[dsperber]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kiritz /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
On another note, I just had the unit upgraded for HDMI.  The jury isn't in yet, but so far I think the sound stage for most discs is deeper and wider with HDMI.  Switching back and forth from A to HDMI I can actually hear certain instruments move further out from the center to the right of the stage or the left when HDMI is activated.   I have pretty educated ears and still don't think I am hearing much difference between HMDI and RCA connections on SACDs other than this, even though I know the DTS output of the SACDs is being converted to 24/96 PCMI.  Switching between analogue and HDMI and comparing the effects, I just don't think there is much lost, and actually think there is something gained via HDMI, but this is in terms of sound stage, not other characteristics of the reproduction.

And on the other end of the Realiser, I've decided that my acquisition of an external DAC (Audio-GD NFB9) and the use of optical output from the Realiser going to the DAC, and then XLR connections from DAC to my SRM-007tII/Omega-1 definitely IS superior to my old approach using the Realiser's built-in DAC and sending its RCA headphone outputs to my DBX EQ and then on to my previous SRM-T1S/Omega-1.
 
In other words, the job done by the NFB9 coupled with the XLR connections (which is at a significantly higher level than was the headphone RCA output of the Realiser, thus requiring both level and tone enhancements by the DBX EQ) allows the "as-is" digital result from the Realiser to eventually reach my headphones in analog form WITHOUT ADDITIONAL TONE CONTROL... and sound BETTER than it did before.
 
This isn't a subtle difference and improvement, it's significant.  But I do attribute some of that to the XLR path now being used, the inherently higher volume level on that XLR path, and the new SRM-007tII amp.
 
My "original #0001" Realiser cannot be upgraded for HDMI, and I haven't heard what that sounds like to do an A/B comparison.  But I certainly HAVE compared my old RCA/DBX-EQ path directly to my new external DAC path.  It's apples and oranges kind of, because of the dramatic level increase from the XLR path.  But when I've equalized things out and gotten all "volumes" for the three different options set so the comparison is reasonable and possible, the external DAC + XLR connection path to the headphones absolutely sounds the purest, cleanest, warmest, and BEST.
 
Definitely a worthwhile upgrade of my system.

 

[sillysally]

Quote:

And on the other end of the Realiser, I've decided that my acquisition of an external DAC (Audio-GD NFB9) and the use of optical output from the Realiser going to the DAC, and then XLR connections from DAC to my SRM-007tII/Omega-1 definitely IS superior to my old approach using the Realiser's built-in DAC and sending its RCA headphone outputs to my DBX EQ and then on to my previous SRM-T1S/Omega-1.
<snip>
 
Definitely a worthwhile upgrade of my system.

Yes I agree with your findings and that is how I run my chain also, except I have had my Realiser upgraded for HDMI thereby bypassing the Realisers DAC all together.
I didn't like the fact that running HDMI would take my Oppo BDP-95 out of the loop as far as its DAC is concerned because I really like the sound the ES9018 DAC in the Oppo. So I added a W4S DAC with upgraded caps fed by the Toslink from the Realiser. imo the W4S Dac sounds very much like the Oppo's analog output. So now I also run XLR from my W4S Dac to my Stax Amp.
 
However there is one draw back using my Stax amp and headphones, Reliser via HDMI, W4S, and that is that the audio is so true to the audio signal that if the audio is not well mastered and HQ this setup will really let you know.
 
I tried out 7.1(AIX PRIR) DTS HD MA last night from the movies Reel Steel and Tron using the Blu Ray disc's and my Stax gear. The surround sound was so life like I was amazed, much more detailed and much better positioning of were the sound was coming from, than I ever heard before. The other thing that really got my attention was the heavy bass from the movie Tron and how well my rig handled the deep bass with such precision, clarity and slam, without any distortion.
 

 

[dsperber]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sillysally /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
However there is one draw back using my Stax amp and headphones, Reliser via HDMI, W4S, and that is that the audio is so true to the audio signal that if the audio is not well mastered and HQ this setup will really let you know.
 
I tried out 7.1(AIX PRIR) DTS HD MA last night from the movies Reel Steel and Tron using the Blu Ray disc's and my Stax gear. The surround sound was so life like I was amazed, much more detailed and much better positioning of were the sound was coming from, than I ever heard before.

 
And I agree with your observations as well.  The absolute 100% dead silence in the background now, with zero noise and 100% signal... it's truly eerie and astonishing.  DTS-HDMA when done well is quite amazing, and the equipment and interconnect method I'm now using truly demonstrates it (as well as those BluRay movies which have not so terrific DTS-HDMA audio).
 
Are you using your newly acquired SR-009 headphones?  Did you have any prior Stax electrostats to compare to?

 

[sillysally]

Quote:

 
And I agree with your observations as well.  The absolute 100% dead silence in the background now, with zero noise and 100% signal... it's truly eerie and astonishing.  DTS-HDMA when done well is quite amazing, and the equipment and interconnect method I'm now using truly demonstrates it (as well as those BluRay movies which have not so terrific DTS-HDMA audio).
 
Are you using your newly acquired SR-009 headphones?  Did you have any prior Stax electrostats to compare to?

I should stop reading your posts because you are costing me money, I now have a pair of wireworld XLR Eclipse 6 interconnects coming, I am using a pair of BJC XLR interconnect now.
 
Yes I am using my SR-009's.
 
Yes I did have limited experience with the Stax SR-202 (Lorr's headphones at AIX) and the SR-504 headphones that where loaded to me with a proto type amp that I had hooked up to my rig at home.

 

[HDMan]

Quote:

I didn't like the fact that running HDMI would take my Oppo BDP-95 out of the loop as far as its DAC is concerned because I really like the sound the ES9018 DAC in the Oppo.
 
I really want to get a DAC with the Sabre32 ES9018 DAC chip, maybe this one: http://www.audio-gd.com/Pro/dac/NFB7/NFB7EN.htm
 
The other thing that really got my attention was the heavy bass from the movie Tron and how well my rig handled the deep bass with such precision, clarity and slam, without any distortion.
 
Can you feel the pads/frames vibrate when you get heavy bass, with the SR-009's? I really don't like it when you can feel the pads vibrating, takes the out of your head experience away a little. At some stage a subwoofer may be the solution.
 
I read somewhere that Stax have eliminated vibration in the frames, I hope my SR-007's don't vibrate.

 

 

[sillysally]

Quote:

 

I know that kingwa of ADG was having a lot of problems implementing the ES9018 DAC solution in his DAC's, However looking at your link I see he has dropped the USB port in the 7.1, so I guess that maybe what was causing the problem.
btw, my W4S DAC1 with upgraded caps uses the ES9018 DAC, has USP support, made in the USA and is cheaper.
 
No there is no vibration with my SR-009's.

 

[blessingx]

Is anyone using a laptop, Airport Express, Squeezebox, etc.and a spdif to hdmi converter to load the Realiser through hdmi? With the Realisers 24/48 bitrate limitation trying to figure out if transport to converter to (digital in) Realiser to ext dac to amp or transport to ext dac to (analog in) Realiser to amp would be best. Either two d/a conversions or bit downsampling (for high res) paths. Suspect the downsample would be best (for the minority of tracks that would be downsampled), but also concerned the with spdif to html conversion issues some elsewhere (and with different equipment) are reporting. 

 

[HDMan]

Quote:

 
btw, my W4S DAC1 with upgraded caps uses the ES9018 DAC, has USP support, made in the USA and is cheaper.
 
 

So you use the Realiser as volume control with the W4S DAC1, yeh its cheaper and looks very well made.
 

 

[TruBrew]

As I believe I have mentioned before, I run all of my movies through Plex on my Mac Mini. I don't have the HDMI upgrade because I have no way to decode the movies DTS/DD tracks playing on my Mac to PCM. I however have been thinking lately that I should use the Realiser more for 2 channel. There is a problem though. All of the audio coming out of my Mac is being decoded by my Onkyo 708. Lets be honest, that is not ideal. So, if I upgraded the Realiser to HDMI could I output my digital music library to the Realiser? Everything I have is in m4a, Apple Lossless format. Is that decoded to PCM before output, or would I have to convert everything to say, WAV format for that to work? I expect there would be a significant improvement for 2 channel if I could skip the Onkyo's sub par DAC. 

 

[dsperber]

Quote:

As I believe I have mentioned before, I run all of my movies through Plex on my Mac Mini. I don't have the HDMI upgrade because I have no way to decode the movies DTS/DD tracks playing on my Mac to PCM. I however have been thinking lately that I should use the Realiser more for 2 channel. There is a problem though. All of the audio coming out of my Mac is being decoded by my Onkyo 708. Lets be honest, that is not ideal. So, if I upgraded the Realiser to HDMI could I output my digital music library to the Realiser? Everything I have is in m4a, Apple Lossless format. Is that decoded to PCM before output, or would I have to convert everything to say, WAV format for that to work? I expect there would be a significant improvement for 2 channel if I could skip the Onkyo's sub par DAC. 

 
I don't follow whether you're asking questions rhetorically, or actually asking questions?
 
The HDMI input to the Realiser requires that the source device provide decoded content in LPCM form through the HDMI connection to the Realiser.  I haven't seen the few AVR's (from Yamaha anyway) that I've owned or looked at state that they, themselves, could provide decoding in the AVR and then feed LPCM out over an available (second, used for audio-only) HDMI output to feed the Realiser... if that is hoped to be the "source HDMI device" for the Realiser.
 
In contrast, if the true source device (e.g. Oppo player) is set to do the decoding (both for multi-channel as well as for 2-channel) and feed the audio output over HDMI in LPCM, the HDMI output from the Oppo can go to an HDMI input of the AVR, and "passed through" to the HDMI output of the AVR to the HDMI input of the Realiser.  And you'd be using the higher-quality decoder of the true source device to produce the LPCM needed by the Realiser.  And a player such as the Oppo CAN produce LPCM for both multi-channel and 2-channel source programming or music.
 
Now, if you want your Mac to be such a "source device" to provide audio eventually intended for the Realiser's HDMI input, then the Mac will need to do exactly what the Oppo does... namely decode multi-channel or lossless 2-channel (e.g. m4a/ALAC) and pass it out as LPCM via HDMI to the Onkyo, which presumably can "pass through" that digital LPCM audio to its HDMI output and on to the Realiser's HDMI input.
 
Unless you can have your Mac do that, duplicating the arrangement when say an Oppo player is the true source device for multi-channel and 2-channel audio and send out LPCM over HDMI, then there's no way to get HDMI LPCM audio into the HDMI-enabled Realiser in your hypothesized setup.

 

[TruBrew]

I was not being rhetorical. I have given up on sending munti channel LPCM to my Realer over HDMI. No devices can take proprietarily coded HDMI in, and output LPCM over HDMI. I have no idea why one can not be made, but none exists. 
 
My new interest is using my Mac as a source and outputting ALAC as LPCM. My question was, does it already do that? If I ran my Mac Mini  HDMI out into the Realiser, and played a song in itunes, would it work. ALAC is container that hold compressed PCM audio if I understand it correctly. Since it uncompresses the files to play them, does it therefor output a signal that the Realiser can accept?
 
I would love to use my Realiser more for virtual two channel listening, but feel that I am compromising details in its current arrangement. I am trying to determine if the HDMI upgrade would work for my situation. I hope that was more clear.

 

[sillysally]

Quote:

So you use the Realiser as volume control with the W4S DAC1, yeh its cheaper and looks very well made.
 

You got it, I use the Realiser as a volume control, and I really don't use the USB port on the W4S but it is there if I want to. Anyway that's why I got the W4S DAC1 with upgraded caps, same sound as the DAC2 but saved money.

 

[HDMan]

Quote:

You got it, I use the Realiser as a volume control, and I really don't use the USB port on the W4S but it is there if I want to. Anyway that's why I got the W4S DAC1 with upgraded caps, same sound as the DAC2 but saved money.

Did you ask for upgraded caps when ordering? How much extra did it cost?
 

 

[sillysally]

 
Quote:

Is anyone using a laptop, Airport Express, Squeezebox, etc.and a spdif to hdmi converter to load the Realiser through hdmi? With the Realisers 24/48 bitrate limitation trying to figure out if transport to converter to (digital in) Realiser to ext dac to amp or transport to ext dac to (analog in) Realiser to amp would be best. Either two d/a conversions or bit downsampling (for high res) paths. Suspect the downsample would be best (for the minority of tracks that would be downsampled), but also concerned the with spdif to html conversion issues some elsewhere (and with different equipment) are reporting. 

I think the 24/96 limitation is only when you use the Realisers DAC, the Realiser can except 24/192 so if you bypass the Realisers DAC using the HDMI input port and just have the Realiser do its magic and output the digital audio signal via Toslink to a DAC you should be good to go. imo the least amount of processors in your chain the better off you are.
 
BDP-95/93, HDMI out>Realiser, HDMI in, Toslink out>W4S DAC, Toslink in, XLR/RCA interconnects out>AMP XLR/RCA interconnects in.
 
I simply let my Oppo output LPCM of whatever digital format I am using at the time. I have not come across any handshake issues using the HDMI port 2 on my Oppo for my Digital audio output directly connected to my Realiser. I use port 1 on my Oppo for Video only directly connected to my video display.
 
If anyone is looking at the Oppo and plans on just using HDMI out for audio, then I would suggest getting the Oppo BDP-93 and save yourself a lot of money.

 

[sillysally]

Quote:

Did you ask for upgraded caps when ordering? How much extra did it cost?
 

Yes I sure did, and I also made sure when I talked to the folks at W4S that by adding the caps I would get the same audio out (except USB is 24/96) as the W4S DAC2.
Cost, I think was 150 for the upgrade.