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  1. J

    Topping A90 Headphone Amplifier Review

    My A90 (15 months old) had no signs of life today when I tried to turn it on. I couldn't hear the usual click of the relay when I turned it on. In case it's useful for anyone else, the fuse (inside the holder next to the power input on the back of the A90) had blown. I swapped the blown fuse...
  2. J

    Are blu-ray players still worth buying?

    Apologies for reviving this thread but I was just wondering whether it's slightly crazy of me to think about buying now in 2021 my first Blu-ray player and my first Blu-ray discs ? I watch streaming services on a 27" iMac including the Criterion Channel and Mubi. I do have a small collection...
  3. J

    What Audio Players Do You Have Installed On Your Windows,Mac or Linux?

    Welcome to ASR! It depends what I'm playing: - Roon for local files and Qobuz streaming. - The Amazon Music and IDAGIO Mac native apps for streaming from those services. - Safari for streaming from Primephonic which doesn't have a native Mac app. Hopefully Roon can support more streaming...
  4. J

    Could an "evidence based" HiFi retailer ever be commercially viable?

    There's nothing which can be done about not putting products on shelves or online but maybe what a shop can do is not to actively promote them. I have in mind two dealers who I recently dealt with on the phone - one tried to upsell me to silver plated cables (with nonsense about it sounding...
  5. J

    Could an "evidence based" HiFi retailer ever be commercially viable?

    I think it's OK for a store to stock what to me are audiophoolery products so long as they don't try to actively sell or promote them based on pseudoscience claims. Some people will really want these products. It's their money so perfectly fine and so why shouldn't the store sell them these...
  6. J

    What is your daily job ? ... any hobbies ?

    Asset finance lawyer (cruise ships, oil tankers, ferries, LNG carriers etc). My interests wane on and off over time but have included: * Computers (starting with a Commodore PET and Apple ][; dial-up modem BBS's back in the day; Linux from version 0.11; functional programming; etc) * Amateur...
  7. J

    Has the pandemic affected your audio purchase decisions?

    Due to the pandemic and saving money by not travelling etc and luckily still being able to work from home, I've gone from nothing to what is for me at least an endgame home office headphone setup (Intel NUC as a Roon core, Topping D90 / A90 and Meze Empyrean) plus a nice portable solution for...
  8. J

    Why own more than one headphone for the same use case ?

    I'm trying to understand why someone (and it seems like a lot of people) have more than one headphone for the same use case ? For myself so far, I've ended up with the following: * Open back headphone - home * Lightweight headphone - out and out or on holiday * In-ear monitors with noise...
  9. J

    YouTuber - A British Audiophile

    I think he mentioned in his videos that he used to be in the audio industry but now works as a school physics teacher which may explain the strange mix you mention! Overall, he seems to me to give good advice (e.g. spend your money on the speakers rather than a DAC) and I like his style.
  10. J

    Show Us Your Headphone Stand

    I'm just concerned that dust can get in (either through the grille on the outside or the inside), stick to the driver and may not be easily shifted by compressed air? The Empyrean seems more exposed than other open back headphones which I have (e.g. LCD-1)...
  11. J

    Show Us Your Headphone Stand

    For me, the problem with those stands is that the insides of the ear cups are exposed at an angle which makes it easy for dust to settle inside (which is particularly a problem if the drivers are exposed through a grille or mesh without having, e.g., a fabric protecting them).
  12. J

    Show Us Your Headphone Stand

    I just realised that my new headphones (Empyrean) don't fit well at all on my headphone stand (shown above in this thread). Due to the headphones' sockets being lower down, the cable coming out of the right hand side plug is pushed right against the headphone stand - not good at all! So I have...
  13. J

    How is your dream DAC like?

    I'd want my Dream DAC (i.e. each unit manufactured) to have been certified by an independent laboratory as meeting stringent measurement criteria for the DAC. In other words, sort of similar to what happens for fine Swiss watches - https://www.cosc.swiss/en
  14. J

    Show Us Your Headphone Stand

    I have this one from a German company called Glorious:
  15. J

    What items have you NOT purchased as a result of ASR?

    I didn't buy a Chord Qutest and ended up buying a Topping D90 which I'd never heard of before.
  16. J

    How to properly send audio from MacBook to external DAC

    Thanks for clarifying! Yes, except for (at least from the programs which I am using) the Qobuz app on macOS which changes the rate in Audio Midi setup depending on the sample rate of what's being played.
  17. J

    How to properly send audio from MacBook to external DAC

    The behaviour depends on the program you use. I have a Mac connected to a D90: * Qobuz on macOS - Qobuz adjusts the connection to the DAC up or down to follow the music you want to play. In other words, the connection (as shown in Audio MIDI Setup) is changed by Qobuz and there is therefore...
  18. J

    I might build a NAS/media server. Would you use this???

    Why do you need 36G of RAM if you are "going to do as little as possible on the machine directly" and it's also a "budget build" from your first post above? I think you may be fine with far less RAM.
  19. J

    Please explain what I need to make Roon work...

    That's perfectly fine and how I have Roon installed on my Mac desktop: * the Roon server always running in the background * the Roon Mac app (which I use to connect to the Roon server) - this only needs to be running if I want to control the server. I can of course also use my phone, iPad...
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