The All Purpose Advice Thread - Part 2

Sure thing! They are a boxless, dipole speaker so (out from the wall a bit) they have pretty good depth. Extremely transparent midrange and they sound very natural. The sound can really breathe without the box. Good resolution. Quick bass, but as they don't have a large dynamic driver the bass does not have much kick/punch. Natural roll-off around 40-50 Hz. I used to think of them as bass-light, but after adding a super ballsy amp to my chain that opinion has changed somewhat, when you're sitting in or near the sweet spot. Due to the panel size, instruments and vocalists sound more life-size than on many dynamic speakers I've demoed over the years.

I have the Magnepan 1.6QR. They use a quasi-ribbon tweeter and not a pure ribbon tweeter like the higher-end Magnepan models do, so I imagine my tweeter is accordingly somewhat less transparent. (I'm not opposed to headphones with a ribbon design, just don't have experience with them.) Stereophile review here. Stereophile measurements here.

 

@zonto I guess what makes Maggies special to me is the extremely wide and deep soundstage. Second would be how they reveal low level details as well as how they render strings and acoustical instruments. IMO the soundstage will always be an issue with nearly any headphone and amp combo, so thats a big handicap to me. If you have the same priorities then it will come down to the low level detail and strings. Honestly I'm not in much of a position to give a recommendation on that second part, but e-stats would be the first place I'd look.

 

Y'know, before he even mentioned the ribbon, from the first few sentences of his description I was thinking the RAAL headphones would be worth a shot.

 

https://www.audiophileninja.com/product/focal-hifiman-dual-3-5mm/

"Please allow approximately 2-7 business days for processing, as each cable needs to be custom-crafted and hand-tested by the Audiophile Ninja Team prior to shipping."

 

Need some advice for a ground loop, or to be more clear a confirmation of the right solution i had in mind.
I changed my pre/hp amp to a Phonitor which is faux balanced. And now there’s a groundloop, to be fair my previous amp had the same problem when using se.
Anyway there are several solutions i’ve found; disconnecting the xlr’s going from pre to crossover, disconnecting the xlr to mains from the crossover and the quickest dirtiest hack i could find, lifting the ground on the power going to the mains and subs. The whole system is already connected to the same wallsocket. Now certainly the last one is not the solution i had in mind even though technically everything is still grounded.
Since the diy crossover is properly grounded(separate wire to chassis). I was thinking of lifting the ground on the xlr cables going to the crossover since that is the shortest length. Lowest chance for added noise and every chassis is still grounded.
Thoughts?

 

They are indeed rare these days. But maybe this?

https://drop.com/buy/smsl-sap-11-headphone-amplifier

$69 from Drop (est. shipping late Nov.) if there are enough orders - but otherwise $120 from Aliexpress or $102 from HiFi Express.

10 x 6 x 1.3 cm, so a bit smaller (but thicker) than a phone.

 

Any half decent usb speakers/soundbars that I can hook up to my work computer? No bluetooth because it's disabled on my laptop. Would prefer usb power only because I have no plugs left on my extension. I'm not looking for ultimate sound quality here, just clarity for listening to videos and some very light background music when I don't want to bother with headphones.

 

@bixby has me on ignore, but someone should recommend this line to him. Good rep since Changstar days. I regret selling mine.
https://www.leckertonaudio.com/products

 

I think @bixby was after something cheaper - but good rec on the Leckertons, I didn't know they were still available.

 

Looking to get some dac/amp gear for roughly $500. Interested in trying balanced. I mainly use an hd6xx with ZMF suede perf pads and custom cans copper ring mod, and sometimes use a dt770 pro 80 ohm (modded by custom cans) to block out a bit more noise.

Im not sure what the difference/benefit between getting a magnius and modius, or just getting a jotunheim with the ESS card? Other than the jot combo cost $70 more? Is there a difference between the modius and the standalone ESS card?

 

They got one on their website that is pretty nice. Think it’s about 3~ pentacon
https://etaheadphones.com/products/stock-eta-cable

 

As someone who will mostly use a Windows pc, what should I get as a source to improve both sq and convenience? The last real dac I owned was a launch Modius, which was good enough for me. My sb g6 and ifi go blu are great devices for specific uses, but can't really replace a real dac, so here I am. I'll use it for headphones and speakers.

I think there are probably benefits and drawbacks of various approaches, but here's what I'm considering as of now:
A super cheap used modi 3 or something like it ti get me started
a dac (Modius-level)
a streamer (WiiM Pro plus, etc, that would have a basic dac, that could be upgraded later)
Something like a FiiO K7 dac/amp (assuming it has an okay amp and dac, I would have redundancy in the chain to more easily swap in better dac or amp as budget allows)

Or a Schiit Syn? Will the dac be good enough considering all the cool shit they packed into that thing?

Any of the ifi desktop dacs?

 

I went and demoed the Focal Stellia and Utopia 2022 yesterday. Despite being a closed back, the Stellia leaked quite a bit of sound, and the Utopia was like a mini speaker.

Are there any Focal closed backs that are truly/fully closed, such that there is no or very very little sound leakage? How do the Elegia, Celestee, and Radiance fare in this regard?

 

any good EITR alternatives that are available new under $200? How are the IFI offerings? For use with a modi MB1

 

This is the NewOntech Dac7 that I am burning in right now. Could someone take a look at this and let me know if I am seeing this correctly:

- dual encapsulated transformers (likely digital and analog)
- whole bunch of bandpass filters on the power side, as well as chokes (literally 2/3 of the board looks like PSU and filters)
- relay input selector (there are 8 digital inputs)
- 3 voltage regulators - probably 1 for each channel and the third one for the digital section?
- 5 bipolar output transistors?
- Why don't I see any rectifiers?
- The spec says something about LME6172 op-amp for output, but why do I think the opamp is just for IV and it's actually bipolar buffered output.
- Shouldn't there be more components on the underside?

So far the dac sounds better than it looks.




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Rectifiers there are 2 of them are discrete diodes to the left of the caps below the transformers.

 

‍ I have been so conditioned to see the rectifier ICs that I didn’t realize 4 diodes make a rectifier

Any thoughts on output? Spec sheet says opamp but this thing doesn’t sound like opamp output.