For years, those wanting to get started with high-quality streaming had to spend upwards of $1k for something like the Sonore microRendu, Pro-Ject Stream Box S2 Ultra, SOtM sMS-200ultra Neo, or similar. Or, they could roll up their sleeves and build a network audio transport from a Raspberry Pi board, possibly adding cards from companies like Pi 2…
Author: dsnyder
Just another amateur audiophile
Tasting Rooms and Audio System Hops
Now that virtually all of the United States has “reopened” after many months of COVID-19 lockdowns, audiophiles and music lovers are gradually resuming the practice of visiting each other’s homes to celebrate their shared passion for fine music playback. Movement restrictions reduced our spending on dining and travel and increased time spent at home. As…
Unlocking Great Sound (part 5)
Having worked through Paul McGowan’s book, Audiophile’s Guide: The Stereo – Unlock the Secrets to Great Sound, in this next part, I’ll describe the process I followed to integrate the excellent SVS 3000 Micro subwoofers. I’ll wrap up by building FIR filters for use with Roon’s convolution engine. Here’s a link to the start of this series. Polarity It’s…
Unlocking Great Sound with Paul (part 4)
This is a continuation of my review and notes as I work through Paul McGowan’s book, Audiophile’s Guide: The Stereo – Unlock the Secrets to Great Sound. Here’s a link to the start of this series. I completed all of the listening position and speaker placement tuning in part 3. Later in his book, Paul touches on room treatments, cables,…
Unlocking Great Sound with Paul (part 3)
This is a continuation of my review and notes as I work through Paul McGowan’s book, Audiophile’s Guide: The Stereo – Unlock the Secrets to Great Sound. Here’s a link to the start of this series. In this part, I’ll describe how I set up the grid, performed basic system checks, and got busy with basic tuning. If you’re…
Unlocking Great Sound with Paul (part 2)
This is a continuation of my review and notes as I work through Paul McGowan’s book, Audiophile’s Guide: The Stereo – Unlock the Secrets to Great Sound. Here’s a link to the start of this series. Before I get into setting up the grid and describing what I’m learning from the listening tests, I thought you might like to…
Unlocking Great Sound with Paul (part 1)
I picked up Paul McGowan’s book, Audiophile’s Guide: The Stereo – Unlock the Secrets to Great Sound, plus the companion discs to see what more I could learn about room setup. For most audiophiles, the listening room is the largest and most expensive component in their playback systems, often by an order of magnitude. Even small…
Rocky Mountain Audio Fest – Friday, Part 2
The crowds were lighter than I expected on Friday. As a result, I covered more ground than expected, but with each room, my notes and publishing backlog grew. I’m expecting today to be actually busy, so that should give me time to catch up a little. The day was full of surprises, there were a…
Rocky Mountain Audio Fest – Friday
I tried to take the best advantage of the two-hour headstart afforded to members of the press on the first day, but despite my best efforts, only visited half of the rooms on my list. The layout is good this year with most exhibits in the tower. The stairwells are unlocked, so one can take…
Rocky Mountain Audio Fest – Thursday
Before the Show I’ve been an audiophile for thirty years, but weirdly, this is my first time traveling to Denver for the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. It’s a little intimidating with 400 or so companies displaying products in over 160 exhibits and an expected attendance north of 3,500. It’s impractical to thoroughly explore even half…