“Nice Rack?”
2 Likes
Thanks! It’s a Salamander designs in walnut. You can buy additional shelves and accessories.
Salamander Designs Archetype 3.0 Walnut https://a.co/d/3QXMdqa
LOL you got me there
Thx, honestly your photos are hell lot better than the images on Amazon. I’m looking at those and don’t really like them but look at yours and goes wow!
1 Like
Very nice!
One of these days I’ll get around to building a FleXy Table for my desktop setup as I’d like to put more space between the components.
1 Like
Heh… SO not going there!
Just in time for vacation 
I was positively surprised about the weight, build quality and size of this device.
It’s very light and easily fits in a pocket 
iBasso DX170
14 Likes
Hiby RS2
Bought this mainly for its potential use as an R2R DAC. On its own as a local files only player, it’s OK but the small screen and old school interface make hunting for and finding songs/albums etc., not as easy as a modern Andoid DAP. The touch screen is nice though, screen clear, processor no slouch, and you get to where you want to go once you learn where everything is. It does allow up to 4TB across its two micro SD slots so you could really load it up. I’ve just got a 32Gb and 8 Gb in there for now. The sound out of the DAP and its amp is good enough, definitely an analogue-ish signature, but is hampered by being fairly underpowered (MAX 320mW @ 32 Ohms out of 4.4mm) for say, planars/high Ohm. Better with easier to drive cans. The volume knob is small but works well enough.
Amped it really shines (using Topping NX7 for portable for example) and its lovely R2R sound signature, layering and detail are much more apparent.
As a DAC in a portable stack, although physically a bit awkward, it works well, and I have put together a triple Tidal streaming stack using UAPP as the player, with Shanling M6 Pro 21 DAP/RS2/NX7. It does all of the flavors of MQA w/ 8X unfolding, local MQA files, DSD up to 256, PCM, etc. It’s kind of cool to see on the screen it fully sample some of those 352.8 2L tracks on Tidal.
On the desktop as a standalone DAC it is also very good and I have it connected from a fanless mini-PC running Audirvana for Win 10 and EQing/amping with an older Schiit stack (Loki and Magni 2 Uber). In the latter setup there is truly no lack of power and you can get to the heart of the R2R sound on any set of cans.
Connecting-wise, in either portable or desktop scenario as a DAC, it is extremely well behaved and cooperative, and it’s just a matter of connecting the gadgets and everything is ready to go without much delay. All in all, for me, it can be a bit of a conundrum for a daily usage case, but I seem to have settled on it as part of a desktop setup as DAC and getting a small visual of the DAC status on its screen is a nice bonus.
13 Likes
15 Likes
I’m curious about how it performs relative to my NuTube evaluation board. I built a sandwich case to transform it into a tube buffer stage.
Mine has 4 distortion settings per channel, and I find #1 to have too little distortion and #4 to have too much. It adds light, clean harmonics.
5 Likes
I wonder why they make it so large if those are the internals. Seems like it could be a lot smaller without really changing anything. That said, I do like the simplicity of the design.
1 Like
It’ll be a standard sized extruded Box, it’s a DIY amp.
2 Likes
Yup it’s the kit.
The Nutube is microphonic as hell, though, worse than any tubes I’ve ever had, made worse by my 110dB+ sensitive horns. In addition to placing damping on top, I’m going to have to damp the bottom of Nutube also.
Having said all that, it does seem to impart that SET-ness to the vocals without overt compromise in treble and bass detail, useful in front of class-D, GaN, chipamp, etc.
1 Like
I’d heard this before, seems very odd given they were billed as potentially for portable gear.
Korg is a musical instrument company. I read that NuTubes were meant to be a cheaper and easier to use replacement for tubes in guitar pedals, guitar amps, keyboards, and the like. They use fluorescent light technology and the flat form factor is certainly more modern versus old cylindrical tubes.
I very nearly bought a NuTube guitar pedal, but found reviews saying the sound was indistinguishable from traditional guitar tubes (e.g., 12AX7). They are indeed microphonic and routinely mounted on a foam pad or plastic springs. The first generation “Altoid’s box” mobile headphone amps don’t have good reviews, so perhaps the mobile use case didn’t pan out.
Frankly, I was happily surprised when they came back after COVID.
1 Like
That’s about what my commute was back in the 80’s (just north of Orlando to Cape Canaveral). Did it for a little over a year after the Challenger disaster leading up to Discovery launch in Sept '88.
No problem, but I was a young, eager engineer back then. Now I’m a cranky old teacher and I doubt I could handle it. Do it while you’re able. Hope you’re doing something fun like I was “back in the day!”
3 Likes