Happy New Year to you all!
Hope, 2020 will treat you nicely…
Haven’t been posting for quite a time, so here you go:
2019 ended great for me in audio terms as I acquired a pair of NVA TIS interconnects via the NVA October offer; I can highly recommend this truly amazing interconnect! (More to follow shortly in the review section…)
Then I had my P50Sa upgraded by Tomasz and after a lot of hassle for Paul, Tomasz and me due to bad luck with transportation – this would be worth an extra story – I can say that the upgrade of the P50sa is definitely recommended! And the customer service of Paul and Tomasz has been truly exceptional. Many thanks to both as that is rare these days
The new stepped attenuator of the P50sa is a total revelation - very smooth. No more crackling sounds when changing the volume attenuation. As an extra bonus, one gets a better and more musical passive pre, too.
The wire upgrade and resistor upgrade really make a difference for my music. Very nice, indeed!
For
2020, I plan more DIY activity. Hopefully, I will have time enough…
I do have the parts for an Aikido Octal tube buffer preamp lying around (bought the kit last year from John Broskie -
www.tubecad.com) and want to finish my Utracer tube tracer project (board finished and working, but the challenge for me is to build and finish the surrounding enclosure
).
In 2019, I started a Raspberry-based streamer project – inspired by the Slinger and Fretless amazing write ups here. Thanks guys, very informative and interesting to follow your journeys!
I invested in an RPi 3B+ and Ian Canada Fifo, ESS 9028 DAC Hat and corresponding IV stage, use the Moode player (which I prefer over Volumio soundwise) and opted for a Qobuz hi res streaming abo. I also built two dedicated linear psus for the streamer (raspi, Fifo board and DAC) and upgraded the clocks to Crysteks. So far, so good; just the music from the streamer doesn’t grab me, really (besides the huge advantage to detect new music). In comparison to my CD player over my horn system, there is quite a difference in enjoyment factor favoring CDs.
I can’t really get the SBC-based hype so far, but in 2020 I will give the whole streamer idea another run (plans are to improve the ps for the ESS DAC and use 3 independent regulator boards and to invest in a transformer output stage, etc.).
On the transistor amp side, I invested in some SITs and want to convert my DIY First Watt M2 clone into a ZenMod’s SissySIT amp (more info on DIY Audio under the Pass Labs section).
Seems that I have too many projects waiting…
Enjoy your music,