Isn't that the bird that mimics reflex cameras and chainsaws? Good choice! Shall we call him the hifi bird? Ornithoptrix Alto Fidelitas. 😂 (I never studied latin, it shows). Insightful. It's always about preference and compromise. I like NOS but I understand why you would use your PC to...

So you have a spare. That remote looks very luxurious but it costs about $20 I guess. I have a couple of similar programmable remotes from China, heavy full aluminium with very good buttons and response for just over $30. Also good for self defense and cracking particularly hard nuts. Or...

Absolutely true. I hardly ever touch the volume, unless it's a YouTube video with badly recorded sound. With a good amplifier there's no need to keep twiddling the volume to make it sound good. And if your sources are set to the same volume or simply compliant to standard 2.5V then there's not...

Just in Yesterday I finally received the (oem) sparkos opamps to put in the Fosi ZA3's next to OracleII 02's and AD797 I had lying around. And boy, was he right. I listened playing vinyl which is the most resolving. So, he gained my trust. He recorded the sound in his studio so it's a real...

There is also a pre/headphone amp in the works with volume control that you can control with the same remote. That's why the square triangle slider is on there.

Try reading some of the descriptions of audio gear on AliExpress etc. Black glue rotating circle for LP and gallbladder machine for tubeamp. Here's one particular gem. "Phonographic head jewel rod chaitan needle black rubber singing dynamic circle low output dynamic circle phonographic." If you...

That's like adding zeros to a forum. That doesn't improve anything.

Woooh. The suspense... Fire up that flamethrower! 🤠 Always good to get more opinions and comparisons.

Am I right to suspect it's fine for headphones but not enough for a high res speaker system? I also sorely miss a real analog input. That would have been no big problem to implement. Instead of the fixed RCA output. So many people have a turntable now.

That's nice to read. I'm still very tempted. Also the combination with those headphones. I am very confident in my choice for R2R but this Sigma Delta could come close. Unfortunately there is a lot of overlap with my other option that is R2R DAC only. I'm telling myself I should pick one of the...

Nonsense. There are all sorts of proper volume controls that don't degrade the sound in any way you could notice. And 'far more' is totally unsubstantiated. I was hesitant inserting my current SMSL pre-amp because of concerns about adding extra electronics and extra cables in the way. But it's...

Magical thinking is wishful thinking. "If I say it with enough conviction and willpower it will become reality". But that's not reality. Things often are the way they are because of physics and practical solutions. If you don't understand the reasons behind it you can dream all you want...

Obviously volume control is not a must in the literal sense. It's a choice. Or an option. But a dac is a dac. A digital to analog converter. Not a preamplifier obviously. It would be if you could add a few purely analog inputs. I also hate it when there's a volume control on every box in the...

I I presently have a 300B, KT88 and 6p1 single ended tube amps. Two phonostages EAR834 clone (ECC82) and Klimo clone (ECC 88). And a tube dac I totally modified myself to much higher levels. I replaced power caps, removed opamps, replaced the dac-chip for AKM, rebalanced the tube levels and put...

J That's really comparing apples and pears. Only SD DACs need amplification by tubes or opamp. R2R (except some old IC based) do not need tubes. In my experience tubes don't inject any magic. I have a lot of tube gear bit i don't like tube buffers. In most cases (I'm not saying always) tubes...

Hard to tell without properly defining what you mean by those terms. They are very subjective, and can mean all sorts of things to different people. One man's neutral is another ones lifeless, one man's warm is another ones lacking detail. Just read or watch some reviews. Most will say neutral...

I was editing... I always first finish the essay and edit the specifics in later. Links are added now.

So we agree pretty much. Just talking about different aspects. I was specifically not talking about digital time domain (jitter). And you do. You speak about ringing and sigma delta, I about it's absence in NOS R2R. Look at the first page of the Pasithea review on 6Moons. That plot is so clean...

Nope. That's why I didn't go in to it. It's just a statistical rounded off average. I could hear it too at that age. Not anymore. Instead I am rewarded a constant high pitched tone in both my ears. That's called tinnitus... The 20-20kHz is just an easy to remember number we learn in school. So...

I disagree on a few things. Or let me redefine the framework. And get some definitions straight. Broaden the horizon so to say. I learned a lot in school, but what I learned best is that most teachers have no idea what they are teaching you. Besides the language and math you get indoctrinated...

Very interesting. In my understanding there is no dac chip inside the Laiv. How else do we explain the stated resistor tolerances. And the specs don't point to this either. I was assuming there is no chip inside. But what made me suspicious is the small size of the gold wrapped R2R modules...

This is always a difficult subject. And there is a diffentiation that is often underestimated. I'll try to explain short and sweet. Transducers that convert electrical to dynamic energy or vice versa (microphones, pickups and speaker drivers) have a hard time keeping the amplitude linear over...

What dac chip do you mean? There is no dac chip in an R2R dac that already puts out line level voltage. With a SD dac chip there is only very low voltage and you need an elaborate well made I/V stage (or opamps, or tubes or discrete transistors). Then you can implement a volume control. But...

I think you are only speaking from your specific situation and preferences. Not general opinions or uses. Keywords: "for me". You state: "AES is the best output". Not true You should have stated: " I think AES is the best output from my DDC". True. You are also pretty opinionated on the use of...

Can you make a direct link to YouTube? I'm now watching it on Rosetube so I can't get the link.