Shakti is back to Digital ( Innuos, Roon, Brinkmann)

shakti

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May 9, 2015
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Jürgen, i don’t you have your Genesi for sale on ebay ?

Yes, indeed, I do have currently the Genesi on Ebay. The Genesi is a great performer, but more sensible in connectivity than assumed. The Preamp has only XLR inputs and does not like XLR/RCA adapters. As I like to change and to compare a lot of gear (as part of my hobby) , the Genesi is not the best partner for that attitude. But selling on ebay can take a year or sometimes even longer, so time enough to enjoy the Genesi. At a friends home a VTL 7.5 preamp is playing wonderful music with a lot of in- and outputs, this Pre might be an alternative for the future.
 
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kodomo

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In Munich 2018 I was quite impressed by the way the Brinkmann dac was sounding next to their analog, unlike the many dCS rooms over the years there. In fact the dCS next to the restored idlers in the Silbatone room convinced me to take a look seriously at analog a few years ago. They used to alternate each track across the vinyl and the dCS. This year they replaced the dCS with a 30k Silbatone dac and I couldn't tell the difference when they moved from one to the other. Well you could make out a difference as a shift from one table to the other. I have no experience of the brinkmann or Silbatone outside of Munich though

Is this the Silbatone DAC 105?
 

bonzo75

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kodomo

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I don't know the model, it is their middle one (Of three)

I can not find any info on Silbatone dacs other than the 105. Do you have any links or info on them?
 

bonzo75

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I can not find any info on Silbatone dacs other than the 105. Do you have any links or info on them?

Not really, just discussed briefly with JC Morrison of Silbatone at Munich after being impressed by it
 

Lagonda

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Yes, indeed, I do have currently the Genesi on Ebay. The Genesi is a great performer, but more sensible in connectivity than assumed. The Preamp has only XLR inputs and does not like XLR/RCA adapters. As I like to change and to compare a lot of gear (as part of my hobby) , the Genesi is not the best partner for that attitude. But selling on ebay can take a year or sometimes even longer, so time enough to enjoy the Genesi. At a friends home a VTL 7.5 preamp is playing wonderful music with a lot of in- and outputs, this Pre might be an alternative for the future.
I like following your posts Jürgen, you always find interesting gear, and your
flexibility when it comes to brands and configurations makes your listening
rooms a true long time testing ground. “Highendkueche”(high end kitchen) is a good ebay name, keep on cooking !
 

morricab

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10 years ago I started my digital journey to streaming, using iTunes and La Rosita Streaming interfaces. All my files were ripped in WAV, so I was ending up to add Meta Data at my own.
The upcoming possibility of online streaming (like Tidal) made my digital set up obsolete, as it is impossible for Apple to allow mixed playlists of Tidal and Harddisc. The world of the Linn streamers was my answer, so I was able to use my iTunes directory and Tidal plus!!! High Res files which iTunes is still not capable of.

But the usability of all the different Apps were just not satisfying, after all the years with the smooth iTunes world.
Then came the point, were my 8TB NAS was faling while doing a back up and I list the majority of my files.

I decided to just listen to CD and to my favorite source, to analog.
For more than a year, my Lampizator Golden Gate DAC was nearly not playing any music, I also have to say, that I started to get bored with all the tube rolling on the GG, I was missing a "neutral reference" if such a source is possible at all.

On the other hand, I had (have) a lot of fun with my analoge set up.
But after this year, I started to miss some of my music, as not available on Record.

Visiting friends, I looked into their digital set ups and found out, that the most of them are using Roon as control software and that the time of standard NAS seems to be over. A dedicated Music Server is now the must be.

It became clear to me, that going back to digital streaming means a complete redesign of my digital set up.

Software:
As I liked, what I have seen at my friends homes, it was clear, what I want:

Roon !

Musicserver:
My requirements are like this:
- Roon Core
- Roon Endpoint
- UPNP (DLNA)
- > 4TB SSD
- USB out
- LAN out
- Solid CD Ripping
- "Plug'n Play" (not Plug'n pray...)

As Computer Technology is developing fast, I gave myself a max budget of 5000,- eur , so no SGM, W20, Statement :-(
But the Innuos Zenith MKIII 4TB ssd has all the features I am looking for, and still is within the given budget.

http://www.innuos.com/en/catalog/go/zenith-mk3-1tb-ssd-black

DAC:
My requirements are like this:
- Roon Endpoint
inputs:
- LAN
- USB
- AES/EBU
- RCA SPDIF
outputs:
- RCA
- XLR
DAC chip
- separate for DSD and PCM

Using now Lampizator DAC's for some years, I am a kind of biased regarding possible performance and tonal balance.
But my current preamplifier (Grandinote Genesi) has a relatively low input impedance and I have the feeling, that some of my gear did a better job on my former Koda Preamp. But some sources do like the Genesi Preamp a lot, specially the sources with a low output impedance. My Golden Gate is in the range of 1500ohm, which is very high. The output impedance changes by all the different sets of available tubes. So driving the Genesi Preamp, the differences of the tubes become very clear.

Many of the available DACs with low output impedance can be found in the professional Studio market, but all of them, where I had the chance to listen to, were not according to my taste.
Lampizator has defined a standard (in combination with a matching set up), which ist difficult to match.

During the last Munich High End fair I had the chance to listen to the Brinkmann Nyquist II ( 15000,- eur) , which was a very good demo! To my surprise, Mastermind Brinkmann managed to develop a tube output stage DAC (NOS Telefunken tubes) with only 10ohm output impedance. Just by chance I had the opportunity to try out the Nyquist at home, and I found, what I was looking for!
A DAC, meeting all of my requirements .

https://www.brinkmann-audio.de/main.php?prod=nyquist&cat=default&lang=en

Since a couple of days the Zenith server and the Nyquist DAC do play music at my home and I have a day by day increasing learning curve.

I will share my findings in this thread in the next days.


Consider Lucas Audio Lab;

https://www.lucasaudiolab.com/products/

We used Lucas's server last year in our Swiss High End show and it was killer. We are also using it again this year. I think his smaller model fits your budget just fine.
 

nicoludio

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Apr 15, 2014
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I can not find any info on Silbatone dacs other than the 105. Do you have any links or info on them?

It's probably the Silbatone DAC100 Silver Edition - I have seen it at my dealer. It's about double the price of the DAC105.

Ked's comments about it vs analog is interesting.
 

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kodomo

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I also have asked about it to Silbatone Europe. I was told that the top model is dac100 silver which costs 70.000euros like people say.
According to nfnc the 105 costs half as much as 100. They have also wrote to me that there is a base model that costs much less which means there is another dac they have which is their entry model.
 
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kodomo

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I just got the info from Silbatone Europe but they do not want me to post the numbers;
dac107: entry
DAC 105: mid
dac100: reference
 

Golum

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bonzo75

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I just got the info from Silbatone Europe but they do not want me to post the numbers;
dac107: entry
DAC 105: mid
dac100: reference

Yes as I said it was the mid model, so then 105. He did say it was around 30k
 

microstrip

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I just got the info from Silbatone Europe but they do not want me to post the numbers; (...)

Just MHO, but I find such behavior unacceptable - retail prices of any high-end equipment should be known to the public. I think it is even mandatory nowadays in Europe - if you advertise or sell anything you are supposed to have an accessible price list, according to the Price Marking Order 2004.
 

spiritofmusic

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If you need to ask...
 

morricab

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Just MHO, but I find such behavior unacceptable - retail prices of any high-end equipment should be known to the public. I think it is even mandatory nowadays in Europe - if you advertise or sell anything you are supposed to have an accessible price list, according to the Price Marking Order 2004.

In Switzerland, many homes are listed "Auf Anfrag", which means upon request. ;)
 

kodomo

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If you ask them directly, they answer, but they do not want the prices published. They are yet yo setup the dealer network so I guess they are holding back a little. For me having list prices published would have been better. If you or your dealers make discounts later on that is not unusual anyway.
 

nicoludio

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I also have asked about it to Silbatone Europe. I was told that the top model is dac100 silver which costs 70.000euros like people say.
According to nfnc the 105 costs half as much as 100. They have also wrote to me that there is a base model that costs much less which means there is another dac they have which is their entry model.

That’s unrealistic. Will drop you a PM so as not to clutter this thread.
 
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marslo

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Golum

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Ccccc - yes that one ;) - killer server
 
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marslo

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My private ranking of audio servers ( did not try Innuos though )
a/ Aurender W20
b/ LDMS
c/ exequo SGM first version and Lampizator Superkomputer
d/ Aurender S10

I owned both Aurenders , SGM audiotioned at Sound Gallery in Monaco using Roon and HQ player with T+A Dac 8 , files from Tidal upsampled to DSD 512
Superkomputer was presented by Lukasz himself at my place when Pacific was delivered.
I am in favour of native palyaback be it hires pcm or dsd files, do not like converted and upsampled files.
Jus my two cents.
 
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