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Post by sondale on May 6, 2017 16:27:34 GMT
It should work as described; I did this to a RPi 2B/ Digi in March 2016 and it is still working using the Ethernet connection.
I had wondered if something might have happened when the leads were soldered but then powering from the usb socket should not work either.
Does the Pi power up? A stupid question but are the positive/negative the correct way round? I once got it wrong and the Ethernet chip certainly got hot and did not work - neither did the Pi after that!
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Post by sondale on May 1, 2017 17:16:17 GMT
Somewhat belated - I really enjoyed the day especially the nOrh Marble-9 speakers - if I could lift them I would have taken them!
Really good range of music as well - at least three albums to definitely purchase and a few others to listen to on Spotify.
It was not only good to put faces to names but to also talk to them!
Pauls' cake did look exceedingly nice but as I am watching my waistline (expand) I had to decline - thanks for the offer - maybe next year??
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Post by sondale on Apr 23, 2017 12:26:47 GMT
Great you found a decent bit of software for your MAC Have you thought about doing anything to the Power supply ide of MAC John, At the moment it is a SMPS feeding a picoPSU all of which I will change to a Linear PSU - obviously one of Colin's designs.
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Post by sondale on Apr 23, 2017 12:19:08 GMT
On checking it seems to be available for Windows 8 onwards; so a lot more people could try it. My only windows pc is a NUC i5 but just out of interest I will download it and give it a whirl.
I connect to the Caiman via USB, with this setup I have not yet tried any DSD files or done any upsampling.
There is a program from SonicStudio called SQ+ which I am trialling - it is used with streaming and seems to use the same basic software. With BBC Radio 3 (HD) stream and with QOBUZ there seems to be a marked upgrade in sound - but that could be the weekend effect so something else to test in the next week or two (15 day trial).
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Post by sondale on Apr 23, 2017 10:12:10 GMT
I have played around with a lot of computer based hardware and software from cics cPlay/WindowsXP to RPi/AlloBoss/MoodeAudio, many different dacs from TwistedPear DIY dacs to Beresford Caiman SEG, USB conditioners, cables........
The latest version of the RPi-based player is RPi 3 / Allo Boss DAC / MoodeAudio 3.5; my Windows based computer, on which I had tried AO/jPlay amongst others, went to a friends son as a gaming pc; my MAC OS X system is Hackintosh / Audirvana+ / Beresford Caiman SEG.
I am always looking around for hardware / software that will improve my listening pleasure and just over a week ago I found a mention of Amarra 4 in a competitors thread, the description was a little OTT but I checked it out. In the past I have tried Amarra on my Mac machines but never really got on with any of their software, but a trial never really hurts and it can be removed in an instant.
So software downloaded and installed on my Hackintosh system - I came across the usual problem I have with a lot of music software - metadata. I like things organised in a certain way especially Classical Music and Amarra 4 does not recognise Album Artist so I was against it straight away. Then I find it does not have any remote control feature - Amarra 4 Luxe will have this - since I run my Hackintosh in headless mode this means having to use a Mac Mini to share screens.
As to the sound quality?? The person who sent me on this journey described it as valve-like - I am not sure what aspect of valve sound he was thinking about - all I can say is that Amarra 4 is staying (already bought) and as soon as the Luxe version is available I will be trying that.
Describing an actual sound is difficult beyond the usual 'huge amounts of deep bass, a nice tinkly top end etc. What I will say about Amarra 4 is that you very quickly stop listening to the sound and just listen to the music; the music flows in a way I have rarely heard on any of my systems.
If you have a Mac of some description I would urge you to try the free trial.
To put things in perspective my Hackintosh is based on an Intel i7 4 GHz processor with 32 GB Memory with Heatpipe cooling - no moving parts in here! With the Caiman SEG it is well over 10 times the price of the RPi-based system, it is not as easy to organise / control as the RPi but having heard it I cannot listen to anything else.
I have been trying to think of ways I could bring it to the ASBO but I would need to bring along my home network!
Disclaimer - I have nothing to do with SonicStudio / Amarra.
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Post by sondale on Apr 4, 2017 9:10:34 GMT
I have just skimmed through the latest issue - what a range of topics! An excellent find.
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Post by sondale on Sept 30, 2016 7:01:53 GMT
To my ears there were a couple of problems with the B200 - a mid-range bump coupled with a rolled-off top-end.
The mid range could be tackled with a BSC (Baffle Step Correction) circuit plus use of a phase-plug; the top end could be augmented with a tweeter / super-tweeter. However the main reason for going down the full-range / line-array was to get away from cross-over type components. Compared to the OBs I made using Hawthorne Silver Iris drivers I never felt as drawn into the music with the B200s - I might at some point try the Sterling Silver units.
With the MarkAudio drive units in their various horn-loaded cabinets I never felt the need to add anything to them - OK at times the power handling could be better but in terms of frequency response they were fine.
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Post by sondale on Sept 29, 2016 8:21:33 GMT
I built a pair of open baffle line-array speakers based on Paul Hynes ideas - his employed 8 Visaton B200 units wired in parallel - I used 4 per channel.
This obviously produces a problem for the amplifier driving them - the load is 0.75 ohms - most amps seeing this will die.
Paul's solution was to build his own amp which of course I had to build, it is odd in that there are about 7 components in the amplifier and the power-supply is one of his 12 volt regulated power supplies.
Luckily the drive units being in parallel offer 104db per watt as the amp is only capable of producing a few watts.
I ended up not being 100% happy with the sound of the B200's. I may retry at some point with Mark Audio drive units which I have used in other speakers.
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Post by sondale on Sept 20, 2016 14:14:10 GMT
I now have the SECA 40 watt boards, a limited run of 12, 4 of which I will be using myself. The circuits and BOM will be available as soon as I have checked them against each other. James - two of the boards are ear-marked for you. Do you have Colin's notes on the build - not sure if he also lost these. As a note the speakers at my house are Infinity RS3Bs, I took out the original cross-over and rebuilt using all new components but excluded the mid/tweeter pots and fuses. They were re-wired with some prototype speaker cable. I also changed the base-boards as they were not in a good state, at some point I may have a look at the bracing (or lack of it). Now if someone has some RS2Bs they want to let go...... I will come up with some prices and details of any components I can help supplying. Back to James's amplifier - I could listen to it until the cows come home - it was a pity he had to take it home with him. If wanted I can start a new thread to help anyone wanting to build these beauties. More details when I have them - and some pics of the boards.
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Post by sondale on Apr 10, 2016 22:55:36 GMT
After a MiniDSP 2x4, anyone got one they want to sell me? Darren, Yes, I do! Alan p.s. tried to send you a message but that does not seem to be allowed.
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