I find this thread really interesting and I love the diversity in setups.
I have been meaning to take some pictures of my setup the past couple of weeks now that it’s more organized — earlier everything was on the floor in a corner waiting for my bench to arrive. A friend called the gear visually intrusive and I have been trying to lighten it up and “domesticating” it. Pictures to come, hopefully!
So this is my setup now: Auralic Aries G2 feeding the Chord DAVE DAC into Grandinote amplifiers (the massive looking trio under the bench). Very happy with this system and the sound it produces and now also happy that it’s in a nice setting.
Yes, the speakers make the most impact, definitely! But while waiting for my speakers to arrive I realised this system made my “old” Marten Django XL sound better than I had ever thought they could sound (back then with the mRemdu as transport).
But the upgrade to these Tidal speakers was a night and day kind of experience. I did a kind of improvised blind test with friends and that’s when you realise how completely different two pairs of speakers can sound.
So here is the system with one of the speakers visible (no it’s not a mono setup, thank god!)
Love Dussenberg. My favourite is the Mike Campbell Starplayer on the right. The semi-hollow is such a sweet and balanced tone. Great for Americana or blue grass but Mike uses it on many situations to get that perfect tone.
I don’t like the display though - too sterile. Guitars are meant to be touched & caressed!
Hi Mark, Grandinote is great gear. Heard it at Jack’s place when he was a dealer and Mibby’s in recent years. I recall the power amp has two mains inputs!
I’ve heard one of the single chassis “dual mono” designs and was surprised to see two power cords going into the amp. Sure interesting design!
Before demoing Grandinote and the amps I decided to buy I was barely aware of the brand, but it was by far the most likeable and lifelike sound reproduction of the several amps I considered. Less visual flair than the competition, but what’s produced inside those black boxes sure makes up for it.
@Graham_Bird are you near Seattle…? Miles wouldn’t mind checking out your sweet audio setup
Would be happy to share scripts, although some may be rather specific to my gear. Here is what I have:
Volume synchronization script between Sony Bravia TV and Trinnov Amethyst: My setup connects the digital out in pass through mode from the TV to the Trinnov. This leaves a volume control on the TV which is useless, since it doesn’t affect the digital signal. This script just syncs the volume setting on the Trinnov to whatever the TV volume is. It also switches the Trinnov source to the TV if the TV volume is changed. This just lets you use the TV remote as you naturally would, rather than using a separate remote for volume.
Wake all devices: simple script which periodically sends WoL packets to the Nucleus and the Trinnov, so they restart automatically in case of power outage.
homebridge-roon plugin. This exposes a Roon zone to homebridge as a lightbulb, allowing you to start and stop the music through Siri as well as change volume. Unfortunately it’s exposed as a lightbulb, so it’s a little wonky.
I also run homebridge plugins for the television and my nest thermostat on the RPi, but those I didn’t write myself.
Hi @MattT, unfortunately we (actually fortunately, but not for this) just moved from the San Francisco bay area to Chapel Hill, NC and the system was put together as a result of having a “media room” (sounds posh!) that the tv/hi-fi system (as was) now occupies. So the search for a true hi-fi was instituted and now constitutes my new toy.
I’m a big Roon user and have a bunch of RPis so was curious - this seems like an underserved segement right now!
Welcome to visit (and I have nw updated my profile…) at any time.
Cheers
Do it. I got one a few weeks back and not only replaced my amp, but also my Pro-Ject Pre S2 DAC as well. With Roon handling MQA on the first end I couldn’t justify keeping both.