What a setup! Spectacular, I wish I could stop by for a listen!
Thank you for the kind words, I know you are clear across the country. If you happen to be in my neck of the woods, my door is always open
Truly remarkable, seems like years worth of effort to get a listening room looking that way with that gear
Grats on your setup headphones I think share a special place in most of our hearts because they are downright different to spekeres and theyre good.
I have borrowed some equipment and currently using it on my desktop w/ so much pleasure and excellent results. I have borrowed pieces from mfgr. Musical Fidelity, power supply unit, DAC module, tube based line stage and HP amplifier. (X-PSUv3, X-DACv3, X-10v3, & X-CANv3). I have matched it up w/ my Line Magnetic mini 218-IA, 3 wpc El84 2 channel amp and a pair of Monolith K-Bass speakers along w/ an inexpensive subwoofer.
The speakers and sub have been a stable combo for a very long while now, best $700 i have spent in this hobby to date and unless i decide to ever put up some large monitors i have in storage and build a PC gaming station up here, they will remain till the day i sell the house or something blows up
I wish I could somehow make a video that gives folks an idea of how good this combination sounds on a desktop, It keeps up w/ my usual equipment which is easily twice (maybe 3x ) the cost (all compared at full MSRP) Compared to some other rigs I have had on my desk over the years, this is such a simple and clean combo that allows for both speaker and HP use of so many realistically (ie. affordable) priced speakers and headphones.
I know a high percentage of folks here are advanced well past this stage of equipment but as I settle in for the long run in this hobby, I have lost the desire to seriously consider pieces that cost more than my monthly salary let alone my yearly net so I am simply enjoying what is realistically available and on hand.
Anyway, I usually reserve Sunday mornings for paying bills and checking in on investments, this week has been a bloodbath and the beautiful soundstage I’m privy to at my desk is the only thing keeping my blood pressure from giving me a stroke so i took a break from the economic fields of slaughter to post some pictures of my current desktop setup.
Quite a few changes since the last time I updated this. New power, exchanging an integrated amp for a separate preamp and amplifiers. Simplifying the network by removing a switch with an SFT and now using a Sonore opticalModule right off of the MoCA adaptor. I liked this as I get to leverage the 2.5 Gbit Ethernet of my new PC.
Perhaps in the next rev. I’ll include some broad statements on the isolation/vibration components but I feel it can get a bit much. I’ll probably just add that to the key.
I’m really enjoying where I am now, to the point where I’m questioning the need to keep “looking” for things component wise. I’ve been very curious about an First Watt F8, but honestly I have no reason to want to listen to one other than FOMO. Honestly may kick that to the 2025 curb unless I find a perfect specimen begging for a buyer.
My next and probably final areas for improvement will be a real end game speaker cable for my chain and taking the speaker base/isolation to the nth degree. I believe this is what being content in what I’ve put together feels like. Odd feeling.
Thanks @dB_Cooper, your diagram update inspired me to update mine as well
Biggest changes are the addition of the PowerPlant 3, adding a Berkly Alpha USB DDC, and several cable upgrades (analog and digital). The Alpha USB drug me down a long road of upgrades, but with absolutely incredible results. Very happy with the end state.
Next big move will be AC power cable upgrades. But i’m not in a rush for this. Need to recharge the $$$ and decide on what I want to buy.
Why don’t you hook up your iLouds to your Ygg?
They are on opposite sides of the room. Micro Monitors are on my desk, Yggy is by my listening chair. I don’t really want to do a 3m RCA run around the room.
I like how you solved the problem of showing the PP3 and what it’s feeding. Are you using Visio to create your diagram? Very neatly laid out.
Also a question, all things being equal, how does the Berk USB Alpha compare to the Sonore ultraDigital? Was the gap large?
I should, but no. PPT drawing tools.
I like that they are both dead simple, single purpose devices. Not trying to generate every possible digital format and output them all at the same time. “Swiss army knife” DDC have their place for sure, but I’ve come to prefer the single purpose DDC.
The ultraDigital is powered from it’s USB input, which is a little frustrating. I would prefer to provide my own 5V power supply right at the DDC, instead of powering it over the USB. Also, keep the added power budget for the by ultraDigital in mind for the source. For example, the ultraRendu with Uptone LPS1.2 works great, but it’s near the top end of that power supply current range. With ultraDigital added it pushes the limit, and I had cases where it didn’t consistently power up. Switching to SGC LPS there were no issues at all.
All of that said, if you need BNC or i2s for your DAC, it’s a solid option for the price (new $500, used ~$300). Sonically it’s very comparable to the su-6. So it can save you a little money if you don’t need the “Swiss Army Knife”. And it’s very compact, stacking nicely with the Rendu. I’m powering it from my optical USB cable using the Allo Shanti, which works great. But the USB cable connection case gets pretty warm delivering the extra power. ultraDigital doesn’t get warm at all.
Doing a little reading, I think the target market they had in mind for it is the PS Audio DACs with i2s inputs. And the BNC is to give more universal compatibility.
Comparing to the Berkeley Alpha USB, the ultraDigital is more or less cable agnostic. It benefits from decent cables (I did a lot of DH Labs with it). Nothing like the Berkeley that changes sound significantly with cable changes. The best I got the ultraDigital to sound (cable and power tweaking) was close to where the Alpha USB started at before I started cable and power tweaking. The floor of the alpha is near the ceiling of the ultraDigital.
This is what I was trying to relay to you, when you experimented with the P3, I should have done a better job explaining that and nudged you a bit more to add the digital portion, including your DAC, of your chain to the P3 instead of only using it for the pre-amp only. While for sure you would not be able to include the power amp, at least the majority of your chain would be on the P3 where I believe it is more the collective impact vs. the individual one component demonstrating an impact.
Teams are reliable more successful than an individual, maybe not the best analogy. Or the sum of the parts is greater than the one part, maybe, that is more applicable.
Not ideal. I would want more on the top shelf and i still need real feet for the bottom platform, BUT no wires crossing! I had other set ups in mind but they all needed an extra inch here or there (shush Coop!). Happy for now.
That dac deserves more showcase than you’re giving it. You’re treating it like Cinderella sticking it down there. You better have it as the centerpiece of your system when you finally have a dedicated sound room.
It does, i wanted to put it on top with the k50 and psu on bottom but thats a ton of power cable cross overs.
Oddly enough i think lampi changed their copper tops a little. The newer ones have a more subtle a fresh brushed look. The older ones were more vibrant and saturated colorwise.
It all looks great, plenty of room for air circulation, and i still think those massive spikes on the amp rack are the coolest I have ever seen You did a great job working and making things work within the confines and limits your space presents.
What’s that chair?
I’m digging the hexagon motif! Hexagons really are the bestagons
The room is at least a pentagon, it would be wild if it was a hexagon though.
Herman Miller Embody