Amplifier Experts?

[gridgway]

The cheapest streamer listed on the Peter Tyson site looks like it does it https://petertyson.co.uk/wiim-mini-smart-music-streamer
And probably makes a good job of it.

Connecting something to a PC also a good idea, I've got some B&W PC speakers which sound ace - USB connection.

I've got a bunch of Raspberry PIs with hifiberry DACs which work well. That's what I have in my study along with a class D amp that was a £12 kit from china that I soldered up and is housed in a takeaway food box! It's connected to an ancient pair of Technics speakers and sounds ace!

[chris68]

That's great. Amazing what you can do these days with RaspberryPi and Class D amps at so little outlay. Lots to learn on the way too.

[gridgway]

Volumio is good as the streaming software, although the Spotify connectivity might be less straightforward. There is a plug in it seems, but you'd want that to work with the free version of volumio, not the £6 per month version. I moved from Volumio to Roon. That's eye wateringly expensive, but runs all the streamers in the house (6 rooms ish) and provides music on the go with even an android auto app. So I can listen to all my music - ripped CDs plus Tidal and even the vinyl albums I recorded and ripped back in the day! They sound very good and have crackles to boot!

[anglophone1]

I have absolutely no idea what you guys are talking about!!
C

[middlefour1]

I have absolutely no idea what you guys are talking about!!
C

Think they are talking about this new fangled thing called the wireless Clive.............. Never catch on.

[neilbardsley]

Ok I'm bidding on a DAC on eBay. I think I will try to introduce each component into the London setup then transfer to my office in Northamptonshire when the room is available. This has a few advantages. I can see if each component makes any difference to my untrained ears. I can hide any purchases from Mrs B.

I have a son, William ,with 1st in Electrical Eng. His final year project was changing a commercial analogue medical device to digital using raspberry pi. I used to be a c and c++ programmer. Between us you would hope we had a go at a homemade solution so maybe I will see if I can talk him into a project!

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[Bruce M]

My teenage daughter was showing interest in vinyl but I firmly steered her towards CDs instead. She’s used Spotify for years but now wants to own the media and support the artists.

I was planning to buy her a set of Genelec active studio monitors probably with the matching subwoofer. They are D class amps per driver inside the aluminium speaker case. Not the ultimate £6k top end model though! (Which has full room correction etc)

That would work with a balanced output DAC preamp (such as a Topping E70 unit) and any PC / digital source / CD transport.

However Mrs M went “off piste solo” before xmas and picked up a Denon unit with questionable speakers. So my plan to get her a “buy once” audio system was derailed.

[neilbardsley]

I had a play of the London setup last night. I think the old Yamaha is the weak link. I have to fiddle with switches to engage sound. I tried to clean it before but might have another go.

Turns out the speakers are ok. Chario syntar 100 bookshelf speakers. An Italian make which get some good reviews. The shop I bgt them from rated them but who doesn't rate what they sell. They are 25 years old. Should I consider changing the drivers if I can get replacements?

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[neilbardsley]

I've been wildly jumping around with different ideas for amplifiers. Kit Valve amps. Already made that you can import from Japan. The Harman Kardon 730 but I think I will try to pick up an Arcam A5. Anyone have anything to say about Arcam amps?

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[neilbardsley]

Part 1. I bgt an IFI DAC V2 (under retail £116)

https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/ifi-zen-dac-v2

Not bad according to What Hifi.

Then we hooked up to a laptop and feed the analogue output into the tuner input on the amp. While keeping the input from the TV (using it's internet DAC) to Aux.

Then we played 3 different songs and switched between the inputs. We used Spotify. The laptop had it as an App and I cast onto the TV from my phone. We tried to get the quality settings the highest possible on both sources.

Nessun Dorma
Sultans of Swing
It's Tricky


The last song was appropriate because they seemed pretty close to us. However, on the Run DMC song the Ifi DAC seemed more responsive to the changes in music.

William was listening too and we both struggled to articulate the difference. I think we are the limiting factor. Perhaps not the machines. More testing is needed.

2nd hand budget NAD ordered. I've emailed Chario Speakers about drivers. Let's see what they have to say.

Part 2 coming soon.



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[sladey]

Good variety of tracks there Neil. Years ago when testing speakers I chose 'Late in the evening' and also 'me and julio down by the school yard' by Paul simon

[gridgway]

What is interesting is how one works out the quality of the signal path.

Is the source from Spotify lossy (what quality) or lossless. Then on the PC how does it get to the DAC? USB out from the PC or optical digital? Can you see what the digital signal is that the DAC is decoding.
Then same question from the phone. That feels much harder to work out to me as I am biased. Spotify on the phone rendering lossy or lossless? I doubt lossless. Then via bluetooth and chromecast to the TV's DAC.

But then of course what does it sound like an what is the key factor? Having dallied around a lot, I really think that the end sound quality is largely determined by the speakers. I think the rest of the bits have to not be crap!

I have a mahusive hifi system in my music/cinema room which I have experimented with for many years. I did have an absurdly expensive Linn streamer, then tried it against a Rasp-pi/hifiberry solution which sounded just as good!

I've tried my £12 chinese takeaway box amp with the B&W 802s and it sounds good as does a solid state low power class A amp that I built from a kit which was £100.

I'm rambling now, but before I finish, my best chum has gone for a Linn DSP type system that is installed and configured for the room somehow. I poo-poo'ed the whole thing as it messes with the sound, so it's not pure is it? However when listening it sounds amazing. You hear stuff you never heard before. How can that be? One day I'll see how much the net cost would be to upgrade!

So to end the rambling, if it sounds great, it is great!

[Gary71]

I’m also sure that as we all get older our ears are a major problem in the chain from artist to brain…


I’m still running vintage Kefs (with new bass drivers!!) and a chunky Arcam AV amp, but more recently using an Apple TV box as a lossless streaming source. You control it via your phone but it streams directly. Set the amp to ‘stereo direct’ so it doesn’t mess with anything (or use surround) and it’s all pretty good.

[gridgway]

I think all my speakers are at least 20 years old. I have a pair of B&W 805s that went out of production in 2004 and mine are very early serial numbers so 25+ years old. One has just started giving some distortion. Might be a drive unit or might be electronics. It's at low volumes and doesn't get worse with higher volume. B&W stocked spares until 2022, so I have to find an alternative mender, That might be Wilmslow, but it's very nerve wracking!

[neilbardsley]

Thank you as always for the comments. I listened a bit more last night and enjoyed the DAC more. I'm still playing with speaker positions. At the moment they are on a shelf with another shelf a few centimetres above. I'm not sure if that is good or not. I might try some stands to bring them more into the room.

Ive been randomly bidding on some B&W DM7s. Mostly based on them looking cool. I will need to replace one of the bass cones if I win. Looks like I didn't win. Time to think of something more sensible.

I mentioned to my colleague about the DAC purchase and he mentioned a friend that has been building his own amplifiers since he was 18. My colleague met him when they were both sponsored by ICI and went to Cambridge. I've only watched the first one.

https://youtu.be/h86eKZMB7fY?si=JNZ_Sy1--wGBESMF

Sry I also wanted to thank you for the comments about the speakers being the key component. This is what my colleague said too but I had been working from the source forward so going in the wrong direction.

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