Los Angeles meet up - March 2nd

[Hiyono]

Update:

Date & Time: Sunday, March 2, 2025 from 2:30pm-7pm. Friend said he will try to be there to open on time. If he is late, wait around a little.
Location: Card Arena. 16350 Valley Blvd, La Puente, CA 91744. https://maps.app.goo.gl/RUPCn6WXyrurom718?g_st=ic

Entry fee: $5. Goes to the store.

Friend is lending us a wing of his card store. There are many tables and chairs. There were enough outlets around last time.

Danny from Raal 1995 said he will come too.

Rules: Be respectful of other people’s gear. Be cleanly. Wash hair, no hair products.


Old:

Similar to last one. Either at card store again or I’ll check if local library meeting room has enough outlets and internet .

I’ll ask Danny from RAAL which weekend he will be able to do.

Post what weekends you are available. Let’s figure out a best weekend in March.

New equipment I got/will get soon since last time. Woo Wa24, Innuos Pulsar, misc accessories/grounding stuff from Japan.

@Aetherhole @akgb @theveterans @Chronos @Netforce @miceblue @QuantumQ @Insidious Meme

 

[theveterans]

Thanks for making arrangements! I’m available on all weekends on March for now and hope it stays that way! Love to catch up with you guys soon!

I’ll have the Bokeh Open with me by that time hopefully and would finally love to try out the Immanis on my Susvara optimized Aegis Would love to try out the WA24 on a proper chain and not the one with the Woo Phantom DAC back then at the show

Curious about the pulsar (does this has the USB upgrade or i2s card or just stock) as well since I’d like to have a proper streamer someday as well though not sure if sticking a DDC in between Pulsar and DAC is worse or better still

Looking forward to this and hopefully everyone can make it when it comes!

 

[Hiyono]

I’ll have the Bokeh Open with me by that time hopefully and would finally love to try out the Immanis on my Susvara optimized Aegis Would love to try out the WA24 on a proper chain and not the one with the Woo Phantom DAC back then at the show

Curious about the pulsar (does this has the USB upgrade or i2s card or just stock) as well since I’d like to have a proper streamer someday as well though not sure if sticking a DDC in between Pulsar and DAC is worse or better still

It will be great to mash up some gear and try different dac/amp combos. We didn’t do that last time.

I also find it dissapointing many booth put suboptimal dacs with expensive amps.

Pulsar has couple of regular usbs and swappable slot. Mine will have the Phoenix USB lite reclocker similar to their stand alone Phoenix reclocker. I believe it’s the same reclocker but 1 psu powering it instead of 2. I think You could try the DDC on the regular usbs port and reclocker usb port. I read that putting a phoenix usb reclocker on pulsars reclocked usb makes things sound weird.

 

[theveterans]

That’ll be great! In addition, sometimes they put a great DAC but with just an iPad without a DDC in between hence can potentially make sound seem lacking or that extra kick or sometimes sharp/jittery in the presentation. The only booth that I felt was sounding like a great home setup was with the Pulsar + DAC + Viva 2a3 driving Immanis (Viva specific Raal interface)

The biggest issue for me is that USB is one heck of picky interface where so many variables (power stability, error correction that can cause jitter) can degrade the sound easily (manifesting as either harsher sound or mushy sound) as opposed to 110 ohm AES or BNC 75 ohm SPDIF hence why I wanted to get my front end optimized first in the future.

That’s interesting with the USB reclocker on the Pulsar. What do you mean weird specifically? USB Cable dependent as well?

 

[Aetherhole]

Kevin, thanks for getting this started early!

Presently I think I am free the 1st weekend, 3/1-3/2, and 3rd weekend, 3/15-3/16. This should be a great time!

Last year’s Card Arena get together started a whole snowball effect of changes in my own system. haha More importantly, it was a great opportunity to start friendships with a handful of awesome guys!

We should have name tags and such to identify one another.

 

[Hiyono]

That’ll be great! In addition, sometimes they put a great DAC but with just an iPad without a DDC in between hence can potentially make sound seem lacking or that extra kick or sometimes sharp/jittery in the presentation. The only booth that I felt was sounding like a great home setup was with the Pulsar + DAC + Viva 2a3 driving Immanis (Viva specific Raal interface)

The biggest issue for me is that USB is one heck of picky interface where so many variables (power stability, error correction that can cause jitter) can degrade the sound easily (manifesting as either harsher sound or mushy sound) as opposed to 110 ohm AES or BNC 75 ohm SPDIF hence why I wanted to get my front end optimized first in the future.

That’s interesting with the USB reclocker on the Pulsar. What do you mean weird specifically? USB Cable dependent as well?

Yeah getting front end optimized early is a good idea. I been looking into streamers for many years. I still like usb since it can do the higher resolutions and upscaled files. I pick up my Pulsar tomorrow. Super excited

I am not sure about how it sounds weird. Read it in a post when someone compared pulse with Phoenix usb and pulsar with Phoenix usb. I have the Innuos Taiwan distributor’s number. I’ll ask him next week if he ever tried that combo and if there’s any benefits or deficits.

The Pulsar has option to have aes, coax, optical installed but then loses out on their famed Phoenix usb. The Pulse might be more what you’re looking for. It has usbs and the aes, coax, optical board installed.

 

[theveterans]

Definitely! Once USB is very optimized, it really shines! Also, the ability to stream outside of Roon through in Innuos case, the Sense app lets me stream outside of house unlike Roon where I would have to reliquish my home server and use the Macbook as the server just to stream outside of home. If Roon had just offered "Roon Arc mode" within the main Roon Mac OS app to access library outside of home, it would've been perfect.

I would stick though with the Sense ecosystem since I'm very confident the differences between RAAT to Pulsar or Tidal Connect to Pulsar vs streaming through the Sense would definitely be apparent in your system.

 

[Hiyono]

Definitely! Once USB is very optimized, it really shines! Also, the ability to stream outside of Roon through in Innuos case, the Sense app lets me stream outside of house unlike Roon where I would have to reliquish my home server and use the Macbook as the server just to stream outside of home. If Roon had just offered "Roon Arc mode" within the main Roon Mac OS app to access library outside of home, it would've been perfect.

I would stick though with the Sense ecosystem since I'm very confident the differences between RAAT to Pulsar or Tidal Connect to Pulsar vs streaming through the Sense would definitely be apparent in your system.

Cool. Didn’t know sense app can stream outside too. Sense app looks nice, easy to use and I read it sounds better then roon because it’s optimized for their hardware. Software was one of big reasons I went with Innuos. They added support for HQ player NAA, so there’s many options.

 

[theveterans]

Cool. Didn’t know sense app can stream outside too. Sense app looks nice, easy to use and I read it sounds better then roon because it’s optimized for their hardware. Software was one of big reasons I went with Innuos. They added support for HQ player NAA, so there’s many options.

I meant accessing streaming services like Tidal or Qobuz when you bring the Pulsar to our meetup (through the Sense app). I don't think you'll be able to access your NAS that contains your local music files remotely though. With Roon, you have to be connected to the "Core/server" at home to be able to stream Tidal and Qobuz. So if I bring the MacBook M1 on the meetup and open the Roon app, I won't be able to use it because it'll look for the Roon Core which is at my house of course. While I can use an iPad with Roon Arc, CoreAudio Exclusive on Macbook M1 sounds better than Roon Arc on iPad. Then again, the meetup is still a nosier environment than home that I could get by with just an iPad or I'll just stream Apple Music on Macbook M1 instead (doesn't have access to CoreAudio Exclusive mode so it always have to go to the MIDI Mixer unlike Roon, Apple fail lol). I didn't want to use the native Tidal or Qobuz app on the Macbook since they're not bitperfect as well unlike Roon

 

[Hiyono]

I meant accessing streaming services like Tidal or Qobuz when you bring the Pulsar to our meetup (through the Sense app). I don't think you'll be able to access your NAS that contains your local music files remotely though. With Roon, you have to be connected to the "Core/server" at home to be able to stream Tidal and Qobuz. So if I bring the MacBook M1 on the meetup and open the Roon app, I won't be able to use it because it'll look for the Roon Core which is at my house of course. While I can use an iPad with Roon Arc, CoreAudio Exclusive on Macbook M1 sounds better than Roon Arc on iPad. Then again, the meetup is still a nosier environment than home that I could get by with just an iPad or I'll just stream Apple Music on Macbook M1 instead (doesn't have access to CoreAudio Exclusive mode so it always have to go to the MIDI Mixer unlike Roon, Apple fail lol). I didn't want to use the native Tidal or Qobuz app on the Macbook since they're not bitperfect as well unlike Roon

I see. Roon is Complicated. I use apple music too. Lame how they don’t allow 3rd party to use their streaming.

If you want to try Innuos at your place in Torrance. I could bring it over sometime.

 

[TheHipsterCow]

I'm definitely going to try to be there!

 

[Aetherhole]

I'm definitely going to try to be there!

Would love to have you be there, sir!! It’ll be a great time!

 

[TheHipsterCow]

Would love to have you be there, sir!! It’ll be a great time!

Missed you on the hangover hangout this morning brother! I’ll bring the 465 if you bring the Tambaqui, would love to see how those two pair (plus I’m desperately trying to find what my next DAC will be lol).

 

[Aetherhole]

Missed you on the hangover hangout this morning brother! I’ll bring the 465 if you bring the Tambaqui, would love to see how those two pair (plus I’m desperately trying to find what my next DAC will be lol).

100%. I couldn’t join because I’ve got my family here and we’ve been prepping all morning and day for a big dinner tonight.

I’m definitely bringing the Tambaqui! It’s small and easy to transport!

 

[Hiyono]

Missed you on the hangover hangout this morning brother! I’ll bring the 465 if you bring the Tambaqui, would love to see how those two pair (plus I’m desperately trying to find what my next DAC will be lol).

I’m in same boat as you. Thinking of next dacs.,