[Clayton SF]

Old Decware begins the New year. Happy 2016!

 

[longbowbbs]

Old Decware begins the New year. Happy 2016!

A Decware trifecta!  Sweet!

 

[whirlwind]

Old Decware begins the New year. Happy 2016!

 Just wonderful, Clayton.
 
I need put in your will, sir  

 

[nordkapp]

Quote:What are your impressions of the Sony thus far?

  New Amp/DAC, pairs wonderfully with my DT 990 LE's.
 

 

[frankraindog]

Here's my setup, at current state.
 
Opera Audio Tube Amp w/ Indiana Line CD Player
Macbook running Roon with Paul Pang USB to Apogee Groove.
Audeze LCD-XC off head / Hifiman HE-400i on head taking the picture.

 

[Krutsch]

Some new gear... inexpensive bamboo mini-shelves from IKEA and some new digital gear for the head-fi rig:
 

 

[kman1211]

It's a darker and more musical sounding unit but detailed with good imaging and dynamics. The bass is a bit on the bombastic side yet controlled and the mids are present and a touch forward. Treble is on the relaxed side but well extended, on there seems to be a touch of harshness though in the treble on lower ohm headphones but not really on higher ohm headphones. But this is likely because it built-in amp puts more power into higher ohm headphones. This thing pairs unusually well with Beyers though, at least 250 ohms and up, not sure about lower impedances. If you like Beyers, I would definitely look into this unit. Definitely a good DAC, and worth getting as a DAC alone especially if you get it around $300. I don't know how it sounds as a speaker amp though as I don't have any bookshelf speakers to try on it.

 

[nordkapp]

It's a darker and more musical sounding unit but detailed with good imaging and dynamics. The bass is a bit on the bombastic side yet controlled and the mids are present and a touch forward. Treble is on the relaxed side but well extended, on there seems to be a touch of harshness though in the treble on lower ohm headphones but not really on higher ohm headphones. But this is likely because it built-in amp puts more power into higher ohm headphones. This thing pairs unusually well with Beyers though, at least 250 ohms and up, not sure about lower impedances. If you like Beyers, I would definitely look into this unit. Definitely a good DAC, and worth getting as a DAC alone especially if you get it around $300. I don't know how it sounds as a speaker amp though as I don't have any bookshelf speakers to try on it.

Thanks for the detailed reply. Given it's price and feature set it is very appealing. I just sold my Teac UD-501. It is A super hi quality piece loaded w/features but I just found it too veiled for my taste. Likely related to the amp section.

 

[kman1211]

Thanks for the detailed reply. Given it's price and feature set it is very appealing. I just sold my Teac UD-501. It is A super hi quality piece loaded w/features but I just found it too veiled for my taste. Likely related to the amp section.

No problem, this is still a new unit and may change a bit with a bit more use as the components settle a bit. It seems to of tightened and brightened up some since I've first gotten it.

 

[gonzfi]

 

[Clayton SF]

It's a phono preamp with rectifier overkill amongst a tangle of chords cords and interconnects.
Lovely, lovely, lovely.
Listening carefully...
Listening...
 

 

[ssrock64]

  Headphone less for the time being but a new sub is in.

Very clean! Everybody seems to love those LS50s.

 

[drewTT]

 Headphone less for the time being but a new sub is in.

Very clean! Everybody seems to love those LS50s.

Thanks. They are excellent near field speakers.

 

[beemerphile]

My Head-fi station is so valuable that it is under constant guard...
 

 
I have some fairly bulky equipment but I wanted as small a footprint as possible, so I built a simple wooden table to hold it.  The top and center shelf are cut to size from 1 inch granite countertop cut scrap.  On the top surface is a Cavalli Liquid Glass amplifier.  The center shelf holds a Yggdrasil with Uptone Regen and an Auralic Mini.  
 
There is a half-depth wooden shelf on bottom to hold the two LPS units for the Auralic Mini and the Uptone Regen.
 

 
I was concerned about the Regen and its cable applying torque to the Yggdrasil's USB port, so I built a support for it.  While I was at it, I fabbed a heat sink for it using an old CPU cooler cut to fit.  It doesn't run that hot, and it is probably not necessary, but I had the parts, so...
 

 

 
I have an iPad Air 2 on a flex-head mount attached to the table.  It runs Lightning DS to control the Mini and provide access to Tidal streams and FLAC files on my NAS.  It and the Mini are served by a dedicated 802.11ac access point.  The mini also controls the Sonos system.  Roll the wrist over and the volume control of the LG is at hand...
 
 

 
The system is fed from a dedicated 20 amp receptacle with a spec-grade outlet through an Array Solutions AC-7 power filter to a CyberPower Pure Sine 1000VA UPS.  All of the components are powered with minimum length 14 gauge IEC-C13 cables.  USB cable is Supra 0.7 and the interconnects are Blue Jeans.  Main headphones are currently Ether C's  and Nighthawks.
 

 
Since I leave most of this gear powered and it is in our bedroom, I wanted to tame the various indicator lights.  The Cavalli LG, in particular, has pilot lights that look like little flashlights.  I found a product called LightDims on Amazon which is a sheet of various size tinted decals to place over the lights to dim them.  There are various sizes on the sheet.  I even used one of the rectangular decals to dim the voltage read-out display on the Regen's LPS...
 

 

[elvergun]

  My Head-fi station is so valuable that it is under constant guard...
 

 
Ha...looks like anyone who would be foolish enough to get too close would be torn to pieces.