Recent content by PieterG

You nailed it! 🎯 I had not heard of Cambridge IEMs, maybe they don't sell many in mainland Europe? Looking at how they're constructed, i expect they slide into the ear canal and create a good seal. I always wonder why they add noise cancelling to a design like this, or maybe it has no negative...

The M-DAC was very well regarded at the time. Audiolab released the D7 and D9 recently. I have the D9 and find it excellent. I'm sure the D7 is too, just a bit less "sophisticated" because it has fewer conversion channels, a different power supply, and a simpler display. I use the headphone amp...

This sounds like bad signal transmission, like when a speaker cable is not properly connected to one of the binding posts. If it's both speakers changing volume simultaneously, i would be concerned about the amplifier.

I still think it's worth trying to connect the HF and LF wires together to the speaker terminals (2 pairs left, 2 pairs right, and obviously paired correctly). If you make sure the speaker connections are in place before you turn on the amplifier, and make sure to turn off the amplifier before...

Something to check... Do you clear your song queue when you finish a listening session? I have noticed (particularly with Spotify actually) that if you have a connection that wasn't terminated, the playback device doesn't always appear, probably because it's in use by another device and doesn't...

I think the soldering is the problem here. You need to make both the HF and LF connect to the same speaker binding post, but their signals cannot "touch" each other as that will create a short circuit between the two amplifiers. As a practical solution, you could try to twist the HF and LF...

Sounds like a bluetooth pairing issue. You can pair it with any device but it can probably only remember two. If that's the case, then you'll need to set both your headphones and the device in pairing mode so they can discover each other. The new pairing will replace one of the previous two that...

That's a fair point. But what's the best point in the signal chain to apply corrections/changes? In my new setup there's only 1 option: the streaming device. If i wanted to fiddle with controls, maybe it would be nice to have that possibility in the DAC or the (pre)amp so i could evaluate the...

If you pick the Wiim Ultra, i suggest you connect it to your amp via RCA, not digital. The Ultra is supposed to have the better DAC. If by any chance you're connecting to a digital input on the amp, a cheaper Wiim (Mini, Pro) will do the same job just fine.

As an owner of Kef floorstanding speakers, i can't stress enough that you need to drive them with an amplifier that can deliver high current. It's not about the 120W output but the ability to control the bass drivers in particular. If the amp is underpowered you will get poorly defined low...

Hi -- i'm not sure you're comparing apples to apples here. The MXN10 has a good and widely used DAC chip, and Cambridge typically tunes the sound of their products very well around the DAC. It's not a flagship Sabre DAC but a very good one nonetheless. The Fiio is a R2R DAC. If you're...

Are you saying CD analog RCA into the Eversolo and then balanced to the Gustard amp? That obviously works, but if you have the optical input on your DAC (it seems unused from your description), wouldn't it be easier to send CD out digitally (optical) rather than converting to analog before...

@Witterings @TK421 I did a bit of research on jitter and clocking (because i like rabbit holes). TLDR; the USB transport into a DAC is the cleanest. USB is asynchronous, allowing the DAC to request data when it needs it. The DAC is the master clock, close to the D/A conversion processors...

Good point. I figured all digital outs would be passthrough as long as the frequency and bit rate are supported for the selected output. If what you say is correct - and i have no reason to contradict you - then usb is preferred. I think @TK421 confirmed that the SMSL only accepts usb input...

Indeed. Optical or coaxial. My understanding is that theoretically optical is supposed to be cleaner because it doesn't pick up interference from nearby electromagnetic sources, but i think it's only really a thing to consider if you have a coaxial cable in use and hear a hum or noise.