[audio philestine]

[EDIT: fixed botched up QUOTE tags]

There is more than one version of Thunderstruck too....

Wow. We went from an acoustic recording of Bach on a period instrument with gut strings and historical tuning, to bodyless, electrified, and overly distorted rock and roll cover. I'd say we've got the field well bracketed now

 

[G0rt]

Just like headphones and other Schiit!

Jean-Guihen Queyras should not be overlooked...

 

[macdonjh]

Bi-wiring significantly increases the amount of copper (both cross-sectional area and skin area if you are concerned about such things) reducing the resistance of the speaker connection over a single run.

Sure, but that can also be achieved by simply using a single run of larger gauge wire. If you want simply increased cross sectional area, use "regular" wire. If you're also interested in increased skin area, use a wire with a high strand count. A single run of bigger gauge cable, even "boutique" cable, might be less expensive than dual runs of thinner cable. Especially if you concern yourself with the extra connectors. I don't know, though, because I stopped listening for differences in cable sounds a long time ago. Perhaps I'll try again in a few years when the kids are gone and our house is quiet. But then maybe not, ignorance is cheap in this case.

 

[macdonjh]

So, I appear to be slower than the average poster here. The amps in the highlighted section, will they need to be equal wattage in order to get a balanced (volume) output from the speakers? Was that something you managed via crossover and DSP? How would you achieve that using, say, Schiit's pre and amps, using only both SE out and same model amp?
Thanks in advance for indulging this level of... something.
Edit: bi-amping

You would need amps of equal *gain* to achieve equal sound volumes, unless you have a means to control the volume for each amp - e.g. right before the amp input.

ed

What Varejao17 says...

An amp's output, up to a certain point, will be proportional to the signal it gets from your preamp or source. This is over-simplifying it, because your amp does care about your speakers' reactance, but the amp (or amps) don't care about the speakers, just the input signal. So if you have amps with 20 dB of gain connected to both the woofers and tweeters, you'll get the same volume. If your woofer amp has 24 dB of gain and your tweeter amp has 20 dB of gain, your system will sound like a club playing Meghan Trainor )).

Unless you're powering your tweeters with a 25W amp and your woofers with a 200W amp and you push the volume up so high the 25W amp can't keep up with the 200W amp. I'm not sure what happens then, I think the small amp shuts down or burns out while the big amp keeps making your ears bleed.

The DSP in my car (and in my home theater) performs a couple of functions (and could perform more, I haven't experimented enough with EQ). One function is to provide time delays to the various speakers so the music from all the speakers arrives at my ears at the same time. That helps immensely in developing a good soundstage. The other thing DSP does is compensate for different speaker efficiency and amplifier gain by varying the preamp output to each amplifier channel. That way the front speakers in my living room don't completely over-power my center and surround channels.

The amps in my car have variable gain, so I was able to level match them using that, rather than applying that DSP function. I played a 1 kHz tone at the maximum volume I wanted to hear (speakers disconneected) and adjusted the gain control until the amps' outputs were 2V.

 

[wout31]

This is very interesting. When the discussion came up a couple of days ago and I searched on Qobuz, it returned only one album (the red/black). Now it is showing all 3 of Wispelwey's Bach cello suite albums.

That happens all the time on Qobuz and Roon using the Qobuz API. The string you enter is not what is searched for apparently. To test this click on the name of an artist when an album is on display. Then again just type in the name in the search box and you (might) get very different results. My guess with the click on the link it is an exact reference number that it is linked to. When you type a name in the search box it looks more like a soundex or algorithm lookup.

 

[rkw]

That happens all the time on Qobuz and Roon using the Qobuz API. The string you enter is not what is searched for apparently. To test this click on the name of an artist when an album is on display. Then again just type in the name in the search box and you (might) get very different results. My guess with the click on the link it is an exact reference number that it is linked to. When you type a name in the search box it looks more like a soundex or algorithm lookup.

I had forgotten that searching on Qobuz is still quirky. At least it is much improved from a year ago when it was almost unusable. I remember having to do creative searches on words in the album title or performer names before it would find the album I was looking for.

 

[JEnglishSmith]

Hey, two Schiit questions, fellow Head-Fiers:
1. I recently hauled out my 1st generation Fulla (just because I like the little thing) to use again in my home steup. Sounds great, but am getting a little USB noise off of both the ThinkPad hub and via a direct USB out on the laptop itself. I solved this problem once before but can't remember what I did to correct. Is that mostly cable dependent or is there anything I can do in Windows settings to stop/reduce that? Not really noticeable when playing music but definitely there when no source is playing.
2. Did I see somewhere earlier on this thread that the Schiit team is working on a CD transport or player? That's been on my wish list for some time (along with a better-quality small class D amp that can compete with the Emotiva Bas-X 100 but with a less weird form factor). I have long wanted a sub-$250 transport that can output into the Modi...

 

[RickB]

Hey, two Schiit questions, fellow Head-Fiers:
1. I recently hauled out my 1st generation Fulla (just because I like the little thing) to use again in my home steup. Sounds great, but am getting a little USB noise off of both the ThinkPad hub and via a direct USB out on the laptop itself. I solved this problem once before but can't remember what I did to correct. Is that mostly cable dependent or is there anything I can do in Windows settings to stop/reduce that? Not really noticeable when playing music but definitely there when no source is playing.

One thing you can check is if the Fulla and the laptop are plugged into the same electrical outlet. Doing that has eliminated noise for me in the past.

Edit: apparently the Fulla 1 was USB powered, so the above advice isn't applicable.

 

[judson_w]

The first generation fulla was just a dongle, so power outlet is not likely the issue.

 

[Varejao17]

This is very interesting. When the discussion came up a couple of days ago and I searched on Qobuz, it returned only one album (the red/black). Now it is showing all 3 of Wispelwey's Bach cello suite albums.

Qobuz must have gotten an injection of bits from Venture Capital.

 

[Mike-WI]

Qobuz must have gotten an injection of bits from Venture Capital.

Hopefully.

 

[tincanear]

Hey, two Schiit questions, fellow Head-Fiers:
1. I recently hauled out my 1st generation Fulla (just because I like the little thing) to use again in my home steup. Sounds great, but am getting a little USB noise off of both the ThinkPad hub and via a direct USB out on the laptop itself. I solved this problem once before but can't remember what I did to correct. Is that mostly cable dependent or is there anything I can do in Windows settings to stop/reduce that? Not really noticeable when playing music but definitely there when no source is playing.
2. Did I see somewhere earlier on this thread that the Schiit team is working on a CD transport or player? That's been on my wish list for some time (along with a better-quality small class D amp that can compete with the Emotiva Bas-X 100 but with a less weird form factor). I have long wanted a sub-$250 transport that can output into the Modi...

depending on which version of Windows you have (7/8/10) there may be some windows sound or mixer settings to try.

If your version of Fulla has two USB ports, in addition to the USB to the computer, try connecting a wall wart to second USB port on Fulla.

the quality of the usb cable connecting the Fulla may be the problem. you'll need a short USB 2.0 cable with heavy gauge power wires (e.g. cable I have is marked 28/1PR + 20/2C which means 28AWG for the signal wires (anything here is OK), and 20AWG for the power wires; the power wires are most important in this case, with a smaller number indicating physically larger wire; preferably look for 20/2C or 22/2C)

if using a hub between the computer and the Fulla, make sure the hub is powered by a wall wart (AC adapter).



There are persisting rumors of a Schiit transport, but I don't know if it will be sub-$250, and less likely soon with the COVID-19 shutdown in CA. Most (cheapie) DVD/ Blue-ray players have either coax S/PDIF or optical out that will connect to Modi.

Hope this helps.

 

[PolarBehr]

Sure, but that can also be achieved by simply using a single run of larger gauge wire. If you want simply increased cross sectional area, use "regular" wire. If you're also interested in increased skin area, use a wire with a high strand count. A single run of bigger gauge cable, even "boutique" cable, might be less expensive than dual runs of thinner cable. Especially if you concern yourself with the extra connectors. I don't know, though, because I stopped listening for differences in cable sounds a long time ago. Perhaps I'll try again in a few years when the kids are gone and our house is quiet. But then maybe not, ignorance is cheap in this case.

Yes but:

Two runs of Kimber Kable 8VS Base is more copper than one run of 12VS Base. Two runs of 12VS is a lot more copper than one 12VS run.

So yes I would take one run of good thick speaker wire over 2 runs of 16 gauge zip cord, but I would take two runs of the thick speaker wire over just a single run. Once you get up into 10 to 12 gauge size it’s hard to find and very expensive to get bigger.

[edit] Only worth the extra cost if you can hear the difference.

 

[tincanear]

Yes but:

Two runs of Kimber Kable 8VS Base is more copper than one run of 12VS Base. Two runs of 12VS is a lot more copper than one 12VS run.

So yes I would take one run of good thick speaker wire over 2 runs of 16 gauge zip cord, but I would take two runs of the thick speaker wire over just a single run. Once you get up into 10 to 12 gauge size it’s hard to find and very expensive to get bigger.

[edit] Only worth the extra cost if you can hear the difference.

two runs of 16 gauge zip cord are equivalent to a single run of 13 gauge. clean, tight connections are also important, especially with lower-impedance loads.

 

[Ion Specter]

two runs of 16 gauge zip cord are equivalent to a single run of 13 gauge. clean, tight connections are also important, especially with lower-impedance loads.

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