tony wrote:
As a side note the Soekris dac came and is a very capable performer. The LZ bested it on this occasion imho. Nicer tone and enough detail on the LZ to bring it home.
Unfortunately as we all know Nigel doesn't give up easily! He advised the Soekris was worked off usb power rather than 5v battery at home. Factoring this in and further filtering work means I have to keep looking nervously over my shoulder. For Nigel this was a work of art. It all sat on one piece of wood with no mole grips in site.
well nearly everything of mine is a 'work in progress' and theres still some areas that the soekris is behind sq wise
for me it can still sound a little flat and it will surely do that in the company of the lampizator, the 1794 dac i have would have a more dynamic range closer to that of the lampizators which kinda makes them more comparable in that regard
the soekris has lashings of detail which will be hard to match
running the soekris dac from usb power was idiotic in hindsight,
it should be one of the commandments of computer audio
'thou shall not power dac from pc'
really had just been lazy coz i would have had to rig up a 5v supply for the day
im expecting new usb to i2s adapters for it so i wasnt gonna hard wire anything temporary in
Thanks to Ken for bringing the beans(Coffee beans) Very nice just roasted today.
Ken is still clockless but I think the head might be turning if he can find a reliable supplier.
i could do with some roasting/bean advice might be interesting to try too
the problems with clocks seem to be in its stability, pcs with two or three clock replacements are sensitive to gnd issues they may work perfectly when untouched put connecting interconnects, usb drives can send the pc haywire and a restart is necessary sometimes they even seem not to want to boot up and that can be as stressful as setting up jplay streaming :)
then there's the possibility of breaking the motherboards during a oscillator removal ive a pile of em to prove it
unlikely id break 2 in a row at the same time
then good clocks are only as good as there powersupply so a powersupply and 2 lifepo4 batteries and switches/relays would be needed for that
its an easier mod after a pico bypass with direct lifepo4 because you can share components
so is it worth the hassle
i suppose it depends how critical you are
i think its a must for high end pc-audio but then i think alot of stuff is :)
it brings fluidity and droves of detail/control
