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Post by Deleted on May 8, 2019 17:42:27 GMT
See the green block and the silver DC socket on the front edge, power goes in by one of those, 12-19v at 3 amps. All the shenanigans at the front of the board is just the battery management stuff. It's pretty smart though. Once you switch it on it begns a run-time countdown and slowly switches everything off after sounding an alarm once you reach the user set end time and then goes into recharge. It's not really a Battery psu as the front end needs to be powered to work, but all the battery rails are isoltaed in use and it only charges when switched off- so to speak. Its very cool. How's the sound? I'm currently playing with this:     Its very good indeed. At $399 though, it's a bit pricey. |
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2019 10:27:35 GMT
It’s actually $499.99. The $399.99 price is a pre order discount so probably won’t last long. Strikes me as being a rip-off!
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2019 11:17:31 GMT
It’s actually $499.99. The $399.99 price is a pre order discount so probably won’t last long. Strikes me as being a rip-off! Yes, you're quite right, Greg. That's the preorder price. As for whether it's a rip off or not, I always look for the same things. Quality of materials used, how easy they are to make and how much thought has gone into it. Although there are a couple of issues, one being where the power enters the board and some digital noise, its actually a superb sounding piece of kit. In all honesty, the components on this board are rock solid. 0.1% accuracy. It has true Balanced outputs and unbalanced outs. Custom made chassis and when you factor in how much all of that costs, Id expect about 50% markup in that purchase price. There are some folk charging upwards of 400% for their kit. So, cheap? no. Rip off? not in my opinion. |
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Post by macca on May 13, 2019 11:59:32 GMT
If it has audible noise then it's no good until that's fixed.
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Post by savvypaul on May 13, 2019 12:47:47 GMT
What sort of noise?
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2019 14:10:50 GMT
If it has audible noise then it's no good until that's fixed. Inaudible noise is worse. You can't even hear it. |
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2019 14:32:32 GMT
If it has audible noise then it's no good until that's fixed. Inaudible noise is worse. You can't even hear it. I know. Nightmare situation. You know it's there, but there's no sign of it! |
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2019 15:04:13 GMT
You can fix inaudible noise by using a better wifi cable
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Post by macca on May 13, 2019 15:29:24 GMT
Ho ho. But you can have noise that is below the threshold of hearing.
Your wife shouting you to put the bins out, children asking you for money, that sort of thing.
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2019 16:12:05 GMT
Ho ho. But you can have noise that is below the threshold of hearing. Your wife shouting you to put the bins out, children asking you for money, that sort of thing. You must have better hearing than me as all of those are painfully audible to me |
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Post by macca on May 13, 2019 16:54:57 GMT
You just need a better spec noise filter.
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2019 21:52:15 GMT
If it has audible noise then it's no good until that's fixed. Yes I totally agree. I have tried a few things today, went back to the RPI that came with it and it was noisy. Put my RPI Back in and it was far better. Oddly, using a USB Stick with flac files into the Pecanpi and playing back via Volumio, reduces the noise to practically non existant. I also went back to Jriver and the NAS on my laptop and swapped the HDD the files were stored on. This one is a bit newer. Guess what, noise reduction occurred with that. What I noticed is, at its worst, the noise happens in sync with the green led on the pi. Like I said, it's like you can hear it thinking. Much better result today with the changes but I want to try and irradicate any noise. I suspect if I were to fit the whole thing back in the casework, it may be fine. That won't happen tomorrow, though, the Katana will be here and that's going to get a listen first! People telling me privately that they pick the Katana over their Mytek Brooklyn. Considering most reviews claim it to be one of the best dacs in its class and above, that's some endorsement We will see how they stack up. |
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2019 21:54:24 GMT
Like a clicking and a low level beeping. Sort of reminiscent of old dial up modems when the got stuck. Beep beep beep click beep beep click..... Sounds better in my head lol |
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Post by savvypaul on May 13, 2019 22:17:00 GMT
Like a clicking and a low level beeping. Sort of reminiscent of old dial up modems when the got stuck. Beep beep beep click beep beep click..... Sounds better in my head lol I had something similar when I first plugged in the RME. I ran a phono plug wire from one of the spare neutral RCA inputs on my preamp to the earth pin of a mains plug in a spare socket. Silenced the noise... |
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Post by macca on May 14, 2019 6:41:28 GMT
You shouldn't have to do that though. That would be enough for me to be sending it back. Good that we have independent reviews that mention these sort of issues.
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Post by savvypaul on May 14, 2019 7:41:08 GMT
You shouldn't have to do that though. That would be enough for me to be sending it back. Good that we have independent reviews that mention these sort of issues. Had the same thing with the Chord 2Qute, but not the Metrum. The Heresys are 99db so they pick up on anything that is there. |
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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2019 7:46:35 GMT
You shouldn't have to do that though. That would be enough for me to be sending it back. Good that we have independent reviews that mention these sort of issues. Had the same thing with the Chord 2Qute, but not the Metrum. The Heresys are 99db so they pick up on anything that is there. Yes the pioneer are high 90s so that's what happens here too. I'll try a wire to the preamp and see what happens. Macca, if I'd disregarded every piece that made an odd noise, I'd have nothing left lol. I usually have to find a way around most pieces that arrive to get them to behave. Krell, DCB1 and BigBottle are the only ones to behave so far lol |
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Post by macca on May 14, 2019 8:02:47 GMT
if it is there you'd hear it through any speaker. There's so many DACs out there why pick one that has problems? The sound quality differences are minimal and I think even the differences in presentation are over-egged. There's only so many ways to decode a simple data stream.
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Post by savvypaul on May 14, 2019 8:08:06 GMT
if it is there you'd hear it through any speaker. There's so many DACs out there why pick one that has problems? The sound quality differences are minimal and I think even the differences in presentation are over-egged. There's only so many ways to decode a simple data stream. It's just a minor mismatch in earthing arrangements between different pieces of kit, and very easily solved, in my case. |
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Post by macca on May 14, 2019 9:13:29 GMT
You know what you are doing though, most people wouldn't know where to start in implementing a fix. And then there's people like me who think that we shouldn't bloody well have to implement anything.
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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2019 11:49:12 GMT
Well, quite. Hum was something you had to put up with/get around when using vinyl sources, but I've never experienced 'noise' issues with any digital device I've used.
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Post by savvypaul on May 14, 2019 12:35:03 GMT
Well, quite. Hum was something you had to put up with/get around when using vinyl sources, but I've never experienced 'noise' issues with any digital device I've used. Recreating the vinyl experience is a big market for dac manufacturers. |
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Post by macca on May 14, 2019 13:04:27 GMT
They are not trying hard enough though. We need a DAC that adds surface noise, monos the low bass and then cuts it off entirely below 40Hz, bungs in a chunk of second and third harmonic distortion, plays slightly off pitch and compresses the dynamic range more and more the closer you get to the last song on the album.
Oh and you have to put 50p in a slot on top of the DAC before it will play an album (to simulate the cost of replacing the stylus).
Then we'd truly have an analogue sounding DAC!
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Post by savvypaul on May 14, 2019 13:05:52 GMT
They are not trying hard enough though. We need a DAC that adds surface noise, monos the low bass and then cuts it off entirely below 40Hz, bungs in a chunk of second and third harmonic distortion, plays slightly off pitch and compresses the dynamic range more and more the closer you get to the last song on the album. Oh and you have to put 50p in a slot on top of the DAC before it will play an album (to simulate the cost of replacing the stylus). Then we'd truly have an analogue sounding DAC! Still better, though, innit... |
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Post by macca on May 14, 2019 13:07:11 GMT
A man from the DAC manufacturer will visit periodically to empty the 'meter' and to check you have not been on the fiddle.
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Post by macca on May 14, 2019 13:08:43 GMT
They are not trying hard enough though. We need a DAC that adds surface noise, monos the low bass and then cuts it off entirely below 40Hz, bungs in a chunk of second and third harmonic distortion, plays slightly off pitch and compresses the dynamic range more and more the closer you get to the last song on the album. Oh and you have to put 50p in a slot on top of the DAC before it will play an album (to simulate the cost of replacing the stylus). Then we'd truly have an analogue sounding DAC! Still better, though, innit... In some ways, yes, but I think it is mostly nostalgic now - for me anyway. |
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Post by savvypaul on May 14, 2019 13:11:17 GMT
Still better, though, innit... In some ways, yes, but I think it is mostly nostalgic now - for me anyway. It still has 'the magic' for me. Idlers and DDs all the way, though... It's still relatively early days for digital...and our understanding of how to get the best from it. |
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Post by macca on May 14, 2019 14:14:00 GMT
It really isn't!
I don't understand how that myth got started but digital was a done deal by the end of the 1980s. I think maybe all the analogue people coming into it still think in analogue terms with all the variables that has associated with it and assume the same must be true of digital. All these little tweaks that eke out every drop of performance.
Completely missing the point that the industry adopted digital precisely to get away from all those issues!
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Post by savvypaul on May 14, 2019 14:19:54 GMT
It really isn't! I don't understand how that myth got started but digital was a done deal by the end of the 1980s. I think maybe all the analogue people coming into it still think in analogue terms with all the variables that has associated with it and assume the same must be true of digital. All these little tweaks that eke out every drop of performance. Completely missing the point that the industry adopted digital precisely to get away from all those issues! That's too polarised for me. I think there's merit in both arguments and the reality is a mix of the two. There are some absolute truths in terms of data, frequencies etc...but implementation is a big part, and the accompanying system makes a big difference. PS. The biggest improvement I heard with digital was a 15" woofer! |
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Post by macca on May 14, 2019 16:55:54 GMT
With digital speakers are always going to be the biggest improvement.
the strength of digital is the ultra low noise and distortion. The weakness is it lacks the benign, euphonic distortion of vinyl or the benign compression of RTR.
If you amps and speakers cannot exploit the low noise and distortion all you get is vinyl without the benefits of vinyl. If they can exploit it then you get amazing insight into the recording but without the euphoric and euphonic distortion. Either you appreciate and prefer that trade off or you don't and you stick with vinyl. Over time I have come to appreciate and prefer it. Some don't which is fair enough.
From today's computing point of view a musical recording is trivially easy to define and reproduce perfectly. It was more of a challenge in the 1970s but they did it nonetheless. By modern standards it is a simpler computing task than running an app on your phone. People forget tha digital audio is computing and computing is mathematics and there are no grey areas or alternative answers in mathematics.
There really is nowhere else to go with it, which is why they started remastering and in some case remixing old classics and pretending that the improvements came from the 'hi res' technology. It is just a marketing scam. A very successful one. If there really was a way to build a better mousetrap do you not think we would have seen it by now?
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