ghdprentice
Responses from ghdprentice
| Where to invest the most in the "digital chain"? The key to streamers is that they isolate vibration, electrical noise… etc. the signal sent to the DAC is incredibly important. They make a huge difference. Keeping the DAC and streamer separate (as long as they are both high quality) also makes a... | |
| Best software to rip CDs to Mac (Mini) You have what looks like a great system. I wouldn’t bother with ripping CDs any more. That was, oh so 10 years ago. I would get your streaming up to the rest of your system. Since my streaming in my headphone and main systems have been of great (e... | |
| Where to invest the most in the "digital chain"? Over the decades it has been proven over and over to me through experience that every part of the digital path is critical… and the more logically something shouldn’t matter, the more it does. Of course, I didn’t learn this. I just couldn’t get m... | |
| Advice for Streaming Newbies - Best Bang for Our Bucks If you are after outstanding sound quality then the key is a high quality streamer and high quality DAC. You can take inexpensive equipment and incrementally improve performance, but if you want real performance you want a carefully chosen streame... | |
| Aurender N200 @marco1 / OP, Yep. I got an Aurender N100 for my headphone system… which resulted in me getting my W20SE for my main sister. | |
| WILL IT MAKE A DIFFERENCE? My experience over the last fifty years has been a slow nearly inpercetible move towards tubes. First to an Audio Research tube preamp, then an Audio Research tubed phono stage, then ARC tubed amp… and finally an ARC tubed DAC. Each step added mu... | |
| How good does my system have to be to realize an improvement with cables? Typically, the rule of thumb is ~10% On the other hand typically your components need to be of a significant resolution and quality before you can really expect a big diffference. I guess, I would say $2,500 components. But, some folks do real... | |
| Silver Speaker Cables Thanks for the system info. I don’t know what the sound characteristics of your preamp is. But looking at how many functions it has, I would be a bit concerned it might not be up to silver… would you consider your system to be pretty warm? If yes,... | |
| Disservice: XLR interconnects Congradulations. Sounds to me as if you are endorsing high end cables… not specifically XLR. For the most part my experience has been that what usually counts is the quality of the interconnect more than whether they are single ended vs XLR. I... | |
| Where to invest the most in the "digital chain"? First the best DAC that you can afford. Then an equivalently high quality streamer. They both matter, and should be of similar caliber to your preamp, and amp… meaning , well chosen and of equal investment. My theory based on my experience wit... | |
| What is the best tonearm for a SOTA Nova turntable? If I remember correctly the loading on the PH2 was done inside by soldering resistors. I got Vishay resistors and set for my cartridge. But then the ARC PH2 was released in 1993. Nearly 30 years ago. The advances in phono stages has been jaw dropp... | |
| What is the best tonearm for a SOTA Nova turntable? +1 on the Audio Research 3… I love mine. Before that: ARC PH8, ARC PH3SE, PH3, PH2SE, and PH2. Audio Research makes incredible phono stages… well, and Preamps… well and amps… there DACs are amazing as well. | |
| What is the “World’s Best Cartridge”? @solypsa Well, I have spent most of my career in IT. My first PC did not have a hard drive. I have been in charge of large data centers and implemented and been responsible for running multibillion dollar global corporations’ systems. Digita... | |
| Silver Speaker Cables Yes there are budget silver cables. The issue can be that cheap silver cables can be unflatteringly revealing on your components. The better the silver cables the less harsh they are. So my first question is what is your system. There is a plac... | |
| Its not vinyl @jond +1… which for me is virtually the same. Digital came up short for 38 of the last 40 years for me. |