[FredA]

how do these sound in your chain?

Cécile McLorin Salvant is no joke!



more in the spirit of jazz...



(you'll need amazon prime for this)
https://music.amazon.com/albums/B001ZS5JNY?do=play&ref=dm_dp_tl_wd_trk&trackAsin=B001ZRYSLY

and a choral track to clean the aural palate ...

I confirm female voices sound great, and Cecile in particular with my current setup. My favorite track is "Le front chache sur ses genoux" on the Woman Child album. This is just a splendid vocal track. I also like to to come back to Patricia Barber's Nightclub once in a while. Bye Bye Blackbird is one of my reference track. The whole album is a reference to assert how my system sounds. Now i can say it has an excellent balance and best resolution/treble ever. The vocals are sublime while a bit laid back. This is the way the recording was done and not a characteristic of my system. Again, the echos are clean now. There is a lot of depth to the sound. Really excellent stuff. I would like to hear it with a set of Maggies. But my Gallo 3.1 do a great job anyway, with deep bass as a bonus.

As as am writing this, i am really taken by Nightclub. Just a great rendition.

Live at the Green Mill vol 3 is also one to be heard. Just a slendid hd recording, which is filled with info and ambience. Breathtaking.

 

[christianvogel]

Maybe Kingwa will come up with a closed-form filter like Schiit and we won't need to chain 3 softwares together. I would pay a fair amount for this. My needs are rather basic. I just play pcm files, 99.5% of 44/16. So i need excellent upsampling. I don't care much about any other features besides an ios remote and other convenience elements like this.

The r2r 7 is very very accurate and it will benefit from the best upsampling techniques available. In the mean time, i am still extatic with the way it sounds now just with izotope. Again, the highs are out of this world. Grainless, no harshness and ultra-resolved. And no exageration. It's top notch. Same for the lows. Excellent mids as well.

Hi @FredA, given your enthusiasm of your current setup, I'd keep things as they are, and save the money! I like using Roon but frankly see no reason why this is a subscription instead of a one-time software package...

As for closed-form filters, it seems they are very hard to achieve, and a bit of a filtering holy grail. Most normal filters are based on the same software kit, and it takes a lot of specialised knowledge to break out of that box. It took Mike Mofatt 5 years of research and 35 years of experience to make it. This is proprietary knowledge that these companies keep close to their chest.

 

[FredA]

Hi @FredA, given your enthusiasm of your current setup, I'd keep things as they are, and save the money! I like using Roon but frankly see no reason why this is a subscription instead of a one-time software package...

As for closed-form filters, it seems they are very hard to achieve, and a bit of a filtering holy grail. Most normal filters are based on the same software kit, and it takes a lot of specialised knowledge to break out of that box. It took Mike Mofatt 5 years of research and 35 years of experience to make it. This is proprietary knowledge that these companies keep close to their chest.

I would like to work on such an algorithm. That's what i do for a living. I would have to do a full litterature review, develop my own ideas. But i sure could make it. My two main design concerns would be, for a start, to manage ringing and to look for a plausible reconstruction taking into account the quantization error, meaning not having the signal passing through the original samples but rather trying to "guess" what the original value was exactly. A bench test would consist in downgrading 96/24 signals into 48/16 and from that, reconstruct the original signal and compare it the actual original one.

 

[barbas]

I confirm female voices sound great, and Cecile in particular with my current setup. My favorite track is "Le front chache sur ses genoux" on the Woman Child album. This is just a splendid vocal track. I also like to to come back to Patricia Barber's Nightclub once in a while. Bye Bye Blackbird is one of my reference track. The whole album is a reference to assert how my system sounds. Now i can say it has an excellent balance and best resolution/treble ever. The vocals are sublime while a bit laid back. This is the way the recording was done and not a characteristic of my system. Again, the echos are clean now. There is a lot of depth to the sound. Really excellent stuff. I would like to hear it with a set of Maggies. But my Gallo 3.1 do a great job anyway, with deep bass as a bonus.

As as am writing this, i am really taken by Nightclub. Just a great rendition.

Live at the Green Mill vol 3 is also one to be heard. Just a slendid hd recording, which is filled with info and ambience. Breathtaking.

Hi Fred, nice to read you own a pair of Gallo 3.1. I also own an R2R 7 and I will be auditioning a pair of Gallo 3.5 tomorrow in my own gear. Any thoughts on this combination? What are you using to amplify your Gallos? I currently own a 250w class A/B Krell.

(sorry if off-toppic)

 

[FredA]

Hi barbas. The 3.1 need a lot more juice, the 3.5 are supposed to be much easier to drive and more evenly balanced.With the r2r 7, i would just basically avoid any bright cables and amp cause both the gallos and r2r 7 have proper treble resposnse.

The 3.1 has a ditch in the low medium so my setup takes that into account. The 3.5 are probably better with that regard.

I use the Nord One Up monoblocks with the optional Sparkos labs discrete opamps, Switching from the original Master-7 to the M7 with the new firmware required going from the SonicImagery opamps to the Sparkos to compensate the lost low mids and mids. The Nords are based on the Hypex NC500 board and can output 700w under 4ohms with ultralow distorsion levels. They are very impressive. Amps that are so refined and can output so much power are a rarity under 10k. You can get a pair for under 2500usd. With the 3.1s, all this power is needed to get the best out of them. Again, according to reviews, the 3.5 are less hungry. But they will benefit from a refined and transparent amp, cause they are very transparent themselves. I an sure the Nords would also be great with them. In fact, the Nords compare favorably to Krell monoblocks, according to an owner who had both. I think they are great amplifiers, for having tried quite a few, mostly class-d ones. They basically sound like an excellent class-a design without any power restriction. They can drive pretty much anything and their sound can be tailored by swapping opamps. They now have a new optional aluminium chassis i highly recommend.

There are other vendors, at leat one in Spain, selling a similar design, with the same components but fancier molded enclosures, for more money. I don't remember the name. The Nords are from a former DIYer. They are very well tuned amps. The looks and finish have been upgraded since i got mine. They also offer a dual mono version with the same sound and performance for even less money.

Now assuming the 3.5 are more evenly balanced and easier to drive, your Krell should do a fine job.

 

[barbas]

Hi barbas. The 3.1 need a lot more juice, the 3.5 are supposed to be much easier to drive and more evenly balanced.With the r2r 7, i would just basically avoid any bright cables and amp cause both the gallos and r2r 7 have proper treble resposnse.

The 3.1 has a ditch in the low medium so my setup takes that into account. The 3.5 are probably better with that regard.

I use the Nord One Up monoblocks with the optional Sparkos labs discrete opamps, Switching from the original Master-7 to the M7 with the new firmware required going from the SonicImagery opamps to the Sparkos to compensate the lost low mids and mids. The Nords are based on the Hypex NC500 board and can output 700w under 4ohms with ultralow distorsion levels. They are very impressive. Amps that are so refined and can output so much power are a rarity under 10k. You can get a pair for under 2500usd. With the 3.1s, all this power is needed to get the best out of them. Again, according to reviews, the 3.5 are less hungry. But they will benefit from a refined and transparent amp, cause they are very transparent themselves. I an sure the Nords would also be great with them. In fact, the Nords compare favorably to Krell monoblocks, according to an owner who had both. I think they are great amplifiers, for having tried quite a few, mostly class-d ones. They basically sound like an excellent class-a design without any power restriction. They can drive pretty much anything and their sound can be tailored by swapping opamps. They now have a new optional aluminium chassis i highly recommend.

There are other vendors, at leat one in Spain, selling a similar design, with the same components but fancier molded enclosures, for more money. I don't remember the name. The Nords are from a former DIYer. They are very well tuned amps. The looks and finish have been upgraded since i got mine. They also offer a dual mono version with the same sound and performance for even less money.

Now assuming the 3.5 are more evenly balanced and easier to drive, your Krell should do a fine job.

Thank you so much for your recommendation Fred! I'll see how the Krell behaves with the Gallos, though I'm thinking in upgrading to Master 1 and a pair of Valvet a4 monoblock, 50w pure class A in 8 ohms.

 

[FredA]

Thank you so much for your recommendation Fred! I'll see how the Krell behaves with the Gallos, though I'm thinking in upgrading to Master 1 and a pair of Valvet a4 monoblock, 50w pure class A in 8 ohms.

No problem.

 

[barbas]

No problem.

R2R 7 + Krell + Gallo 3.5...holly crap!!

 

[FredA]

R2R 7 + Krell + Gallo 3.5...holly crap!!

I you like a really nice soundstage and precise treble, this is quite the setup. Without forgetting the deep bass of course. And the wonderful mids and vocals. The 3.5 could be my next speakers. I hate colored speakers, so the gallos are my type. They are the least colored i have heard.

 

[FredA]

Last night, i took the remaining jitterbug, plugged in an unused port ot the mac mini, out of the setup. By accident in fact. And guess what, for whatever reason, my setup sounds even better. It was already perfect, so my conception of perfect has been pushed further. I think it frees up some juice for the intona, i should try feeding it with a quality lps using a dual-headed usb cable at some point. I think i will run ebay searches tonight...

At that point, i am having a blast on both speakers and heaphones.

Be patient and meticulous with your r2r 7, you skeptical owners. This is an overachiever that takes an eternity to fully blossom. Your faith will lead you to the promise land. I am in love with this dac now. I know, i should get a girlfriend instead, and i will at some point, but until then, it will have to do. When i get one, I am sure she will get jalous of the dac very fast.

 

[motberg]

Just want to thank you guys for all the comments, especially regarding break-in and settings results.

I got a R2R 1 on the way. Since I already use a NOS7, I am thinking first try running the R2R 1 at 8x OS, and/or maybe try oversampling in HQPlayer with one of the R2R 1 NOS settings.

(so far I have had no luck finding computer oversampling settings that sound better than native files, and I have tried 3 different purchased oversampling programs.. but I have tested this idea enough to appreciate the ability to tweak the sound in this manner).

I will run one DAC through a tube preamp, and the other through a Master 1. This will allow me to select from tube or ss style presentations.

I also would like to explore classical music more, but my current sound-stage presentation is very small compared to my largest in-home personal sound reference (well-fed Carver Amazing Platinums) which could give orchestral recordings some sense of the space and slam they deserve. I doubt Gallo 3.5´s will ever make it into my room... but I hope somewhere down the road I can find some floor standers that will give that cohesive floor-to-ceiling image and slam that I found so breathtaking with the Carvers.

 

[Wynnytsky]

HQPlayer connected to my Mano (in my case, can also be your DAC directly)

I tried+failed to help a friend get Roon+HQ running on a dual windows setup. One windows connected to the DAC with a gigabit path to a server windows in his office.

I see you have both Roon+HQ on the server computer and HQ points to the Mano that's connected to your DAC.

Q1: is it possible to have a Roon(PC1) => HQ (PC1) => Roon(PC2) => DAC?
(I wanted HQ to be on the client instead, but I'll take whatever works)

Q2: If I only have 1 Roon license to work with, which PC get's the headless Roon install for the above setup?

I recall seeing options in the Roon tablet app for choosing the playback destination, but I also see in your HQ screen shot the device dropdown
Q3: Is that dropdown going to have an entry seeing Roon running on PC2?

DQ4 (dumb question):
Is the roon tablet pointing to PC1 or PC2?

next I'm going to copy/paste the above and have my friend send it to roonlabs support

 

[christianvogel]

I tried+failed to help a friend get Roon+HQ running on a dual windows setup. One windows connected to the DAC with a gigabit path to a server windows in his office.

I see you have both Roon+HQ on the server computer and HQ points to the Mano that's connected to your DAC.

Q1: is it possible to have a Roon(PC1) => HQ (PC1) => Roon(PC2) => DAC?
(I wanted HQ to be on the client instead, but I'll take whatever works)

Q2: If I only have 1 Roon license to work with, which PC get's the headless Roon install for the above setup?

I recall seeing options in the Roon tablet app for choosing the playback destination, but I also see in your HQ screen shot the device dropdown
Q3: Is that dropdown going to have an entry seeing Roon running on PC2?

DQ4 (dumb question):
Is the roon tablet pointing to PC1 or PC2?

next I'm going to copy/paste the above and have my friend send it to roonlabs support

Hi @Wynnytsky ,

Q1: is it possible to have a Roon(PC1) => HQ (PC1) => Roon(PC2) => DAC?
(I wanted HQ to be on the client instead, but I'll take whatever works)

A: As far as I know, Roon can only act as a source, not as an endpoint. That makes that configuration impossible. Your other questions seem to relate to this being possible.

If I understand correctly, you have the following situation:

- You have a server in his office that has a DAC (PC2)
- You want to be able to play music via Roon to this DAC from any PC on the same wifi network (PC1 and PC2)

If this is correct, you can do the following:

- On the PC that has the DAC connected DAC, install both HQPlayer and Roon. Setup HQPlayer to use the DAC, and add HQPlayer as an output to Roon. Let Roon use your Roon account.

Now this PC is your music server, and you can control it from anywhere in the office. From then on you can:

- use the mobile app to control the Roon endpoint, as long as your mobile / tablet is on the same wifi network
- install Roon on any other PC, and when installing, tell it to be in client mode only. This way it functions like the mobile app, and connects to your music server PC.

Best, and let me know if you need more help,

Christian

 

[Wynnytsky]

(Responding by phone is not easy)

PC1 (server/office) is where the music lives, but playback is only done there when organizing the music library
PC2 (client#1) is the fanless build with the DAC

There's also a marantz receiver (client#2) for home theater in the basement that sometimes plays music from PC1.

 

[christianvogel]

(Responding by phone is not easy)

PC1 (server/office) is where the music lives, but playback is only done there when organizing the music library
PC2 (client#1) is the fanless build with the DAC

There's also a marantz receiver (client#2) for home theater in the basement that sometimes plays music from PC1.

Hi @Wynnytsky ,

Sounds like the solution for you would be:

1- Make PC2 the music server: install both Roon in server mode and HQplayer on PC2. Connect Roon to HQPlayer and HQPlayer to DAC.
2- Make PC2 a music client: install Roon as client on PC1 and any other PC's, and connect that Roon to the Roon endpoint on PC2.

You can then use PC2 as your music server and play from anywhere to the DAC. You will also be able to connect the Roon client on PC2 to your PC2 audio card and stream music to PC2.