davide256

I’ve played around with different options over the years for where to pull music from, local and remote storage. NAS storage always worked best regardless of my player solution. SMB, UPNP both work well. Power supply noise only affected down stream devices so an Etherregen was a more efficient way to protect the player/endpoint solution devices from noise injected into the network. The only lack I feel with an atom powered NAS is the lack of CPU horsepower when a library refresh is required by the player.

Seems to me that you have reason to celebrate. Just buy the best low power amp you can afford and rejoice at all the money you don’t have to spend on a bigger amp. I still remember hearing Klipshhorns blast out a college cafeteria at 1 watt.

Ignoring the discussion about bi-wire benefits, the reason for following marking conventions is to reduce the chance of making wiring mistakes. Unless the + - leads are different materials there will be no sonic difference, only a greater chance of wiring out of phase

For sale a pair of Orchard Audio Class D GAN mono blocks. These are nice kit, the first amplifier I owned that brought Magnepans to best advantage. Selling because they persuaded me to step up to an even better class D amplifier in the Apollon offerings. If considering purchase, I have two recommendations (1) pair with a pre amp that mutes initially when turned on as having to plug/unplug them when turning pre on/off is a bit of a nuisance (2) pair with speakers that have clean treble as they wont soft pedal any distortion in the treble driver. Selling for $1230 Paypal preferred, price includes domestic US shipping, 1 pair amplifiers with power supply blocks, IEC cords and RCA to XLR converters. If interested I also have a pair of 1m Kimber Hero XLR cables that I’m willing to sell with the amplifiers for $120. Link below from original manufacturer and picture of the gear I am selling. https://orchardaudio.com/shop/starkrimson_150w_gan_amp/

After getting a Chord Qutest I’ve decided I much prefer the R26. The Qutest while tight and clean doesn’t resolve tonal color textures as well as the R26 does. With both I’ve ended up using an SRC-DX as DDC, AES comes close but textures are more subdued.

If you want freeware, Foobar2000 is a winner. But a paid product like Audirvana is far more user friendly, better GUI.

@JayDog Audirvana is a pretty good streaming player app with wide platform support. If you want to evaluate the streamer section of the Lyngdorf, using Audirvana on PC/MAC would be a relatively inexpensive way to compare, you would be able to stream from Audirvana to the R26 for comparison using their 30 day trial, assuming you already have a PC or MAC

Liking the tonality, neutrality and nuance of the Velo so far, it’s a much more sophisticated presentation than the MZ2. But hitting a system synergy issue where the combined dynamic compression of the Velo, a Gustard R26 and Magnepan 1.7’s has robbed too much slam. Shopping around for a used Chord Qutest as inserting a Chord Mojo restored slam at the cost of increased graininess. Did find the included JJ12AT7 tubes to be unpleasant, substituted Telefunkens and Siemens, issue resolved. Also had to boost gain on the Apollon amp, at minimum setting volume had to be set to max at normal listening level, increased amp gain by 12.5db to get acceptable headroom.

The LTA line does both well. I originally bought a MZ2 as head amp then found it bettered my pre amp options. I may occasionally use the Velo for headphones but the pre function is more attractive/useful.

Its taken a while to get the Velo in due to parts availability issues but mine is finally here. I’ve mostly used a Microzotl 2 as preamp since 2015, but comparing it with a Topping Pre90 was a trade off where instruments sounded right through the MZ2 but clearly rounded transients and compressed dynamics compared to the Topping unit. The Velo is designed as a full featured preamp that includes improvements from the MZ3 series but at a lower cost point by eliminating the 1watt amplifier components. Some pictures below, will share observations in about a week after I’ve had some time with the unit. Note that the additional cable in the picture was special order to allow powering the Velo with an Uptone Audio JS-2

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One would need to do a burst test because amplifiers can play louder at a short transient level than a constant level. I suspect these numbers are already part of Apples testing but with the caveat that an emergency alert tone may differ by a few db because its a narrow spectrum burst vs white noise

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/decibel-scale#:~:text=Because the decibel scale is,rating only to 29 dB. So yes, a very big number. IME the rule of thumb has always been to buy an amplifier 4x (6db) the power of the amp you have if you want an audible difference in loudness

Every 3 db of loudness requires twice the power. If he uses it 90 db ( very loud) a transient 165 db level would have required 25 x the power. Which is highly unlikely without after market alteration

I have worn mechanical power strips out. If the socket contacts rely on metal tension only, they can be stretched too much by large after market IEC plug contacts so that other, smaller plug contacts are too loose for reliable connectivity