Tinker, Tailor, Streamer, Pi.

[George Hincapie]

For all you digital geeks

Interesting review with a clear explanation of DSD & PCM. Don't think I'll be getting one of those thougn

What is significant is that the digital audio gear coming out of Chinese manufacturers is advancing rapidly. My own experience with the likes of Denafrips, Topping & Sabaj leaves me looking Eastward for the best performance and prices currently available.

The idea of resampling from PCM to DSD before the analogue conversion is intriguing but would require serious processing capability to do properly and a highly accurate clock to prevent jitter.

[antonio66]

@Fretless You'll have to dig down behind the settee cushions if you want to afford one of them.

[George Hincapie]

That Cen Grand brand is strange to me. Loads of people on HeadFi jacking off over it. Doesn't do anything for me. I don't find the design attractive at all. The display particularly looks bad.

[George Hincapie]

If this resampling to DSD takes off then there will be cheaper copycat models appearing fairly quickly.

Although with the reviewer comparing it to the Denafrips Pontus, it seems like the Denafrips is a better option at the price.

[NSNO2021]

Right now I am happy with my Pontus2 but your right give it a year or two and there will be some great affordable DSD units coming out of China

[George Hincapie]

If this resampling to DSD takes off then there will be cheaper copycat models appearing fairly quickly.

Although with the reviewer comparing it to the Denafrips Pontus, it seems like the Denafrips is a better option at the price.

He owns a Venus II, so he is well taken with the R2R approach I think. He is a very fair reviewer though; he is honest if test components better his reference components.

[George Hincapie]

Right now I am happy with my Pontus2 but your right give it a year or two and there will be some great affordable DSD units coming out of China

I wonder if Denafrips may do something in that space themselves?

Looking forward to finding out more about their streamer. Due autumn this year.

[antonio66]

@y NSNO2021 To be honest we were a little disappointed in the Muon, some tracks seemed to loose their 'get up and go', smoothing the sound too much, although this can be beneficial on other tracks. The effect was very subtle to our old and not so golden ears. We have received two AES/EBU cables, a Shunyata Delta and one from Network Acoustics, initial impressions are they both better my brothers current Gothic cable. We should also be receiving a Shunyata Alpha cable in the next few days.

Interesting comments on the Muon in marked contrast to my experience with rhe Eno where the improvement was immediately apparent and not subtle.

Talking to the dealer yesterday, who'd been talking to the manufacturer said it was split 50/50 on those who found improvements to their systems using the Muon filter. My brother spoke to the manufacturer having a query with the Muon filter and he was very helpful. It was regarding which way round you used the filter, well in fact two reviews have had it the wrong way round although some preferred it this way, the correct way is with the attached short cable going to your streamer.
I did mention previously we were trialing a couple of Shunyata (Delta and Alpha) and the Network Acoustic Muon AES/EBU digital cables. In fairness we couldn't really couldn't tell much difference between the Delta and the twice the price Alpha so we quickly discounted the Alpha due to it's cost. The Delta was a great cable, tighter and more dynamic than our Gothic Audio cable (no slouch itself), but the Muon surpassed even the Delta with all the pluses, and making the music sound even more fluid.

[CN211276]

When I bought the Eno and was immediately aware of the big improvement it connected the Cisco switch to the streamer. This was not possible following the upgrade to the OpticalRendu which has to connect directly with the Cisco. Since then the Eno connects to the Cisco. The high quality short length of DH Labs ethernet cable which used to connect the Cisco to the Eno is now the link from the router to the first Cisco in the chain.

I think all the elements in the chain contribute to minimising noise. I do not think the Eno would have had such a dramatic effect had the OpticalRendu already been in place.

[antonio66]

CN: We're using Audioquest Vodka from router to switch and Melco C100 from switch to streamer. We are trialing a new switch in the system at the moment, I'll give further info in due course.