Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

Anyone played with a miniDSP? Thinking of using it as an active cross over, EQ, experiment box for speaker building. Don’t really understand what it is though...

1. All my audio comes from the computer (streams or mp3)
   
2. My Cambridge C70 pre-amp needs some repairs
   
3. My DAC is just a cheap USB dongle
   
   

Given that, why not Pro-Ject Pre Box S2 Digital? Seems like it should replace the dongle with a much better DAC and the C70 with a crackle free volume knob, all in a much smaller package. Anybody see any downside/alternative?

Looks good that, the only thing I have found is that when I plugged my dac (with pre-amp) into the preamp in on my amplifier it didn't sound nearly as good as using it as a line-level source and turning off the preamp mode. No idea why, don't think that ought to be the case.

You'll enjoy streaming full MQA audio from Tidal if you're a subscriber.

Edit, you have a power amp not an integrated, you'll most likely be golden.

Edit again, this little combo is a bit of a bargain.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114117859612

this little combo is a bit of a bargain

Not that much of a bargain when a new Modi3 + Magni3+ combo is $198 (about £230 with shipping and tax). If I were very tight for money, second hand schiit would be OK, but the Pro-Ject looks worth the extra on paper.

you have a power amp

I have two 🙂

I have two

What are they?

Rotel RB930AXs bi-amped to Tannoy 611s

Good kit.

Trying and failing to remember the model number of the last pair of tannoys I had. They were one of the later dual concentric designs.

I drove to Oxford or some bloody place to pick them up from an eBay seller who was either the mother or ex wife of the actual owner. They were cheap. I got them home and discovered that one of the bullet tweeters was blown. I managed to purchase another and repaired; they were good hard working party speakers. :-)

Eventually replaced the Tannoys with a pair of Linn Keilidh which I still have. They were another irrational eBay purchase necessitating a long drive to some place in Hampshire.

They are not bad at all. They do stirling duty as the kitchen speakers.

Good kit

Since I was delving into the murky waters of audiophilia for the first time in a quarter of a century, I checked the reviews of my current kit. There was a fair amount of comment that the 611s were the worst of the Sixes ☹️ Oh well, they've only cost me 20p a week.

Plenty of people have negative opinions on Linn Keilidhs as well. But I like them.

These are the Tannoys I was taking about; DC2000.

Treble was a tad harsh but overall I liked them:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/202911274878

Meh.

Remember these reviews are written by people who think 25cm of interconnect plugs can make a MASSIVE difference to the miles of copper pcb track in the separate components of HiFi.

So.

1. Do you like how they sound?

2. If no then buy something else.

3. If yes then ignore the silly sods who also think a £1000 kettle lead can make a audible change.

Meh

Exactly. I've had them 25 years, if I didn't like them I'd have changed them by now

And buy special sound liquid made from snakes

Is it madness to solve my harsh treble / sibilance by adding a digital EQ like a miniDSP? I have full range floor standers and a sub so I can use it as a cross over too, it just seems wrong to take an analogue signal from my turntable, digitise it, process then analogue it again. Right now it’s a pretty purist setup but the main speakers treble is really fatiguing.

When listing to Spotify or whatever I have the treble dialled down and it’s fine.

Sell speakers. Buy new speakers.

Sell speakers. Make new speakers.

This is the other option, but £90 on a fancy EQ that lets me adjust these / any future set-ups to sound good is quite appealing.

Also, if I make two-way speakers in future I could use the miniDSP as a tweakable crossover, which is quite appealing.

Are the drivers new?

Nah, Fostex FE127e that I’ve had for many years. They’re known for their “shout” and a bit of break up in the highs.

I love the soundstage and detail, tried other drivers in the same cabinets and they just sounded dead.

I was going to build completely new floor standers around a pair of Markaudio Alpair 7a but EQing does seem like a much cheaper and more flexible option. Don’t really want to spend £200 on parts and a couple of days in the workshop only to be disappointed when I fire them up.

I played with DSP in playback software and the results were very noticeable, I used it to liven up the treble.

You’ve got 30 days to send it back if you don’t like it, nothing to lose.

Isn’t dsp for LF (mainly)?

I had a mike, a Dirac and mucked around with the iMac output. I wasn’t massively impressed

There are some strongly held opinions around about DSP not being suitable for high frequencies. I'm using convolution eqs on my nearfield setup and basic parametric eq on mains. It makes more sense than putting up with the very small problems I'm trying to iron out.

Sometimes it's not really worth the effort to try and find another component that has better synergy with your room. Just EQ it for a while and another solution might present itself in time.

I would run an analog chain but it doesn't make sense to have an analog 32+ channel mixing desk and that's what I need for the drum machines!

Whenever I've simplified things to a minimum I don't get a better connection to the music, I get an annoying little issue with some part of the frequency range instead :)

Thanks, that's a really good answer. There are so many terms that I don't understand when reading about miniDSP and all the filters - it feels like another nerdhole waiting to swallow me up.

Do you have a mic you use to measure and feedback, or just do it by ear?

Would I be right in thinking that the problems with digital audio are more often to do with compression than sampling rate ? (obvs a bit of both though). If so, my analogue signal - A/D > DSP > D/A - although being converted twice, isn't being compressed at any point so shouldn't degrade too much.

miniDSP:
28/56bit DSP Engine
24 bit ADC/DAC resolution
48kHz sampling rate