Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

I got one too. The Bluetooth aspect is flawless, you can chop and change source without any drop outs or interference. Doesn't feel like much compromise at all on audio quality either. I have a D1 in another room which is obviously better, but not massively. I'm surprised how good it is actually. I have it set up with a switch source on my turntable so I can stream music through the same system. Nice orange light when in aptx mode too

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Wouldn't some kind of raspberry pi solution or similar where you can still control it via your phone but without the restrictions of Bluetooth be a better idea?

I fell out of love with the whole USB music based thing after the Access Virus Ti. I wanted that thing to work so badly but all it did was destabilise every aspect of my music making and become a total time sink because it never worked reliably. Stand alone it was a great piece, even as a sound card it was pretty good but the USB audio integration killed the dream for me.

Having said that my mixer can send 32 tracks to usb at 96/24k. I use it with an iPad and can record 9 piece bands easily, its completely stable.

What's the thinking with the off-board DAC (I'm assuming audio interface - was it you with the focusrite scarlett/red?) not doing any DAC? Is the Mac optical out a bit shit?

Yeah that was me. I love little offboard DACs, having a dedicated piece of hardware for audio ringfences the digital signal generation and offers a more stable and higher quality output than the Mac mini’s standard optical out. More specifically, jitter and signal to noise are significantly reduced. I’m pretty certain I have more headroom too so it’s a win all round.

Just to clarify:
Mac mini with a Creative soundblaster G5 DAC -> optical -> hifi DAC -> pre-amp

Though if I had a better hifi DAC I’d just USB in to that.

I’ve not got a huge amount of experience with DACs, but I have a little Chinese valve jobbie here that is the best I’ve had by a mile (apart from one posh one I had on loan).

Cost me 75, plus a nos valve.

Great upgrade.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F254385064531

That looks dodgy as fuck. But only because I am probably a massive racist.

yeah it does. sounds good, though.

you are a massive racist, too

i accidentally bought a Technics SL7 - serviced, with a new cart FOR SEVENTY FIVE QUIDS!

i couldn't leave it there at that price.

I'm pretty much done with my recent hifi upgrades, and so far I'm very happy with the results. I've got Topping DX3 Pro DAC/preamp/headphone amp going into my old active Genelec speakers, and massdrop Sennheiser HD58X headphones. Raspberry Pi running spotifyd is connected to DAC via USB, optical from TV, which still leaves two coaxial inputs unused (+ bluetooth). The DAC is tiny and inexpensive, and supposedly the measurable performance is quite decent.

To my ears everything sounds good, I like the simplicity and small size (previously I've used preamp part from a massive late '70s integrated amp) and I can use Android Spotify app as a remote for the Raspberry Pi. Using Raspberry Pi also means I could try dabbling with room correction at some point. What I can't easily do is hook up the record player, but I don't see this as a massive negative at the moment. Maybe I'll do a retro setup in the basement at some point :-)

Hey, does anyone have any recommendations on all in-one wireless set up for a small ish living area?

I was thinking about the Ruark r4? Or the Ruark r5 and double it up as a sound bar for the tv?

https://www.richersounds.com/mini-system-inc-speakers-1.html
https://www.richersounds.com/ruark-r5-grey.html

Thanks

Brennan B2?

Thanks - looks like a great piece of kit.

You'd still need to connect speakers to this? and don't have a vast CD collection that I'd need to transfer, so perhaps not quite right.

Thanks though.

You would, yes.

If you can get away with a pair of stereo speakers, I'd strongly recommend it. No matter how 'unidirectional' a manufacturer states an all in one is, it still sounds like all parts of a track are coming out of a single speaker, almost sounding mono to me. YMMV, but I personally really dislike that aspect of all in ones. Stereo speakers are vastly superior for things like instrument and vocal separation.

If you don't have lots of CDs, the Yamaha network player has been highly rated on here?

Anyone know of a decent supplier of drive belts for a Cambridge Audio CD4 CD player? The CD player doesn't read CD and searching it could be the drive belt.

Is it worth changing the belt? It does involve quite alot of dismantling and could still be something else such as the lazer failing. The CD player has an optical out to an optical processor and then to the amp so not sure of getting another cd with an optical out.

Double check the capacitors in the power supply. I've known them to fail and cause the player to stop reading the disks.

They all look fine, no swelling or signs of leaking from any capacitors.

That leaves the laser or the drive belt.

Just spent 3 hours trying to figure out why I couldn't get my new (as in new to me eBay special) laptop to drive my dac.

Spent 3 hours messing about installing drivers, uninstalling, trying different drivers, messing about with settings in J River.

Got extremely annoyed and turned it all off, in a huff.

Had a sudden idea. Changed the USB cable and it all worked fine.

Huh. Dunno what's gone on there.

Which one?

The wx thing gets freddos vote.
But I was thinking the rn or something that Aggi/prole (?) Bought a year or more ago.

Maybe this one:
CRXN470D

Frustrating.

Thank you - that is super helpful!

Ok brill, thank you. Looks like a better option but still would require an amp