[Plautus001]

Literally every single time I oder something from Drop, they slash the price of that product a few days later. And I mean EVERY single time, not just sometimes. We're talking close to a 500USD of aggregate difference at this point between what I have paid and what I could have paid less just a few days later.

People roll their eyes at Jason for his "no deals, ever" policy. But I just want to say that I really appreciate his approach. Avoids frustration and feels much more honest. I honestly wish that this approach to pricing would be the norm, not the exception.

Kudos where kudos are due.

I was thinking about this today, the no sales/direct distribution model is quite mighty

 

[Plautus001]

Question: I went to listen to some new stuff today that I DEFINITELY cannot afford! Naim SuperNait 3 driving some Wilson Sabrinas. That Naim is only 80 Watts/channel and it was driving those Wilsons to very satisfying levels at 9 o'clock on the volume. They are 87 DB efficient speakers. I have a Freya+ (Diff. Buffer Mode) with monoblock Vidars driving 86db Vandersteen 2ces and I am at 2 o'clock at a similar volume. What gives?!?!? I asked the owner and he said something about current blah, blah. I am not buying his answer despite him being a LOVELY fellow. Please let me know if you have any thoughts.

Really fun couple of hours! That stuff sounds great! VERY EXPENSIVE but really beautiful and nice sounding.

Could be the amperage

I am surprised your mono block Vidars are not already too loud.

 

[tincanear]

Question: I went to listen to some new stuff today that I DEFINITELY cannot afford! Naim SuperNait 3 driving some Wilson Sabrinas. That Naim is only 80 Watts/channel and it was driving those Wilsons to very satisfying levels at 9 o'clock on the volume. They are 87 DB efficient speakers. I have a Freya+ (Diff. Buffer Mode) with monoblock Vidars driving 86db Vandersteen 2ces and I am at 2 o'clock at a similar volume. What gives?!?!? I asked the owner and he said something about current blah, blah. I am not buying his answer despite him being a LOVELY fellow. Please let me know if you have any thoughts.

Really fun couple of hours! That stuff sounds great! VERY EXPENSIVE but really beautiful and nice sounding.

Volume control position vs volume level (dB SPL) is a function of preamp & amp gains and speaker efficiency (dB/1w/1m). Freya+ in solid state differential buffer mode will have lower gain (0dB) than typical preamps (10~20 dB).

Jason also mentioned that the taper of the relay switched resistor attenuator is different than conventional potentiometers so higher settings are often needed with Freya, Saga, Ragnarok. If you want a lower volume control setting, try active tube mode.

An interesting test would be to use freya & vidar combo to drive the Wilsons. And / or naim amp with the vandersteens

 

[tincanear]

Literally every single time I oder something from Drop, they slash the price of that product a few days later. And I mean EVERY single time, not just sometimes. We're talking close to a 500USD of aggregate difference at this point between what I have paid and what I could have paid less just a few days later.

People roll their eyes at Jason for his "no deals, ever" policy. But I just want to say that I really appreciate his approach. Avoids frustration and feels much more honest. I honestly wish that this approach to pricing would be the norm, not the exception.

Kudos where kudos are due.

Please let us know after each purchase so we can get the bestest price

 

[Plautus001]

I’ve heard Naim gear before and know a guy who swears by them but for some reason they always make me want to leave the room. They don’t sound terrible but something about them just rubs me the wrong way.

Harman Karon used to brag how they made "amplifiers" and not "watt-ifiers", but to my ears they always sounded lifeless compared to other brands.

 

[Bonehead7171]

Volume control position vs volume level (dB SPL) is a function of preamp & amp gains and speaker efficiency (dB/1w/1m). Freya+ in solid state differential buffer mode will have lower gain (0dB) than typical preamps (10~20 dB).

Jason also mentioned that the taper of the relay switched resistor attenuator is different than conventional potentiometers so higher settings are often needed with Freya, Saga, Ragnarok. If you want a lower volume control setting, try active tube mode.

An interesting test would be to use freya & vidar combo to drive the Wilsons. And / or naim smp with the vandersteens

Yes, good points. With the tubes engaged this combo is VERY loud. And I wasn't thinking that, in an integrated, you might have that same situation with the pre-amp having gain.

The owner offered for me to bring in the Vandys but at 60 lbs each it is BEYOND a pain in the rear. Especially in NYC!!!

In discussing it with him he said "They'll all go loud enough to get us evicted!" This is both true and funny!

 

[bcowen]

All records I wished to clean are cleaned, Finnegan helped. Sawdust happens just as soon as I deliver and setup a surround sound system for my daughter. Then I will have room.

Here is a question for you. I am not talking ease of use. What audio media gives you the best SQ?

No equivocating. @bcowen

No equivocating? What fun is that?

In my setup, it's LP's, CD's, and streaming (Tidal). Tidal takes the bottom rung, but I'm using either a laptop or desktop which are not optimized for audio beyond what Fidelizer Pro does and what I can tweak in Windows. Enjoy it a lot anyway, if nothing else for the new music I've found. Between LP's and CD's, it honestly depends on the recording. Some LP's I have are better (and sometimes substantially) than any digital version I've heard, and some CD's are much better than the LP versions I have.

And I'll throw this one out there just for fun: bad LP recordings are not as bad as bad digital recordings.

 

[Balthazar B]

Having grown up in the seventies/eighties I have to ask.. Am I the only one who hears that pic?

No, if you have a musical table. And see colors you don't want to see.

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

And I'll throw this one out there just for fun: bad LP recordings are not as bad as bad digital recordings.

The one redeeming quality of LPs, as far as I'm concerned: No compression artifacts and no harsh treble.
I mean, duh, since LPs physically can't reproduce anything above 15kHz even on the most outside grooves…

 

[Paladin79]

No equivocating? What fun is that?

In my setup, it's LP's, CD's, and streaming (Tidal). Tidal takes the bottom rung, but I'm using either a laptop or desktop which are not optimized for audio beyond what Fidelizer Pro does and what I can tweak in Windows. Enjoy it a lot anyway, if nothing else for the new music I've found. Between LP's and CD's, it honestly depends on the recording. Some LP's I have are better (and sometimes substantially) than any digital version I've heard, and some CD's are much better than the LP versions I have.

And I'll throw this one out there just for fun: bad LP recordings are not as bad as bad digital recordings.

That is the answer I was expecting.

A couple @bcowen impersonators jumped in but since you are once again gainfully employed you probably go to bed about 7PM.

Seriously after spending time with vinyl and CD’s on my new system I really need to work on getting better sound from streaming and FLAC files. I also like streaming for hearing new music but the quality is just not there yet.

 

[bcowen]

Please let us know after each purchase so we can get the bestest price

ROFL!!!!!

 

[rkw]

So wait, it’s an ADC, only a really really cool one?

No, Singularity is a delta-sigma DAC.

 

[bcowen]

The one redeeming quality of LPs, as far as I'm concerned: No compression artifacts and no harsh treble.
I mean, duh, since LPs physically can't reproduce anything above 15kHz even on the most outside grooves…

If I could still hear anything above 15kHz, this would be a concern. Freed of this constraint I'm able to worry about other stuff instead, like whether Tiger maple truly sounds better than curly maple, or if it's just a figment of my imagination.

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

If I could still hear anything above 15kHz, this would be a concern. Freed of this constraint I'm able to worry about other stuff instead, like whether Tiger maple truly sounds better than curly maple, or if it's just a figment of my imagination.

Silver is CLEARLY superior in sound signature to black, so: No. 100% most definitely absolutely certainly and doubtlessly real, can’t possibly be imagined.

 

[bcowen]

That is the answer I was expecting.

A couple @bcowen impersonators jumped in but since you are once again gainfully employed you probably go to bed about 7PM.

Seriously after spending time with vinyl and CD’s on my new system I really need to work on getting better sound from streaming and FLAC files. I also like streaming for hearing new music but the quality is just not there yet.

I don't usually get home from work employment until 7PM, so I rarely make it to bed before 7:30.