Home Theater/Personal audio thread...

[krayzie]

Originally Posted by Vracer111

Nice! But why change connector instead of using an adapter - only plan on portable use for them?

This is the plug that it comes with:

[Clipdat]

Originally Posted by krayzie

This is the plug that it comes with:

[krayzie]

I tried that yeons ago and the entire attachment becomes really long and ginormous that it would put stress on the jack's soldering points if going portable.

[Clipdat]

Originally Posted by krayzie

I tried that yeons ago and the entire attachment becomes really long and ginormous that it would put stress on the jack's soldering points if going portable.

[krayzie]

Originally Posted by Clipdat

[Clipdat]

[Vracer111]

[JeremyR]

I've got a couple different setups..

First is my production rig:



M-Audio Profire 610 Audio Interface
Mogami Gold Cables
KRK Rokit 5 Studio Monitors
Topping TP-D2 Headphone Amp
Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro 250 ohm Open-Back Headphones
Furman M-8X Power Conditioner

(I built the PC for music production; Can give PC specs if requested)

The production rig is pretty much all new. I built the PC in 2016, and i've owned the Profire interface for years now and it works solid with low latency. I switch between my two sets of monitors to get different sound reference, but since I don't have much sound deadening where i produce, the headphones come in clutch.



Next up is home DJ setup:



Pioneer DDJ-S1 Serato Controller
Pioneer HDJ-2000 Headphones
Tannoy Reveal 601A Studio Monitors
Furman M-8X Power Conditioner

The LED lights are all DMX and line out audio controlled controlledpowered through Freestyle DMX software

(This is all ran through my Macbook Pro)

The DJ gear is a bit dated, I think I bought most of it 10 years ago? maybe longer..so it's old by today's standards but it still works fine for what my needs are. As nice as a full DJM/CDJ setup would be, I don't really need to to mix tracks together and do a little effect work. (Which is basically the basis of my DJ skills, I don't scratch or do anything crazy)

[Clipdat]

Love the Mechs on your production desk. Cool stuff, thanks for sharing some pics.

[Vracer111]

Don't know why, but I always end up with some kind of 'Scandenavian' gear in my systems. Have the DSPeaker AntiMode 8033 subwoofer room equalizer from Finland, the Bluray chip region free board for my Oppo BDP-93 from Denmark, and now added the Mjolnir Audio STAX SRD-7 based electrostatic transformer from Iceland.

I'm using the Mjolnir Audio reworked and modded vintange SRD-7 transformer with my NAD C275BEE stereo amp to run my electrostatic headphone (currently just the Koss ESP950, will have a used STAX SR-L300 in tomorrow and the STAX SR-L300 Limited 80th Anniversary Edition [hybrid of the L300 and L700] has been preordered for over a month now and should be released soon.) Will say this, it definitely beats the STAX SRM-323S driver unit.... the detail and dynamics are much improved along with more body to the sound and a nice pleasing fluidity that keeps getting better the more I listen.

Listening to the Pendulum 'Hold Your Colour' album, and it has never sounded so good in my life. I like the 'Pendulum Hold Your Colour' album as the music quality scales with the equipment used... when I first started out with my D2000s plugged right into my old iPod boy did that album not sound the best, thought it was poorly recorded. Fast forward to when I finally learned about external DACs and amps... it sounded better but still a little muffled in quality. Upgraded to my Gustard X20U DAC and H10 amp with my modded TH-X00PH's... and oooh nice, not muffled any more! Now to this evening with the ESP950s running off the Mjolnir Audio SRD-7 powered by the awesome C275BEE... and where the heck was all this clarity, detail, and dynamics hiding!?!! Simply amazing how detailed and nuanced it is... Respect the Electrostats!

[Clipdat]

@Vracer111 - new DAC for my PC setup arriving Friday:

[Clipdat]

Well that DAC will be going back to Amazon. It was the Meridian Direct DAC, btw.

The issue I had with it was the apodizing filter that it used. When I was listening, it created an aural sensation similar to what you would describe as a phase shift. It wasn't pleasurable and actually caused me some physical ear fatigue and a feeling of pressure on the ears. Never experienced anything like it.

Found a few posts that mimic my experience here:

https://mrapodizer.wordpress.com/201...dizing-filter/

It's especially poignant, and almost exactly describes the sensation that I get when I listen with this DAC:

"The difference between the old and new filters is clearly not in the amplitude response, but in the phase behavior: the old filter is linear to 22kHz, but the new filter has a gradually increasing phase shift that increases with the frequency. This is caused by the minimal phase behavior of the filter. Although the resolution of the picture is not high enough to see, the phase shift starts already from the lowest frequency and increases more as the frequency goes up (logarithmic).

So the absence of the pre-echo comes at the cost of an increasing phase shift across the entire frequency range. People may argue that the shift is only small, and this may be good enough for normal audio applications, but for high-end it seems a serious issue. For one the human brain uses phase information of frequencies up to 3kHz for spacial localization. The inner ear itself has an amplification around 3kHz, which makes the ear most sensitive in the 2 to 5 kHz range (for human speech). And the most important one, instruments and voices are not just limited to a single frequency, they operate on a range. For instance drums even operate on the entire range from low to high. Every frequency component of the sound will get a different shift in time with this filter, it is like smearing the sound over the frequency range, with lows first and highs last. This might also explain why the lows are more pronounced."

Another post on the same blog that again almost EXACTLY describes the sensation I felt in my ears.

https://mrapodizer.wordpress.com/201...lter-a-review/

"My own experience with the apodizing filter: the advantages are pretty clear from the start, pin point imaging and spacious at the same time. Unfortunately I also noticed some disadvantages. The main problem is that I got a feeling of pressure on my ears which made listening uncomfortable. Also I found the sound to be dull or boring, and I ended up playing 6dB louder than I am used to. I suspect the pressure on my ears killed the highs, so I compensated for that. Another remarkable issue was that the sound was not natural when being not in the sweet spot, for instance when I was just walking through the room. A final remark is that I found the bass to be pronounced too much, this also adds to the unnatural feeling the filter gives."

Originally Posted by Clipdat

@Vracer111 - new DAC for my PC setup arriving Friday:

[Clipdat]

Thinking about trying this one next. Topping D10:

http://www.tpdz.net/en/products/d10/index.htm

[EAGLE5]

The TV goes into a cheap, ebay, Chinese DAC that feeds some kinda I forget passive preamp that was cool in the 90s that feeds a Carver A-500x feeding a pair McIntosh LS310 bookshelf speakers. The wire is from home depot. We use it for movies. It does just fine with the OLED TV. I think it gets used a couple times a month. Mainly I just listen to music in cars.