[ColSaulTigh]

Really like your DIY wood and metal pipe amp riser (stand)... well done!

Thanks! I wanted.something different and I love natural wood. The live edge with the bark is an added bonus. Just make sure.you have a soft bristled.paint brush to dust with. Those nooks and crannies get dirty quick!

 

[dunpeal]

 

[szore]

 

[Pharmaboy]

Here in the Philippines vacationing with my portable desktop setup.

At a hotel in CDO

At my parent’s in Cebu City


Next stop Singapore

What headphones are those?

 

[Pharmaboy]

Great picture of great gear. Love the diffusor...

 

[ThEvil0nE]

What headphones are those?

NDH 30 with a sheepskin pad swap

 

[Pharmaboy]

NDH 30 with a sheepskin pad swap

Interesting headphones. Did changing pads help or hinder the sound?

 

[572217]

this is a really nice pairing!

my Caldera is on stock pads with mesh, hooked up with an Arctic Cables Apeiron. Zähl is on servo mode with one bump on the bass knob. my friend is interested in the Zähl and heard they may be increasing the price again (?). well, am glad I got my unit already. Just a Swiss army knife of an amp. I'd say for the last few weeks, most of my listening is done with this amp.

although, I've not heard some other big boys eg Viva Egoista, AIC Riviera, Mass Kobo 465, Traformatic Primavera, Feliks Envy.. the Zähl was my last big purchase and so far seem content. even my wife is surprised and asked me if anything was wrong as she hadn't seen any new big boxes being delivered. anyways, my listening time has cut down a fair bit as I've diverted my attention to Gunpla LOL.

Gorgeous pic. Enjoy your beautiful new addition!

This is not to interfere with your enjoyment. Am just sharing my personal experience. I heard the Zähl with Stealth fronted by Auralic at High–End in Munich, and that combo was not my cup of tea. I felt like a mastering engineer, dissecting the music. I like being washed over by music and forget I am there. The synergy with Caldera must be far better than with Stealth, as your system and cable choices say you know what you are doing. (Muon USB post forthcoming...)

Riviera with Stealth were a good combo–listened with them for over a year.

 

[JohanE]

 

[Roasty]

Gorgeous pic. Enjoy your beautiful new addition!

This is not to interfere with your enjoyment. Am just sharing my personal experience. I heard the Zähl with Stealth fronted by Auralic at High–End in Munich, and that combo was not my cup of tea. I felt like a mastering engineer, dissecting the music. I like being washed over by music and forget I am there. The synergy with Caldera must be far better than with Stealth, as your system and cable choices say you know what you are doing. (Muon USB post forthcoming...)

Riviera with Stealth were a good combo–listened with them for over a year.

I could never get used to the DCA sound. was all hyped up over the DCA headphones as I liked how they looked, but mostly from the measurements and the ASR reviews (I should have known better..). I totally get what u mean ie mastering engineer/dissecting; the Zähl in itself is neutral when in passthrough/no tone control, and guess it'd be too much when paired with the DCA headphones.

Looking forward to your Muon post!

 

[haasaaroni]

I love my secret Gungnir/tube drawer. The only downside is it'll be hard to upgrade to an Yggy Pendant SE is off to the right.

 

[572217]

I could never get used to the DCA sound. was all hyped up over the DCA headphones as I liked how they looked, but mostly from the measurements and the ASR reviews (I should have known better..). I totally get what u mean ie mastering engineer/dissecting; the Zähl in itself is neutral when in passthrough/no tone control, and guess it'd be too much when paired with the DCA headphones.

Looking forward to your Muon post!

Yeah, Stealth is highly dependent on the amp. And yes, that was too much in Munich. It did work very well on Silver Fox, although I don‘t know whether this amp would be too “in my face” for long listening sessions. Glad you found good synergy. Stealth does not gel at all with my current Cayin HA–300MK2. It sounds decent on the built–in Bartók amp. The combo with Riviera was sublime. In that pairing the music appears out of nowhere and out of no time. The Utopia I had back then didn’t scale with the system and the Stealth did the trick. Such a deep window into the music.

The Muon USB cable is still burning in (as are the Muon streaming cables). When the 150 hours are over, I will write in. What I can say so far is, that it surprisingly renders a Mac Studio running Audirvana a listenable source.

 

[duffer5]

 

[572217]

Very nice. Enjoy!

I returned my Rose 130. A great concept, and it will work in a simple setup, but... I need the DAC’s USB port for the computer, and required the Rose to be a DLNA server. The implementation is crap and showed only albums to select and then only the first album of all on the disk. The file manager stopped half way when adding my over 10,000 files. I had to run it again in a mode not overwriting existing files. Did I know, whether everything was copied? No. The storage size differed, albeit by a small amount. Albums in the Music app on loop would stop looping after a few turns rendering the control buttons on the front display useless. So: navigate back to home, back to the album and start over. Newest firmware by the way.

It doesn‘t output a silent signal on SPDIF, when paused. The Merason DAC I had for a week needs a signal to lock, so the amp output white noise during pauses. My Black Cat AES/EBU cable did not fit into their socket, because the ring around it doesn’t leave room for the rather common locking mechanism of these cables. There is only one clock input per impedance, so I can‘t use the dCS Vivaldi clock. The source has to be on the same clock as the DAC. Who makes such design decisions? It‘s a source costing five grand after all. Who ships an alpha version DLNA software and calls their product streamer/server? Asset UPnP can do it, so can Bubble, Minim and others. Android is no excuse. License something for heaven‘s sake. Should the processor be underspeced, don‘t do DLNA and say so.

Luckily the dealer agreed to credit the full amount as I purchase other gear of same value. So all good, just for the upset over Christmas...

 

[Pharmaboy]

I love my secret Gungnir/tube drawer. The only downside is it'll be hard to upgrade to an Yggy Pendant SE is off to the right.

Wait--you have a functioning/connected DAC in that drawer? Doesn't it get hot in there?