Get there early and warm the amp up in the store.
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This was my guess but figured I would ask.
This part I’m actually not worried about at all as the setup is a battery pack that is “recharged” off of an inverter. Its a system I copied from some field research in college where clean power were super important due to old ass equipment that liked to fry at any chance it could get. I doubt it would have enough slew to sound amazing but at the very least I have 0 worries of it frying anything and it technicaly has enough output to power the amp.
I am the first time slot of the morning so no chance of earlier on the first one. On the second one im not too worried though as I find the AIC tollerates an hour or two off fairly well. Its just the first start up of the day thats rough.
EDIT: Wow, am being dumb. I just solved the whole issue. Ill just warm it up when I wake up, shut it down at breakfast, and then leave. Its really only the first warm up of the day that I find fairly glacial with the AIC anyways
I’d say that is super-accurate, lol
Always adore this approach, I ask this frequently as someone giving advice - and is absolutely fascinating and befuddling with the shoe on the other foot. I do feel a bit like I’m trying to “gear-up” (albeit slightly) into an accepted level. I think I’m chasing some ‘features’ and crossing the ‘benefits’ perspective as I come to it - which is counter to a normal philosphy for me. I want some level of budget-future proofing of my preamp and amplifier section in this room. Certainly I’m wondering if the pair of Outlaw Audio monoblocks are not the smart option at their price for this kind of application.
Nailed it. It was a very expulsive post, so thank you for sifting through it.
Also dead-on. This will probably surprise folks, but because the office gets a lot more work, both through head-fi and a nearfield setup I’m very fond of - the Bifrost actually displaced the Modius which used to live upstairs. The Modius is a new “upgrade” over a Modi 3 which used to live in this budget 2ch room. I fully believe this DAC can get upgraded going forward - very fond of the BF2, but you’re correct that the time I get to spend in the 2ch room is just more limited than office. 2ch garners so much more from the general tinkering that this piecemeal approach probably appeals to some of the tinkerer and glutton for punishment inside me.
I guess I wanted a logic check in terms of am I silly to buy a Freya S and a pair of Outlaw 2220 amps without a massive commitment to a single synergy, and if we thought there was suitable alternatives. I know that’s a somewhat hollow gear comp, and maybe I’m working backwards. But with so many speakers to wade through… I think it is my path. I have some JSE Infinite Slope 1’s also. Lots of older speakers.
Seeking simplicity and directness of components, maximizing value and flexibility. Embarassingly, I still don’t understand what a Raspberry Pi is for me. I am open to such technological advances as clicking a remote on a preamp vs standing up and turning a pot on a passive preamp. LOL.
Thanks for everyone and anyone’s feedback on this.
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So given your clarification and given that you’ve got some pretty cool old speakers and from what I’e managed to research the Sonace 260x3 isn’t a bad place to be for the budget miracle of audio setup you’re working there. Given what you’ve said, I can’t fault you for going the preamp route.
I would tell you that the reason people get a Freya is for the tubes, so the Freya S doesn’t get much in the way of love and would be much harder to find used. It’s a capable pre amp but it’s also not at the same level of excellence in value other Schiit gear offers IMO.
I think you may be much better off if you looked for a quality integrated amp. Kill two birds and get yourself a remote in the process. The market for quantity of solid integrated amps for sale used is huge and I think you may be able to get something better/cheaper in the used market (under $1K) than if you’d spent it on separates AND get your remote control in the process.
Anyway, it sound like you’ve got a good bead on where you are and what you want. Hopefully you get some good sounding board comments here.
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Hey fellow canners and sourced enthusiasts.
Been absent from participating(even keeping up on topics has been tough) on the forum for a spell due to work~life balance. In the meantime i picked up a He6se v2 on a open box sale and really enjoy them powered by a liquid plat. Any suggestions on some quality power houses that come in the tube variety that would compliment these cans? (source: gumbi)
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Anyone familiar with Linn source gear? I know they make great turntables, but how about streamers? Price to performance anywhere near something like Antipodes offerings?
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There DAC’s are supposed to be quite good, but I haven’t heard anything recent from them.
Their active room correction that’s built into the higher end systems is also highly regarded.
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The linn climax gets awesome reviews. Its one that ive been debatinf adding to my demo list tbh
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I was eyeing a streamer on TMR…the Akurate Exakt DSM. Looks really interesting, and takes analog inputs, so I guess it’s also an ADC with a phono stage, which seems cool.
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So I was comparing the voltage output of both a spring and a balanced amber 3 (just in case one pops up used again). The spring has an output of 5.8 vrms and the amber 9.0 vpp. Using an online calculator, the 9.0 vpp comes out to 3.2 vrms.
Am I correct to assume the spring has a hotter output than the amber? I’m not great at interpreting specs so I just want to make sure I’m getting the right idea.
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Your math is right.
Line level is usually ~2Vpp, double that for balanced, 5.8Vrms seems very hot, there isn’t really a standard. Low out on the Amber should basically be standard line level, was pretty much an exact match for the LaVoce’s SE out.
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So, ive been getting real tired of moving the BF2 from desk to bedroom and was thinking of buying a second unit.
But I also figured instead of getting the same thing, what other dacs in that price range may be viable and give me a change of pace. Most things are pointing to a Denafrips Ares II and i was wondering how that compares to a BF2.
I am also open to suggestions of what else would pair nicely with an rnhp → HD800s and/or BHC+SB → HD6xx/ZMF.
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Anybody here own(ed) or heard an Antipodes DX2? Comparisons to others in the $2k-$5k range?
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Does anyone have experience running a Chord M-Scaler with non-Chord DACs?
In particular, I’d be especially interested to know how noticeable a difference it makes if your DAC’s maximum sample rate is 192kHz.
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Golden One talks about using it with pther dacs in his review. TLDR is that all the important stuff happens by 192 with eveeything after just being a very small bonus, but you can get the same difference for way way cheaper with HQ Player if you use a PC as a source anyways
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IMO the main benefit of the mscaler isn’t even upsampling, it’s that it’s a much better digital signal coming into the dac, so sure you could accomplish the same with hq player + a nice ddc or digital source, but hqplayer on its own doesn’t really hold up imo simply because you aren’t getting the other benefit of a better incoming digital signal to the dac. At least that was my experience with the tt2 and Dave, I haven’t ever tried an mscaler with anything else
Upsampling is really hit or miss regardless, personally I generally like not doing it, but all depends on the dac of course (and the rest of your system and your preferences)
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If you have an NOS DAC, it’s a very noticeable difference, and I think that fools a lot of people into thinking better.
I dicked around with HQPlayer (Gets my prize for most buggy commercial software I’ve ever used), decided I didn’t think what it was doing was a win.
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Outside of the “three” BF2, Ares II and The Soekris lines, that $600 to $800 price range is pretty barren. An interesting thing to look at if it comes up is a Holo Cyan NOS, I’ve seen them used for $800
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Very very interesting. I havent ever owned hms but ive played with it fairly extensively ith both dave and TT2 (tt2 just as an AIO not as a dac though). Tbh i didnt think it was all that good as a raw ddc. (With even a cheap ideon 3r before the usb input giving it a solid boost in performance). I havent heard other 3.5k+ ddcs but i would be kinda shocked if they didnt beat it outright as i found (upsampling off) it realy wasnt all that much better than just my su-2 kte into dave over the same BNC cable with even just a fairly normal streamer seemingly beating both out over USB.
I mean, its a tool. If you like the filters your dac uses its not the best but it can often lead to a fairly different flavor that is solid to treat as a different filter. Like I wasnt the biggest fan on weiss (prefering the dacs internal OS) but found even 192 oversampling on dave to be quite worthwhile depending on what was being played and that was only with roon OS and not even HQP.
I dont exactly spend a ton of time in the bowels of HF but I have yet to see anyone say OS is just outright better but instead just different. TBH i found it quite nice to play with when I had the S3 in house as it gave it a bit better incisiveness while reducing the (too much) mid body when listening to more modern music while preferring NOS for most of my jazz and vocal focused music.
Interesting. TBH I havent ever had issues with it. Just looked up settings for the dac being used and change the filters as I please and leave it as a roon output. Felt fairly low hassle tbh.
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There’s a lot here and one of the reasons I think the Weiss 502 does well is because they take a lot of control in how they sample the digital signal end to end from the Ethernet in to the analog out.
They upsample everything to 195mhz because they using specific clocking that’s supposed to work best at that frequency to minimize jitter. So a lot of not cookie cutter stuff. On the whole DAC thing, there’s really no one best way to do the digital to analog conversion, it’s finding a way that works best for the particular vendor implementation and then refining the hell out of it.
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