[Solude]

Windows 8 doesn't come with a media player?

 

[SwanSong]

Dac's make very little difference in sound.  Try an a/b sometime and even an Asus Xonar can sound or better than a ton of highly acclaimed dacs.  I'd focus on a better digital cable, the different tubes, etc. before trying a different dac.  But heck, why not just send that transport back and get Kenny's all in one unit that will sound as good/better than 99% that is on the market?

I love my tube output stage too much. I'm going to roll a creamy mullard and a amperex pinched waste through my dac before making any change. You finally got them going on about vinyl LOL! Everyone that I know that knows music loves what a great vinyl setup can sound like but not all vinyl is equal. For every great vinyl record that sounds amazing there's 10 that sound lousy. You have heard great vinyl records on a great rig but take it from someone who lived it that was optimal listening. When you build your vinyl rig you will see how hard it is to acquire high fidelity engineered vinyl not just vinyl records they were hard to come by when it was the only media. It can be done and I wish you success it is worth it when everything is again optimal!

 

[highstream]

Windows 8 doesn't come with a media player?

No. Media Center is a paid add on with 8. I got the upgrade free I think last fall and installed it, but never used it. I've uninstalled it since.

 

[Solude]

Player not Centre.

 

[highstream]

Player not Centre.

Don't recall now, but probably because DVDs require the Center, it got into my head that everything does. Since I never use WMP, I didn't go searching folders.

In any case, I installed the ASIO plugin for WMP from SourceForge and changed the settings for it. In WMP, after deleting its default library settings and switching to my music location, it started to load mine. However, after three or four items it crashed, and continues to do so everytime I reopen and it tries to pick up more from my music folder. Subject for another forum.

 

[Solude]

Sounds like even more reason to stay put with Windows 7 for now.

 

[preproman]

I haven't got my JK Ciunas DAC yet.  It will be mail out this week.  Just came from the CAF in Washington, DC on Sat.  
 
Got a chance to listen to the Metrum Octave mkII on an EF-6 amp with my HE-6s.  
 
I don't know how the Ciunas sound as of yet.  But the Octave mkII sounds pretty darn good.  Not as good as the HEX I heard there, but pretty good for the HEX little brother.  The only thing different I can tell is the the Octave does not extend at bot ends like the HEX does.  
 
Hope the Ciunas does better than the Octave mkII..

 

[highstream]

Sounds like even more reason to stay put with Windows 7 for now.

Only if WMP is important to you. In Win 7 and XP, I almost always used Zoom Player Pro or VLC, so it's been no big deal. I switched over to Win 8 upon its release, set up the desktop Win 7 style, adding one of the free start menu apps, and have been satisfied with it. Quicker startup and many fewer problems.

 

[Solude]

I use JRiver but what you describe is bugs.  I don't like having easy to find bugs in my OS, just saying.  I use an SSD so faster boot doesn't mean much to me

 

[Clemmaster]

Quote:

I haven't got my JK Ciunas DAC yet.  It will be mail out this week.  Just came from the CAF in Washington, DC on Sat.  
 
Got a chance to listen to the Metrum Octave mkII on an EF-6 amp with my HE-6s.  
 
I don't know how the Ciunas sound as of yet.  But the Octave mkII sounds pretty darn good.  Not as good as the HEX I heard there, but pretty good for the HEX little brother.  The only thing different I can tell is the the Octave does not extend at bot ends like the HEX does.  
 
Hope the Ciunas does better than the Octave mkII..

 
!! You got my full attention here 

How was the tonal balance with the EF-6 + Octave mkII?
 
How did you find the HEX?

 

[preproman]

Quote:

 
!! You got my full attention here 

How was the tonal balance with the EF-6 + Octave mkII?
 
How did you find the HEX?

 
 
Well you know I heard them all of 30 mins each.  So they're just very brief initial impressions.  The EF-6 / Octave mkII sound really good overall in enjoyable listening.  I did get a little critical listening in and found I was not getting the extension on the few tracks I knew.  Like I did back home.  Overall it's not a Master 7 or a PWD2 in that case, but very enjoyable.
 
Same with the HEX, 30 mins tops.  However, it was both very enjoyable to listen to and it gave me the detail I knew was in the few tracks I had back home.  This DAC is in the same league or above as the Master 7 / PWDmk2.  Just have to own it so I can take it through the mill.
 
I can tell you right off the bat - I'll take the Octave mkII over the Concero..

 

[zilch0md]

Subscribed

 

[2222440]

Quote:

 
Have you ever tried a really fine subwoofer?  I have heard loads of various woofers-subs-etc. and only a handful come to mind as qualifying as real/true subwoofers.  I'm talking JBL (as used in the Everest), JL Audio's very best, AE (aka Lambda) Acoustics, etc. I'd add Tad to that list, but I'd probably cough if I learned about the price of the woofers in the Tad Ref Ones))
 
How about some TAD CR-1's?  I don't find B&W, let alone any other speaker aside from TAD to give a truly faithful/neutral/refined experience.  Of course with TAD, you will have to put some serious tubes into the mix IMHO because they certainly will not give all those subjective adjectives of "flavor" that we are used to with flavored/colored speakers.  IMHO, for Classical and Acoustical music, I don't think anything is remotely close to TAD Reference series.  Shame they run class D garbage or some other rubbish SS front ends with them.
 
I am missing those very lowest bottom octaves without having to go to a true subwoofer with exceptional dynamics/speed/etc. but I have not bothered trying to integrate one just yet as it can be a truly difficult process especially with such a brilliant/dynamic speaker like the Tad...or in your case, in spite B&W is not my thing, it certainly would require some dedication to integrate a true sub effortlessly for the full range sound.
 
Thanks for the input about that lower cost Audinist .  
 
Is this what you are talking about here= http://www.ebay.com/itm/Audinst-HUD-mini-Hi-Fi-USB-Audio-DAC-/180927550552

 
I am very happy with the burnt in Ciunas and B&W 801 SE (1987 version) now.
I haven't got a chance listening to TAD Reference, can not comment on it.
However, I don't think an extra subwoofer is a must for the B&W 801, it has been the studio monitor used by most recording engineers in huge amount of classical music recordings for over three decades, and is still being used.  If it is not truely(or very close to) neutral/faithful/accurate, it won't be selected by such a wide range of engineers and especially musicians.
 
The burnt in Ciunas is better than the Audinst for its quieter background(due to battery power) and better instrument texture,  while the Audinst HUD MX-2(not the mini) is nice bang-for-bucks.

 

[2222440]

for the review of B&W801 se
http://hifiencasa.wordpress.com/gama-bw-matrix/bw-matrix-801-s80-s2-s3/

 

[Wynnytsky]

(I get these thread update emails so late that my responses are like thread jitter)
 
Robersong Quote:

I have heard larger differences with spdif cables compared with any other cables

I know copper and silver make a night and day difference in analog cables -- RCA and speaker cables, with Q-Cables being the headphone equivalent of speaker cables.  But I wouldn't even entertain that this applies to the digital domain.  I'd actually be embarrassed if someone saw a $50+ digital cable in my rig.
 
I second Solude's use of the SSD and bluejeans.  I use a 17ft spdif run.
 
 
Responding to Highstream...
 
I recall cut outs when combining foobar with JPlay.  In the end I've stuck with foobar+EventWasapi+Win7.  I feel bad about wasting my JPlay license because this is something I should have caught using their trial.  Somebody on the JPlay forum said he resolved his freezing by changing "the buffer size from direct link to 2 samples"
 
When playing back over wifi I had to use a 1500ms foobar buffer to ride through wireless cut outs.  I'm going back to HomePlugAV so I should be able to move that below 500ms.  For me changing foobar volume is instant regardless of buffer size, unless that's a limitation of the Foobar-JPlay integration?  If so, I would hardly call that "integration".