The One and Only Big D Thread

It's less than a third as conductive as copper. You really want rhodium or gold plated copper (you need it plated with something non-corroding unless you can make the connection gas-tight).

Also, this really doesn't need its own thread ... it'd be perfectly fine in either the general advice thread or the one you already have going about your big system adventure.

 

Dude

 

Why not use bare wire?

 

Big D,

Are you running tube savers with the Freya? There have been some reports that these will considerable reduce the amount of heat build up inside Freya. Just make sure that they fit through the chassis.

 

I personally like to use bare wire, but I like to check it every once in a while and apply Deoxit to make sure the copper hasn't oxided (at least when I'm not using SPC).

 

Thanks guys for your wise ass and others with your well intention about my question of spades and brass. I guess the notion that a "spade is a spade" is not true.

I have REL subs that I have spade connection with my new Morrow Audio REL upgrade cable that is Speakon. I will be changing between equipment, and the cable will be coming on and off. My current speaker cable is 8awg about 500 strand OFC cable. Very fine copper. It is a pain when it is not put into some kind of control. Otherwise the stuff shoots all over and needs to be recut.

Now that I have a Mark Levinson No.331 coming into the foray, I will be changing amps like my underwear (joke). I want to make things easy to change out.

I fell asleep for the 4th time in front of the new livingroom system. Does this make it a boring system, or does this show that it is a soothing system? This is a new thing that can't be explained by Google. @PoochZag

 

I'm thinking that maybe you prefer the thrill of the chase. Or maybe you're just tired. Sounds like that amp is pretty heavy

 

I usually take naps. I haven't been getting any in over a month. I am an adrenline junkie now retired, so Yes I get a little pumped up at times. For the most part I have turned into Mr. Mellow and take me time doing just about everything. Once you're retired... there is always tomorrow to get things done.

The new Mark Levinson No.331 amp that is coming next week is going to be maybe something I may need help with. I'm going to try to lift it myself first. I'm not called Big D for nothing. I have a duplicate table for the Mark Levinson to sit on. These tables have rollers and I can roll in and out each amp when the mood strikes me. So once I get this over 100lb Mark Levinson onto the table, it is going to stay there..... and I won't have to lift it again. Pretty cool setup. Got lucky that I have two of those super strong tables. They are like granite rocks in construction with the convenience of little rollers on the bottom. My preamp and CD player, DAC will easily lift off and I have a special foam piece that I lay on top of one of the subs. That equipment goes there and I can change the cables with ease. I am making a wood setup first for the equipment above the amplifier. Then when I have the design finalized.... I will go to plexiglass and some killer metal design for legs and structure. Think of a large metal bridge and how the curves work to make the bridge strong. Hopefully I can make something that will have this kind of bridge structure to it sitting under the plexiglass. I love custom designs.

Off to wiring 2 REL S3 subs in stereo with Speakons for the first time. One has the new Morrow Audio Speakon cable. It sure is robust.

Moments Later,,,,,,,

Turns out that the spades are so robust that 3 don't want to fit onto the binding post with my speaker cable spade included. I got it pushed in, but not in a professional way. I was thinking of using the bottom set of binding posts to run one of the REL spades to. This would solve it. Don't think it would hurt it. Should be the same signal coming out of the lower set of binding posts.

Here's the clincher. I thought last night that the REL S3 that I bought for cheap, due to the fact that it didn't work for the guy and I got it to work with the RCA inputs. It seemed that the Speakon connection didn't work. On a hunch and the grace of my maker, I thought this morning that I would try the sub with the Speakon connection one more time. Now that I have 2 Speakon setups it is possible to run this way. My supposedly broken REL didn't come with a Speakon connection and I tried it with my existing Speakon that I had with the other sub. So I have benn running one sub with Speakon and the other with RCA connections since I got the 2nd REL. Guess what? The Speakon connection worked on the one that didn't seem to work before.

So now I have the system wired with the REL S3 subs in true stereo. Adjustments will have to be made again. Wew, this shit is tiring. I just want to sit my sorry ass down and close my eyes and listen to music. It's actually getting pretty crazy with advancements almost on a daily basis. Tomorrow it's my Tascam CD Transport that I got today. I have a Morrow Audio Reference 3 Coax cable for that (broken in) going to the Modi Multibit. As before, I want to take the time to audition each advancement for a day or so before going up to another level. This is pretty much getting close to finalizing things, you would think. But NOT. Another month I will be finished with it. Fat Lady will be hopefully singing her ass off and I will be napping to music in front of the freakin' thing.

I left off with..... "Off to wiring 2 REL S3 subs in stereo with Speakons for the first time"

Results are in........ Took off the subwoofer grills to see if the stereo separation could be elevated



How can things work in my favor more times than not? It must be someone beyond what we humans can understand. But I like it, a lot. What the hell is this guy talking about? Well, let me tell you. As explained above if you read it...... I bought from someone a subwoofer that was not supposed to be working. By the grace of God or what ever you believe in..... it now works with not just the RCA..... now it works with the Speakon connection. If you knew what I paid for a non-working REL S3 sub you would be jealous. So this morning on a hunch I tried the non-working Speakon conneciton and lo and behold.... it now works. This a a godsend. So I start looking on how to use 2 Speakon connections with REL subwoofers. I find out that you can run them in separated stereo. This has not been done before with my system.......

Now for the results.........

The stereo separation with having the REL S3 subs going to support one sub for the left channel and one sub for the right channel has changed the soundstage for the better. A muddiness down low has been lifted. Midrange has been so much more 3 dimensional. Is this real? Improvements aren't supposed to be this dramatic on a daily basis. It is showing that the Krell amplifier is so much more advanced than most other amplifiers. The dynamics are so there is such a way that the Krell doesn't feel like a bruiser..... but when the music asks for dynamics... the Krell will deliver so much current and I knew this (most don't) needed to produce what is realistic in the recording. The fact is that the Krell is showing it's teeth. The dynamics of the Class A design is now coming out and showing who is boss. It's not this power that you say OMG. It's power that the Krell produces that fills in dynamics that you didn't even realize existed in the original recording. I'm not kidding. This is what I have such a big freakin' head about. Most don't understand what I'm talking about, and my ego gets in the way of trying to explain it. Massive amounts of money is usually involved in getting to this level in the audiophile world. My bank account is taking a beating. But now I have what I came to do. Please understand that good sound is a combination of components, not how much money you spend. Knowlege is power, but idiots are abound. Nobody ever said good sound was going to be easy when you want to get to a level of the audiophile. Forget the Snake Oil, buy some Schiit and maybe if you live in an area where you can go listen.... bring some CDs.....

But the bottom line is that Rome wasn't built in a day. Nor should your system. Take the time to think about what you want. How much do you want to spend..... and don't trust your friends.... they don't know Schiit....

Tomorrow will be the Tascam CD-200 Transport with the Morrow Audio Reference 3 cable going to the Modi Multibit. I have quite a few CDs. Many more in storage in another state that I will be retrieving (over 400). Sure, I will have to get up to change CDs, but any Vinyl guy will tell you that the best sound comes from the original.......

Will I see better sound thru Coax and the CD transport? Most likely. How much is up for debate. I would not think that much compared to the daily orders of 3 notches that I have been getting with my latest advances......

The only thing that could really bring up another 3 notch advance in my book is a Yiggy or a Gungnir Multibit. Do I want to go there so quickly? Not a chance. Give me some time to get acclimated, damn it with my new system. WTF. There is more days left in my life, and I'm finding that the progression is going faster than any human wants to handle. I need time to go out in my Race Cars and have a life other than music upgrades. I'm a computer guru, and this is getting in the way of my software learning as well. I have a timeline of what I want to learn with software. The magic in this is that the system is now producing state of the art sound. There is no one that would differ on this absolute fact. It stinks that companies don't seem to produce amplifiers that come close to the ones of the past. Thanks for Schiit and their great Preamp Freya and their Multi-Bit DACs.

 

Nice...

 

I used to smoke before moving to Florida. Laws here are not the same as where I grew up. Been 5 years in April.

I just want to point out to some that use the USB connection to the DAC for Livingroom systems......

I noticed that there are many that don't or don't admit that they use Windows10. FLAC is natively supported by the Groove Music program that comes with Win10.

I run Win7 on my workstation, and it is due to software compatibility and for other reasons as well. I have Foobar 2000 and it sounds great but doesn't have the beauty of the Groove Music program that Win10 does. I had been planning on building a state of the art Win10 system when I got in the middle of this Big D Livingroom System build. It has taken the budget out of my Win10 new system. Oh well.

The fact is that Win10 has a great app for FLAC, and it runs Tidal quite good now that I have the setting proper. If you haven't gotten up to Win10 with playback of your FLAC files, may I recommend the computer/tablet of choice for $559.00 Acer Switch Alpha 12. Blows away Surface 4. Peroid. You can buy a more powerful version up to just under $1,000.00 with an i7. But it is fast as shit for the price point of $559.00. And it is QHD IPS perfect scaling with the Groove Music program. I have noticed that Tidal needs the settings to be changed to sound best with some DACs. See the forum for answers.

Just put on the Tube Headphone amplifier.

Think all the Modi Multibit fans should put their hands up......



Gungnir Multibit and little Modi Multibit.....



edited by poster. was a bunch of ramble

 

Okay, I think it's time for bed...

 

Goodnight All.

 

Hey man, you might want to invest in some of these. It seems like you need something to really spice up your sound without breaking the bank and not have to worry about heat that much. I would HIGHLY recommend the Extra Large pebbles for maximum results.

http://www.machinadynamica.com/machina31.htm

 

That is crazy beyond anything I ever seen. I having some fun with audio. I tell ya. It seems that the upgrades are now reaching the limit of what I want to accomplish with the sound. In all honesty, I would like a Yiggy. But I think I will put that off for 2018. I have decided that going halfway with the digital is not gonna happen. Modi Multibit will serve me well and it is a pleasure to see people responding to my "over the top" type of personality. This livingroom project has been a long time coming. I'm involved in other pursuits and daily things that Florida offers with all the sunshine and happy faces outside the home. I got out for a few hours yesterday driving around and getting things done. Driving is another passion of mine. I do a lot of going nowhere, and where I end up sometimes is just part of the fun. Once again, thanks to all for your creative responses.

 

Competitor to http://audiophile.rocks

 

Now these are really gonna work....

I have been wondering about sending balanced inputs into the Krell KST-100 from the Freya. Me wonder. Don't have fancy XLRs (Canare L-4E6S Star Quad) like my Morrow Audio MA4 Reference cables, but I think one day this week I'm going to give it a shot and see what gives. With the REL S3 subs working the Speakon inputs..... there may be something there worth exploring. Listening last night was superb with the stereo separated REL S3 subs with covers off. Distinct improvement.

 

After reading this thread, I am not sure why you refuse to upgrade the dac. You say times are changing and dacs are changing, but didn't you say you don't really care for what other people think as long as you enjoy it? With all the cable purchases you could at least, afford to audition the Yggdrasil and see if it makes a difference. If it does, then you'll realize what you've been missing out. If it doesn't, you can just return the Yggdrasil and go on in your audiophile journey. In the end its your choice, but I don't see why you bother to spend upgrading all the other parts of your chain that are fine, and purposely limit your dac. Its like having a supercar with a 200hp engine, and you keep saying its ok and keep upgrading transmission and the brakes.

 

I have decided that the Yiggy is going to be my DAC to put into the system. Nothing lower, no Gungnir Multibit. Balls out with the Yiggy. I am fully aware of better sound awaits with the Yiggy. Sheet a good VPI Scout would probably sound even better for the same price. But you must understand something. I call the shots, and I have spent money that could have gone to the Yiggy for a Mark Levinson No.331. It has been a dream of mine. The price was so right for a fresh capacitor Mark Levinson. It is worth $700 more than I paid for it. I now can get a Yiggy about $500 off list. But something is stopping me. I think that I want a NEW Yiggy. I can't seem to wrap myself around buying a used one. I have some equipment to sell. That will make the buy of the Mark Levinson amp only cost me about $800.00 for that. I have other things brand new to sell that I might be able to raise enough to get a Yiggy. I only want to take $700.00 out of my savings to get Yiggy. So I have to sell some stuff. Sorry it bothers some that I don't have the Yiggy yet. But after buying the Krell KST-100 and hearing what the amp could do..... I started looking for a Mark Levinson No.331 or No.334. The latter is going for $3,500.00 in serviced conditon. That is almost double the cost of a No.331. Not worth it to me. I'm not that rich. These are 2 of my favorite amplifiers. They really do reach down low in impedance and the 1.6ohms that my Martin Logan ESLs call for are a piece of cake. Let me tell you. The dynamics of these amps are so natural that it's astounding how different some recordings have gotten..... they are to be explored again. Literally transients, decay of piano and guitar notes and just about anything running thru them is not the same. The power reserves are there in a way the it does not feel powerful..... it just gets real in a way that I haven't heard since the audio salon days and the $50,000.00 to $100,000.00 systems with (guess what?) Krell and Mark Levinson amplifiers..... Apogee and Martin Logan Speakers with high end subwoofers. Quad ESL-63s with Mark Levinson. So looke here. I'm living the dream, and am very happy with the way I have methodically taken steps to get what I want. Enough said. Big D out. Drops mike.

@Cellist88
I do have a supercar with a 200hp engine. It's called the Scion FRS, Toyota 86 in other countries. Best handling car I have ever driven. Ha Ha. So there

 

I understand Big D. Can you please make this your avatar?