Streamer to kill the big boys for under $250

[Blizzard]

I am not closing off my mind. Obviously you have not paid much attention, or you must have missed that I even suggested to Madfloyd to try out the NADAC; I am curious myself how it would stack up against his superb analog rig:

http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showt...-for-under-250&p=365814&viewfull=1#post365814

But the fact is, I have blown a hole into your transparency claims by exposing the contradictions in your argumentation.



On the contrary, you argue from dogmatic 'technical' principle that, for example, your DAC configuration or the NADAC must be better than the dCS Vivaldi without having heard the real world result, and that they must be better than SOTA analog without having heard the real world result.

I'm not going to claim to have the superior DAC without comparing both. All I can say was the NADAC was designed with the intention to be 100% transparent. So was mine. Most audio products are purpose designed for coloration. DAC's designed for 100% transparency are the best DAC's to use with HQplayer. This is because you can add the coloration's in the digital domain to suit your tastes. But they also can be taken away if they don't sound good with the particular album you're listening to. People are so used to the old school compromises with hardware based coloration, that they have a hard time realizing how much of a better world it is when they can be toggled on and off with a click of a button, rather than swapping out an amp, DAC or preamp.

What I would like Madfloyd to do is to try the NADAC, or even the low cost Hapi, in conjunction with HQplayer, before deciding to pay big bucks for the DCS. It may be an eye opener that will save him big bucks! If he doesn't agree, just return it.

 

[Al M.]

I'm not going to claim to have the superior DAC without comparing both.

Good.

All I can say was the NADAC was designed with the intention to be 100% transparent. So was mine.

And so was mine from Berkeley, with very good, but not world class results; their Reference DAC is better. And so are the dCS DACs. Both these companies have roots in pro audio. There is nothing in the circuits of the DACs from both companies that are in any way designed to 'tailor' the sound.

Most audio products are purpose designed for coloration.

Questionable statement.

What I would like Madfloyd to do is to try the NADAC, or even the low cost Hapi, in conjunction with HQplayer, before deciding to pay big bucks for the DCS. It may be an eye opener that will save him big bucks! If he doesn't agree, just return it.

As I said, I would also be interested in hearing the NADAC, and for sure neither he nor I will buy the dCS Vivaldi stack, it's just so darn expensive. I am interested in a dCS Rossini Player down the road sometime, but I may change my mind based on hearing the NADAC at some point, who knows.

 

[Blizzard]

Good.



And so was mine from Berkeley, with very good, but not world class results; their Reference DAC is better. And so are the dCS DACs, both from companies that have roots in pro audio.



Questionable statement.



As I said, I would also be interested in hearing the NADAC, and for sure neither he nor I will buy the dCS Vivaldi stack, it's just so darn expensive. I am interested in a dCS Rossini Player down the road sometime, but I may change my mind based on hearing the NADAC at some point, who knows.

Like I said earlier, the Hapi is only $4200 and 95% of the DAC as the NADAC. Actually if you had a cheap summing adapter built for the output, it would probably be 100% as good. Then you can also pop in the worlds best ADC board to make DSD 256 rips of your vinyl!

 

[bmoura]

BHE fad still raging. I heard jriver 256 upconversion feeding BHE in AO core mode and I remain stunned.

I expect HQP upconversion to BHE would be even better..though I dont know how..

The BHE Facebook page mentions DSD 512. Is BHE now supporting DSD 512?
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bug-head-technology/221354151338856

 

[wisnon]

DOP256 is like PCM 768. Is he really sure? I think it is more like native 256? Does he say it will be just a flush of firmware or require a new USB board?

Hi AYDC,

Just got onfirmation today. Lampi Amanero did indeed support LINUX DSD256 via DoP and now (breaking news) supports "Native" as well.
When I asked how come, Lukasz says the version of Linux he uses does and NOT ALL Linux(es) will be able to do this. This works with current stock Amanero.

On another note: the EML Anniversary MESH 45 tube is being tested for SQ now and availability will be mid-Feb. Check out FBook for the update.

 

[Blizzard]

Hi AYDC,

Just got onfirmation today. Lampi Amanero did indeed support LINUX DSD256 via DoP and now (breaking news) supports "Native" as well.
When I asked how come, Lukasz says the version of Linux he uses does and NOT ALL Linux(es) will be able to do this. This works with current stock Amanero.

On another note: the EML Anniversary MESH 45 tube is being tested for SQ now and availability will be mid-Feb. Check out FBook for the update.

It doesn't make sense that the native DSD would work with only his Linux version. So you must buy his 4900 Euro Lampi Komputer for native Linux DSD support? I think there's some holes in this information.

 

[BobShermanEsq]

It doesn't make sense that the native DSD would work with only his Linux version. So you must buy his 4900 Euro Lampi Komputer for native Linux DSD support? I think there's some holes in this information.

We need to ask Dustin!

 

[Folsom]

A transparent DAC would put out digital. That's a misnomer. There's no such thing. It doesn't make any sense.

 

[Blizzard]

A transparent DAC would put out digital. That's a misnomer. There's no such thing. It doesn't make any sense.

By transparent DAC, I'm referring to a DAC specifically designed to be transparent as possible. And by that I mean out of the analog outputs.

 

[Geardaddy]

Question: can the Auralic Aries be used as a surrogate dummy receiver in your paradigm?

 

[Blizzard]

Question: can the Auralic Aries be used as a surrogate dummy receiver in your paradigm?

Do you mean for the fiber?

 

[Geardaddy]

Do you mean for the fiber?

Forgive my ignorance of semantics. What do you mean by the fiber? The Intel micro-computer?

 

[Blizzard]

Forgive my ignorance of semantics. What do you mean by the fiber? The Intel micro-computer?

No the fiber optic connection option I discussed earlier in this thread. This can be implemented with the Aries just fine and would likely improve upon the sound. But the big reason for the superiority of this system (besides lower cost) is the HQplayer compatibility. The Aries doesn't have this compatibility. If the Aries did have this compatibility, and you already owned one, I wouldn't recommend this system to you. However this isn't the case.

 

[wisnon]

Question: can the Auralic Aries be used as a surrogate dummy receiver in your paradigm?

Too expensive to contemplate. Not sure you can load a NAA onto it and if its too noisy anyway. Besides, it will be your MQA decoder after soon to come FW update.

 

[Blizzard]

Breaking news for Lampizator owners. Native DSD 256 compatibility for all Lampi DAC's that utilize the Amanero USB interface (Most of them) will be available with this low cost streamer option around the same time it's available with the Lampi Komputer. Just imagine Linux native DSD 256, combined with Fiber isolation and all of the benefits of the HQplayer NAA system!!

Anyone who already has the image, and has a Lampi DAC, will get a new free updated image once available. I forgot to mention, this image comes with free upgrades for life. If a better way to do things comes along, I'll make a new image and send it off to everyone for absolutely free. And you can trust me that I'm always on the lookout and will be one of the first to know if this is the case. And it will always be simple and plug and play.

For example, it wasn't until after I came out with this system that Lampi decided Linux was better than Windows. In fact they slammed Linux for sounding dry and sterile.

 

[Blizzard]

Too expensive to contemplate. Not sure you can load a NAA onto it and if its too noisy anyway. Besides, ikt will be your MQA decoder after soon to come FW update.

Roon/Hqplayer will also be a MQA decoder, so no need to have any MQA specific hardware. The best way you'll ever experience MQA is resample to DSD via HQplayer, and send off to a NAA compatible streamer, from there to any DSD compatible DAC.

 

[wisnon]

No the fiber optic connection option I discussed earlier in this thread. This can be implemented with the Aries just fine and would likely improve upon the sound. But the big reason for the superiority of this system (besides lower cost) is the HQplayer compatibility. The Aries doesn't have this compatibility. If the Aries did have this compatibility, and you already owned one, I wouldn't recommend this system to you. However this isn't the case.

No he clearly means in place of the NUC as the NAA for HQP.

The Aries is likely MUCH noisier than the NUC and hence inferior for purpose.

 

[wisnon]

Roon/Hqplayer will also be a MQA decoder, so no need to have any MQA specific hardware. The best way you'll ever experience MQA is resample to DSD via HQplayer, and send off to a NAA compatible streamer, from there to any DSD compatible DAC.

I disagree there.

As much as I love DSD…the RELEVANT premise of MQA here is to apply PCM filters to compensate for "errors" in the original mastering process. Thus native PCM with compenastion shoud be the proper horse for the course here.

 

[Blizzard]

No he clearly means in place of the NUC as the NAA for HQP.

The Aries is likely MUCH noisier than the NUC and hence inferior for purpose.

I wouldn't say that. Probably pretty close to the same if powered by a good power supply like the Teddy Pardo. The advantage here is the software. And likely the Intel hardware has much better MTBF spec's. But I haven't seen the MTBF specs of the Aries computer board, so I'm not in the position to make this claim.

 

[Blizzard]

I disagree there.

As much as I love DSD…the RELEVANT premise of MQA here is to apply PCM filters to compensate for "errors" in the original mastering process. Thus native PCM with compenastion shoud be the proper horse for the course here.

All it is, is compressed PCM. Based on what folks are saying who have compared it to high rez PCM, they say it's not even as good. After "decoding" it ends up regular PCM data anyways. So you will experience the same level of upgrade converting regular PCM to DSD with HQplayer with MQA streams as PCM. The only advantage is, better sounding music will be available through streaming services like Tidal. which will be 100% compatible with this streamer.