Tinker, Tailor, Streamer, Pi.

[CN211276]

Meanwhile ....

..... back on Planet Sensible.




Here is a pic of the AQ Dragonfly Red stuck in the back of the Schiit Wyrd - and these two units were just made for each other.

The Wyrd isn't just a datastream regulator, it is also a super-clean PSU that kicks out a generous amount of 5V DC to power a USB DAC. As we all know, digital audio devices react well to adequate, clean power supplies and can then perform at their best.

Well, I've had the Dragonfly for a while now and it has NEVER sounded this good before. If I remember correctly there is an ESS Sabre chip in there that now is running at full efficiency and churning out a sound that is full, clear and authoritative.

The Oehlbach XXL Masterclock will probably work similar wonders for this DAC.

This combo comes in at under 300 euro and will give you enjoyable auditory pleasure at a realistic price.

So there.

I believe my DF Red would sound better if powered by something with more muscle than my phone. This is based on comparisons with the Mojo where I find the gap is greater than usually reported. That said the DF Red was a significant improvement over the Black with the phone.

[luckyredfish]

I just recieved an Oehlbach USB cable today which I bought for a very good price . It's only the 1.5m cable which appears to be in the sale https://www.oehlbach.com/en/connection- ... er=D1C9342
Anyway , my music just became a little bit more interesting . Better bass and midrange . Not sure about the top end yet , I need to listen a bit more . It's certainly not worse
I'm well pleased , very good USB cable at a very good price

[antonio66]

Pleased you're enjoying your new cable, that is really cheap, shame they don't have the offer on 5m, I'd have given it a try.

[slinger]

...shame they don't have the offer on 5m, I'd have given it a try.

I was thinking exactly the same about the 50cm cable. It would have been fun to try it against my WireWorld Starlight 7 cables, but twenty quid plus shipping is a bit strong for an experiment I'm pretty sure I know the result of.

[luckyredfish]

I only need 0.75m but just couldn't refuse the 1.5m cable at that price

[slinger]

New project, maybe.

One of these PLUS one of these plus Volumio for Windoze.

I've just picked the hardware up for under £120.00 on eBay. I have no idea if I can turn the "I wonder..." into reality.

[Fretless]

Interesting, Slinger. There is an unused old Acer mini desktop PC lying around somewhere here. Will be following your adventures on this.
Best of luck.

[slinger]

The logic (ha-ha) behind it is that unlike a "proper" PC, the mini-PC is fanless, so there will be no noise from that quarter, and fitting it with an SSD will cut out another possible noise source.

In theory (I hate those words) it should be mechanically silent, like the Pi, or ATB, and also as electrically/electronically silent as can be. The used model I picked up comes with Win10 Pro installed, as opposed to Lenovo's quoted Win7 so that's pretty decent, much better than Win 7 for... well... everything really. Well, it'll be more secure and it'll boot faster anyway.

As I said, I've no idea if I can get it to work satisfactorily, but it'll be fun (for a masochist) trying. Bloody lockdown. I'm running out of inexpensive boredom relief.

[Fretless]

Check this out:

https://forum.volumio.org/volumio-x86-i ... t5058.html

The little PC I have was my office PC a few years back, but is underpowered for serious tasks.
It does have a (quiet) fan and a mechanical HDD but it might be fun to try out a Volumio installation.
Can''t use it for anything else anyway.

[slinger]

Check this out:

https://forum.volumio.org/volumio-x86-i ... t5058.html

The little PC I have was my office PC a few years back, but is underpowered for serious tasks.
It does have a (quiet) fan and a mechanical HDD but it might be fun to try out a Volumio installation.
Can''t use it for anything else anyway.

There certainly seems to be a lot of faffing and farting around going on in that thread.