound at the other end. Hey, it's all good. 

Hello,
why not use some adapters, i.e cinch/RCA to cinch/RCA + some angled adapters?
I use something like this to connect an USB/SPIF interface to a DAC.
(A little adapter chain: RCA plug - BNC socket, BNC plug - BNC plug, BNC angled, BNC - RCA, I used BNC because I thought these plugs to be 75 OHM. Who knows.)

 

[wuwhere]

Quote:

I changed over one of my iRiver H140's to coax out. It sounds very promising. I like what I hear so far. 
 
I went the route of using the input socket, therefore preserving the optical input so the iRiver can use either coax output from the former input socket (which I never used) or optical output. With the coax you have to have the optical turned on or there is no signal to the coax. The modification isn't difficult but takes a little thinking as you progress. Now to make a nice digital cable for the work as I am using an off the shelf cheapo that came with a cheap camera. 

Jam, you can use a strand of video component cable, it's suppose to be a 75 Ohms coax cable.

 

[warp08]

Quote:

I guess through modification, which can be done to any dac but it often isn't cheap or easy, as is the iRiver. It would be great to find out. Maybe you could inquire. It would be great to know!
 
I have converted optical out to digital coaxal out and worked from the dac before but that was modification, not a straight out from the source that was already available. 
 
edit: I remember now that you can buy a license agreement from Apple and get to the digital signal but the license is fairly expensive. Wadia has done this with their home dock device. It came out a couple of years ago. 
 
Ok, I read about the product you mentioned. It isn't available, with a possible Fall release and it appears to use the deciphering from Apple. It also is fairly expensive and already has the dac built in so I am not sure how you would use that with the balanced Boomslang dac and the output from their dac is single ended. It would work with the Toucan but not the Boomslang as the output of the Cypher Labs unit is SE but if coaxal, then you would have an iPod to the Cypher Labs to the Boomslang to the Toucan.  

John,
 
Sorry for regurgitating this earlier post of yours but it seems that the Solo is just a transport, based on this image from the ALO forum shown with the new ALO RX 2.  So if I wanted to use the Solo to extract digital out from, say, and iPod Touch and feed that into the Solo, it would just act as a transport and could feed digital out into the Boomslang via an RCA digital cable, and then a Hirose IC to the P1, correct?  But now we are talking about a 4-device portable stack, albeit fully balanced.  Or am I off the mark?
 

 

[wuwhere]

From what I read about the Solo, it can be use as a transport or as a DAC (see that lineout to amp).

 

[Jalo]

Talked to Ken at ALO and was told that the current status of the Solo iis that the circuit board is being reworked, then it will be submitted to Apple for Apple certification and hope to be ready by the end of October.

The way I see it is that with the Solo, one can go from ipod/ipad/iphone to solo to either boomslang (via s/pdif coax out) or mini to mini to PB1 (via mini lineopu) or to any other amp that will take a analogue mini line out. It is a rather versatile little device that give out perfect reclocked digital signal and function as either a transport or DAC. For me, it is a must have if you are on the Apple platform and want to persue the best SQ in a portable system.

 

[jamato8]

Yes, as a converter to a dac it would be fun but then there would be 4 boxes involved. As a dac I would imagine it would be good, and then there would be just three boxes but you would not have the balanced configuration of the Boomslang, as a balanced dac. Being able to get to the digital signal of the iPod on the fly would be nice though. Too bad Apple won't just incorporate it though. Too low of demand I suspect, but not too low by us! :^)

 

[qusp]

and its not a small box either, like adding another amp to a VCAP rig. even I draw the line at 3 boxes and those who have seen my rigs know what i'm talking about. my rig is now only 2, well iriver plus a reasonable size dac/amp about the size of the headroom UMD, well actually a bit thinner. once the casework (proper front and rear panel work) is finished i'll post some pics. not a product, just personal use, normally I would be right here with you guys chasing that last ounce of performance with the latyest thing, but I got off the treadmill to build my own.

 

[jamato8]

Quote:

and its not a small box either, like adding another amp to a VCAP rig. even I draw the line at 3 boxes and those who have seen my rigs know what i'm talking about. my rig is now only 2, well iriver plus a reasonable size dac/amp about the size of the headroom UMD, well actually a bit thinner. once the casework (proper front and rear panel work) is finished i'll post some pics. not a product, just personal use, normally I would be right here with you guys chasing that last ounce of performance with the latyest thing, but I got off the treadmill to build my own.

There is a lot of satisfaction to building your own and fun, normally. That is what I enjoyed about both Monica dacs I built. I modified them so much and built both into an Altoid tin (which had never been done since it was supposed to be a home unit). I have to admit though, what this dac and amp can do, and in balanced, is something I doubt I could build into the same size. 

 

[jamato8]

I wonder . . . how would the Boomslang sound with, oh I don't know . . . . Black Gate caps. . . . :^) . . . and then there is the Toucan. . . . not sure I could handle the burn-in though. . . 

 

[warp08]

Quote:

Yes, as a converter to a dac it would be fun but then there would be 4 boxes involved.

No, I haven't taken leave of all my remaining senses, but I have a TWagged JH16 Pro hooked up directly to a 16GB Nano (touch screen) I picked up this evening at Costco for $169, which is so small I can hardly see much less operate.  It's not at the same level as the multi-component CQC-vest demanding system, but I'm frankly impressed the hell out right now of what I'm hearing straight out of the HP-out.  I want to enjoy music without a backpack and a portable generator while on the move, dammit..

 

[jamato8]

Quote:

No, I haven't taken leave of all my remaining senses, but I have a TWagged JH16 Pro hooked up directly to a 16GB Nano (touch screen) I picked up this evening at Costco for $169, which is so small I can hardly see much less operate.  It's not at the same level as the multi-component CQC-vest demanding system, but I'm frankly impressed the hell out right now of what I'm hearing straight out of the HP-out.  I want to enjoy music without a backpack and a portable generator while on the move, dammit..

I agree, there are times when going light, is the way. We want to enjoy music, not be burdened by it. So ultra light works as does balanced, depending upon your needs and mood. I think one reason Xin got out of amps, for now anyway, was because he was hearing some very good things out of items like the iPhone. It is all about the enjoyment so what ever moves you at the moment. 
 

 

[skoog5600]

I am curious do you need to take advantage of the balance ability of the toucan to really enjoy the quality? I don't really want to get my Twag OM reterminated at this point.