[wink]

 
It is obvious that you need to upgrade to a 32 bit D/A converter with cryogenically cooled resistor ladder networks, timing from an on-board cesium clock synchronized to the NITS master, and all powered by 128 Li-ion battery cells contained within their own building. The solid silver interconnect bus bars are extra, depending upon your facility configuration.

That's the economy version,I gather..........  

 

[NoahFence]

... Any other suggestions for great operas on that level?

As I have noted before, for me if it is a great opera,‭ ‬then the action and the music are deftly intertwined,‭ ‬and one profits from having a DVD.  That way you typically get subtitles as well.  
Here is my very personal list of operas for ‘getting started’ (It includes comedy as well as those that feature death.)
 
        SHORT LIST: ‭(‬more or less in this order‭):
Mozart
    Don Giovanni‭        
    Marriage of Figaro‭  (‬this is a blast,‭ ‬but it drags out too long in the end.‭)
Bizet
    Carmen
Verdi‭    
    Aida‭ ‬-‭  ‬a great opera which I thought was problematic until I saw a wonderful DVD performance of it.‭
Rossini
    The Barber of Seville‭  (‬To go with The Marriage of Figaro‭)
Puccini
    Tosca  
    La Boheme

‭        ‬MID LIST,‭   ‬not including Wagner, in no particular order‭:
‭        
Mozart
    Don Giovanni
    Marriage of Figaro
    Cosi fan tutti‭
    Magic Flute‭    (‬CD may suffice‭; ‬the story is quite silly‭)

Verdi
    Aida
    Rigoletto
    LaTraviata‭  (‬the performance I have on DVD is very good   sorry I don't have the reference at the moment)
    (Falstaff perhaps,‭ ‬it can be funny,‭ ‬but Verdi is better with serious subjects than comedy
‭        ‬for comedy see Rossini
Rossini
    Barber of Seville
    La Cenerentola‭ (‬Cinderella‭)  ‬done well this is quite nice
‭    (‬Rossini wrote some great opera buffa/comedy.‭  ‬Too bad it went out of style
Puccini
    La Boheme
    Tosca‭    (‬his great masterpiece‭)    
    (I am not fond of Madama Butterfly‭)
Bizet
    Carmen
Leoncavallo,‭ ‬Ruggiero
    Pagliacci‭    (‬short,‭ ‬so usually with:
‭ ‬    (Cavalleria Rusticanna‭)
 
Wagner I am not so fond of, and so leave that to others.
 
In general I won’t venture to recommend performances.  I use Classical.net and Classics today to guide my selections.  But I make an exception for
Puccini, Tosca DGG  Kabaivanska, Domingo, Milnes, directed by Gianfranco De Bosio.
This is a film rather than a live performance, but I find it captures this opera very well indeed.  
NF

 

[NoahFence]

edit.  Perhaps we should have a thread on Head-Fi dedicated to opera, and perhaps to include ballet as well

 

[earnmyturns]

  edit.  Perhaps we should have a thread on Head-Fi dedicated to opera, and perhaps to include ballet as well

Speaking of ballet, I'm still under the spell of a superb 1959 Antal Dorati-conducted performance of Stravinsky's full "Firebird" score. Details on the Yggy impressions thread, since my Yggy helped cast the spell.

 

[EElegances]

No,no,no. Or, I'll just keep skimming until someone is back on topic. Oh wait, there hasn't been one. Guess I'll just skim ... until

 

[NoahFence]

No,no,no. Or, I'll just keep skimming until someone is back on topic...

O come now, earnmyturns mentioned the Yggy, that has to be on topic, sort of.  
 
Actually I have some sympathy for your frustration; I often feel that way while looking for tidbits about using our equipment to better capture music.  That’s why I suggested a specific thread for opera and ballet might be appropriate.  However Baldr likes opera and has given us permission...
 
I am on this thread because the Gumby-MJ2  combination brings a realism, naturalness to music that I had not had the fortune of hearing before, they take me closer to what I hear live and deeper into the music than I have found before, and that with same rather more expensive electronics.  

I think it was earnmyturns that posted somewhat back that he was especially fond of the Joty.  I very much appreciated his comments, even though my own tastes/ears/equipment take me to a different combination.  With my equipment/ears the Joty is a bit lean and the Gumby-MJ2 add more of the bloom/richness that hear when I am at symphony.  My experience is consistent with his in that I think the G-M is a bit laid back in attacks relative to the Joty, but at the symphony I purposefully sit in the balcony, i.e. a ways back.  I want to give time/space for the sounds to blend, and so I don’t hear attacks the way I would in rows A-D. 
 
NoahFence intended

 

[Pietro Cozzi Tinin]

No,no,no. Or, I'll just keep skimming until someone is back on topic. Oh wait, there hasn't been one. Guess I'll just skim ... until

Just hang in.
At some point Mike will jump in an write something we all can speculate to pieces until we're blue in the face. We still have to unravel the mysteries of the MP/Gadget and the Eitr.  After their revelations we will have a field day discussing the right use for them and whether or not we have the required in- and outputs to fit them in our schiit heaps. So don't worry. It will break apart soon enough.

 

[Baldr]

  Just hang in.
At some point Mike will jump in an write something we all can speculate to pieces until we're blue in the face. We still have to unravel the mysteries of the MP/Gadget and the Eitr.  After their revelations we will have a field day discussing the right use for them and whether or not we have the required in- and outputs to fit them in our schiit heaps. So don't worry. It will break apart soon enough.

I did a couple of pages back and no one noticed.

 

[Pietro Cozzi Tinin]

You mean this one?
I'm rereading and rereading to make sense of it.
 
 
Quote:

  AES-EBU sounds the best and certainly drives a longer cable than coax S/PDIF. So what is so different about it? Well, it is balanced. Now then, normally balanced is better, but the balanced we think of in analog systems is baseband audio. The bi-phase encoded digital stream in S/PDIF and AES-EBU is 2.8-ish to 3.1-ish MegaHertz. Quite a bit higher, like 150x of the highest audio baseband stuff. Much better for longer runs. So what is the circuit difference, besides the connector interface??
 
Are you ready? It is a transformer. That is it, all, done*. A 3Mhz-ish pulse transformer that can drive a 75ohm total load. So you say, well all I have to do is add a transformer to my Modi-Multibit and I can convert my coax input into AES-EBU?? Yup, that is about it except for the connector. Now that XLR plugin connector is a real horsecock compared to the RCA already on the Multi-Modi. Ugh, won't fit. It will fit fine on a Bifrost size chassis. Bad idea #1: Hey, all I have to do is change any of our Magni-Modi chassis sized units to Bifrost or Jotunheim size and I can bring AES-EBU to everyman! How cool. Not so fast – the Bifrost/Jot chassis costs a lot more. Translates to just about eighty bucks. That means the Multi-Modi is now $329 bucks and everyone, including those who could care less about AES-EBU are paying more.
 
Since punishing the masses for the sake of the few didn't seem attractive, I retired to a quiet location. Guess what! While in meditative spiritual congress with the digital audio gods the location of a secret schematic with a solution was revealed. Bad idea #2: All I have to do is build a bidirectional cable with an integrated transformer. This, with an appropriate gender-bender for the XLR end, could make a cable to either convert a coax input to a AES-EBU source, or vice versa, so it would not be necessary to spend a kilobuck for either a DAC or a DDC with AES-EBU connectivity. Brilliant!
 
Then I googled S/PDIF coax to AES-EBU converter cables. There are several available. Under 50 bucks!  Phew! No Schiit price inflation necessary for less expensive products! Great news. Oh, the footnote:
 
*AES-EBU and S/PDIF are not identical. This should be no problem unless you are using pro-gear and pro masters. The subcode information and levels can be different on true pro-audio sourced material, which few/if any of us have access to. If you have a EBU on a DDC connected to a USB, you have nothing to fear. If you have a spinner with a XLR out, no problem. However, if you have a digital master tape connected to a Rane mixer with AES-EBU, then you probably know what you are doing to interface all properly.
 

 

[Pietro Cozzi Tinin]

A coax S/PDIF to AES-EBU converter.

 

[Baldr]

  A coax S/PDIF to AES-EBU converter.

That is easily available from other vendors; no point in Schiit making one.

 

[Karlthehusky721]

  AES-EBU sounds the best and certainly drives a longer cable than coax S/PDIF. So what is so different about it? Well, it is balanced. Now then, normally balanced is better, but the balanced we think of in analog systems is baseband audio. The bi-phase encoded digital stream in S/PDIF and AES-EBU is 2.8-ish to 3.1-ish MegaHertz. Quite a bit higher, like 150x of the highest audio baseband stuff. Much better for longer runs. So what is the circuit difference, besides the connector interface??
 
Are you ready? It is a transformer. That is it, all, done*. A 3Mhz-ish pulse transformer that can drive a 75ohm total load. So you say, well all I have to do is add a transformer to my Modi-Multibit and I can convert my coax input into AES-EBU?? Yup, that is about it except for the connector. Now that XLR plugin connector is a real horsecock compared to the RCA already on the Multi-Modi. Ugh, won't fit. It will fit fine on a Bifrost size chassis. Bad idea #1: Hey, all I have to do is change any of our Magni-Modi chassis sized units to Bifrost or Jotunheim size and I can bring AES-EBU to everyman! How cool. Not so fast – the Bifrost/Jot chassis costs a lot more. Translates to just about eighty bucks. That means the Multi-Modi is now $329 bucks and everyone, including those who could care less about AES-EBU are paying more.
 
Since punishing the masses for the sake of the few didn't seem attractive, I retired to a quiet location. Guess what! While in meditative spiritual congress with the digital audio gods the location of a secret schematic with a solution was revealed. Bad idea #2: All I have to do is build a bidirectional cable with an integrated transformer. This, with an appropriate gender-bender for the XLR end, could make a cable to either convert a coax input to a AES-EBU source, or vice versa, so it would not be necessary to spend a kilobuck for either a DAC or a DDC with AES-EBU connectivity. Brilliant!
 
Then I googled S/PDIF coax to AES-EBU converter cables. There are several available. Under 50 bucks!  Phew! No Schiit price inflation necessary for less expensive products! Great news. Oh, the footnote:
 
*AES-EBU and S/PDIF are not identical. This should be no problem unless you are using pro-gear and pro masters. The subcode information and levels can be different on true pro-audio sourced material, which few/if any of us have access to. If you have a EBU on a DDC connected to a USB, you have nothing to fear. If you have a spinner with a XLR out, no problem. However, if you have a digital master tape connected to a Rane mixer with AES-EBU, then you probably know what you are doing to interface all properly.
 

 
Is it a replacement input board for the Bifrost and Gungnir following the AES-EBU protocol, but using a smaller balanced connector?

 

[Pietro Cozzi Tinin]

 
That is easily available from other vendors; no point in Schiit making one.

OK, let me wake up, find some eggs, make Constanza some breakfast, drink coffee, take a nap, rethink life as it is and then I'll have another go at it.
Oh, and The Mattheus Passion....

 

[Pietro Cozzi Tinin]

   
Is it a replacement input board for the Bifrost and Gungnir following the AES-EBU protocol, but using a smaller balanced connector?

I think it has to be an outside kind of thingy.

 

[Karlthehusky721]

  I think it has to be an outside kind of thingy.

Going off of the hint, the Etir clearly has something to do with AES-EBU. Only one product currently has AES-EBU, the Yiggy. The only possible use case (that I can think of) for a device that has AES-EBU, would be a USB to AES-EBU converter. I doubt this is the product for two reasons, 1) they exist already, and 2) the market for such a device is all people who own the Yiggy and are unsatisfied with the inputs... which isn't all that many people. Where does that leave us? Well, from what we know, Etir has nothing to do with the Yiggy, and something to do with AES-EBU. It turns out that no Schiit devices are both not the Yiggy and compatible with the AES-EBU standard absent hardware modifications. If non-Yiggy devices are to have AES-EBU, something must be changed internally. It just so happens, both the Bifrost and Gungnir have an input that is upgrade friendly. Something like this would, "bring AES-EBU to everyman" who owns a Bifrost/Gungnir and any future revisions of the Modi.
 
I think I've read every hint dropped about the Etir, and nothing directly implied it would occupy a separate box.
 
*I could be (probably am) completely wrong*