Hadn’t considered a full size unit actually.
I’m not sure about the NuPRIME, but the Topping D70 hasn’t suffered from any negative reviews when it comes to the build and longevity in these past 2 years and Topping is pretty decent as long as you ignore the L30. As long as the NuPRIME can match that, I’d go with it since it looks better aesthetically, has a better selection of inputs, and I doubt it has the same reputation as Topping does when it comes to clinical and boring sounding. Also, this feature is really awesome on the NuPRIME:
“Individually adjustable volume on each input for precise level matching of sources.”
THIS. I’m absolutely floored at how many people just act like this is the final solution and nothing else is better. Like seriously, you’re just putting a low quality center channel speaker in front of your TV and then adding on the cheapest and smallest subwoofer that they could package the sound bar with! You might as well just buy a JBL Bluetooth speaker since it’ll be about the same quality, but cheaper. I’ve been telling everyone at my work who ever brings up home theater audio to never, ever look at sound bars since even budget bookshelf speakers will be 10x better. Only reason I can think of to use a sound bar would be if you have absolutely zero room to be able to use speakers, even small ones like the KEF LS50.
I went from full 5.1 in my living room to a soundbar, back to 2.1 active speakers.
A lot of it was convenience, if you’re just listening to TV an audio for 90% of what I watch the soundbar was fine. The last swap was because HDMI audio is at best a shit show, and the guarantee of any 2 pieces of equipment connected like that working seamlessly is at best a pipe dream.
If I lived alone I’d probably still have 5.1 in my living room. But it’s not something I actively miss.
What was astonishing to me when I recently replaced my TV was how absolutely terrible the sound from modern TV speakers was.
Having said that I have a separate home cinema space with a 110 inch projector and 5.1 if I actually want to sit down and watch a movie.
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A frustrating one this. For about a year and a half I have been trying to track down an intermittent DC ground leakage current in my system. I’ve thought it solved a couple of times and it has cost me in the process. It killed my SPL Marc One, twice, which I am still salty about as the second time it wasn’t covered by warrantee. I’ve finally found it. The floating ground on the RNHP is leaking DC current at times. It is intermittent because I don’t keep it powered on all the time. It was hard to pin point because it was usually a problem I only noticed some time after using the RNHP. I think this indicates a capacitor discharging.
Bit sad about this. Not entirely sure I can think of a fix short of adding a ground cable to it in some way. Even then, it seems stop gap. A short must have developed with the chassis at some point but I can’t see anything at a cursory inspection.
[EDIT]
Some investigation later: the ground is connected to the internal frame so it is grounded internally but as the power supply is not ground connected it has no where to discharge to unless something else completes a circuit.
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I’ve experienced intermittent power on my desktop system which cause my PC to reboot. It’s so random that I’ve been grasping at straws assuming it’s something with the PC however I hear the DAC click which is not directly connected to the PC so what gives?
Redid all of my wiring, disconnecting and reconnecting everything and that seemingly has gotten rid of the problem for now but I think the right thing to do given your research and although I’m using an iFI power elite PS I’m going to ground the chassis. Can’t hurt I guess.
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I had this and it was baffling me for a long long time until I read a chance comment somewhere.
I read it is often to do with micro second peak power draw exceeding the PSU limits causing an auto shut down. Some GPU and motherboard combinations on some computers have had this random power off issue for several years partly as it as there was no standard for micro second peak power draw behaviour of GPUs until very recently. While there was a shutdown standard for PSUs reacting to it there was no opt in from the GPU designers of AMD and Nvidia avoiding boards doing it and each side was just blaming the other. I think they have solved this dispute with the most recent generation of boards.
In the end I solved it my problem by replacing my motherboard for a different brand.
On the RNHP. I dismantled it and checked it out with a multimeter. Interestingly there is a solder pad for ground to chassis on the board - perhaps used in the more upmarket version.
I’m thinking of getting Ifi’s grounding kit and using that on it.
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Hey guys so just looking for some feedback on my room and setup. So ill be moving to a new room in the house to setup up an all new setup for office work/music production/general listening. Ive purchased new monitors, stands and ill be buying a new desk once i figure out the size. Right now Im using a Monoprice THX Desktop Dac/Amp and a separate 2 channel audio interface for my way into the computer for use with Logic/Ableton.
Now my question, would i be better off just using a nicer interface that takes care of everything or should i still do something separate for when I’m listening at the desk to Apple Music, Amazon HD, Youtube etc…? 90% of the time this will be through monitors (Kali LP6v2’s). Headphones ill tackle later but would eventually like to add to the setup. I guess i realize i can use an interface for everything but i feel like my fomo for hifi will creep up.
Any thoughts appreciated,
(Edit)
I think ive narrowed down to a Motu 828es and later would get the Neve head amp and do the M0n rec stack of that a Bifrost and an OG Clear and LCD -X then move onto better monitors down the road.
Have you considered the Socketed J2? It’s supposed to be pretty good, and you can roll op amps with it. Plus, they seem like nice people (small, family owned).
Some of those wooden cases look nice as well
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I would have certainly gone with a Geshelli but I need a pre as the optical out from the TV is fixed volume out. I wound up pulling the trigger on a D70 for $250 which will fit the bill.
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Does anyone know a good dust cleaner for tube amps and preamps? I know someone mentioned a really nice dust cleaner for a keyboard a couple months back and I thought I bookmarked it, but I think I lost the bookmark.
hey if anybody could direct me to a speaker stand filling thread (specifically what you used, cons etc…) that would be great, thanks
I think this is what nickmimi linked awhile back…
https://forum.sonusapparatus.com/t/show-your-setup/74/943?u=hifidj
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Thanks! This was what I was looking for.
Hey All,
I am facing a predicament… I have a huge urge to sell one of my gear for some rare upgrades to do right now. Just curious, how much of a DAC chip change will influence the sound of my DAC? I know the power is the huge influence on the sound of the DAC, but will changing the DAC chip basically turn it into a new DAC or will it upgrades its existing sound? Implementation is the same I believe, we are just changing the DAC.
Also, what changes I would hear from a DAC changing the rectification diodes as well?
I like my DAC a lot right now, but I am curious about this rare chip.
I presume you are talking about R2R NOS chips?
If you see the Abbas threads in WBF and the NOS thread in SBAF, people do seem to think they make all the difference.
I could definitely hear the difference between the AD1862 and the UA D20400, but they were in different dacs
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Yep, it’s regarding R2R NOS Chips. I am not too sure what kind of chip I have in my B4B 21, but I believe it might be the AD1862. I only ask Ben because I was just curious if I could swap the DAC chips on my Evo and apparently you can. Ben is offering me the AD1862N-Z chips and he is doing a really good job selling it to me.
I honestly don’t want to do it, but was curious if the DAC change might also solve some of my AES compatibility concerns as well on my current DAC. I still don’t really know the cause because each cable have a different affect, but maybe using a different DAC chip might help the AES port be more universal for me.
Very doubtful, the chip doesn’t take AES natively, there is a hardware converter and IIRC a bunch of buffers and clock dividers in front of the DAC chip.
It’s odd it’s problematic at all, unless it’s some weird issue with the isolation transformers he has in front of it, it’s a hardware AES converter he uses.
One of these I believe
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Thanks @archer and @Polygonhell for the response.
I think I will probably go ahead and ignore this upgrade. Ben offer sounds good, but I just really like my current sound on my DAC and don’t really want it to change unless it’s a overall upgrade to its current sound like getting the nano chokes upgrade. If it won’t affect the AES input, then it’s a definite no from me and I save some money/gear as well.
Edit: nvm, I think imma go through with this. Been reading the What’s Best Forum and saw a guy with the same chip. Really reluctant on selling my gear but I guess I could always buy it back. Really going to be thinking on this…
So is Ben going to just replace the DAC chip or are there any other upgrades/updates involved?
He said I can upgrade my rectification diodes to SiC zero recovery Schottky diodes which he uses on the Mystique X and Y DACs.
I can also reserve my spot for the nano crystal upgrades. So even though they are unavailable now, I could still make sure I am one of the first people in line for that upgrade which he is strongly recommending and really believes all his DACs (V3, Evo, X, and Y) will benefit greatly from the nano crystal upgrades.