Merry Christmas - Anything Hifi planned for next year?

Hi @Paul_Whittaker,

I haven’t had the time to do any auditioning yet. It’ll take another 2 weeks before I can say something, but I promise I won’t forget to post a short review ASAP.:grinning:

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Please tag me in it when you do. I don’t want to miss it :slight_smile:

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Bob, some great insights here. Just wondering if you’ve reached any more conclusions? Sounds like you were finding that different servers (ST vs Rock) do in fact change the sound quality? Some people have dismissed this, but others find that a reasonably high quality system will show benefits from choosing a better server.

I have continued to make changes. I have eliminated the NUC from the equation for now it had to get turned into a machine for scanning documents for my wife!!

What I started is another comparison. I have been doing some documenting of it over on computer audiophile. It will also be on my blog eventually.

I have a new 2104 Mac mini that has the smoldered ram and the PCIE SSD so no SATA!! I have taken the power supply out of the Mac and installed an UpTone Audio MMK conversion kit into it. The Mac and the Brooklyn DAC+ are being powered by an UpTone Audio JS-2 power supply.

I have the SOTM SMS-200 Ultra in the chain to the DAC. I do not have any USB cleanup yet. I have an UpTone ISOregen on order and I am waiting on a demo SoTM TXUSB Ultra.

After that I will look at Mac OS optimizations.

Things are A LOT better than I have ever had before. There are a lot of little boxes in the stereo system right now and that will go up by one or two.

RJF

I am awaiting the shipping readiness of a Smyth Research A16 Realiser …not really for roon but no doubt will be intrigued to see how it’s intergrates for headfi in multichannel modes

Wow, sounds like the ST is long gone. As far as USB clean-up I’ve found the Schiit Eitr to be the best I’ve tried. I think I’m going to try to resist further upgrades and let technology play out for a while. The only niggling question for me was the server.

I did have a bad case of “upgradeitis” and was planing on an upgrade to my power amp and replacing my Pi/ALLO DAC but decided it is good enough for the amount of time I get to listen to it and to spend the money on going to gigs instead.

I am not sure that the ST is “gone”. Right now it is on the sidelines.

One of my goals was to introduce the Mac back into the system to be able to use other software appreciation for music and introduce other services such as Apple Music.

Yes it is a little crazy…