Its a little hard to pin it down. I believe it did clean up the noise. The music was clearer with more detail and a blacker background. I was pleasantly surprised at the result myself.
DAC/Pre-Amp Advice
Hey all!
Currently at a crossroads in my HiFi adventure. I want to know what you guys would recommend as my next upgrade to my system. Here is the equipment I currently have:
Bluesound Node
Yamaha A-S1200
Sony UBP-X800 (Using this as SACD player)
Rega Planar 2 Turntable
Pair of B&W 704 S2
I have had the amp for around 45-60 days now, and I love the sound now that I have had time to burn it in. Mostly stream music from Tidal right now (trying out Qobuz), and play the occasional Record/SACD with the equipment above. I feel the only things I am really desiring in this system is some type of room correction, and subwoofers.
When looking at room correcting software, what all do you guys recommend? With new Preamp/DAC would I need it to support MQA, or would my Node be able to take care of that? Budget is around $2500-3000, but I'm open to frankly any other suggestions. If you guys need any other info please let me know, looking forward to the discussion.
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Just did a little upgrading. Hagerman Trumpet preamp. Fed by Swagman LPS. Black ice DAC. Put together a set of open baffle speakers . Caintuck and Lii audio. Also a new pair of Fritz Carbon 7's. Still have 30 year old Klipsch Fortes . Depending on what I listen to sometimes the music almost encircles me.
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Chuck_Tamu, The issue with the Node (even the 130) is that it is trying to be a jack of all trades at an extremely reasonable price. You've got class leading software development, streaming, DAC, power supplies, etc all in a $600 package.....all aspects cannot be state of the art, costs must be saved. Lot's of Node owners have opted for a linear power supply (LPS) upgrade package, and report excellent results (blacker background, soundstage width, imaging, greater clarity)....the most common one I believe is the Teddy Pardo kit which comes in at $500 to $550 depending on your Node model. I have experience with Alvin Chee who is principal distributor for LHY, Denafrips, and Jays Audio CD transports.....I have quite a complete Denafrips stack from DDC through amp and he did recommend the kit which comes in at $280 for the power supply upgrade with the LPS. I'll give it a try, see how much it improves things; and if not, I'm only out $280 |
Alright guys, might have had a bit of a breakthrough, so let me know if this is something you guys know of and recommend, or if I'm off my rocker. I'm willing to make the concession initially of my phono stage not having DSP, but I could always add it back in later with a phono stage that has a built in ADC. One that seems to get very good reviews is the Parks Audio Puffin. They have the option to get one with either a SPDIF out or Toslink out. Have my UHD Blueray player connected to my TV, and run ARC to the Node 130. Connect Node 130 to ethernet (look into LPS upgrades and EMI filtering). Connect Node 130 to MiniDSP SHD Studio via USB. Have the turntable connect via Parks Audio Puffin to the MiniDSP SHD Studio via Toslink/SPDIF. Connect SHD Studio to DAC via AES-EBU. (I haven't found any DSP's that provide RC with an I2S output sadly. If anyone knows of one please let me know) Is there too much risk of added noise here? I know that was brought up earlier in one of my posts. @soix in the DSPeaker unit you linked earlier, can that USB port be used for Audio in? I wasn't able to discern on their website/manual. I appreciate you guys a lot, I know I have made it difficult on myself because of the Yamaha amp, but I fell in love with just about every aspect of that thing when I first listened to it. |
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