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Early impressions, musings & pondering a Sub addition
#1
After a lot of reading up I originally dipped my toe into the silky waters of Devialet about 6 weeks ago or so & purchased a D200.
Recklessly spontaneous as I am, I also purchased a set of ex demo Triangle Signature Deltas with 5 yrs warranty remaining + a Moon CD transport, all from different providers. Most of my music however is being driven by a small PC from a silent QNAP NAS via ethernet or WiFi, which has worked out as a pretty good combination.

Generally I have been very pleased with the result, albeit with a couple of reservations. Then last week saw me been bitten with the enticing notion of going mono-block after reading all the positive comments from others that have done so. Again my wallet got bashed, chasing that dream of ever better music reproduction, a D200 Companion was duly ordered and within a week my setup became a D400.

Music reproductionThe result?
I now can hear sometimes substantial differences between certain Albums (but I am but a newbie to this, so it could be complete b@ll@cks!), some mid frequencies being slightly muddled or dare I say it 'muted', other recordings crystal clear like a mountain spring shimmering in the summer sun, even with apple lossless as my standard. Maybe its my old ears, and am I getting finicky.

I have also invested in a few Hi Res Albums from HDTracks, and yes, I can hear the difference - Just!

Media Server/ Player - Ultimately I found Apple ITunes a complete Faff! Generally OK for managing my iPhone content, but navigating those options, only to find that Itunes has a mind of its own is rather irksome, so took a look at 'MediaMonkey' - BAD MISTAKE for me! Once I had installed it, I began to notice all manner of weird interference with my browser, including pop-ups etc. On investigation I subsequently found that it had installed 'ClearThink' covertly, which is malware and a real pain to remove as it 'hides'. When you think you have got rid, then it reappears! I Tried everything to get rid....Only by using 'Revo Uninstaller' to uninstall media Monkey and then scanning for any remains, did the problem go away completely! BAD BAD Monkey!

So what next? Well, last night even though I was getting the 'stare of derision' from my good wife, I set about downloading and installing 'JRiver', and how refreshingly clean and easy to set up I found it! And reproduction is very good as well!

Triangle Speakers
Was my rash impulsive action to get these without auditioning first, a mistake?
You know how it feels when you are not sure if you made the right decision?

I am vacillating between Yes! I did when I hear brilliantly clear reproductions like 'Vangelis China' - so precise, so open and errr... oriental or New Zealands Hayley Westenras haunting rendition of 'Malena' from the Paradiso album. In all my 65 years, I have never come across a voice so pure and beautiful as hers - a complete accident!

...and not sure, because in some recordings I 'feel' there is 'something missing', but can't put a finger on it! Maybe I am looking for a 'fatter' sound on more lively or big orchestra tracks, but without sacrificing the pinpoint clarity I am now getting with some tracks?

So.... this has, in a very long winded way, led me to think a good musical sub might be the way to go, but jeez, so many options? I like full, I like DEEP, I like chest-rattling rumble (with the right tracks), so looking for something that is Wife friendly (not much chance!) but delivers at less than £2k ish ...Oh, and maybe once I have moved, I might try to combine the hifi with my TV system, so could possibly have a surround-sound roll later, but that is not the priority.

Please... Ideas Guys! - Been looking a svs, rel, Mk (had older version before - great, but gave it to my son just before I got this HiFi - stupid me!)
..and any other thoughts on what could improve my system without totally killing the 'wallet-baby'!

Smile
Fairford UK area - Devialet 440, Aurender Streamer- Linked to QNAP NAS 453mini - Triangle Signature Deltas, Van Damme Professional Blue Series Studio Grade 2 x 4.0 mm cables, Moon Neo 260D DC Transport, Dell notebook Client linked both ethernet & wifi.
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#2
A sub is a good choice. Another brand to throw in the ring is JL audio.

another area of improvement is your audio PC.

theres a BIG difference between a computer and a well designed audio computer! worlds apart. quite a few of us here use computers as audio sources and you can get quite a lot of advice here in regards to setting one up properly. i dare say a lot of us actually use 2 computers. 1 is a "control pc" which holds your music collection, all software and basically does all the hard work with a single program (called Jplay) that sends the audio content to a secondary computer called the "audio pc" whose sole purpose is to receive that audio content and then send it to the devialet.

if you think that you have tracks that sound good and some that dont, personally i would be looking at the computer source first before wanting to invest in subs, but thats just me.
Amp - Devialet 400 Speakers - vivid audio B1 Speaker cable - audioquest oak Power conditioner - furman SPR 16IE Source - audio PC with paul pang audio usb card v3 and paul pang red dual usb cable running through jplay. usb card powered by teddy pardo power supply Source 2 - line in from integra AV receiver (TV)
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#3
(01-Jul-2015, 10:30)completeluxury Wrote: A sub is a good choice. Another brand to throw in the ring is JL audio.

another area of improvement is your audio PC.

theres a BIG difference between a computer and a well designed audio computer! worlds apart. quite a few of us here use computers as audio sources and you can get quite a lot of advice here in regards to setting one up properly. i dare say a lot of us actually use 2 computers. 1 is a "control pc" which holds your music collection, all software and basically does all the hard work with a single program (called Jplay) that sends the audio content to a secondary computer  called the "audio pc" whose sole purpose is to receive that audio content and then send it to the devialet.

if you think that you have tracks that sound good and some that dont, personally i would be looking at the computer source first before wanting to invest in subs, but thats just me.

Interesting you should say that! I did read about JPlay as being the companion to JRiver, but got a bit put off by the impression given about it being complicated to set up.

The other thing is that the QNAP NAS I have, has Twonky Media pre-installed, but I don't use it and have no idea if this is worth pursuing....

I also do have access to other PC's, so I suppose I could look into how it all might work!
Fairford UK area - Devialet 440, Aurender Streamer- Linked to QNAP NAS 453mini - Triangle Signature Deltas, Van Damme Professional Blue Series Studio Grade 2 x 4.0 mm cables, Moon Neo 260D DC Transport, Dell notebook Client linked both ethernet & wifi.
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#4
Or maybe a pair of phantoms + dialog as a replacement for the amps + speakers + sub ?
MacBook Air M2 -> RAAT/Air -> WiFi -> PLC -> Ethernet -> Devialet 220pro with Core Infinity (upgraded from 120) -> AperturA Armonia
France
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#5
i have never heard of twonky media nor any idea of what it does, how good/bad it is Tongue

Theres a few good choices in music player software: Roon, jplay with jplay streamer, jriver, foobar, hq player.

You can also look at room correction software like: Acourate, Dirac

jplay is actually really easy to set up but theres other peices of important software that help as well.

Audiophile optimizer
fidelizer
project lasso

all help streamline and strip away unnecessary processes and stuff that isnt required for audio pcs.

you say you have access to other pcs but what i mean by a well designed audio pc is not just the software on it but also the hardware!

fanless cases to reduce fan noise and EMI, low voltage ram, specialised audiophile USB cads, separate hard drives for your operating system and all other software, audiophile sata cables, specialised power supplies for each component (cpu, motherboard, hard drives and USB card), audiophile lan cable to link up your computers (if using dual pcs), audiophile USB cable, upgrading the clock on your motherboard.

those are examples of the different things you can do... to do everything i just mentioned would be awfully expensive, i dont dare tally up the cost of what my ideal system would cost i would probably cry.

I would start off by building one good PC instead of going for a dual pc set up. it means you will have a solid source which you can upgrade later to dual pcs if you were ever so inclined!
Amp - Devialet 400 Speakers - vivid audio B1 Speaker cable - audioquest oak Power conditioner - furman SPR 16IE Source - audio PC with paul pang audio usb card v3 and paul pang red dual usb cable running through jplay. usb card powered by teddy pardo power supply Source 2 - line in from integra AV receiver (TV)
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#6
Are you running SAM for your speakers? You didn't mention it.
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#7
(01-Jul-2015, 13:09)Soniclife Wrote: Are you running SAM for your speakers? You didn't mention it.

Yep! Cool
Fairford UK area - Devialet 440, Aurender Streamer- Linked to QNAP NAS 453mini - Triangle Signature Deltas, Van Damme Professional Blue Series Studio Grade 2 x 4.0 mm cables, Moon Neo 260D DC Transport, Dell notebook Client linked both ethernet & wifi.
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#8
Also been looking today at the possibility of building a fanless WS2012. Not a heck of a lot of info on the interweb posted this year (technology moves on a pace... so want to make sure it is as up-to-date as possible).
Seems that HDPlex do some nice cases that would look good as an addition to the rest of the kit, but most of their stuff is out of stock. Then there is Streacom, which are quite expensive, and finally the cheaper Akasa range dotted around ebay.
But trying to get recommendations for a good PSU, Mini-Motherboard/ processor which will support WS2012 is somewhat difficult & confusing, especially as there arew reports about WS2012 driver problems with some ITX motherboards not loading....

Anyone been down this route had have any peals of wisdom they could share?
Must admit I am intrigued with the paul pang audio usb card v3 that 'CompleteLuxury' uses!
Fairford UK area - Devialet 440, Aurender Streamer- Linked to QNAP NAS 453mini - Triangle Signature Deltas, Van Damme Professional Blue Series Studio Grade 2 x 4.0 mm cables, Moon Neo 260D DC Transport, Dell notebook Client linked both ethernet & wifi.
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#9
There's a lot, really a LOT written about optimizing a PC. Check out the forums at computeraudiophile.com and jplay.eu for example. I'm sure you'll drown or go into an information overload after that! Smile

You can also read my system topic on this forum. I've documented my PC optimization path there as well. But of course my way is only that and many ways lead to Rome.

PS. I wouldn't advise anyone this way unless they feel comportable with/around PC soft- and hardware. If one doesn't I'd advise looking at the streamer/music server options like Aurender offers.
PS2. I agree with completeluxury, a standard PC compares in no way to an optimized one. Lots of options there but there can be a steep learning curve.
PS Audio P3, Shunyata ΞTRON Alpha Digital and HC/Furutech power cables, Paul Hynes SR7EHD-MR4, DIY Roon Server & Roon Endpoint running AudioLinux Headless, Phasure Lush^2 USB cable, Audioquest Diamond RJ/E ethernet, Uptone Audio etherREGEN, Mutec MC-3+ USB, Shunyata ΞTRON Anaconda Digital XLR AES/EBU, Devialet Expert 250 Pro CI, Nordost Tyr Reference LS cables, Von Schweikert VR-5 SE Anniversary Edition, Anti-Mode Dual Core 2.0, JL Audio Fathom F112. More detail here.

The Netherlands
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#10
teddlesdee, we can help you right here with great recommendations, or you can also jump across to both sites antoine mentioned. you will probably run into us there again anyway but they are both good resources for computer audio.

for instance:
my control computer uses streacom fc10 case
intel xeon e3 1265l v3 45w cpu
supermicro x10sll-f
32gb ecc ram (my preference would be kingston low voltage ram)
2 x samsung 850 SSD hard drives
2 x Soul of the music sata filters
1 x 100w teradak 12v linear power supply for the CPU
1 x 200w teradak 12v linear power supply and picopsu for the motherboard.

Now if i had my way... i would add:
1 x paul pang motherboard ocxo clock
2 x paul pang hard drives
2 x Jcat battery psu to power each hard drive
2 x paul pang sata cables

then id be happy!
Amp - Devialet 400 Speakers - vivid audio B1 Speaker cable - audioquest oak Power conditioner - furman SPR 16IE Source - audio PC with paul pang audio usb card v3 and paul pang red dual usb cable running through jplay. usb card powered by teddy pardo power supply Source 2 - line in from integra AV receiver (TV)
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