[ScubaMan2017]

Oh, my....



...a lovely recording, for any DAC / amp / headphone / speakers.

Especially nice with MiB, will listen to again with OG today as a reference.

/d

Joni! My favourite pairing is Blue and Ladies Of The Canyon.

 

[LrrTx]

I've been going balanced from the Skoll to the Freya N for about 2 weeks now. Not much difference single ended vs. balanced except for the volume difference, as you mentioned. I think the biggest noticeable improvement with the Skoll is the background. It's pretty dark/silent. I agree the Skoll is just more refined than the Mani 2. I have a Fluance RT85N, but swapped out the Nagaoka for a Grado Red. I am not disappointed at all in my purchase, and think the Skoll is a worthy upgrade, even if you don't have MC cartridges, but that is next on my list!
I love the cylon thing when you first turn it on! Sorry, had an ORT moment...

Are your turntables balanced though? The big difference for me with Skoll was the VPI turntable balanced out into Skoll's balanced in. Now the whole chain from needle to power amp is balanced as opposed to single-ended. That made a big difference in noise reduction.

 

[ScubaMan2017]

I work as a avionics electronics metrologist in the Midwest, and I've gotten in the habit of touching something grounded before I stand up, before I sit down, before I do anything, basically, from autumn until spring. It not only saves equipment, it's much less painful. And the practice carries over to home use.

Hells bells. By next month, I'll be in my transition home up on the Bruce Peninsula. Lion's Head is buffered by strong prevailing winds. It might get very dry indeed. If I reflect upon my electrostatic series that I taught semester after semester. Crap! Zap. ... ... ... I had BETTER get back into the habit of grounding myself before touching my HiFi kit and/or smooching my spouse. No welded lips.

 

[jonathan c]

Are your turntables balanced though?

… if not, the tonearm anti-skating will be snafu …

 

[jonathan c]

Hells bells. By next month, I'll be in my transition home up on the Bruce Peninsula. Lion's Head is buffered by strong prevailing winds. It might get very dry indeed. If I reflect upon my electrostatic series that I taught semester after semester. Crap! Zap. ... ... ... I had BETTER get back into the habit of grounding myself before touching my HiFi kit and/or smooching my spouse. No welded lips.

One in every room? …

 

[JamminVMI]

I feel the exact same way about the Lyr/Lyr 2 industrial design, which is why I'll never sell my mint Lyr 2.

Me neither, have Lyr 1 and 2, both are beautiful and sound great! Lyr 2 much hotter, though!

 

[OldRoadToad]

Joni! My favourite pairing is Blue and Ladies Of The Canyon.

A Goddess!

ORT

 

[Derrick Swart]

Tonight's Skoll selection. Amazing vocalist. With Herbie on keys!

Been really fun running a Nagaoka moving magnet cart to change things up a bit. I gotta say, with my budget I'm strongly considering just going the MM route for a while. Seems like more bang for the buck. No re-tipping needed w replaceable stylii! And it's coming back to me now how much more punch they seem to have. Almost like MM:multibit, MC:delta-sigma in some ways (*ducks*). Your mileage (and budget) may vary of course

this is a good start into Milton:

 

[ScubaMan2017]

ORT

Toad! Did you just quote from Trading Places?! Damn. That takes gonads, eh. Nice.

 

[ScubaMan2017]

Does anyone else here suddenly initiate a headphone session when their spouse approaches?

No. Absolutely knot. Um... possibly? We're in the chaos of moving crap. I use my headphones to block out the bloody highway 401 freeway. And I'm sticking to that alibi.

 

[ScubaMan2017]

Dan Clark seems super cool. I’d love another pair of his phones.

My Ether closed are holding up very well! Close to 2 years... and I'm now using them daily as my Sony MDR7510 crapped out (and I haven't picked up replacement parts yet to try my hand at DIY repairs). Great company. And ugly headphone containers (looks like a suppository to me [sorry]). Love it!

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

Me neither, have Lyr 1 and 2, both are beautiful and sound great! Lyr 2 much hotter, though!

Your Lyr 2 is the cutting-edge hotness!

 

[cricket]

Hells bells. By next month, I'll be in my transition home up on the Bruce Peninsula. Lion's Head is buffered by strong prevailing winds. It might get very dry indeed. If I reflect upon my electrostatic series that I taught semester after semester. Crap! Zap. ... ... ... I had BETTER get back into the habit of grounding myself before touching my HiFi kit and/or smooching my spouse. No welded lips.

Last winter, I found I had to remove corded headphones before getting out of my chair, otherwise my ears would get zapped. Then it's necessary to touch the pull-chain on the ceiling fan as soon as I stand up.

Like @riffrafff, my job was with electronics. Our customers in the aerospace industry mandated ESD control and inspectors would write us up for non-compliance. I found there's no better way to drag stuff off a workbench than with a wrist strap and ground wire. I refused to wear them when working on live circuits that could have up to 1500 volts. The HV stimulus path wasn't grounded and only sourced 5mA, but it still loved a path to earth.

 

[Iowan]

Welcome to the thread, @Iowan ... Re: off-grid applications and their "best" Hi-Fi setups. This topic DOES come up on the thread!

I'm planning my own low(er) KW-h audio setup on our new off-grid house... on the North Bruce Peninsula (south-east of the Upper Michigan Peninsula). My planned strategies:
....I'm going to rely on the power-button on my centralized power tap (Belkin power bar). When I'm not using my listening nook, the master switch gets switched off. I can leave my solid state kit toggled 'on'. My tube-based kit (Vali2, Lyr3, Valhalla2) is left toggled 'off' until I decide to use them.
....standby mode. I'm not ready yet for a large Yggy. Zero need (do I want it? Hell yes). Re: Jason mentioning more equipment with standby mode. Location conversation?... I remember there being a reference to front-buttoned standby buttons here (link).
...listening habits. My spouse values her quiet, so I've invested in headphones. As long as I don't pick up a ridiculous (ridiculously awesome) Mjolnir-3, my kW-h usage can be handled by my planned system.
...amplifier selection. My spouse does like thunderous music on occasion. I have my eye on Schiit's near-field speaker amplification options. Pick up 2 Gjallarhorn and run them as mono-blocks?! I could manage just fine with a single unit... but I love gear. 2 is moar better than 1, yes?

Thanks for the info and good luck with the new house.

Right now, I can put my system on standby by shutting off my preamp or using standby with the remote (Old nakamichi) , as it has it's own power strips that will kill power to the other components. I can also control them (all nakamichi) from the same remote. I started out with a cassette deck, then thought I needed to to get all matching components to only need one remote. Pretty fancy for the 1990s.
Of course I would be tempted to get all matching Schiit if they did something similar (jason would probably sell more equipment) and that's why I was kind of curious if Schiit was thinking about a universal remote- standby mode thing . My old components are are now more than 30 years old...

My audio system isn't what most would choose for offgrid listening (magnepan and tyrs). My residence is also home base to our farm operation, so usage does spike much higher than the stats I included. I was out in the field harvesting last month. I have several items ( big air compressor, etc) that I need available in an off grid mode, so this system will get beefed up considerably.

A combination of frequent power outages , along with Iowa utilities that would like to pass legislation to penalize self electric generators , is kind of heading me in this direction.

 

[Iowan]

Re: Jason mentioning more equipment with standby mode. Location conversation?

I've been looking but haven't found it yet