Turntable disappointment, what did I do wrong?

[Rma]

@eladeb the least I can say is that the Sonos A2C works better than the one on the Pro-Ject Phono Box DS2 USB...

I also decided to go for the Puffin, with the Toslink Output. It’s now pushing 24/96 which is the max that the Phantom can process from the optical input anyways. 

I saw a few options to convert optical to USB if I want to rip the vinyls later...

Will let you know :-)

(Also, still slightly angry at Devialet for letting their customers tinkering around to stream music from a turntable... thousands of preamps out there, only 3 or 4 max come with an optical output... all high end streamers have analog inputs... that plus roon raat... I love the magic coming out of these speakers but it’s tough love)

[sven911]

@eladeb the least I can say is that the Sonos A2C works better than the one on the Pro-Ject Phono Box DS2 USB...

I also decided to go for the Puffin, with the Toslink Output. It’s now pushing 24/96 which is the max that the Phantom can process from the optical input anyways. 

I saw a few options to convert optical to USB if I want to rip the vinyls later...

Will let you know :-)

(Also, still slightly angry at Devialet for letting their customers tinkering around to stream music from a turntable... thousands of preamps out there, only 3 or 4 max come with an optical output... all high end streamers have analog inputs... that plus roon raat... I love the magic coming out of these speakers but it’s tough love)

There is a high end phono stage with an optical output, the Unison Research uPhono+. Reviews are vey good especially for the pricepoint.
I did not try it yet because I am in the proces of buying Phantoms when they are Roon certified.

   

[ogs]

Same problem... so it was not a defect. The thing sounds muffled, and I need to push the devialet volume up to 70 to hear something. But connected from RCA to the old sonos connect it works well.

That is very strange indeed! Does USB recording on the new device also sound muffled?

It does, yes. I suppose that with a bit of work I could improve the recordings, but I’m a annoyed to know that I paid a preamp with an A2C converter that delivers way less than a second hand 6 years old Sonos Connect...

Extremely annoying! Same error with two units! The Pro-Ject should sound very good into Phantoms, better than the Sonos. But it has to work properly!

[Rma]

@eladeb the least I can say is that the Sonos A2C works better than the one on the Pro-Ject Phono Box DS2 USB...

I also decided to go for the Puffin, with the Toslink Output. It’s now pushing 24/96 which is the max that the Phantom can process from the optical input anyways. 

I saw a few options to convert optical to USB if I want to rip the vinyls later...

Will let you know :-)

(Also, still slightly angry at Devialet for letting their customers tinkering around to stream music from a turntable... thousands of preamps out there, only 3 or 4 max come with an optical output... all high end streamers have analog inputs... that plus roon raat... I love the magic coming out of these speakers but it’s tough love)

There is a high end phono stage with an optical output, the Unison Research uPhono+. Reviews are vey good especially for the pricepoint.
I did not try it yet because I am in the proces of buying Phantoms when they are Roon certified.

Thx @sven911 I will check that out. Even if I ordered the puffin digital with optical out already... I can share what I found also. In higher price tags, there is the M2Tech Joplin (MKII and MKIII) which has good reviews and has toslink and usb out. Even more expensive there is the Mcintosh MP100, but its USB out sampling rate is limited to 96kHz. And then a CRAZY expensive Macintosh ($8k) MP1100.

[Rma]

Soooooo

End of the story :-)

I have now received and installed the AudioParks Puffin with Toslink out (in is now an option). 

It sounds FANTASTIC and although I did not feel the need for it, the equalizer options are super well done, subtle and yet noticeable, also fun to play with. The “magic” function works much better than I thought it would, and the “grade” option is also super nice to have.

Communication with them has been great, very personable and reactive.

I am SUPER happy with the preamp, and also kind of happy to purchase something from that person/company as it’s a small business with a ton of knowledge, vs a large disembodied company.

Thanks @eladeb and @ragwo for the recommendation.

This little device is everything I needed and much more, and the value coming from it far exceeds its price tag in my opinion.

I am SUPER SUPER SUPER happy, my vinyls sound awesome with my pair of Phantoms Premier Gold. 
Only downside is that I’ve purchased a lot more vinyls now... getting deep in that rabbit hole now... 

Thanks again for all the support.

[eladeb]

@Rma
That's great!
So happy for you.
Keep update the puffin !
Latest ver is 1.21 i think with a lot of spdif tweaks.

[tsmithpam]

My puffin arrived today too!
No time to set this up till the weekend though


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ragwo]

@Rma
Glad your happy with your new hifi investment!

@tsmithpam
You're in for a treat! Have a nice weekend tinkering with the puffin.

[eladeb]

@Rma
Can you please compare sound quality rca to spdif puffin vs rca to sonos spdif adc?

Thanks...

[Rma]

@Rma
Can you please compare sound quality rca to spdif puffin vs rca to sonos spdif adc?

Thanks...

@eladeb I will do my best, but be aware that I don’t pretend to be an audiophile or any sort of expert.
As I have returned the ProJect what I am testing is 
1/ phono > Puffin > RCA to Sonos > toslink to devialet 
2/ phono > puffin > toslink to devialet.
So as the puffin does ACD and DAC, in the 1st option the sound will go through 2 analog to digital conversion, and 2 digital to analog conversions. Whereas on 2d option the sound goes through only one ADC with puffin and one DAC with devialet. With that in mind I think it’s hard to isolate the ADC capabilities of the sonos.

Having said that, this is night and day : it sounds much much much better without the sonos. With the sonos I feel like I am losing a lot in the highs, and the basses are quite muddy, some « night club » effect. For some reason the voices are also less clear, and less loud as well.
With only the puffin on, I hear all instruments and ranges very defined. I also feel it very accurate, I think experts call it « transparent ». 

Again, nothing scientific in what I am saying here ;-)