calvinandhobbes
Responses from calvinandhobbes
| How good does my system have to be to realize an improvement with cables? +1 to what @ghdprentice said about trying before buying. My experience with audio equipment is that it's not so easy to equate price to sound quality improvement. On my $1700 Denafrips Pontus II DAC, I've tried 7 different power cords ranging in p... | |
| Advice for Streaming Newbies - Best Bang for Our Bucks I turned off the WiFi on my Pro-ject Stream Box S2 Ultra streamer. That was a BIG improvement in sound quality. Not too big of a surprise. Switching from an AmazonBasics Cat 6 Ethernet cable to a $64 Supra Cat 8 Ethernet cable yielded an addition... | |
| The State of Streaming Audio +1 on Qobuz. In fact, my perception of the relative sound quality of streaming services.has Tidal sounding worst of all of the streaming services as of Nov 2020. 1. Qobuz 2. Primephonic 3. Spotify Premium (320 kbps Ogg Vorbis which is not lossl... | |
| What was the most impactful addition to your system? Like @ghdprentice, my buying a house that had an unexpectedly good listening room was by far the most impactful addition to my system. And it took me about 8 years of living in our current house to figure that out. Right before COVID, I convinced ... | |
| Denafrips Pontus II vs Venus II The review that you linked has an interesting comment about how the nature of the sound from the Venus is different than that from the Pontus. The review describes the sound from the Venus as being more analytical while the sound from the Pontus ... | |
| Pro-Ject Stream Box s2 Ultra - Network Change HELP! +1 on connecting a monitor via the HDMI output and a mouse via the USB input. Here's instructions on doing so: https://www.audioadvice.com/pro-ject-stream-box-s2-ultra-getting-started-guide/ The cool thing is that the advanced Raspberry Pi ... | |
| Billie or Ella? Maria or Renata? Technique or feeling? With respect to Billie Holiday vs Ella Fitzgerald, I find that the emotion that Ella conveys is more subtle, but it's there. Billie Holiday can be a bit over the top for me. | |
| What cable companies make the best cables and sell them directly? +1 on DH Labs. Just got a pair of DH Labs BL-1 Series 2 interconnects used. Two pairs for $85 shipped! I originally had DH Labs White Lightning interconnects based on the recommendation of a local dealer whose ears I trust. The White Lightnings s... | |
| Supra Cat 8 Ethernet cable @ram18 I use the Supra Cat 8 cable with a Pro-ject streamer. It replaced a AmazonBasics Cat 6 cable and the improvement was immediately apparent to me. | |
| Blind Test: mp3 vs. 24bit I did get all three choices correct, but even on my home system the differences were close. Focusing on a specific voice or instrument was how I decided on the difference between the tracks. My impression is that the recording quality has usually ... | |
| STREAMING - QOBUZ VS TIDAL AND ROON'S PREFERENCES Yes, 100% Qobuz sounds better to me. Some notes on my perceptions of the sound quality of various streaming services & of Qobuz vs Tidal specifically: My subjective impressions of the musicality and sound quality of the major HD streaming ser... | |
| What USB cable to get? +1 to what @ghdprentice said. Cables can sound different and better as you spend more, but only if your components can produce a commensurate level of resolution in sound quality. I would stick with the Belkin Gold for now, but this was my experie... | |
| Recommended USB Cables under $200 The more typical choice that I can recommend is a Shunyata Venom at about $150, but a friend loaned me a Phasure Lush USB cable.which costs 210 Euros or just above your price point. The improvement that I heard over the Shunyata Venom was substant... | |
| PANGEA AUDIO AC 14SE MKII SIGNATURE POWER CABLE OR WHAT? I'm going through a similar process right now as I need a power cord for a new phono preamp. I've currently got a Shunyata Venom power cord on a Denafrips Pontus II DAC and have previously listened to the following power cords: I might use the Shu... | |
| Pro-Ject Stream Box S2 Ultra plus custom LPS+ linear power supply. +1 to a screen being superfluous. The best screen to control a streamer is an iPad sitting next to you, not an LCD screen on a streamer sitting 8 feet away. |