rbstehno

Responses from rbstehno

Why Don’t You Post Your System on Your Profile?
I got my system pics all over on other audio sites, I don't need it here.  These kind of comments are what diminish the value of this site: "Acoustic and psycho-acoustic experiments are the heart of audio not the esthetical living room with impre... 
Add External DAC or Upgrade to a New Streamer / DAC?
A better dac will get you better sound than getting a better streamer. Keep your streamer in a different room and don’t use usb. This will boil down your options  
Ayre v Hegel sound
The dacs in any of the h3xx integrateds are not that good. I used to own a Hegel h3xx integrated and used the dac for maybe 1 hour in the years that I owned it. I used a dac that cost more than the Hegel integrated itself and it blew away the inte... 
ROON?
Roon a pricey proposition? What hobby are you in? When amps, speakers, and preamps costing $50,000 to over $500,000, or cables costing $10,000 for a few feet, a Roon lifetime purchase price is less than .10% of the sales tax that you will be payin... 
Mac Mini As A Streaming Source
Mercy of Apple updates? Come on, you can do better than this. You don’t need to apple any OS update if you don’t want to. How about updates to the proprietary OS running in the Auralic/Aurender streamers? You trust these updates that might have ha... 
Mesh network versus a simple Wi-Fi extender
Sorry, the statement above “Every time you go thru a walk,” should say “Every time you go thru a wall”.   
Mac Mini As A Streaming Source
So much bad info here. I’ve been using a Mac mini since 2005 as a music server. From 2012, as a headless music server.  Most people buy music servers (macs, pcs, Aurender, innuos,Auralic or any other computer based server, yes, all of these server... 
Mesh network versus a simple Wi-Fi extender
There is a lot of incorrect information in this talk. Let me see if I can clear a few of these things up because most people think all you have to do is buy a router, turn it on, use the default ssid’s and you are good to go, which is far from act... 
Mesh network versus a simple Wi-Fi extender
Overall Wi-Fi extenders are terrible. A lot of them take a weak Wi-Fi signal and try to extend that signal further which further degrades the signal. The best Wi-Fi extenders use a wired connection but they are still use older technology. mesh ne... 
Why Do Cables Matter?
Why post something like this when you can grab a few pair from many online dealers to hear for yourself if there is any difference in sound quality? If you can’t hear or your system isn’t capable for it to take advantage of better cables then don’... 
$50k - $80k Budget…Opinions please.
Room and system synergy are the main items to work on. If you don’t have a good dedicated room that you can place your speakers say 10’ out into the room if you need to and it’s treated, don’t waste your money. If you have to place your speakers u... 
Roon….The Gordon Knot of concierge musical services?
Chuck windows! I’ve had roon on Linux and osx for years and never 1 problem. I never use windows, I prefer the better operating systems. I used the lumin software to control my auralic Aries years ago with good luck. Lightning DS from auralic ende... 
Sometimes more is not better -or- Ethernet Overkill
Get good cables, blue jeans are on the lower end of cables. Better cables will make a difference and depending on your system, the difference can be good or bad.  
Downsizing: Separates>Integrated --PSAudio>Pass Labs
I moved from the Hegel h360 to the psa bhk 250 amp and sounds much better. IMO, you wouldn’t be saving much room by getting rid of the mono’s, just stack them in a rack or put each 1 in back of the speaker. You might want the power of the mono’s i... 
Music Server Advice
If you use usb, then save your money because usb will never give you the best sq no matter which server or tweak/gimmick you apply.