Amir's TODO thread

[Guermantes]

Glad to hear you are on the mend, Amir. Health is your no.1 priority.

 

[Dismayed]

Little hard to tell at the moment. I have been ill for the last few weeks and at the same time got a ton of gear to review both in person and through mail. The disease is progressing toward the end but unfortunately it is extremely uncomfortable and gets worse when sit at my desk. If I had been healthy i could have gone through a lot more gear by now.

Once I get better I can get a better idea of throughput. For now, I say I have a few weeks worth of gear to test.

Don’t push yourself if you are feeling ill! I’m not in a hurry to get my amp back.

 

[Toppings]

Little hard to tell at the moment. I have been ill for the last few weeks and at the same time got a ton of gear to review both in person and through mail. The disease is progressing toward the end but unfortunately it is extremely uncomfortable and gets worse when sit at my desk. If I had been healthy i could have gone through a lot more gear by now.

Once I get better I can get a better idea of throughput. For now, I say I have a few weeks worth of gear to test.

Alright, I'll wait for when you are nearing the end of your backlog.

Not sure how much demand there is for the Topping NX4 DSD, but if it measures well, it seems like a good alternative to Topping DX7s for the following reasons:

1) Same DAC chip (just one instead of two) and supports same formats (up to DSD512, 32-bit 768KHz)
2) Low impedance amp chip at<0.4 ohms (not sure what the model is, but it's probably cheap)
3) Portable
4) At least $200 cheaper

I have yet to hear a significant improvement from my PC's onboard audio, so I am curious what the measurements say.

 

[amirm]

Not sure how much demand there is for the Topping NX4 DSD,

I have heard a lot of requests for it so it is definitely in demand and something I like to test.

 

[dc655321]

I have heard a lot of requests for it so it is definitely in demand and something I like to test.

I won't have my NX4 DSD in hand for a few weeks yet. Perhaps someone is swimming it over from Guangdong... :-(
At any rate, I'm hopeful this little beauty sounds _and_ measures well.

 

[iridium]

Little hard to tell at the moment. I have been ill for the last few weeks and at the same time got a ton of gear to review both in person and through mail. The disease is progressing toward the end but unfortunately it is extremely uncomfortable and gets worse when sit at my desk. If I had been healthy i could have gone through a lot more gear by now.

Once I get better I can get a better idea of throughput. For now, I say I have a few weeks worth of gear to test.

Allergy season around the Puget Sound; trees are very active.

iridium.

 

[amirm]

Allergy season around the Puget Sound; trees are very active.

iridium.

I wish it was allergies. This thing has been like going to hell and back a dozen times! I might make a new thread and explain.

But yes, allergies are terrible. My car has yellow dust on it!

 

[stunta]

I see the miniDSP on your list. Any estimate on when that might get reviewed?

Get well soon! Your forum needs you!

 

[RayDunzl]

There was an ominous warning saying the coupon can only be redeemed once. I think I went there a second time and it still let me download it.

You probably registered an account with them to redeem the coupon. Don't forget your login...

You should be able to download whatever is registered to you (including new versions/updates).

Hover over your login name, top right, click the drop-down menu item "User Downloads"

Many products listed, only the ones you "own" will flesh out with a download button when you look at them.

 

[Toppings]

I have heard a lot of requests for it so it is definitely in demand and something I like to test.

Then I will be waiting for you to get through your backlog, or for someone else to send you the Topping NX4 DSD first. Send me a message when either happens. My name is easy to remember because I was very creative.

 

[amirm]

Then I will be waiting for you to get through your backlog, or for someone else to send you the Topping NX4 DSD first. Send me a message when either happens. My name is easy to remember because I was very creative.

That you were.

 

[dc655321]

I have heard a lot of requests for it so it is definitely in demand and something I like to test.

Got a little surprise in the mailbox yesterday: my Topping NX4 DSD arrived!

Listening through my HD6xx, it sounds nice. Nothing audibly wrong that I notice.
Low gain setting, about 1:00 on the volume dial.

However, here is an excerpt from a message I sent to the retailer I purchased this device from:

I had a brief opportunity to listen to the device last night.
I noticed that there is a substantial channel imbalance at low volume.
From approximately 7:30 on the dial until 9:30, the right channel is much louder than the left.
This balances out by 10:00 on the dial, but that is already at significant volume for my sensitive IEMs (FLC8S).
Also, there is hissing audible on high gain with no input present (noticed with IEMs).​

That's a little disappointing. To be fair, I don't intend to use the NX4 for use with my IEMs.

 

[amirm]

Yeh, that is not so good given the application.

 

[dc655321]

Yeh, that is not so good given the application.

I don't notice it on the HD6xx, but they have ~300 Ohm impedance.
The FLC8S are about 11 Ohm and are quite sensitive (~107 dB/mW).

Still... point taken. Not a good thing.

 

[amirm]

HD-650 is the least sensitive headphone I have with respect to hearing noise. Indeed I don't hear hiss with it at all with gear that produces it. My AK IEMs are most sensitive. For regular headphones I think the Sony MDRV6 was also sensitive enough to pick up noise.

 

[Toppings]

Got a little surprise in the mailbox yesterday: my Topping NX4 DSD arrived!

Listening through my HD6xx, it sounds nice. Nothing audibly wrong that I notice.
Low gain setting, about 1:00 on the volume dial.

However, here is an excerpt from a message I sent to the retailer I purchased this device from:

I had a brief opportunity to listen to the device last night.
I noticed that there is a substantial channel imbalance at low volume.
From approximately 7:30 on the dial until 9:30, the right channel is much louder than the left.
This balances out by 10:00 on the dial, but that is already at significant volume for my sensitive IEMs (FLC8S).
Also, there is hissing audible on high gain with no input present (noticed with IEMs).​

That's a little disappointing. To be fair, I don't intend to use the NX4 for use with my IEMs.

I confirm this problem with my unit as well. 45% volume on the NX4 is not too bad as I'm still setting the volume in software to about 75% or higher.

Resampling everything to 32-bit, 768 KHz sounds a bit worse than native rate, although I don't really know what the best settings would be for Resampler-V.

 

[dc655321]

I confirm this problem with my unit as well. 45% volume on the NX4 is not too bad as I'm still setting the volume in software to about 75% or higher.

What source(s) and sink(s) are you using for listening?

I always set the software volume at 100%, more out of habit than anything else.

 

[Derfrost]

What do you think about Audio-GD R2R 11? This dac/amp is very popular right now.

 

[amirm]

What do you think about Audio-GD R2R 11? This dac/amp is very popular right now.

It is but no one has offered yet to loan it to me for measurements. If you run into an owner, please try to convince him to loan it to me for testing.

 

[PuX]

amirm,

do you have any plans to test reasonably-priced usb to spdif converters? For example, a DAC such as Benchmark DAC1 has no USB input and requires to be connected with optical or coax, but using a $20 converter with a high-end DAC would probably be a bad idea. So it would be nice to know what is a good price for a usb to spdif converter and what are some good models.