[A Jedi]

Re: cables. I suggest watching this. It's the most useful cable discussion I've ever seen/read/heard.

 

[RickB]

https://knowtechie.com/review-schii...about-the-mixamp-cause-its-time-to-raise-hel/

Review of Schiit Hel.

 

[PolarBehr]

Does the conductors being separated not reduce the benefit of thicker gauges?

Not from a strictly resistive perspective. There is a physical frequency dependent phenomenon where the higher the frequency the closer the current flows to the surface of wire (skin effect) so multi stranded (insulated from each other may be better) conducts high frequency better, and solid core wire conducts low frequency better. Does it make a auditable difference in the 20 to 20k Hz bandwidth over a typical speaker cable length? I’m sure the impact would be significantly less than the variations in the speaker frequency response curve. I have heard some people claim that making speaker cables from 12 gauge solid copper electrical power cable really improves the bass. I have not tried it.

I could hear the improvement when I switched to the Kimber Kable woven speaker cables over the standard 14 gauge stranded speaker cables I was previously using. I have been using the Kimber ever since.

 

[thomaskong78]

I received Freya+ yesterday.



I skipped JJ stock tubes and inserted Nos Amperex 6sn7gtb in gain stage and Sylvania 6sn7gtb in buffer stage.



After running demagnetization tracks twice( 6min each) on Freya and Jot R, I started listening to Capricio Italian (Tchaikovsky) directed by Bernstein.



Wow, Freya with Jot R sounds much better than Jot R only with more relaxed and nuanced details but with minimal loss of transparency



While it sounds slightly thin with Jot R only.



Old Jazz recording by Benny Goodman sounds more relaxed with less hot edge from Freya and Jot R.



My digital source is Dave and HMS.



I use 20ft Purist Audio Design balanced cable between Dave and Freya and 6ft Synergistic Research balanced cable between Freya and Jot R.



I still have several choice of tube rolling with Sylvania vt231, RCA gray glass 6sn7gt and all quad Syl 6sn7 gtb.



Audio depends on personal preference, but Freya fitted with Nos tubes and Jot R sounds much more musical to my ears than Jot R only with overall nuanced presentation.



Although I had enjoyed fast and exciting sound out of Sr1a driven by Jot R for the last three months, I keep going back to 009s driven by Kgsshv Carbon amp to get more relaxed sound.



With Freya and Jot R, Sr1a move halfway between Jot R only and 009s with relaxed presentation.



I also applied Freya to Kgsshv Carbon amp to drive Stax 009s and it makes sound of 009s more graceful with deeper bass.


Out of curiosity, I am driving HD 800s out of Rca output of Freya using "Hosa TPR-257" adapter bought from Amazon.


Wow, Freya+ is also a killer amp for HD 800s.



I had driven HD 800s by headphone output of Dave and HMS.



It sounds transparent but with one note bass.





But with Freya in the chain after Dave, HD 800s sounds almost perfect with nice soundstage, clean details and full and textured bass.


Thus Freya had done wonder to Sr1a, 009s and HD800s.


The only problem is that I had spent 1k$ (more than the cost of Freya) to expand collection of Nos 6n7s tube.

 

[SuperRoo]

Tell me about it. Just bought my 10th pair of matched tubes. Tube sellers love us.

 

[roadcykler]

Re: cables. I suggest watching this. It's the most useful cable discussion I've ever seen/read/heard.

That was informative and interesting but it still comes down to opinion. He admits there is no scientific evidence that wire type, insulation, etc make any difference in home audio applications, but some people will have opinions that there is a difference and it comes down to belief and faith. That is also how one describes religion.

 

[hearditontheX]

In the spirit of Roy G. Biv's generosity, I am continuing the read-the-free-Schiit book giveaway. It is an entertaining and informative read. You might even say you don't know Schiit until you read it.

The first one to send a PM gets it.

 

[Varejao17]

That was informative and interesting but it still comes down to opinion. He admits there is no scientific evidence that wire type, insulation, etc make any difference in home audio applications, but some people will have opinions that there is a difference and it comes down to belief and faith. That is also how one describes religion.

Here’s a cable review with measurements.

 

[Roy G. Biv]

Anybody have any experience running the optical out from a 3rd generation AppleTv to a Modi? I'm thinking this would be an easy way to use AirPlay to get Roon to another room in my house for cheap. I have an AppleTV that I'm not currently using (moved to Roku) so an extra $99 for a Modi would let me get some use back out of it. I know there are devices to extract audio from an HDMI source that are cheaper than a Modi, but I'd honestly rather give my $$ to Schiit.

Thoughts?

 

[438555]

Anybody have any experience running the optical out from a 3rd generation AppleTv to a Modi? I'm thinking this would be an easy way to use AirPlay to get Roon to another room in my house for cheap. I have an AppleTV that I'm not currently using (moved to Roku) so an extra $99 for a Modi would let me get some use back out of it. I know there are devices to extract audio from an HDMI source that are cheaper than a Modi, but I'd honestly rather give my $$ to Schiit.

Thoughts?

I've run the optical out of a 3rd gen appletv to a gungnir, and it worked fine. More recently, my son inherited the 3rd gen appletv from me and it running it into a modi 2 uber's (also inherited from me) optical and that also works fine.
If you're OK with all your music being resampled to 48 kHz, it will work fine for music. I've used an airport express for this same purpose, as that outputs at 44 kHz, and most of my Roon library is ripped CDs.

 

[Roy G. Biv]

I've run the optical out of a 3rd gen appletv to a gungnir, and it worked fine. More recently, my son inherited the 3rd gen appletv from me and it running it into a modi 2 uber's (also inherited from me) optical and that also works fine.
If you're OK with all your music being resampled to 48 kHz, it will work fine for music. I've used an airport express for this same purpose, as that outputs at 44 kHz, and most of my Roon library is ripped CDs.

Thanks for the reply. I just tested this in my main system with my Modi Multibit and, you're right, it works fine. For my downstairs system I'm not terribly worried about SQ since it's more for casual listening including listening on my patio speakers. For this reason, re-sampling doesn't bother me.

So now my dilemma is do I just get a standard $99 modi for the downstairs, or should I get a Bifrost 2 for the main system and move the Modi-Multibit to the downstairs system? Hmmm....

 

[A Jedi]

Ultimately a cable is nothing more than an eq. Unless it's trully transparent - but no one knows what that sounds like. So the smartest thing to do is buy an eq and be done with it once and for all. Works on every system with every component.

 

[Roy G. Biv]

Ultimately a cable is nothing more than an eq. So the smartest thing to do is buy an eq and be done with it once and for all. Works on every system with every component.

Interesting way of looking at it.

 

[mks100]

Anybody have any experience running the optical out from a 3rd generation AppleTv to a Modi? I'm thinking this would be an easy way to use AirPlay to get Roon to another room in my house for cheap. I have an AppleTV that I'm not currently using (moved to Roku) so an extra $99 for a Modi would let me get some use back out of it. I know there are devices to extract audio from an HDMI source that are cheaper than a Modi, but I'd honestly rather give my $$ to Schiit.

Thoughts?

You can find a Chromecast Audio on eBay and it will steam up to 24/96, has an optical out and works with Roon. Prices are all over the place but it looks like you can get one for ~ $50.

 

[tesarpa]

It seems Chromecast Audio reached the status of collector's item. After Google ceased production, used items cost more then originals did.