desktopguy
Responses from desktopguy
| $1300-1500 DAC Second the MHDT Orchid. 2 months in w/my new one, it's a love affair... | |
| Worth pursuing analog sound from digital? (forgot to say) Ladder DACs are hardly a "new thing." Theta Digital & a couple others did tremendous development/refinement of early R2R circuits in the '90s, and some of those DACs are still around, sounding amazing. But the mass market never... | |
| Worth pursuing analog sound from digital? Longtime vinyl lover here--someone who successfully transitioned to digital-only in the desktop audio setting (including quality headphones--very revealing of digital). A few observations:1 - The trad way to get better sounding digital is to throw... | |
| Saxaphone vs. Trumpet...Which do you prefer? These instruments are not that comparable physically or acoustically. In the hands of master players, each can sound sublime. I follow numerous jazz players on each instrument, past and present, including trumpet players such like Miles Davis, Lou... | |
| Why HiFi manufacturers don't make active crossovers anymore? Very interesting thread. I'm relatively electronics-ignorant compared to many here--but still have a story to tell.I'm a longtime audiophile who, for reasons too complex to outline here, has been confined to desktop audio in home office for ~20 yr... | |
| Audioquest Dragon Powercord vs Hurricane Duke Ellington famously said, "If it sounds good, it is good."To paraphrase, if you hear a difference between power cables, there is a difference. And if you prefer one over the other, the one you prefer is the better one.(I live by these simple r... | |
| Miracles in Audio, by luck, by good choices,by design or by tweaking... I'm a big headphone guy these days. Until a couple years ago, I somehow hadn't heard the legendary Sennheiser HD650. Then a friend developed a comprehensive series of mods for this headphone. I purchased his next-to-last version of the mods (Jupit... | |
| (Brutally) Honest Audio Reviews There really should be the audiophile equivalent of an S&M site:You log in, pay the fee & list all your equipmentThen up pops a list of reviews for each itemThe reviews are savage, merciless. Basically everything you own & love is a P... | |
| Your favourite music movie? 2 by Alfred Hitchcock, with scores written by the great Bernard Hermann: VERTIGO & PSYCHO (it doesn't hurt that these are among the very best films I ever saw).More recently, 2 sci-fi films w/astounding, subtle, bleeding-edge soundtracks: ARRI... | |
| Thoughts on extending speaker life. I have a pair of mid-80s vintage Vandersteen 4s stored in a closet since 1991 (no use since then). I just assumed the surrounds of midrange, woofer, & subs would be trashed. But I also don't know whether Vandersteen used butyl rubber surrounds... | |
| Perception Time to ditch this "friend" and meet some new people.I mean, what's more important: your satisfaction with your carefully purchased & curated audio system? Or a long-time friend? | |
| I went from Class D to Luxman A/AB - And most of what you think is wrong I have a pretty well reviewed by older class D amp, the Wyred4Sound ST-500. Bought it used in 2017 and have been every pleased with it. BTW, my only reason for going class D was my cramped desktop space that has zero room for a trad A/B amp. I act... | |
| Demo'd a few sets of speakers over the past 2 weeks... I had Vandersteen 4s in the mid-'80s w/all tube preamp & amps (SS on the subs only) and that remains the best sound I've yet heard from big-time speakers. That is to say, I've certainly heard way more expensive gear, and sometimes the sound wa... | |
| What is a lowball offer? How low is low? Every situation is different. Factors that make a given offer "reasonable" vs "lowball" include:1 - Whether the unit being offered F.S. was purchased used or new2 - Age & condition of the unit3 - Relative rarity and/or reputation of the unit4 ... | |
| What is the best BNC Digital Cable under $4,000? I wouldn't spend $4K on any digital cable. But I don't need to. The best digital cable I've heard (I have the RCA version, but BNC is easily available) is the Oyaide 1.3 meter DR-510 coax cable. It's silver and sounded so much better than others h... |