Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

Budget? Home use or on the go?

Cowon make fairly good stuff. I bought one about 8 years ago, and still use it occasionally. In house software is a bit clunky but works and sounds good.

I'm thinking of either spending up to 150 on a cheaper DAP or used LG V20/30, or going up to 300 ish on an android player maybe Cowon D2 (non-android) or iBasso dx160 (andorid but no play store). I think that kind of money would be better spent elsewhere though.

For home/office/train use. I'll use bluetooth/phone streaming for walking/jogging.

Interesting that's your initial impression. Roon is doing quite a bit!

Maybe it feels different if you are more focussed on your own collection. For a lot of people with massive disorganised collections Roon is sorting all that out as well as the bit perfect endpoint handling/dsp/volume levelling/radio functions.

Roon is doing quite a bit!

Yeah, I take your point. I guess it's because I'm coming from a set up with J River MC which I have got pretty well sorted and has many of the features which Roon has.

So for me, the big change is being able to browse and listen to the Tidal catalogue and have it integrated into my own library.

The radio function is great. Been using that lots.

JRiver is a one off cost of $60, and if you want to upgrade to future releases you get something like a 50% discount. I've been using it for over 10 years and I'd guess it's cost me less than a year of Roon, which is why I think Roon doesn't seem like great value.

I doubt that'll stop me though.

The value proposition is hard to take lightly. I've not regretted the lifetime membership but I'm usually blowing similar amounts or more on equipment so I kind of justified it that way.

I'm guessing it needs to be really good to have survived though. There are great music players around and some of the biggest names are free so its a tough market to be the most expensive player in.

Apparently the extra metadata costs them quite a bit. Can't remember the name of the company that supplies it but Allmusic is involved somehow.

I think ~£10/month is OK, there's no way I'm paying for 5+ years up front though. I'd like to think in that time period there will be something equally good or the the streaming services etc sort their apps out, and if they don't I'll carry on buying yearly. I do think having tried it, it's really good, I'm going to dump Spotify and move to Tidal / Roon as it solves a few problems I was having and is just a really nice set up for how I listen to music.

Don't get me wrong, I think your argument is sound @Airhead, I just don't see myself getting invested enough in it to justify the lifetime license !

I think it was easier to justify a couple of years ago and with better exchange rates and a lower price. I probably wouldn't do it now because I think you're right, inside 5 years a streaming service will likely integrate similar functions. Roon have such a head start at the moment on a lot of the difficult stuff and the software is pretty stable, it will take a while for anyone else to compete at a lower price point.

Any recommendations for a phono preamp? Sub £100.00.
My Denon AV receiver doesn't have an input for a record player. Second hand for something decent also good.

The NAD one is ok and used to be available for £70. I made a couple from board level including the power supply and it cost a fair bit more but there are kits available on eBay to make decent phono amps if you enjoy soldering.

Unless you’re already familiar with using a DAP I think it’ll probably end up becoming annoying having two players. Why not upgrade the phone’s storage (or subscribe to some streaming music service or other) and add an inline DAC like the Audioquest dragonfly or Cyrus Soundkey ?

Yeah it's a conundrum, except for the fact that carrying around a DAC for my phone is so much worse than just having a music player. Having to pull out my little DAC dongle for 'serious' listening while I drink real ale at my seat in the pub. I'd feel dirty, like I'm carrying around a Fleshlight.

My phone has no external storage anyway, despite being a good phone (Xiaomi Mi 6). I could buy an LG Vxx phone, but I'd rather just not listen to music than dump a phone and spend money on another which is a bit louder. My last experience of streaming services was Tidal which entailed limited artists/albums and not being able to listen without wifi. Maybe that's changed, but I have a lot of the music I want on file anyway. The problem is that I can only listen in my bedroom. I have IEMs I like on that setup and 400 quid to burn on something more portable.

A DAP is the least annoying option to me, but whether it worth spending a few hundred quid on I'm not sure.

I too have a reasonably large library of lossless music and am not really that into streaming, though I accept it does have its place.
My solution for almost a decade now has been a NAS at home that serves my music to my phone/work computer over the internet using Plex. Plex essentially creates a private streaming service that can adjust the bitrate of the stream depending on whether you’re connecting over LAN, WiFi or mobile data. Each device has its own DAC with the quality Of the DAC dependent on use.

You could certainly do this for £400 and a bit of time invested, especially if you used a micro PC with some storage rather than a NAS. If your files are already on an internet connected PC / Mac then you could do it for free or the cost of a plex licence / subscription. Plex does have limitations though, for example it won’t support MQA.

Sorry, I know this doesn’t answer your question but it does give you an alternative option :)

I know this isn't exactly audiophile, but can anyone recommend a bluetooth speaker with a good, natural sound? Doesn't have to be portable.

I've got a Bose Soundlink but the bass is far too boosted.

I'm looking for something that doesn't assume all anyone wants from their sound equipment is moar bass. It's hard to tell from reviews because for a lot of people, moar bass is exactly what they want.

most speakers (I know my UE Boom 2 does - and was always well reviewed) have an EQ built into their app surely?

My ancient quad 33 and 303 is making a ‘tapping’ noise.. quiet, regular popping noise about 4 times a second.. under the music.. remains at constant volume regardless what the music is playing at. Anybody any ideas? Nothing new added to the system (or anywhere else in the house)

Good morning guys.

I've got a HDR TV, with no eARC, and a Dolby Atmos AVR that doesn't support HDR (or Dolby Vision), i.e. it won't forward it to the TV. So if I connect my Xbox One X to the avr (Onkyo TX-NR636) I loose HDR, if I connect it to the TV, I loose Atmos (no eARC)

Is out there any splitter, that you know of, that could help me here sending audio to the avr and video to the TV?

I doubt it exists as it would also need to orchestrate Xbox requests over HDMI when it asks around what devices are connected and what they do support.

Which means I probably have to upgrade the avr, right ?

Libratone or Audio Pro

Could be a cap failing causing the power supply rails to dip. If you disconnect all the inputs do you still hear it?

At the portable end Minirig is good.

I found the BubbleUPNP app the other day and it's pretty useful.

Let's you pass a whole variety of stuff to any DNLA or UPNP player. In particular it lets me pass Tidal to Volumio and my main amp.

Yes - I get it with all inputs disconnected.

My diagnosis is a complete guess but capacitors are a good place to start looking for any old amp related problems. If you open it up can you see any bulging or smell that leaky cap smell?