Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

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cozzzzzzzz in reply to @Stevethecoffee

thanks. I bought a cheap DAC (SMSL M100 mkii) to trial and - to my ears - the audio seems noticeably better (source: chromecast 3)

now... just need to figure how loud I can rip it before the neighbours start grousing

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Velocio in reply to @cozzzzzzzz

Chromecast 3 outputs HDMI, that DAC doesn't have HDMI input.. what else is in the equation?

I'm always looking for a replacement to the Chromecast Audio, not because mine has issues but because it will eventually suffer bitrot from no longer being supported.

There's this: https://www.essenceelectrostatic.com/product/hdacc-ii-4k/ but it seems a bit excessive.

And this: https://www.kanexpro.com/item/?id=HAECOAX but who knows whether this is good or not.

And this: https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=590187330024 which looks great, but would prefer spdif. But apparently this is the only way to get a coax output from a SACD.

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cozzzzzzzz in reply to @Velocio

cheap HDMI audio extractor

CC3 -> HDMI -> cheap HDMI audio extractor -> toslink -> SMSL DAC -> RCA -> rega io amplifier

I'm assuming that because the signal is being passed along the chain digitally (via HDMI then toslink) that there is no conversion at all until it comes out of the DAC as analogue. it does sound less thin to me (with fuller mids, less forward vocals) with this setup but could just be confirmation bias. only fooled around with it for 30 mins since it arrived this am. will give it a further test later on. who knows with this stuff

CC3 doesn't serve as high a bitrate as the CCA, as far as I'm aware. it's limited to 16/44 (whereas I think the CCA does 24/96?)

I'll probably end up getting a bluesound node 2i at this rate

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