Main System
Turntable: Heavily-modified Technics SL-1210MK5G [Mike New bearing/ETP platter/Paul Hynes SR7 PSU & reg mods]. Funk Firm APM Achromat/Nagaoka GL-601 Crystal Record Weight/Isonoe feet & boots/Ortofon RS-212D/Denon DL-103GL in Denon PCL-300 headshell with Funk Firm Houdini/Kondo SL-115 pure-silver cartridge leads.
Paul Hynes MC head amp/SR5 PSU. Also modded Lentek head amp/Denon AU-310 SUT.
Other Cartridges: Nippon Columbia (NOS 1987) Denon DL-103. USA-made Shure SC35C with NOS stylus. Goldring G820 with NOS stylus. Shure M55E with NOS stylus.
CD Player: Audiocom-modified Sony X-777ES/DAS-R1 DAC.
Tape Deck: Tandberg TCD 310, fully restored and recalibrated as new, by RDE, plus upgraded with heads from the TCD-420a. Also with matching TM4 Norway microphones.
Preamps: Heavily-modified Croft Charisma-X. LDR Stereo Coffee. Power Amps: Tube Distinctions Copper Amp fitted with Tungsol KT-150s. Quad 306.
Cables & Sundries: Mark Grant HDX1 interconnects and digital coaxial cable, plus Mark Grant 6mm UP-LCOFC Van Damme speaker cable. MCRU 'Ultimate' mains leads. Lehmann clone headphone amp with vintage Koss PRO-4AAA headphones.
Tube Distinctions digital noise filter. VPI HW16.5 record cleaning machine.
Speakers: Tannoy 15MGs in Lockwood cabinets with modified crossovers. 1967 Celestion Ditton 15.
Protect your HUMAN RIGHTS and REFUSE ANY *MANDATORY* VACCINE FOR COVID-19!
Also **SAY NO** to unjust 'vaccine passports' or certificates, which are totally incompatible with a FREE society!!!
...and also run a fully-regulated linear PSU, for the hard-drives supplying music files to the Pi (electrically/mains-generated noise is the biggest enemy of any file-based system, so it should be addressed and minimised *wherever* possible in the replay chain).
Cheapo SMPS units fatally hobble streaming set-ups like you wouldn't imagine. Quite simply, they have no place whatsoever, ANYWHERE, in a high-end audio system!!
Doing the above (in conjunction with installing Supra CAT 8 patch cable, see here: http://www.jenving.com/products/view...tch-1001908589 throughout, instead of bog-standard stuff from Maplins) resulted in one of the biggest upgrades I've applied to my streaming set up!
Marco.
Main System
Turntable: Heavily-modified Technics SL-1210MK5G [Mike New bearing/ETP platter/Paul Hynes SR7 PSU & reg mods]. Funk Firm APM Achromat/Nagaoka GL-601 Crystal Record Weight/Isonoe feet & boots/Ortofon RS-212D/Denon DL-103GL in Denon PCL-300 headshell with Funk Firm Houdini/Kondo SL-115 pure-silver cartridge leads.
Paul Hynes MC head amp/SR5 PSU. Also modded Lentek head amp/Denon AU-310 SUT.
Other Cartridges: Nippon Columbia (NOS 1987) Denon DL-103. USA-made Shure SC35C with NOS stylus. Goldring G820 with NOS stylus. Shure M55E with NOS stylus.
CD Player: Audiocom-modified Sony X-777ES/DAS-R1 DAC.
Tape Deck: Tandberg TCD 310, fully restored and recalibrated as new, by RDE, plus upgraded with heads from the TCD-420a. Also with matching TM4 Norway microphones.
Preamps: Heavily-modified Croft Charisma-X. LDR Stereo Coffee. Power Amps: Tube Distinctions Copper Amp fitted with Tungsol KT-150s. Quad 306.
Cables & Sundries: Mark Grant HDX1 interconnects and digital coaxial cable, plus Mark Grant 6mm UP-LCOFC Van Damme speaker cable. MCRU 'Ultimate' mains leads. Lehmann clone headphone amp with vintage Koss PRO-4AAA headphones.
Tube Distinctions digital noise filter. VPI HW16.5 record cleaning machine.
Speakers: Tannoy 15MGs in Lockwood cabinets with modified crossovers. 1967 Celestion Ditton 15.
Protect your HUMAN RIGHTS and REFUSE ANY *MANDATORY* VACCINE FOR COVID-19!
Also **SAY NO** to unjust 'vaccine passports' or certificates, which are totally incompatible with a FREE society!!!
Location: KY - Scotland
Posts: 5,483
I'm Mike.
Location: Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, Scotland
Posts: 533
I'm stuart.
I have a Digione feeding the DAC in my Perreaux 250i (ES9038Pro) and it's stunningly good. I must have tried 7 or 8 HAT Dacs before settling on the Digione. The Digione is fitted to an RPi with screen in an Audiophonics RaspTouch case :
and the music is stored on an SSD connected to an RPi running Logitech LMS. Both have their own linear supplies.
Hi Jim,
Yes, Mike and i made a bit of a deal for the DAC for a bit of cable for his Mission arm. Suits us both with minimal cost!
I am immensely impressed with the Allo DAC and Mike suggests his Piano DAC is better so i may try that before i send the rest back lol. Might have to make another deal
In terms of upgrades, i have a PSU on the way with 2x5v outputs so i can use a powered USB hub with the music files on so i should be fine for some time. Maybe when i a up to speed with all the setup etc, i will have a look at whats comes next.
Main system : VPI Scout 1.1 / JMW 9T / 2M Black / Croft 25R+ / Croft 7 / Heco Celan GT 702
Second System : Goldring Lenco GL75 / AT95EX / Pioneer SX590 / Spendor SP2
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 791
I'm Svend.
Interesting thread, guys. I've been intrigued by the Pi since recently hearing one as the main source at the Neat speakers room at October's Toronto audio show. The rep, a very nice fellow from the company's UK HQ, was very keen on it. It sounded excellent. And I must say it sounded quite a bit better than his previous source (PC and DAC) that I heard at the 2017 show, playing through the same speakers. The latter made the tweeter in the speakers (Iota Explorer) sound brittle and harsh, but all was sweet using the Pi. Pretty remarkable difference.
A few questions, if you don't mind (and pardon my lack of knowledge here; I'm starting where Oliver was a few weeks ago... )
What are the options for user interface? PC or Mac? Tablet?
Does it sound better than a simple PC --> DAC --> Preamp setup? Reason for this question is that I already have a couple of surplus laptops, and could easily buy a simple good quality DAC for reasonable money and be done with it...plug and play, basically. But if sound quality is superior, then I'd go for the Pi.
Speaking of preamps, mine only has unbalanced RCA inputs - how do I connect a Pi to this?
And speaking of sound quality, have any of the CD players you're comparing it to been modded in any way? i.e. discrete clock boards, op amps, etc.? I have a modded Teac VRDS-10 which had these upgrades done, and it sounds outstanding. It would be interesting to know a bit more about your CD players, just as a frame of reference.
Thanks, and regards,
Svend