[Ripper2860]

Cool, but I'm a bit confused. Modi 2 is a DAC and there is no volume control. Magni is an amp and would have one. Did you mean Magni??

 

[golfbravobravo]

Cool, but I'm a bit confused. Modi 2 is a DAC and there is no volume control. Magni is an amp and would have one. Did you mean Magni??

But of course! One has to bear in mind that I cannot type, cannot spell, mostly misread and misunderstand!

 

[barondla]

Baldr just posted a very interesting description of the transport on his thread.

 

[winders]

Baldr just posted a very interesting description of the transport on his thread.

You are a little late:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/sch...bable-start-up.701900/page-2862#post-14700313

 

[Derrick Swart]

You think so? Get a WE396A tube and associated adapter and tell me, with a straight face, that "Schiit's stock tube gets the job done."

I like the stock tube but rolling now with siemens and phillips and especially the SQ miniwatt sounds lovely

 

[Robert Padgett]

I like the stock tube but rolling now with Siemens and Phillips and especially the SQ miniwatt sounds lovely

I was surprised at the quality of the stock 6n1p NOS Soviet-era that came with Vali 2. An audiophile friend came by, and I had a 6SN7 atop the Vali 2. We were listening and he said, "hey that is a tall tube, is that the same one we were listening to?"
I said it was different with an adapter.
He said, put that little tube back in, which I did... it was that stock tube, now with almost 100 hours of time.
It seems that some folks think that being a stock tube, it must not be any good...and I was one of those. I purchased a Telefunken, new production, for $48, and I prefer the stock tube, now that it has some time.
You know everything about this hobby is subjective, so some folks think money equals sound quality.
It may be true, but as of yet, I don't own another tube that sounds as good as the one that came with it. I guess I am lucky.

 

[Paladin79]

I was surprised at the quality of the stock 6n1p NOS Soviet-era that came with Vali 2. An audiophile friend came by, and I had a 6SN7 atop the Vali 2. We were listening and he said, "hey that is a tall tube, is that the same one we were listening to?"
I said it was different with an adapter.
He said, put that little tube back in, which I did... it was that stock tube, now with almost 100 hours of time.
It seems that some folks think that being a stock tube, it must not be any good...and I was one of those. I purchased a Telefunken, new production, for $48, and I prefer the stock tube, now that it has some time.
You know everything about this hobby is subjective, so some folks think money equals sound quality.
It may be true, but as of yet, I don't own another tube that sounds as good as the one that came with it. I guess I am lucky.

I prefer 6sn7's and Schiiit certainly uses them in many applications. I have replaced a 12AU7 with a 6sn7 RCA tube from 1942 and have a hard time listening to any other tube in that particular amp, an adapter is required. I do not own a Vali 2 so YMMV, My favorite change thus far has been eliminating an ECC88 with dual 6J5's, the depth and separation due to less crosstalk has been astounding. The little amp I used is probably similar to the Vali 2 and is just something I use at work but suddenly it is becoming a favorite.

 

[Robert Padgett]

I prefer 6sn7's and Schiiit certainly uses them in many applications. I have replaced a 12AU7 with a 6sn7 RCA tube from 1942 and have a hard time listening to any other tube in that particular amp, an adapter is required. I do not own a Vali 2 so YMMV, My favorite change thus far has been eliminating an ECC88 with dual 6J5's, the depth and separation due to less crosstalk has been astounding. The little amp I used is probably similar to the Vali 2 and is just something I use at work but suddenly it is becoming a favorite.

That is my next adventure--the twin single tubes, one for each channel. My 6SN7 tubes just need more time to settle in. I listen to each one several hours at a time. I am really looking forward to the 6H8C FOTONs from 1952 that I have come from Russia. They are a matched pair and will serve in the Valhall2 as the driver tubes.

 

[Paladin79]

That is my next adventure--the twin single tubes, one for each channel. My 6SN7 tubes just need more time to settle in. I listen to each one several hours at a time. I am really looking forward to the 6H8C FOTONs from 1952 that I have come from Russia. They are a matched pair and will serve in the Valhall2 as the driver tubes.

Nice to hear you are getting a Valhalla 2, I have some tubes laying around for one of those that I can give to you and Ripper, and possibly FLTWS. I must have a dozen Russian made tubes for the Valhalla that I no longer need.

 

[Ripper2860]

Time to go Nike and just do it! I've been checking my mailbox daily for them .

 

[AudioGal]

Been following the streamer/network audio player conversations here as I've been wanting something other than my laptop or my phone to drive my stack of Schiit. I'd always loved the package of the Slim Devices Squeezebox player, having a couple that fell out of use after a move. Dug one out of storage and set it up today. RCA connector on the back for digital bits out via S/PDIF, now plugged into my ModiMB. Logged into my account on mysqeezebox.com, the site is still there (thank you, Logitech) as is my account. Looked through the list of plugins and discovered a Tidal plugin. Added that alongside the Pandora plugin. Squeezebox set up on the house WiFi. And Presto! Amazingly enough, everything just works. Sounds great! It looks really nice (minus the scuffs) sitting on top of the stack.

Now I can get busy building a media server. I want easy access to my CD library!

 

[earnmyturns]

Been following the streamer/network audio player conversations here as I've been wanting something other than my laptop or my phone to drive my stack of Schiit. I'd always loved the package of the Slim Devices Squeezebox player, having a couple that fell out of use after a move. Dug one out of storage and set it up today. RCA connector on the back for digital bits out via S/PDIF, now plugged into my ModiMB. Logged into my account on mysqeezebox.com, the site is still there (thank you, Logitech) as is my account. Looked through the list of plugins and discovered a Tidal plugin. Added that alongside the Pandora plugin. Squeezebox set up on the house WiFi. And Presto! Amazingly enough, everything just works. Sounds great! It looks really nice (minus the scuffs) sitting on top of the stack.

Now I can get busy building a media server. I want easy access to my CD library!

piCorePlayer is totally compatible with Squeezebox. Here's how to build a Pi-based Squeezebox replacement. I've build a variant with a Pi 2 Designs 502DAC HAT that I use for my stand-alone work music system, with the music on an external USB drive. Happy to provide details.

 

[earnmyturns]

Where were Schiit when the market needed them? Multibit toilet seats anyone?

 

[AudioGal]

piCorePlayer is totally compatible with Squeezebox. Here's how to build a Pi-based Squeezebox replacement. I've build a variant with a Pi 2 Designs 502DAC HAT that I use for my stand-alone work music system, with the music on an external USB drive. Happy to provide details.

Thank you very much for the kind offer!

For me the biggest issue with building some sort of Raspberry Pi (or other OSH (Open Source Hardware)) based player device has been finding an acceptable enclosure to hold the final creation. The Squeezebox is done, it works and blends in well with the Schiit hardware appearance. I like the display on it, too. Plus, there is a large degree of open source-ness to it. The firmware in the player supports WAV, MP3 and FLAC (and a few other popular formats) natively. Logitech still provides access to their www.mysqueezebox.com website and it still works fine. They also still makes their media server software available - both as precompiled binaries for various platforms including Linux, as well as the complete Perl source code. With plugins for a number of online subscription streaming sites such as Pandora and Tidal. And I can control it remotely with a web browser. Or not, the remote control works just fine.

The core truth is that I'm lazy. While I love building things, I already own the Squeezebox player, it works, it's paid for, the infrastructure exists and I can bring a personal copy of that infrastructure in-house when I'm ready to, I just have to build the media server. Currently looking at buying a WD My Book Duo with 2 x 4T or 6T drives in it and connecting that to a Beaglebone Black (like the hardware better than the Raspberry Pi) running either Linux or FreeBSD. I'm a diehard UNIX geek, I want something I can hack as I see fit. Part of that hacking will be to schedule the drives going into low power standby mode during those times when we aren't listening to music. Electricity is expensive here in rural VT.

Open to suggestions for media server hardware. Main focus will be storing CDs as either WAV or FLAC (our CD collection is north of 1500 and always growing) and providing a home backup of my wife's photography. When the media server is done, I'll find an off site backup service and script the server to regularly replicate itself off site.

 

[quimbo]

piCorePlayer is totally compatible with Squeezebox. Here's how to build a Pi-based Squeezebox replacement. I've build a variant with a Pi 2 Designs 502DAC HAT that I use for my stand-alone work music system, with the music on an external USB drive. Happy to provide details.

I'm interested in details. I carry portable drives into work and play music off of them using my spare laptop using foobar into my schiit stack.