[adydula]

For our Resident USS North Carolina fan

Thanks! I am in the process of doing some podcasts on Technology of the 30 and 40s...radio and radar.

 

[xTrIpX]

Internet radio, HiFi services, etc. in the new WiiM Pro. Nice iOS/Android app for control interface:

Yep, I own the WiiM. Waiting until they release the remote to set up my presets. This way, i'll be able to simply turn on the system and select the preset using the remote. No phones or apps required. This should work for a time...

 

[adydula]

Excellent! A Thousand Kisses Deep is a favorite of mine, Leonard Cohen.

Put on my really high dollar HD650s this am, gathering cobwebs, with MMB2 and the Nitsch Piety....
Looked at my Qobuz weekly Q and this tune poped up and I was stunned at how good it was..
I think I almost blew coffee out of my nostrils....need to work on this.
This complex setup cost a total of $863!

:>)

Till Bronner is the German Chet Baker..
This is a RCA - Sony Masterworks

 

[ImagesbyMurray]

https://twitter.com/i/status/1620835145766010881

 

[Ripper2860]

Yep, I own the WiiM. Waiting until they release the remote to set up my presets. This way, i'll be able to simply turn on the system and select the preset using the remote. No phones or apps required. This should work for a time...

How about this?

https://www.amazon.com/IEAST-AudioCast-Remote-Control/dp/B0B6HKP49N?th=1

It shows as paired with a WiiM under options, but not really clear on whether it works with WiiM. Amazon return policy to the rescue??

 

[adias]

How about this?

https://www.amazon.com/IEAST-AudioCast-Remote-Control/dp/B0B6HKP49N?th=1

It shows as paired with a WiiM under options, but not really clear on whether it works with WiiM. Amazon return policy to the rescue??

I see no problem using the WiiM app. Under Browse one has access to local files, Music Services (all except Apple Music so far) and radio servers Tunein, iHeartRadio, vTuner. The Pro also supports Chromecast, meaning that one can cast any stream and turn off the phone as the WiiM Pro takes over from that point. Oh... and it is bit perfect up to 192kHz/24 bit.

 

[Paladin79]

Put on my really high dollar HD650s this am, gathering cobwebs, with MMB2 and the Nitsch Piety....
Looked at my Qobuz weekly Q and this tune poped up and I was stunned at how good it was..
I think I almost blew coffee out of my nostrils....need to work on this.
This complex setup cost a total of $863!

:>)

Till Bronner is the German Chet Baker..
This is a RCA - Sony Masterworks

I put it on my main system, cost around 800 hours of labor with maybe another 80 hours to go.

I am listening on Qobuz myself.

 

[adydula]

For the older Dylan set:

https://open.qobuz.com/track/184344382

....and no thats not bcowen !
:>)

 

[valiant66]

I don't need a damn cardboard box!

Oh dang. I know that look.

I co-habitated with a Russian Blue for almost 18 years and I still miss him. An outdoor cat, I would budget about $500 a year for visits to the vet to get various bits sewn back on.

Thanks for the pic.
.

 

[Paladin79]

 

[Jason Stoddard]

Hey all,

I said we'd have a couple of new things this month, and that might still happen. Getting into production is a bit slower than expected, but things are moving along well. By this, I mean:

1. We have boards for one of the crazy products, bottom chassis for both, and top chassis for one. Unfortunately none of them line up to complete products yet. Still hoping for February. We'll see.
2. We have boards for the craziest product of all, but no chassis. The chassis on this one is a bit more complex. We'll see when this hits. Maybe all 3 crazy/craziest will hit at once.
3. Urd drives came in and were wrong because we ordered the wrong ones. We swapped those for the more expensive metal drives and then discovered the control board is wrong, but that wasn't our fault. So still dealing with normal stupid getting-to-production stuff on that.
4. I'm getting production documentation going on MJ3, which is the boring part, but it needs to be done. Fingers crossed for summer.

In the meantime, there are a ton of under-the-hood changes going on here, all based on data we've been gathering from ERP and online marketing/ads/channels. Most of this is not very exciting. That said, we are looking into something to address our biggest out-of-control cost: PCB assembly. As in, we're looking at doing some boards ourselves. We have a handful of high-production boards that may prove practical to do assembly ourselves.

This is very important, because of all the crazy inflationary cost increases we've seen, assembly is by far the craziest. Now, things may calm down this year as the economy cools off and PCB assemblers start getting hungry again (we've already seen this starting elsewhere), and we may decide not to do it, but the preliminary estimates and projected savings make this definitely worth investigating.

If we do this, we'll have greater control of our production, and more of it will be done by us. Both of these are exciting possibilities, but they're also tempered by having to staff and maintain a new portion of the business. So, again...we'll see.

In other news, I've decided to start poking at a higher end phono preamp.

(STOP. Don't get excited. If you're looking to get a Mani 2, buy with confidence. IF we do something else, it will be MUCH more expensive. Note the "IF" and "MUCH.")

So...keeping this open ended, what might you want to see from a higher end Schiit phono preamp?

And...making this more pointed, let's talk:

1. Multiple inputs (is this really important?)
2. Simple vs complex (how many gains and how many loads do you really need?)
3. Discrete vs op-amp (thoughts, do you care?)
4. Balanced vs SE (system matching, don't care, gotchas?)
5. How important is great MC vs MM performance (and vice-versa?)

You may notice I haven't mentioned tubes. It's not that I don't like tube phonos, it's just that, if done right, they'll be more limited. As in, if you want to have a pure tube phono preamp with passive RIAA, you'll need a separate MC stage or SUT, and you'll need to stick to one type of tube for rolling unless we use lots and lots of tubes, etc.

Anyway, just thinking out loud. Looking forward to any input.

And, again: IF it happens. MUCH more expensive. Mani 2 is a fantastic phono pre. It took me a long time to be convinced we should look at anything else.

All the best,
Jason

 

[Ripper2860]

TOTL phono preamp? Now all we need now is a SOL redux and we're good to go!

 

[Jason Stoddard]

SOL redux

No.

Or I can name this one "Sol" and confuse the heck out of everyone. We've re-used names before.

 

[pavnobi]

@Jason Stoddard for the crazy or craziest products, is there a price range you can share for any of them.

Also, absolutely enamored with the MMb2! That’s a packs-a-punch DAC purchase!

 

[Paladin79]

Hey all,

I said we'd have a couple of new things this month, and that might still happen. Getting into production is a bit slower than expected, but things are moving along well. By this, I mean:

1. We have boards for one of the crazy products, bottom chassis for both, and top chassis for one. Unfortunately none of them line up to complete products yet. Still hoping for February. We'll see.
2. We have boards for the craziest product of all, but no chassis. The chassis on this one is a bit more complex. We'll see when this hits. Maybe all 3 crazy/craziest will hit at once.
3. Urd drives came in and were wrong because we ordered the wrong ones. We swapped those for the more expensive metal drives and then discovered the control board is wrong, but that wasn't our fault. So still dealing with normal stupid getting-to-production stuff on that.
4. I'm getting production documentation going on MJ3, which is the boring part, but it needs to be done. Fingers crossed for summer.

In the meantime, there are a ton of under-the-hood changes going on here, all based on data we've been gathering from ERP and online marketing/ads/channels. Most of this is not very exciting. That said, we are looking into something to address our biggest out-of-control cost: PCB assembly. As in, we're looking at doing some boards ourselves. We have a handful of high-production boards that may prove practical to do assembly ourselves.

This is very important, because of all the crazy inflationary cost increases we've seen, assembly is by far the craziest. Now, things may calm down this year as the economy cools off and PCB assemblers start getting hungry again (we've already seen this starting elsewhere), and we may decide not to do it, but the preliminary estimates and projected savings make this definitely worth investigating.

If we do this, we'll have greater control of our production, and more of it will be done by us. Both of these are exciting possibilities, but they're also tempered by having to staff and maintain a new portion of the business. So, again...we'll see.

In other news, I've decided to start poking at a higher end phono preamp.

(STOP. Don't get excited. If you're looking to get a Mani 2, buy with confidence. IF we do something else, it will be MUCH more expensive. Note the "IF" and "MUCH.")

So...keeping this open ended, what might you want to see from a higher end Schiit phono preamp?

And...making this more pointed, let's talk:

1. Multiple inputs (is this really important?)
2. Simple vs complex (how many gains and how many loads do you really need?)
3. Discrete vs op-amp (thoughts, do you care?)
4. Balanced vs SE (system matching, don't care, gotchas?)
5. How important is great MC vs MM performance (and vice-versa?)

You may notice I haven't mentioned tubes. It's not that I don't like tube phonos, it's just that, if done right, they'll be more limited. As in, if you want to have a pure tube phono preamp with passive RIAA, you'll need a separate MC stage or SUT, and you'll need to stick to one type of tube for rolling unless we use lots and lots of tubes, etc.

Anyway, just thinking out loud. Looking forward to any input.

And, again: IF it happens. MUCH more expensive. Mani 2 is a fantastic phono pre. It took me a long time to be convinced we should look at anything else.

All the best,
Jason

I would be most interested in a tube phono preamp.
1. Single input is fine
2. Simple
3. Don't care
4. SE is fine
5. I generally use MM but I can imagine others using MC.