Recent content by CheapskateCCAOwner

Ah yes....you need the extra inputs.....understood! :)

You could use an inexpensive bipolar power supply like this, or this to feed the SparkFuns instead of using the +-15V rails from your preamp. That would allow you to use the miniDSP Flex directly and bypass your preamp. The signal chain would be: Unbalanced Source -> SparkFun OutSmarts ->...

Chromecast Audio (CCA) doesn't measure well when using Google Chrome browser as a client, however subsequent testing by Amir using both Roon and the Hi-Fi Cast Android app as clients shows that the CCA exhibits excellent measurements when using its Toslink output connected to a decent DAC. The...

In addition, with Chromecast Audio (CCA), your phone (or whatever you're using as a controller) is not the source of the audio or audio stream, so the CCA's audio signal is not impacted by the strength of your controller device's WiFI signal or its proximity to your CCA device. These factors (in...

According to the Hidizs' specs, the S9 supports headphones with inline microphones (hopefully adhering to a commonly used TRRS wiring scheme and presumably with the unbalanced jack only). Given this, does this mean the device (and its DAC chip) does ADC as well? If so, any thoughts on the...

Even though ASR is an "Audio Community", it is different than most in that the general consensus of its members is to favor audio gear (and setups) that objectively measure well. With that in mind, the folks who responded to you (including me) simply don't understand why you would start off...

I agree with everything you're saying, but for me, it's nice to read how Amir actually feels about the overall sound of the speaker (in his environment), in addition to finding out how strongly his subjective impressions correlate with his measurements.

With electronics, sure; subjective impressions in most cases have limited value. For speakers, though? I have to disagree with eliminating subjective impressions; there are too many physical and environmental variables involved with speaker measurements that simply aren't there for...

That's brilliant! .....and very much speaks to my cheapskate soul

Thanks to TimW and gvl for the clarification on Benchmark's HGC. Well....being the cheapskate that I am, I'm unable to bring myself to spend 2K on a Dac3; even 600 bucks for the Freya S is pushing it for me. That said, if I were to find 2K lying around somewhere, the Dac3 looks like an...

Correction/qualification: Of course the volume control on the Benchmark Dac3 could be all analog if the attenuation for the digital signal is applied after conversion to analog

You sure about that? From the Benchmark website, there is no mention of a pass-through for the analog inputs on the Dac3. The volume control would have to work in both the digital domain and analog domain; I don't see any explanation of this on the Benchmark website. If you're right, then...

From a purist's perspective, if you have an analog source like a turntable or tape deck, it makes little sense to convert the analog signal to digital, only to have it converted back to analog. On the other hand, if you want to experiment with DSP, a DAC with an integrated ADC (and DSP...

If it were me, I would be perfectly satisfied with your Freya as-is. IMO, your Freya S performs within spec (though I know some here would disagree), and the disparity between channels is inaudible anyway. Of course I'm a super cheapskate, so my standards are probably a lot lower than yours...

The chart shows the average SINAD between the Freya S's two channels in "0 DB" active mode for different gain levels (unless I'm mistaken)