Hopkins' System

[hopkins]

Ok let me google that ..!

P.S. the speakers are ridiculously cheap. I've made it clear that they are far from perfect. For example, you won't get with these the resolution of better speakers. Yet, for some reason, that I have a hard time explaining, they are realiy enjoyeable... Music is "lively", easy to listen to - not overwhelming - yet immersive. You do get a good sense of a given recordings' "individuality", they don't homogenize everything. An audiophile friend recently came over and was surprised as well, but I am sure many would dislike them.

I now have a renewed curiosity to listen to other systems and see how I feel about them. Am I realiy missing something important? I honestly dont know.

 

[PYP]

P.S. the speakers are ridiculously cheap. I've made it clear that they are far from perfect. For example, you won't get with these the resolution of better speakers. Yet, for some reason, that I have a hard time explaining, they are realiy enjoyeable... Music is "lively", easy to listen to - not overwhelming - yet immersive. You do get a good sense of a given recordings' "individuality", they don't homogenize everything. An audiophile friend recently came over and was surprised as well, but I am sure many would dislike them.

I now have a renewed curiosity to listen to other systems and see how I feel about them. Am I realiy missing something important? I honestly dont know.

if you are enjoying music over the long term, you aren't missing anything.

 

[hopkins]

I ordered an SMSL PL100 CD Player after watching one of JELabs' videos - not because the video sounded "awesome" (of course it did sound good), but simply because it is cheap, has a small format, and seems to be well build.

This model has sold well, I had to wait a few weeks as they were out of stock.



I do not plan on using it often, but it will come in handy in the following situations:

A - I receive a CD and want to listen to it before going through the trouble of ripping it to my music collection - I just pre-ordered Mosaic Records' latest CD box set, for example, and I am sure I wiil want to play it immediately!

Classic Vanguard Jazz Piano Sessions Limited Edition Box Set (#281 - 6 CDs) -

It’s a shame that the bulk of these recordings have been unavailable for so long. We encourage you to snap up a set before our collection — extremely limited — disappears as well.

www.mosaicrecords.com

B - my network is down - this is rare, but it is good to have a backup solution

C - I have a few CD box sets that I have not bothered ripping and probably never will

The CDP sounds very good. I don't have another CDP compare it to, but given the results (and my use-case) I don't feel the need to invest in a more expensive model.

My powerDAC-SX does have robust noise reduction/jitter reduction on its single Toslink input. I will be curious to compare a CD with its ripped files, but I don't expect to hear significant differences.

 

[hopkins]

I also received today two Mundorf coils that I was curious to try on my speakers - they act as a first order low pass filter on the midrange driver:

MUNDORF L250 Self à Air 2.5mm 0.39mH - Audiophonics

mundorf l250 self à air 2.50mm 0.39mh

www.audiophonics.fr

I will solder the connections.

One would think it is a waste to invest in quality crossover components for a very cheap speaker, but the sound quality improvements can be heard. With only 3 crossover components per speaker, it is in fact cheap to invest in realiy good quality parts! And it is fun to tweak...

 

[microstrip]

I also received today two Mundorf coils that I was curious to try on my speakers - they act as a first order low pass filter on the midrange driver:

MUNDORF L250 Self à Air 2.5mm 0.39mH - Audiophonics

mundorf l250 self à air 2.50mm 0.39mh

www.audiophonics.fr

View attachment 146561

I will solder the connections.

One would think it is a waste to invest in quality crossover components for a very cheap speaker, but the sound quality improvements can be heard. With only 3 crossover components per speaker, it is in fact cheap to invest in realiy good quality parts! And it is fun to tweak...

Nice to see the Wago connectors - my SoundLab crossovers have now plenty of them - and yes, audiophonics is a very tempting site!
BTW, I measured the Wago connection resistance and found it to be very similar to a top good quality audio connector.

 

[DasguteOhr]

smart clamp connection has revolutionized electrical engineering. headquarters is 8 miles away from my home.Wago Minden, germany

 

[microstrip]

smart clamp connection has revolutionized electrical engineering. headquarters is 8 miles away from my home.Wago Minden, germany

Yes, but as in many revolutionary concepts, high quality is a must. It is why, after testing them, I used many boxes of Wago's in my recent house refurbishment - no place for cheap alternatives!

 

[hopkins]

My powerDAC-SX does have robust noise reduction/jitter reduction on its single Toslink input. I will be curious to compare a CD with its ripped files, but I don't expect to hear significant differences.

To clarify this point - when I say "robust" I don't mean "perfect".

With each version of their products, ECDesigns improves the "source immunity" of their digital input, but they also discover new sources of optimization, and hopefully new tricks to improve things. Noise is a bitch - to put it crudely. I have stopped trying to understand the technical aspects.

 

[hopkins]

I had fun all afternoon spinning CDs while working - from home... The CD player's remote came in handy when I got a phone call/meeting... That's the drawback of remote work with online chat (Teams, in my case) - you get disturbed frequently!

On a side note - no pun intended - I am yet again pleasantly surprised at how good the speakers sound when sitting and working on one side of the room, completely off center from the speakers.

A few days ago, when I was listening with my son, I was sitting right in between and slightly behind the speakers, facing him while he was in the "sweet spot", and had fun hearing the musicians behind my head. Stereo imaging is sometimes surprising.

 

[PYP]

I ordered an SMSL PL100 CD Player after watching one of JELabs' videos - not because the video sounded "awesome" (of course it did sound good), but simply because it is cheap, has a small format, and seems to be well build.

This model has sold well, I had to wait a few weeks as they were out of stock.

View attachment 146560

I do not plan on using it often, but it will come in handy in the following situations:

A - I receive a CD and want to listen to it before going through the trouble of ripping it to my music collection - I just pre-ordered Mosaic Records' latest CD box set, for example, and I am sure I wiil want to play it immediately!

Classic Vanguard Jazz Piano Sessions Limited Edition Box Set (#281 - 6 CDs) -

It’s a shame that the bulk of these recordings have been unavailable for so long. We encourage you to snap up a set before our collection — extremely limited — disappears as well.

www.mosaicrecords.com

B - my network is down - this is rare, but it is good to have a backup solution

C - I have a few CD box sets that I have not bothered ripping and probably never will

The CDP sounds very good. I don't have another CDP compare it to, but given the results (and my use-case) I don't feel the need to invest in a more expensive model.

My powerDAC-SX does have robust noise reduction/jitter reduction on its single Toslink input. I will be curious to compare a CD with its ripped files, but I don't expect to hear significant differences.

and it can be used in vertical position too.

 

[hopkins]

I really enjoyed listening to this LP today:



I like this album, and I really like the sound of this 1978 LP version, compared to the CD version I have. The digital version clearly has a "high noise floor", as if some noise reduction was used in the production of the digital version.

This difference is clearly audible even though the LP version is being played through an ADC and a DAC....

 

[hopkins]

This album, on the other hand, sounds great on digital:

 

[hopkins]

Continuing down memory lane, here's a favorite. I bought the bootleg LP in the early 80s at Bleeker Street Records. It sounded terrible at the time, having been taped off a radio broadcast, but there were no official releases then. It has been reissued since, from better tapes, and while the recording is far from perfect, the energy of the band on this famous 1978 "Darkness" tour is well captured:



I had not listened to it on these speakers before, and It sounds great.

The long intros and outros on some of the tracks, with Roy Bittan on piano, among others, are memoreable.

 

[hopkins]

This afternoon I modified my WiiM Pro streamer to allow me to use ECDesigns' electroTos cables instead of (or to be more precise, in addition to) the Toslink output.



The ElectroTos cable simply has the LED on its end, and the idea here is that the optical signal has a slightly cleaner signal than with a conventional Toslink cable, as the light does not have to travel through the cable, and you get less jitter/reflections at the DAC's input. Even though the Toslink signal gets "reclocked" by the DAC, it seems that a cleaner optical signal is still beneficial...

Optical cable issues are well known, there's no "snake oil" here. ECDesigns published some comparative measurements:

ElectroTos – ECdesigns

ecdesigns.nl

Does it sound better? I think so, but YMMV.

There is another benefit to doing this.

Toslink input jacks are prone to issues because they are mechanically "fragile". They have a limited "shelf life" (specs state something like 10.000 connections). The ElectroTos LED tip slides into the Toslink input jack putting less mechanical stress than a regular Toslink cable

The other end of the cable is a regular RCA male jack, which you can plug/unplug easily. So now I can easily swap inputs by unplugging the cable from my WiiM and plugging it into my ADC to play vinyl.

I removed the RCA Spdif output of the WiiM and replaced it with another output jack. The jack is connected to the Toslink output signal on the board.




Because the signal travels through a regular coaxial cable, it would be fairly simple to build a mechanical two or three way switch to avoid plugging/unplugging cables....something I will look into.

I will also modify my smsl pl100 CDP in the same way.

 

[hopkins]

I stayed up late listening to a number of albums streamed through the WiiM Pro with this new connection and the sound is very good. It is difficult to describe these types of improvements. Sound works in 4 dimensions. Hundreds of thousands of "bits" are processed every second to produce this sound - it is a small miracle that it actually works! As the pieces of this giant puzzle (bits) come together in fractions of a second everything just seem to make more sense to my ears. I like it, and I like that such a cheap - but versatile - streamer (180€) can reach this level of performance (with my PowerDAC...).

I listened to this track again, which I have no interest in "musically", but that is simply fun to listen to due to the stereo effects and the dense layer of sounds:

Open Qobuz

open.qobuz.com

The precision/definition of the sounds and their accurate placement in the soundstage is "spooky". Are they "live acoustic instruments in a concert hall"? No. If a digital system works well to reproduce this why should it not work well with all types of music? The answer is: it does!

Accuracy is a word that makes no sense from a listener's standpoint. But under the hood, it's all about accuracy (to the physical source being played - whether analog or digital). An "accurate" system cannot sound dry, clinical, and "uninvolving" as some would claim - if the system sounds that way, it ain't accurate...(obviously no system is completely accurate to the source media).

Good times...

 

[hopkins]

A nice swinging solo by Wynton Kelly on Johnny Griffin's "The Little Giant" album:

The Little Giant (album) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The Little Giant : Johnny Griffin : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Tracklist: 1. Olive Refractions 2. The Message 3. Lonely One 4. 63rd Street Theme 5. Playmates 6. Venus And The Moon

archive.org

Towards the end of the video, I move from left to right, and to my ears, the sound remains pretty consistent even outside of the sweet spot. I like that.

I don't have a vinyl version to compare - original mono (or even stereo) versions in good condition are too expensive - but I find that the digital version, especially this one by "Fresh Sound Records", is satsifying:

Open Qobuz

open.qobuz.com

 

[hopkins]

It was a nice sunny day today here in Paris, so I went bicycling and ended up near this bar - "Listener" - which I mentioned a few weeks ago.

Coffee Shop et Bar à Vin - Listener

Profitez d’un moment convivialProfitez d’un moment convivial avec vos amis en partageant votre amour de la musique tout en dégustant une variété de vins biologiques et naturels, de bières artisanales, ainsi que notre cuisine gourmande faîte maison.Pour vous satisfaire nous avons sélectionné avec...

listener.fr

I stopped for a coffee and a cup cake. They told me that they were having a free listening session of their main system, and invited me to join.



A music critic (https://www.jeanchristophemanuceau.com/), who specializes in movie soundtracks, was hosting the event, and discussing the music of John Barry. This was so much more interesting than just having the typical audiophile playlist, as was the case with the Magico demo I attended a few weeks ago. I ended up staying for an hour and a half.



Well known and lesser known tracks were played, starting from John Barry's first recordings. It was interesting.... I checked out their Instagram page after and saw that they had a session on Quincy Jones last week, and felt sorry I missed it.

I could not help taking a few videos - here are two:

- Somewhere in Time (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somewhere_in_Time_(film)). I'm a sucker for romance, and love this movie...

The movie's Wikipedia page explains: "Despite reviews calling the film "horrible" and a "superficial tear jerker", the International Network of Somewhere In Time Enthusiasts (I.N.S.I.T.E.), an official fan club, was formed in 1990 and continues to meet regularly." Hilarious

- The Persuaders (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Persuaders!). Growing up here in France in the 70s, we had a very small selection of TV shows, and this one was a mainstay (titled "Amicalement Vôtre" in French). It was fun to hear the soundtrack again after all these years.

I really liked the sound of this system. Nothing is perfect, but this was much more enjoyeable than the Magico system.

The main components:

- Aries Cerat Helena DAC
- Aries Cerat Diana integrated amplifier
- Tune Audio Anima speakers (3 way).

TUNE AUDIO ANIMA | TuneAudio

TUNE AUDIO ANIMA: REAL BASS HORN Massive 15” woofer for low frequencies modified in house, 5” for mid frequencies modified in house, 1” compression river

www.tuneaudio.com

The listening room is not huge. There are three rows of confortable couches. It is below street level, and well isolated, so there is no discernable ambient city noise. The ceiling is slanted on both sides, and from what I could see, the wall behind the speakers is treated.

The bar is located in a nice neighborhood, right next to the Palais Royal, which has a lovely enclosed garden.

Kudos to the team at "Listener".

 

[hopkins]

One track that I discovered and really enjoyed is the theme to the Ipcress File:

Do yourself a favor and listen to it on your speakers, not (only) on your phone.

I was eager to listen to it on my system, when I got home. I still had in my head the sound of some of the instruments in that track.

Cimbalom - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

If I offer comments on how my system compares, it's going to remind you of this scene in Groundhog Day, so I won't

As I listen now to some of these songs, I am really appreciating them and am happy with the own specific sound of my system, that's what counts - it must be doing some things right...

 

[morricab]

It was a nice sunny day today here in Paris, so I went bicycling and ended up near this bar - "Listener" - which I mentioned a few weeks ago.

Coffee Shop et Bar à Vin - Listener

Profitez d’un moment convivialProfitez d’un moment convivial avec vos amis en partageant votre amour de la musique tout en dégustant une variété de vins biologiques et naturels, de bières artisanales, ainsi que notre cuisine gourmande faîte maison.Pour vous satisfaire nous avons sélectionné avec...

listener.fr

I stopped for a coffee and a cup cake. They told me that they were having a free listening session of their main system, and invited me to join.

View attachment 147160

A music critic (https://www.jeanchristophemanuceau.com/), who specializes in movie soundtracks, was hosting the event, and discussing the music of John Barry. This was so much more interesting than just having the typical audiophile playlist, as was the case with the Magico demo I attended a few weeks ago. I ended up staying for an hour and a half.

View attachment 147161

Well known and lesser known tracks were played, starting from John Barry's first recordings. It was interesting.... I checked out their Instagram page after and saw that they had a session on Quincy Jones last week, and felt sorry I missed it.

I could not help taking a few videos - here are two:

- Somewhere in Time (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somewhere_in_Time_(film)). I'm a sucker for romance, and love this movie...

The movie's Wikipedia page explains: "Despite reviews calling the film "horrible" and a "superficial tear jerker", the International Network of Somewhere In Time Enthusiasts (I.N.S.I.T.E.), an official fan club, was formed in 1990 and continues to meet regularly." Hilarious

- The Persuaders (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Persuaders!). Growing up here in France in the 70s, we had a very small selection of TV shows, and this one was a mainstay (titled "Amicalement Vôtre" in French). It was fun to hear the soundtrack again after all these years.

I really liked the sound of this system. Nothing is perfect, but this was much more enjoyeable than the Magico system.

The main components:

- Aries Cerat Helena DAC
- Aries Cerat Diana integrated amplifier
- Tune Audio Anima speakers (3 way).

TUNE AUDIO ANIMA | TuneAudio

TUNE AUDIO ANIMA: REAL BASS HORN Massive 15” woofer for low frequencies modified in house, 5” for mid frequencies modified in house, 1” compression river

www.tuneaudio.com

The listening room is not huge. There are three rows of confortable couches. It is below street level, and well isolated, so there is no discernable ambient city noise. The ceiling is slanted on both sides, and from what I could see, the wall behind the speakers is treated.

The bar is located in a nice neighborhood, right next to the Palais Royal, which has a lovely enclosed garden.

Kudos to the team at "Listener".

That looks like a great system! As an Aries Cerat guy…I approve …

 

[Argonaut]

One track that I discovered and really enjoyed is the theme to the Ipcress File:

Do yourself a favor and listen to it on your speakers, not (only) on your phone.

I was eager to listen to it on my system, when I got home. I still had in my head the sound of some of the instruments in that track.

Aside from growing up with and being a huge fan of John Barry , the soundtrack from the 2002 Silver Screen Records Ltd reissue of The Ipcress File on CD has long been an essential tool in my personal handful of references that I utilise whilst evaluating changes to my own system or take with me when visiting other folks and their systems and dealer demo situations ,as this issue contains audio dialog clips taken from the film and therefore an excellent tool for assessing for instance noise floor levels and therefore ambient micro detail cues on the scene , which either come through the system unadulterated or otherwise .