The On-Topic, OFF-TOPIC Thread

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At the alternate house. The one in State College that Barbara inherited from her Mom. We came up Wednesday afternoon to get ahead of the storm/cold. A couple of months ago, I upgraded the home wi-fi. When we got here this time, I decided I needed to have a monitor and keyboard to go with my MacBook Pro 14, since I would be checking in on work.

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With the MacBook Pro set up, I fired up ROON, and turned on the Sabaj a20d that I keep here to Bluetooth (which I hadn’t used yet). The couch is more than a USB-length away from where I set up the computer.

Hunkering down from the howling wind and listening to Abel Selaoceo’s Cello from his new “Where is Home” album was remarkably pleasant.

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From the “the designer is not a user” department:

Since becoming disenfranchised with the entire DAP market, I’d been paying more attention to dongle DAC/amps for travel use. I saw A&K came up with this:

HC3-Daft Adapter
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Who in their right mind, let alone pocket, is going to use this on the go? I mean, why even BOTHER with the Lightning adapter? It’s just asking to get the whole thing snapped off.

You know the designer is not using what they come up with, when you see silly shit like this.

The USB-C connector is bigger than it needs to be, and then to bodge a Lightning adapter on the end of it, making the connector assembly 80+% of the length of the dongle itself (I edited the picture to move a copy of the connector(s) next to it).

Would it really have been so hard to have two different cables, one for each connector, and make them connect at the DONGLE end of the deal? The cable or connector is likely the first thing to fail anyway …

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A classic case of “user testing” comprised of engineers testing it sitting on their desks.

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There are just so many ways that could go horribly wrong. (Shudder)

Mark Gosdin

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It appears to be separated at birth from the $160 to $250 Kadas Tone Series:

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Sharp edges = sharp designers :wink:

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I think this is a fair observation. I agree with you.
I can only hope for AK sake that the cable isn’t stiff or rigid. Otherwise the connection points will easily pop off if used on the go being stuffed in a pocket or coat. :confused:

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This is the main reason I’ve gone to Bluetooth noise cancelling headphones.
i was originally using an LG V40 as my music player and a Sonata HD pro with various headphones.
I have since settled on Sennheiser Momentum 2 phone being fed via Bluetooth from my Apple
iphone 12pro. Wonderful results to my 75 yo ears.

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I don’t know if this is off topic enough to be on topic for the off topic topic, but I had an interesting listening experience tonight. Over the past couple months, I’ve completely revamped by listening set up, sold planars and bought dynamic headphones, purchased an absurdly expensive (for me) tube amplifier, experimented with different tubes, and everything was sounding pretty good. But then tonight, it all sounded even better, maybe significantly better, and I didn’t know why. Had I adjusted an eq setting without knowing it? Had something finally burned in completely? What was it?

And then I remembered what came in the mail today. My new glasses. Turns out the old ones must have broken the headphone seal, and these new ones don’t. Sometimes it’s the little things.

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Happy cake day, and that made me smile :smile:

If your old frames were bulky it would make sense that thinner material wouldn’t break the pad seal. That’s a cool and audibly rewarding discovery. :+1:

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I have moved your post to the “On Topic Off Topic” thread :smile:

Happy cake day!

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So there have been some electrical problems at work. A couple of months ago a storm power surge fried the power switch of my AU-919 integrated amp. I’ve had some monitors blacking out and coming back on, for which they swapped in a new computer, thinking it’s probably a video board.

Monday, I came in and the office was buzzing. As in, I’d not turned the amp off, and there was a fairly loud 120hz or so sound. And the left channel was out. I pulled the amp and will have it checked over when the power switch is fixed. It’s just possible that something was causing a ground loop with the wires, but I hadn’t changed anything.

Not happy with my old Onkyo as a spare, I went on Amazon and ordered this:

https://www.topping.audio/productinfo/710203.html

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$150 bucks. It came today and I couldn’t be happier with a temporary replacement. First, it’s tiny. Like small DAC size or small headphone amp size. Like maybe 5 inches by 6 inches by an inch and a half. It’s minimalist. One button the front to select SE or Balanced input (and off/on) and a knob. It’s light.

This tiny box produces about 45 to 50 clean watts per channel with my 6 ohm EgglestonWorks speakers. With the iFi DAC and the Schiit Lokius forming the chain to the SE input, I can barely hear a hum at max volume if I put my ear next to the speaker. At the levels I play - volume knob at 60-65%, it’s inaudible. This was reviewed on that forum which shall remain nameless, and got a pretty decent shake.

With relatively fat patch cords terminating in Amphenol RCA plugs, and some Nakamichi speaker end connectors, there’s barely enough room to plug everything in, but there is. barely.

The Lokius gives me tone control that I wouldn’t otherwise have. The sound is clearly better than the 1990 vintage Onkyo :poop: piece of shit :poop: spare amp that I had used previously. With that one, the mids just sounded poorly defined and weak. Even when I boosted with the Lokius, it just was somehow thin. This little Topping box is all business, no fuss no muss.

It’s fine for the 2 way bookshelves in my 10 x 15 office. It would be fine for nearfields too. Probably with an efficient speaker it would be good for a big room. Amazing what they can do for cheap in a small box with Class D.

No, it doesn’t compare with the 1980 Sansui AU-919. That has a class A pre-amp, incredibly low distortion, and plenty of power. It’s about 32 times the volume of this box and it weighs between 55 and 60 pounds. It does sound more authoritative. It clearly has better soundstage and detail. It sounds - and measures like a wire with gain - flat as a pancake. But I spent 5 times the cost of the topping box on a restoration. As a cult classic it would retail between $3K and $4K. And as much as I hate to admit it, it is NOT 20 times better.

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It really is amazing how much an amp matters in the sound chain. I think you did some pretty good moves for the ca$h paid.

Enjoy man. I always remember that the bigger the transformer and the Quality of the power supply usually means far better sound. I think that is why your Sansui sounds really good. :slight_smile:

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Today it’s been quiet, and I streamed John Williams’ Spanish Guitar Music, a 1990 album in FLAC red book with which I am extremely familiar. I’m also familiar with how it sounds played live, as this album was one my Mom listened to and used as a guide when she was teaching classical guitar. So I’ve had years of growing up through high school and college listening to this stuff.

I’m really quite pleased with the tiny Topping amp and it’s obviously basic pre-amp. Compared to the Sansui, it needs more of its volume, with the knob at about 2:30 for realistic sound rather than 10:30, but it still has plenty of headroom. The amp gets out of the way and lets the speakers do their thing. Quite neutral, I’m not hearing any of the mud that infected the Onkyo. For my use - until I get the Sansui repaired, it’s just fine at the low to moderate volumes I can use at work.

This album is a good test, as classical guitar is a rather intimate instrument, and it may be played at a volume where I would expect it to be were Mr. Williams sitting in the office with his guitar.

The only quibble I have is that I hear a touch less sustain in note decay than I recall. But that could easily be my memory of Mom’s guitar echoing the recording.

LATER NOTE: Another minor quibble about this unit - there is no pre-amp in that bypasses the internal pre-amp. It’s too small to really have that, I guess.

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Took the Sansui to my restorer. He’ll be checking to see if there has been a power issue that makes fixing difficult. I hope not.

In the event that I need something else, I’ve been looking at Schiit Saga+ or Freya+ and a very modern class D. Does anyone have thoughts about the newest generation of class D amps?

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Been working in Phoenix all week and heading to the airport to go back home tonight!!! Man, I miss my setup….and my pups….Oh…and wife!!! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Got a cool package waiting that I’m stoked to see.

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I can relate, been traveling with the family the last 10 days, got back late last night. Woke up early for a cuppa joe and some tunes. Nice feeling, eh?

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Honestly I’m a local guy for work but between long work hrs and having a young family I get serious desktop listening withdrawals. Thank god for DAPS or I’d go nuts.
Anyway. I sympathize with you greatly. I walk by my system in my living room and I constantly say “I’m sorry. I’ll be with you soon. “ lol.

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I’m happy to report that the Sansui AU-919 is back in the office and happy. The burnt out power switch, it turns out was a double switch that had one unused side. It could be rebuilt in such a way as to use the pristine side and not swap on for off.

Only one of the main caps was out of spec - and that one was hideous. I saw some pics of the inside, and it has been recapped to the original spec. All this for way less $$ than I originally expected. Visually there is no evidence of the work, which is good.

Everything tests to better than original spec now - as it did when first restored. Sounds great. Friday afternoon I was able to work listening to Janis sing me some blues, Mick & the boys do Sympathy for the Devil, and a touch of Meatloaf before quitting for the day.

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Oh @Resolve !!!
In case you haven’t already heard…

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It is not my week for shipping things. Or, more accurately, having things shipped to me.

It starts with a new Amazon driver shifting all his deliveries on my street one house to the right. How this happens I don’t know, as the house numbers are all clearly visible on everyone’s frontage. But it’s been two out of three deliveries so far.

Then there’s was a rash of “Ships the same day” … which translates to “We printed the shipping label the same day, and then fucked about for several days before actually sending the package”. Not unusual. Stupid. Annoying. But increasingly common.

Then UPS shows a package as “Preparing for Delivery” for half the day, it never transitions to “Out for Delivery”, and then suddenly retro-actively changes to “Delivered” … specifically “Delivered Inside”, “Signed for by Eduardo”. No picture, of course … so the “Proof of Delivery” isn’t proof of anything.

But the pièce de résistance is for two separate packages, from different companies, but both shipping out of CA:

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Assuming UPS find said packages, and they’re not horribly mangled, I just have to hope they don’t give them to whoever the fuck this Eduardo character is again …

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