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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2009 14:36:36 GMT
Mike, Did you roll your opamps before or after changing the psu? If before, is it worth trying again! I guess you don't have the extra buf634s yet, but how goes the tinkering thus far? (Doubly curious as mine is now on the way )
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Post by PinkFloyd on Oct 9, 2009 20:50:44 GMT
Mike, Did you roll your opamps before or after changing the psu? If before, is it worth trying again! Before Chris. I have reverted to the SMPS supply and, to be honest, can't detect much difference (now that I'm listening for it!).... I'll leave it a couple of days and then go back to the regulated supply again.... tell you what Chris, howzabout I send you a 12V regulated Pinkie instead of the 12VAC one, would you prefer that? You can then tell me if there's a difference They arrived this afternoon (thanks Jon!) and took about 10 minutes to "stack".... there is definitely a greater sense of energy and more air around instruments with the extra buffer per channel.... it's not along the lines of "subtle" either.... it's immediately noticeable once you fire up one of your favourite, well known, tracks.... in a nutshell, there's more going on around you, it's not as 2D as it was, the sound is more holographic in and about the head.... very nice improvement and I'll be stacking another couple on top as soon as I get hold of them..... I have 20 (or so) SOIC Buf634 so, if I have a spare moment, may stack 10 on top of each other and fit the stack to a SOIC to DIP convertor.... I'll need to polish my specs though as that will be quite a complex piece of soldering!! I could have done it in my sleep years ago but the old eyes aren't the same these days..... I'll see what I can do though supeglue the stack together first and then go to work on connecting the terminals up I am still LOVING this little device Chris, you will NOT be disappointed..... even in "stock" form it's fantastic....... it's simple, does what it has to do without bells and whistles and doesn't require a degree to install it..... simply connect to a USB port, open up itunes and plug your 'phones in. She will drive most 'phones with ease, I'm currently listening to the 250ohm Beyer DT-150 and she has plenty of oomph to drive them (a LOVELY partnership by the way ) I'll say it again for the benefit of the "feature" junkies who would have you believe the NG27 is crap..... The NG27 is a simple, well implemented design which works VERY well..... it is superbly built, will last many years, works with a wide variety of headphones and sounds fantastic........ Not a lot more to say really ;D Stacked buffers:
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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2009 11:43:16 GMT
Nice one Mike! Looks like I'll be adding buf634s to my ever expanding list of bits to buy.
As for the pinkie, I'll stick to the VAC if that's OK. I have a 12vdc supply left over and plans for my original pinkie vac!
Chris
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Post by PinkFloyd on Oct 10, 2009 21:11:59 GMT
Nice one Mike! Looks like I'll be adding buf634s to my ever expanding list of bits to buy. As for the pinkie, I'll stick to the VAC if that's OK. I have a 12vdc supply left over and plans for my original pinkie vac! Chris 12VAC it is Chris I've almost cleared my backlog and will build your Pinkie tomorrow.... it'll be with you soon. I wouldn't go mad with the NG27 if I were you mate.... it sounds great "as is".... you may be very happy and not "need" to mess about with it Use your ears to decide. Mike.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2009 10:47:53 GMT
That's for sure Mike. I'll let little fella bed in well before any thoughts of "going in". Then I'll know what direction I want to take it. I'm sure I will, after all tinkering is all part of the fun Chris
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Post by PinkFloyd on Oct 11, 2009 22:06:45 GMT
Listening to the new Yello album "Touch Yello" and if it gets much better than this I think I'd pass out.... an absolutely perfect recording and the little NG27 conveys the music with emotion, soul and energy and has more than enough drive for even quite demanding headphone loads.... she's a little cracker Chris!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2009 22:39:49 GMT
I'm chomping to hear it, I hope signor correos (Mr posty) uses his Red Rum bred donkey!
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Will
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Post by Will on Oct 12, 2009 11:24:16 GMT
I must admit, the more I look at this little amp, and what you get for the money, the more I'm impressed. My heart really lies in DIYing stuff, but you could'nt build this amp for the money, much less the USB DAC, and still have it looking nice as well. For a good straightforward computer fed amp, it looks a really good buy.
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Post by coolfungadget on Oct 15, 2009 6:10:13 GMT
Hold your fire. MK2 is coming out soon...
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Post by coolfungadget on Oct 15, 2009 6:14:21 GMT
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pjc68
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You dissin me?
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Post by pjc68 on Oct 16, 2009 0:25:54 GMT
Hi everyone Ordered one of these the other day for my dad for chrimbo, cant wait for it to come to test it out. sent seller a link to rockgrotto and this post, he might be able to put some input/info on futre mods etc. pjc68
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Post by Deleted on Oct 28, 2009 16:56:55 GMT
Mike,
Ref your swanky psu for the aune, will you be trying this on the NG27? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on best voltage etc. (12-15vdc IIRC)
Chris
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Post by PinkFloyd on Oct 28, 2009 20:02:14 GMT
Mike, Ref your swanky psu for the aune, will you be trying this on the NG27? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on best voltage etc. (12-15vdc IIRC) Chris Chris, I've got a suspicion the NG27 power supply will be the same as the Aune.... ie it says 12V on it but probably outputs something else ;D I'll get my DMM out later this evening and measure the output voltage... with a bit of luck it will be 20V too
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Post by PinkFloyd on Oct 28, 2009 20:15:09 GMT
Mike, Ref your swanky psu for the aune, will you be trying this on the NG27? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on best voltage etc. (12-15vdc IIRC) Chris Chris, I've got a suspicion the NG27 power supply will be the same as the Aune.... ie it says 12V on it but probably outputs something else ;D I'll get my DMM out later this evening and measure the output voltage... with a bit of luck it will be 20V too erm...... I was wrong, the stock wallwart outputs exactly 12.3V
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Post by PinkFloyd on Oct 28, 2009 20:28:25 GMT
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Post by PinkFloyd on Oct 28, 2009 20:35:45 GMT
I'm going to live with the Aune + regulated supply ( see here) for a week and will then go straight over to the NG27 with a Little Pinkie V to see what the differences are.... I could AB the two of them together but always find it more realistic to live with an amp for a while and then listen to another.... that way you can hear quite a lot of differences that you quite simply miss AB'ing.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2009 0:37:30 GMT
HOORAH. Mine has arrived. I won't bore you with more pictures as Mike has that well and truly covered. Grabbed it off Mr posty this afternoon, it's been running since about 4p.m. I have to say when I first popped it on, with Senn PX200 (all I have at work at the mo) it sounded thin and reedy. About an hour later it was starting to open up. A few hours later I've now discovered what everyone has been chuffing on about ref lossless files. All (not that much actually) my old mp3 (top res) stuff is now getting replaced with wav. I can really hear the difference now Obviously it's still early days and I have not listenend that much yet BUT, at the mo, there is a real synergy thing going on between the 27 and the Senn HD560ovII. The HD600 sounds a tad naf on here. The size of the unit is perfect, I see this being my laptops best freind. Looks like another PC music luddite is being dragged into the new world
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Post by PinkFloyd on Oct 31, 2009 22:15:43 GMT
HOORAH. Mine has arrived. I won't bore you with more pictures as Mike has that well and truly covered. Grabbed it off Mr posty this afternoon, it's been running since about 4p.m. I have to say when I first popped it on, with Senn PX200 (all I have at work at the mo) it sounded thin and reedy. About an hour later it was starting to open up. A few hours later I've now discovered what everyone has been chuffing on about ref lossless files. All (not that much actually) my old mp3 (top res) stuff is now getting replaced with wav. I can really hear the difference now Obviously it's still early days and I have not listenend that much yet BUT, at the mo, there is a real synergy thing going on between the 27 and the Senn HD560ovII. The HD600 sounds a tad naf on here. The size of the unit is perfect, I see this being my laptops best freind. Looks like another PC music luddite is being dragged into the new world Hope she's settling in nicely Chris If you're running "itunes" import all your CD's using Apple Lossless (only takes a minute or two per disc)..... you should notice a vast improvement over those MP3 files..... She certainly is nice and small and well suited to laptop duty I'll get those bits and bobs over to you ASAP
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Post by Deleted on Nov 1, 2009 18:11:26 GMT
Mike, Yep, using wav at the moment, have iTunes, have Nero and a couple of others. In fact, for someone who has up until now not used the computer much for music, I seem to have accumulated more music programmes than lossless albums I'm assuming there is no difference (check sums blah blah) between wav and m4a(apple lossless)? Cheers matey, Chris p.s. was there a knack to removing the vol knob? I have a nice jobby waiting to go on.
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FauDrei
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Post by FauDrei on Nov 1, 2009 18:23:08 GMT
I'm assuming there is no difference (check sums blah blah) between wav and m4a(apple lossless)? Oh no! Wait until Alex address this...
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Post by Deleted on Nov 1, 2009 18:29:24 GMT
I'm assuming there is no difference (check sums blah blah) between wav and m4a(apple lossless)? Oh no! Wait until Alex address this...
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Post by Deleted on Nov 1, 2009 20:56:19 GMT
Oh no! Wait until Alex address this... Chris There are far more knowledgeable people in this area as members of Computer Audiophile. This is the forum where I am way out of my depth with the guys that design and sell the high end DACs etc, as well as the Chesky brothers. My claims about .wav files with identical check sums sounding different have been verified in a post by Peter Staudio, who is the lead designer of the XXHE software which plays back music files from memory.Peter will be tring to find the reasons behind all of this. I find it rather interesting, that unlike all the sceptics here, the big boys in CA are not ridiculing him, or GeoffC (silverwater) or myself any more. Oh, BTW, Peter Staudio and his friend clearly heard the differences between the uploaded files, but incorrectly picked the earlier version one as the best sounding. The reason for this mistake when using loudspeakers, was explained in a very informative post by "barrows" shortly afterwards. I will state once again that "lossless" files deteriorate in comparison to the original .wav files after conversion to .wav files and stored on a typical PC's HDDs. If you have high resolution playback gear , try downloading some 24/96 .flac files then convert them to .wav files and save them directly to a USB pen or SSD, and play them back directly from there. Better still, try downloading them directly to the USB pen first. Spinning HDDs "muddy the waters". This is a recent quote from the Editor of Computer Audiophile. The same applies to typical el cheapo Optical devices used for ripping. For the highest quality music files, stick with .wav files, or replace your HDDs with the newer , and expensive versions of SSD now available. Playback from memory is reportedly a little better again. Alex www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Windows-7-anyone-using-it-yet#comment-29112
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Post by PinkFloyd on Nov 1, 2009 22:27:24 GMT
I must try the USB pen Alex, have just ordered a 64GB one
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FauDrei
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Post by FauDrei on Nov 1, 2009 23:20:07 GMT
I'm assuming there is no difference (check sums blah blah) between wav and m4a(apple lossless)? Just to state a different opinion... If you have a half decent computer that can handle it's interrupts (IRQs) in timely manner - lossless music is the same as wav from which it is compressed and is the same as the audio CD data from which the wav is properly ripped. "Play from RAM" FOTM is useful just for those who have seriously flawed IRQ latencies on their computers or "feel better that way". In fact, every SW player plays from RAM buffer, it is just that it does not waste hundred Mbs of RAM for it but loads and decodes music data transparently as needed. Properly set up 25 MHz 486 PC can do it, I'm sure your computer can too. External DACs/soundcards, like NG27 for example, help the playback in a way that audio HW is excluded from electromagnetically and mechanically noisy environment. If they use properly written drivers (with using DMA CPU offload) - there is barely any CPU usage at all during playback. For example, right now I listen to 24bit/96KHz bit-perfect playback while writing this reply and my CPUs are idling. As for "different sound from the same data stream" hype... even though it goes directly against everything I believe in digital - I've set up a blind test in my office. Twice. Both times almost all participants could not hear any difference between the provided 16/44,1 and 24/96 wavs. The participant from the first test that claimed he can hear a difference was, with 97% probability, proven guessing. Claims that upsampling DAC used in first test masked the differences were dismissed from 5 of 5 participants in second 24/96 test from 16Gb USB stick with high-end R-2R DAC. Enough proof for me (and a relief that nothing is wrong with my hearing). Finally, lossless deteriorate originating wavs in the same way your word document deteriorate when zipped and sent via e-mail. Please do not shoot me, it is just a different opinion... ;D
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Post by Deleted on Nov 1, 2009 23:32:59 GMT
I must try the USB pen Alex, have just ordered a 64GB one Mike In the unlikely event that the claims of myself, Leo, Will, Miguel, Jeff C,TonyG,Nickyboyo, Gavin Lam,Syd,Sol and many others, as well as many Industry members from Computer Audiophile,including the Editor are proved incorrect after indepth analysis, and FauDrei proves we are all delusional, you will still be able to take your best quality music with you wherever you go, and plug it in to another PC, or even a Mac which is so beloved by a small percentage of Computer owners worldwide. Alex P.S. I hope you ordered a fast USB drive, as my 8GB PQI was painfully slooooow. When your new USB pen arrives, let me know, and I will upload a very recent rip of D.S-L.O.G that went straight to my 32 GB Corsair Voyager GT, for you to try downloading directly to it for a playback comparison with your own CD played directly from your CD/DVD ROM. This a track that Robin Wukits really loved from a previous test upload.
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