I’ve been spending the last few months hitting up Discogs and buying CDs of incomplete albums in my library or albums which I just had one hit track off of, but missing out on a lot of good other tracks and simply to just artists a bit deeper.
Buying used CDs is way cheaper than downloading digital media, you get a physical copy and you put some cash into folks pockets, so win win.
I’ve been taking the CDs out of the jewel cases and storing them in sleeves and it’s at least an 80% reduction in the amount of space required to store them so yeah, that’s another win.
But id really prefer if they made a new flagship dap, I wish they kept making desktop amps as well withouth the dac.
I wonder wheter a Mass Kobo 433 or a Questyle Cma18 Master would compliment my Pass Labs better?
Or maybe those 3 are similar enough so itd be better to save for the trafomatic head 2 I want and keep questyle for my portable needs… At this point idk if theyll ever release another DAP.
I almost bought a new QP2R last week but there are potentially too many drawbacks for how I wish to use a portable. They have to be swiss army knives for me. Mojo 2 & Poly sounds killer, has excellent EQ and crossfeed, but I’m selling mine (my second one) but it cannot function as a transport for my desktop chain…
I really wish they would have just fixed the small issues with the CMA18 and made a v2. That thing is surely a monster, but it’s also gargantuan. Thankfully they have the lanyard hooks so you can hang it around your neck since there’s no way it’s pocketable lol
I do yes lol, I have a Trakker coming in as well. When I was still mastering I had a HEDD Quantum and STC-8 Mastering edition, loved them so much for what they did. Dave Hill has just designed some really unique pieces over the years, things that I haven’t heard with other makers, has a pretty distinct sound that I quite like. Are they the best of the best I’ve heard? Maybe not, but they’re plenty good enough for the range they’re in, and if I’m partial to the end result that doesn’t really matter anyways lol. I just needed a utility focused preamp and compressor for my desk, and I thought I might as well get something I’ve had more connection to than other pieces of gear, I’ve spoken with Dave Hill before he passed at a show at really weird but dedicated guy, he might be the only designer I’ve seen wear a hawaiian button up with short shorts at a trade show lol.
Of course also has good synergy with my interface and mics, could maybe have gotten a bit better with an Aurora or Neve option for something more pleasing and sweet, or leaned full into resolution with a Forssell or Gordon but I think I just feel most happy right now having something I have more connection to, and something that has more flexibility without sacrificing performance. Good balance, can’t complain. I do have some slight noise issues in the second channel I’m tracking down, but I might have to write that off as a poor match with that specific mic, haven’t had too much time to really test.
I feel Neve stuff is always a good bet. My RNHP is having an issue though where i flick it on and it doesnt go on, i flick it off and it makes the dying robot sound, then flicking it on again its ok. I should contact their support.
Nice novelty keys sticker btw. Isnt it about tome you send us some recorded key taps with the new setup?
That’s annoying, hopefully that can get fixed if needed. The thing is in the recording world, there’s so many different flavors of Neve lol, he’s had his hand in so much. His last work was with RND where his final designs were things like the Portico or Shelford with the Portico being his more clean line and the Shelford being reminiscent of his older stuff, but there’s also AMS Neve which are recreations of older Neve tables, he was the founder of Focusrite so early focusrite consoles and some outboard equipment are neve, he’s done work for AMEK and some tables and outboard gear are also neve designs, and so on. But there’s also a ton of those who just attempt to recreate or revise/improve the designs as well. I don’t think I could’ve gone wrong with something like a 1073 or associated but I’ve just heard that sound so many times I wanted something different. I do like the Portico line for their neutrality and cleanliness but with a bit of that neve smoothness and character, but I’ve also had that before and the Crane Song stuff just called to me more lol
It just happened to be in there lol
Sure, unfinished though. I guess it’s been a decent way to ease myself back into audio in a sense lol
Hopefully, but thankfully the prices of these used are pretty low now so i can probably find a replacement too. I had no idea he had so many lines.
Mouse click as per tradition AND an added hand reveal?!?! I mean that is as good of a video as any other keyboard test video. Those red silents kind of sound like shuffling paper in sand.
The CMA800i and Twelve Master are the first two Questyle products I’ve ever heard and I instantly fell in love. There’s something about the current drive amps, too.
The Moondrop Cosmo is surprisingly difficult load. My WA6 will distort at 3 o’clock. No big surprise there. But my Taurus mk. II, that distorts at 4 o’clock. I do listen loud, but nothing crazy. The Taurus not being able to handle did surprise me. On paper, the Cosmo is similar to HE-500.
Both CMA amps push the Cosmo beautifully. 800i was at 4 o’clock but did it perfectly, very clean and spacious. Twelve Master goes 1 o’clock, and again, pristine.
He’s an extremely influential man in audio, I don’t think you can escape things he’s touched in the analog recording realm lol
Lol yeah, the silents were an interesting build, picked just cause it’s a decent test of low level, not that it’s the most amazing build, I guess you just hear more of the limitations there lol
There’s a lot that people ignore for recording stuff, I rambled too much in the description lol
Just been reviewing the spec of the MD Cosmo and realised that it is reasonably less sensitive than HE-500, 81 dB/mW vs. 89 dB/mW.
I’ve always been curious about monoblocking CMA800Rs; according to my searches, they only output 710 mW per channel in dual mono mode. Doesn’t seem like much. Is this again where the magic of QS’s CMA comes in and they’re in fact way more capable than the numbers suggest?
Power is power.
The open question is what is being reported on a spec sheet, it’s often quoted at some specific distortion, often 1%, though sometimes at other levels.
What current drive circuits do is put the transducer in the feedback loop, that removes any variation in transducer impedance from the FR, that might also result in less obvious distortion if you do clip.
Even “just” 700mW is a lot of power for headphones, you might get that sort of draw during very loud peaks, but most headphones including the Susvara and other very inneficient headphones will get no where near that. To put it in perspective at “rational” listening levels a Susvara is pulling maybe a few 10’s of mW’s.
Because volume is logarithmic that can still be peaks orders of magnitude higher than that. The oft ASR quoted 30dB’b of headroom requires ~30x the power output, and bear in mind the engineer would have had to throw away 1/3 of the dynamic range on a 16 bit digital recording to get that sort of swing, and most won’t.
As I’ve said before while it’s true that more powerful amps often sound better with inefficient headphones, it’s not usually just because they are “more powerful”.
At this point idk if theyll ever release another DAP.
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