Hehe, been there and done that. I shipped the ultraRendu and the Uptone LPS-1 to my old man (dad) to enjoy (I’m still waiting for a thank you from him… ).
My ears agree with the designer of this DAC actually - you can’t beat a battery based, low power consumption USB source that’s completely disconnected from mains power. Copying the designer of one’s gear is usually a good idea! This is only for critical listening. The Toslink source sounds just about as good for most general listening.
The DAC is ok… the stapler remains the secret weapon
congrats on your Dave. I have one, too, and love it very much. Have you ever tried Audeze headphones (e.g. LCD-4) or Stax earspeakers (e.g. SR-009)? They’re both really great cans IMO…
We’re now in highly personally subjective territory regarding personal preferences of cans but I really didn’t like my LCD-4 home demo. Given that there is such a big following for these cans I then went in search of any online reviews that noted the same that I did andthe Inner Fidelity review / conclusion is exactly the same that I reached - there is a chunk of the audioband seemingly missing! Bass is extraordinary but I couldn’t ignore the seemingly missing upper range. Maybe DSP in Roon can fix it but I’d rather start with something I like without any DSP.
I ended up copying Dave’s designer (Rob Watts). His current favourites are the AEON Closed for their low distortion across the board and great transparency across the board and my ears agreed.
Very comfy and quite cheap relative to some over priced and under performing cans out there. I believe they measure really well too, according to Inner Fidelity, if measurements interest anyone.
Cheap enough to allow me to save my pennies for something else later, that is a step up not a step down from the AEON closed performance. Maybe a Stax set - I’ve heard Stax but not with Dave yet. That is truely incredible! Maybe MrSpeakers next flagship cans will be next, that ups the Aeon Closed performance. Very impressed with my first MrSpeakers cans, based on the initial recommendation of Dave’s designer.
When it comes to pairing amps/DACs with speakers and headphones, I have a bad habit of talking directly to the designers of the gear to ask what they pair their stuff with. Just as a starting point for demo’s. So far my ears have been quite happy with this approach (as a starting point only). Sometimes this approach doesn’t work for me, but it mostly has.
Anyway all of this is highly subjective of course and only based on my taste - which is probably out of whack !
Hey Sean, I’m zero’ing in of the aeon c’s as well but a side point, how is the ipod integrated? Pure battery and then wifi connection to roon? I see Mrspeakers sell schiit and was thinking a lyr 3 with dac but you’re saying as long as the source is notmains connected then the dac and amp can be?
Cheers
Hey Hugo, I’ll PM you a reply to the power supply stuff because my reply is going deep ‘into the weeds’ of stuff I’ve learnt from John Swenson, Rob Watts and Ted Smith and will probably put everyone in this fantastic thread to sleep
But regarding Roon’s fantastic iOS endpoint feature (in case it helps anyone else out there):
My source for critical listening (not everyday because I’m lazy with re-charging the battery) is this:
The Mophie powerbank is quite large and gets a full day of continuous listening easily. Like 20+ hours continuous. So good enough for an all day party if it starts at fully charged !
So yep it’s pure battery and using the iPod’s WiFi (I only have 5GHz WiFi enabled at home so that’s how my iPod connects).
A USB cable (Type A to Type B) connects the Apple USB adapter to your USB DAC.
I’ll send you a PM as soon as I have the time for it (probably not before tomorrow). An in-depth discussion of the LCD-4 or SR-009 would be a little off topic in this thread. BTW, I, too, love my Aeon Closed - great value for money…
Very nice and comfy colurscale! And also, excellent photography! :slight_smile
I spot an Audiophonics RaspDAC there(?), is the unit on the right a PSU?
@Kevin_Ketterle what speakers are they … I dont see any sides but im guessing thats maybe just the angle of the picture being perfectly in line with the toe in angles…or are they open baffle perhaps? The port (it looks like a port) at the bottom might mean no.
All cables are hidden in the wall and (most of) the audio/media equipment is hidden in the lowboard. The speakers are quite a bit smaller than the ones in our acoustically optimized listening studio…
Actually, WAF is nothing I need to worry about. My wife and I are both professional musicians (and we both teach music at university). In other words, I’m a really lucky guy because my better half SHARES my passion for listening to music. That’s why we have our acoustically tuned sound room (see above). We really spend quite a lot of time there TOGETHER…
).
.