verdantaudio
Responses from verdantaudio
| What say you? This is always fascinating to see how controversial this topic is. Given dealers willingness to send demos out to customers, it is easy and inexpensive to test cables in your system. As a dealer, I have now had the opportunity to test lots of ... | |
| Bluesound Node2 with outboard DAC The DAC in the Node 2 is not the best. Adding an external DAC will improve sound and yes, eventually the Node would be limiting. I wouldn't pair it with a Rockna Signature but a Chord Qutest, Questyle CMA 12 or 15, etc... woudld be a good match.... | |
| Weakest digital link: DAC - Streamer - Server? IMO, a NAS should outperform Tidal depending on the quality of the drive you are using for the NAS. One of the reasons you want a server is to tame the extremely volatile internet. If you are just using a streamer, it has to work harder to settle... | |
| The Proverbial "best amp" for Focal Sopra No. 1 Naim. Those speakers are voiced using Naim amps and Naim is owned by the same parent company. Naim and Focal go together like peanut butter and jelly. | |
| Preamp shootout: Linear tube audio, Modwright, etc. The two I can think of that could be interesting are: PS Audio BHK Signature AVM Evolution PA5.2 In both cases the stock tubes are not optimal. In the case of the BHK, there is a pair of NOS Tunsgrams that really brings the unit to life and it... | |
| Comparing Speaker Cables My advice is to pick a small number of tracks and take very careful notes. Listen for the extremes and pick tracks that are hard to reproduce. This is the best possible way to do these kinds of comparisons. If, based on your notes, you don't ... | |
| Chord TT2 - use Tidal or Qobuz? Qobuz is better choice for Chord as you point out about MQA. The primary reason you would use Tidal is if you prefer Tidal's library and some of the other functionality. That being said, if you are a Tidal fan, Chord might not be the right choic... | |
| $2k-$3k DAC Purchase Check out the new Questyle CMA 15 which lists for $2495. I have the CMA 12 here and it punches way above its price point. The 15 is the new flagship and the tech in there units is quite impressive. I might also look at a used Audiobyte HydraV... | |
| SQ of Hegel H390 on-board DAC? I am a Hegel dealer and have had a 390 here. The onboard DAC will be more forward than the very warm Aqua. The clean and precise sound of the Hegel does not add brightness so this will be a good step forward without getting crazy bright. | |
| Dedicated Music Server/Player The K30 has two separate computers inside one box. The K50 has two computers, a clock and a separate power supply for each part inside that one box. It is about separation of the parts, not separation of the boxes. When you look at a K30 or... | |
| Dedicated Music Server/Player Independent streamer/server is definitely the way to go. Given the nature and load associated with rendering vs. the actual server, I feel best performance comes from devices with separate computers for the two functions. The server requires ton... | |
| Weiss 501 DAC @lordmelton I communicated my point poorly. All I was doing is providing information as to where the product is produced. You suggested China which is not accurate. Not making any judgements on your POV otherwise. Looking back on the post, I... | |
| Weiss 501 DAC @lordmelton Musical Fidelity was produced in Taiwan prior to purchase. ProJect is the owner and their OEM for electronics is Canor in Slovakia and my understanding is that production will be moved to Slovakia in time. I am the importer for Can... | |
| Puritan PSM156 There are technical differences in terms of the amount and nature of the filtering in the Puritan vs. other devices like AQ. AQ has a unique grounding system and is at its best when everything in the system is AQ. This is not the case with purit... | |
| Single Ended DAC vs Dual Differential XLR DAC You are right...being sloppy. If all you are doing to convert an SE signal to XLR is adding an "inverting amplifier" you will not get all the benefits of a device being "balanced" and depending on the quality of that section of the amp/premap/DAC,... |