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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2017 13:31:25 GMT
Thanks, Chris. I'll stay with the CD which is, as I said, excellent. MOV don't list the single LP album of Grace any more, just the Grace EPs set. The MOV distributer sends me a 1500+ line excel sheet every Friday for me to order stuff, the JB single LP will come back in sometime in the future I am sure. I think I own every single version of that LP and its only for 1 track! Don't like the rest. The current EU Legacy version uses the MOV stampers (at least on one side). |
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Post by MartinT on Jul 17, 2017 13:34:36 GMT
I will say, in the instance of Grace, the single 180g vinyl album does sound better than the CD when I compared them directly.
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Post by MartinT on Jul 17, 2017 14:57:04 GMT
I had the pleasure of hearing Martin's system... Thanks for your comments, Paul. It's taken me a while to get there and the room change was the final piece of the puzzle. I think I named this thread correctly, it really was a new beginning and I am very happy with the sound I have now. I've found myself just listening to the music more and more, which is as it should be. |
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Post by MartinT on Aug 17, 2017 7:09:23 GMT
I received a small 12V Yuasa (branded Yucel for use in alarms) lead-acid battery to power the Caiman SEG separately from the battery I use for the Raspberry Pi. Lead-acid batteries should provide a smooth, relatively noise-free and very low impedance power source and even a small one like this could power the Caiman for over a week.  Initial impressions last night, using the Caiman SEG in Mode 3 (four LED blinks), were very good indeed. There is further detail and spacial cues to be heard and a tremendously coherent and non-harsh presentation. This is using my Pi in Spotify Connect mode with high bitrate streams. For the cost of £12, this is a no-brainer and the best power supply yet for my DAC. |
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Post by John on Aug 17, 2017 7:46:29 GMT
Good result Martin
I used to have nearly everything running off batteries apart from the inuke and it sounded very good
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Post by MikeMusic on Aug 17, 2017 9:21:55 GMT
Great result and superb value for money.
We are still discovering better sound quality not in the mainstream
When batteries *really* develop I think we will run our kit entirely on batteries.
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Post by SteveC on Aug 17, 2017 12:57:54 GMT
Great result and superb value for money. We are still discovering better sound quality not in the mainstream When batteries *really* develop I think we will run our kit entirely on batteries. I recall, years ago, attending hi fi shows and visiting the Living Voice room, where Kevin Scott had his entire system powered from his bespoke battery stack, that he lugged from show to show, to avoid using the hotel mains supply! |
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Post by MartinT on Aug 17, 2017 13:23:11 GMT
Not so silly, if you can do the heavy lifting.
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Post by MartinT on Aug 24, 2017 21:06:16 GMT
I used four thick sticky felt feet, two per door, to stop them resonating along with deep bass. The purity of the deep notes has taken a distinct improvement in definition. Fantastic upgrade, cost about three quid  |
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Post by MikeMusic on Aug 25, 2017 5:36:51 GMT
Sounds excellent.
Makes me think of my doors. Will check
<later>
would draught exclude tape have a similar effect ?
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Post by MartinT on Aug 26, 2017 15:41:13 GMT
I was taking down two nondescript looking wall speakers today, in preparation for decorating the bedroom. On closer inspection, it turns out they're Linn Unik wall speakers! There's another eight of them to remove in other rooms. I've had quite some success selling these shitty Linn speakers. The first pair went for £72 and I've just sold the second pair for £84. It seems that the Linn name has a similar pull to Naim. I'm not complaining, it's all going towards the new TV! |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 26, 2017 18:17:43 GMT
Knew you'd get a packet for those speakers, Linn has a similar if stronger pull than Naim in the market.
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Post by MartinT on Sept 23, 2017 18:40:13 GMT
John came over with his file-based PC system and DAC today. I learned many things from the experience but I will say it's the first time I have been completely satisfied with the sound of a file-based player. It nearly, but not quite, matched the sound of my Ayre SACD player and that's a big compliment.
There was a surprising difference between Foobar (nice interface, easy to use) and Bughead (hideous interface, madly difficult to comprehend and use). Bughead sounds a lot better playing the same files. If only it didn't take 2 mins before playing a song!
We also tried John's PC into the Caiman SEG and that gave a very good account of itself, sounding better than John's DAC from Foobar. Unfortunately, Bughead wouldn't play into it, giving a 'USB ran out of resources' error, a compatibility issue that John will try and research.
John's setup is well optimised and sounded extremely good. I don't see myself going down the file-based route, but it's reassuring to know that it can work very well, if not at its best unless you're prepared to have the patience of a saint.
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Post by John on Sept 23, 2017 18:45:32 GMT
I had a great afternoon at Martin's new home. What a fantastic home.
The system is sounding stunning. The speaker disapear and he has fantastic deep sounstage with lots of detail and attack, just one of the best systems I heard period. Martin played a variety of music and I found I could eaisly sink into the music. As Martin knows I can be quite a critical listener but I just loved how the system sounded
The Caiman SEQ is a great sounding DAC. In foobar it beats my DAC but for whatever reason we could not get BugHead to work with the Caiman. I think time for me to think about a new DAC in the future however.
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Post by John on Sept 23, 2017 18:48:22 GMT
With BugHead its not so bad in real life as I tend to play albums not individual songs. If I played individual songs I could not live with it.
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Post by John on Sept 23, 2017 19:08:10 GMT
Album that i was using for the Pink Panther Theme
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Post by MartinT on Sept 23, 2017 19:18:16 GMT
Ah, thanks John.
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Post by John on Sept 24, 2017 4:54:14 GMT
I know Martin does not use the USB on the Caimam on his main system but for those rhat do its worth adding IFi USB silencer and Purifier 2 in your system as gives a nice upgrade in sound quality
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Post by MartinT on Sept 24, 2017 10:46:45 GMT
I listened to the exact same Pink Panther track via Spotify/Pi/Caiman SEG just now. It's pretty good and better than your Foobar/DAC sound, but not up there with the Bughead playback. I can't help thinking that the Bughead/SEG would be a monster if you could get it going.
Other variables are battery power for my SEG and S/PDIF optical digital transfer rather than USB.
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Post by MartinT on Sept 24, 2017 10:49:41 GMT
This version is magnificent.
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