A newbie discovers the audiophile left (tubes, single drivers etc.,)

[keith_correa]

hmmm, so i am thinking, could i put it in a cardboard box instead of a case? cut neat holes so that the cables can connect to the PCB inside the box. Does it come with RCA connectors do you know? (If it doesn't then of course that means I would need to do soldering and shit, which makes it impossible)

Perhaps even a hole for the volume knob. Cut some ventilation holes also, and keep the box open while in use. Feasible? or am i missing out some really obvious problem with this approach?

I'm sure someone in the forum from Chennai can help you do better than this.

 

[Rajiv]

Hi Vinay,

Get in touch with Venkat,he had some good cases made for a switching unit a while back.

You could also try Texonic in Ritchie St.they have cases in both plastic(ABS) and extruded aluminium.

Regards
Rajiv

 

[thevortex]

To say that the Topping amp is a steal at Rs. 4000 is in itself a huge understatement! For its price, I am loath to speak one negative word about it. In terms of value for money buys, there ought to be very few components in that league - I think.

Glad everybody enjoyed. I wish I had more of the tracks that Captain Rajesh prefers. I suspect that the music played was not the kind that he prefers but he gamely sat on . Next time, sir, dont forget to bring your own music.

And Vinay - I hope your backpain gets better soon.

Its always a joy to meet likeminded people who are so serious about their audio, yet take the time to savour it.

I could make out that iaudio is very deep into music and is in serious pursuit of a system that could bring years of enjoyment to him. The least I can do is wish him all the best in this journey. I say journey - because I see no destination in sight yet .

And Suri - iaudio has only good words (even great words) for your system and your passion for music. Someday I have resolved I should come listen to your setup - of course, at your convenience.

Even though, iaudio and I seem to share a few common tastes in music, basically we all liked different genres of music. Vinay likes rock and perhaps his preferred volume is a tag higher than the others. Rajiv loves jazz and vocals too to some extent. I listen to everything although I have a preference for Indian classical, select film music and some Jazz. Yet we all found it not too tiring to sit cramped in a small room for about 3.5 hours. 5.5 hours or so for iaudio and Rajiv. I would say the system did its job if it can keep people sitting in one place for so long .

More about the new elements in my setup later - perhaps in a sort of review.

 

[Rajiv]

And Suri - iaudio has only good words (even great words) for your system and your passion for music. Someday I have resolved I should come listen to your setup - of course, at your convenience.

Hi,

Suri, me too.

Regards
Rajiv

 

[spirovious]

no spiro we didn't play with the D2X. But Rajiv and Bala have heard both and clearly prefer the Lyrita DAC. If I recall Bala's comments on the comparison, he said that the D2X sounded thinner and less lively compared to the Lyrita DAC. Perhaps they can post more details on the comparison.

I can tell you that same was my opinion when I was playing D2X in XP.
After I installed windows7,sound changed a lot.
The vocals are fuller & cleaner than in XP.Bass deep & trebles clear without harshness.
secondly I found foobar portable setup sounded better than standard.

 

[captrajesh]

I wish I had more of the tracks that Captain Rajesh prefers. I suspect that the music played was not the kind that he prefers but he gamely sat on . Next time, sir, dont forget to bring your own music.

Bala,

Going by the same analogy, since I'm a Hyderabadi, I should not enjoy anything other than Biryani.:lol: Though I relish it, since I'm now in Chennai, I'm busy gorging on Idli, Vada, Rava dosa and the choicest Chettinad NV delicacies.:licklips:

Actually it was a wonderful experience that I had at your home. In fact, I should probably interact more with you guys to broaden my musical horizons. Most of the tracks that you played were just fabulous. They are so different, kind of exotic.:yahoo:

I have no hesitation in stating that your setup made me think going for digital storage & playback, considering the great convenience that it offers and no perceptible difference in the SQ. Of course, side by side comparison of similar tracks might give some clues but I'd say that would be nitpicking.

For the genre of music you are interested in, your setup is just what the doctor ordered. Congratulations.

Warm regards


Rajesh

 

[ajinkya]

I can tell you that same was my opinion when I was playing D2X in XP.
After I installed windows7,sound changed a lot.
The vocals are fuller & cleaner than in XP.Bass deep & trebles clear without harshness.
secondly I found foobar portable setup sounded better than standard.

Spirovious,
I may be able to see some logical reason Win7 would make the D2X sound better than XP - maybe the drivers are implemented better or the audio layer has less jitter and latency.

But I cannot see why the portable setup and the standard setup would have any difference is sound quality. As per my understanding, the portable setup only installs into the user directory instead of the standard Win porgram directory. In addition, it does not automatically associate media files with foobar. The binary which runs foobar is exactly the same in both setups. So how will these two functions ever affect the audio playback capability of foobar?

 

[spirovious]

I dont know the exact reason & hence installed same foobar 1.01 ver.
Can it be due to reg entry of std verg?
I heard both on same PC with same setting.I found portable sounded more sweat.
Std showing little brightness.It can be my thinking,but I can make out marginal difference.If someone tries the same,it can be can confirmed.

 

[thevortex]

Spirovious - as good as the analog output from the Xonar D2X is, I do believe that there is no comparison with the sound quality from the "Douma-Viren" DAC.

I have also installed Windows 7 on my main home desktop and I dont see how it gives out better sound than XP with cPlay.

 

[stevieboy]

congrats vortex on your new audio gear! :clapping:

have fun listening to single drivers!

so psychotropic finally got to listen to tubes which he's been threatening to do by coming over for a while now

really difficult to say tubes better than solid state but the one sterling advantage of tubes is the ability to swap tubes to get a sound that your ears like best. or perhaps just keep tubes to change the flavour as and when you desire.

psychotropic,

it should be easy to make a wooden case for the buffer, screwing down the necessary components inside the case.

regards

 

[thevortex]

Thanks Stevie! Rajiv mentioned more than once that these look very different to the Harmony Ones he saw at your place.

I dont have photos handy but iaudio has taken quite a few pics and I guess he will be sharing them shortly. Do let me know if you see any differences.

For now I am having great fun with the higher sensitivity. In fact I have packed up a whole lot of kit - the NAD C372, EPOS M12.2 as well as the EPOS ELS Sub. Lets see if over the next month the Harmony Ones sound good enough for me to become my main speaker. I really have not heard more than 20 hours of music on this setup.

 

[thevortex]

That reminds me - I have to mention that the speakers were not fully broken in. Perhaps sometime next month we could do this again to see how it sounds.

 

[spirovious]

Spirovious - as good as the analog output from the Xonar D2X is, I do believe that there is no comparison with the sound quality from the "Douma-Viren" DAC.

I have also installed Windows 7 on my main home desktop and I dont see how it gives out better sound than XP with cPlay.

Well I will check Cplay.I checked with foobar.
secondly I heard/compared with HD202 headphons & so I cld get it clearly.

 

[thevortex]

Well I will check Cplay.I checked with foobar.
secondly I heard/compared with HD202 headphons & so I cld get it clearly.

I am afraid I am not a headphones man, Spiro. I am partial to speakers

 

[spirovious]

Hi Thevo-I found practically no difference with my stereo setup,but with Headphone you cant miss details.