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Introductions anyone?

Talisker

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Hi Folks,
I was reading too many interesting things in this forum, so I decide to go forward and participate myself. So, as you may have noticed, english is not my mother tongue, I'm french and I'm interesting by audio technologies, a specially in the digital field, like DAC/ADC and Full Digital Amplifier (FDA)...
 

maverickronin

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Hello all, maverickronin here. You may see me on other audio sites with the same handle and avatar. I'm hoping this will be a good place for the discussion of amps, DACs, and psychoacoustics

I've always been a headphone listener since I've never had room for speakers. My primary musical genres are various flavors of metal and electronica. My primary rig is an RME ADI-2 DAC > Stax SRM-T1S > Modded Stax Lambda normal bias. Other gear includes, modded Stax SR-202, Stax SRM-252S, Sennheiser HD650, xDuoo X3, Leckerton UHA-4, & Shure SE530.

Other hobbies include gaming, general PC geekery, and fountain pens.
 

amirm

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Welcome to both of you. @maverickronin good to have another Stax owner here! I think I have been the only one in the forum until now. As you I have a few variations of it (although they are older versions).

@Talisker, I am not familiar with the term FDA. Do you mean an amplifying DAC like Sharp used to make?
 

Talisker

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Yes that's right, amplifying direct, without any analog stage. You right sharp have tried the concept, long time ago, now NAD (M32) , Devialet or Lyngdorf (TDAI 2170). These brand models are quite expensive devices, but 3 years ago St Microelectronics and Texas have created some integrated chip for direct amplifying like the famous STA 326 (Doc Link), so many Chinese brand have made excellent small audiophile amplifier. The ratio Price/AudioQuality is terrific ... of course is not the end the story, I hope that soon a solid company will develop a real audiophile FDA at a reasonable price, I heard that allo.com (an Indian Firm) is on the way to produce a nice one the F1. I hope you can test & measure on of the existing FDA like Alientek D8, SMLS AD18, FX-Audio D802,.... Back to your term "Ampliying DAC", we can't say that, because most of the time, Amplifying DAC, mean Digital To Analog to Amplifier (Class D), with the direct amplifier you don't need a DAC anymore. You need an ADC for your phono if you want to connect it to the amplifier, by design you can't have any analogue input. I hope, i'm clear, i'm not a specialist of this technology but I think that an interesting one.
 

amirm

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I hope you can test & measure on of the existing FDA like Alientek D8, SMLS AD18, FX-Audio D802,....
Thanks for the explanation. I have bought the SMSL AD18 and plan to test it. I also have a very good relationship with Allo so can test anything they produce.
 

Frank Dernie

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Welcome to both of you. @maverickronin good to have another Stax owner here! I think I have been the only one in the forum until now. As you I have a few variations of it (although they are older versions).

@Talisker, I am not familiar with the term FDA. Do you mean an amplifying DAC like Sharp used to make?
I have had Stax phones for a long time actually but don't use them much since I prefer speakers at home and the ear-bud ones don't isolate external noise so no good on planes, trains or buses.
 

Talisker

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I understood, they will send you their new DAC "Katana", I followed this way to find your site
 

Grave

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I am PCMR and real hi-fi master race. :p

I am a science major but I have a ****** job. I am not an engineer.
 

amjosh

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I came across this forum in a conversation on Massdrop. It was around Topping D50. I read through the review and immediately I was hooked. I love these technical details. Objectivism is becoming rare in this space and I coming from Machine Learning background, I dig this. I think what Amir is doing here is same as Anand Lal Shimpi does at AnandTech.com. Big kudos!!! Looking forward to spending lot of time here :). BTW, I also happen to work for Microsoft!!
 

amirm

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I think what Amir is doing here is same as Anand Lal Shimpi does at AnandTech.com. Big kudos!!!
Welcome aboard @amjosh. Funny you mention Anand because I know him (used to give interviews to him when I was at Microsoft). And computer architecture was my speciality for years and always thought I could have started what he did. He is a very nice guy and does an excellent job. Doing that for audio is just as good though if not better. :)
Looking forward to spending lot of time here :). BTW, I also happen to work for Microsoft!!
Ah, good to know. I think we have one other member here who works for Microsoft.
 

amjosh

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Welcome aboard @amjosh. Funny you mention Anand because I know him (used to give interviews to him when I was at Microsoft). And computer architecture was my speciality for years and always thought I could have started what he did. He is a very nice guy and does an excellent job. Doing that for audio is just as good though if not better. :)

Ah, good to know. I think we have one other member here who works for Microsoft.

You giving interviews to Anand, is just WOW!! Keep doing what you do man!! If there is any meetup in Seattle area I would love to join!!!
 

amirm

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You made me look to see if any of my past interviews with Anand are still online and ran into this funny bit: https://www.anandtech.com/Show/Index/2798?cPage=5&all=False&sort=0&page=13&slug=

1533276484724.png


1533276434786.png


Had no idea my name would be a test case for his voice recognition testing. :D
 

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StevenEleven

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I am StevenEleven. It could rhyme, or maybe it doesn't, or maybe it does. I am a novice as far as electronics goes, and know a little more about music than electronics. I also am into photography. I am some kind of professional something. So I'm extremely pleased to have found this place, but I don't expect to have either a particularly broad or deep set of knowledge to contribute in this context, but I'll try when I can.:cool:
 

amadeuswus

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Hello all,

It's my first post after reading many threads over the past few weeks. I've enjoyed my visits and I appreciate the valuable work Amir does in his "retirement."

As an introduction, I will list some of my formative audio experiences along with their consequences (good or bad!).

Age 5: Visited neighborhood appliance store in small town in Taiwan. Obsessed with watching turntable platter spin. Result: parents forced to buy from the store because I spent so much time there.

Age 11: Heard friend's $300 Technics rack system in his bedroom. (Location: North Carolina. Demo music: Billy Joel 52nd Street.) Result: caught audio bug for life, right then and there. Bought my own Technics system.

Age 14: Wandered into neighborhood audio store and saw Stax headphones on display. Result: asked parents to buy Stax gear on my behalf during their next two trips to Japan. Still have the Lambda Professionals, Sigmas, SRX-Mk III, SRM1 Mk2 amp, SRD-7 and SRD-X energizers.

Age 18: Discovered the Absolute Sound magazine at hifi store in Massachusetts. Result: sucked into sound and fury, signifying nothing. Or almost nothing. Reviewer Robert Greene separates himself from the TAS pack. I also participate on his Yahoo audio forum.

In the years since, I've dabbled with digital room correction (Sigtech and TacT RCS 2.2x) and owned various speakers, all bought used. Those include planars (Eminent Technology LFT-8b, Soundline SL2, Quad ESL57 and 63) and boxes (Harbeth Monitor 40 original, Monitor 30, Gradient Revolutions, Mangar Zerobox 109, Spendor SP1/2, Lyngdorf W210 corner woofers, Hsu Research tube subwoofers). A very serious problem: I still have them (all except for the Quad 63s and Harbeth M30s).

One other formative audio experience: started violin lessons at 7, continue to play professionally part-time. For many years I played in the Grand Teton Music Festival orchestra in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, a beautiful place to make music. No longer go out there because my family got too big--and I don't mean my family of loudspeakers!

Thanks for the community here.
Edward ("Amadeuswus")
 
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Sal1950

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One other formative audio experience: started violin lessons at 7, continue to play professionally part-time. For many years I played in the Grand Teton Music Festival orchestra in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, a beautiful place to make music. No longer go out there because my family got too big--and I don't mean my family of loudspeakers!

Thanks for the community here.
Edward ("Amadeuswus")
Welcome to ASR Edward
Happy to have ya.

I had a pair of the 7' tall Hsu tubes for 20 years.
They really could dig deep. :)
 

amirm

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Edward ("Amadeuswus")
Welcome aboard Edward. Always great to read these introductions. In the words of Brillat-Savarin, "Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are."
 

amadeuswus

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Thanks Sal for your message.

My Hsu tubes are the 1220s (but I've seen ads for the taller ones you had). After reading that distributed subwoofers should ideally include one that's raised well off the floor, I laid one of the Hsus on a tall bookshelf. Since it is, after all, a tube, I had to wedge it to keep it from rolling off! (Could have posted this in the thread "you are not an audiophile unless you've....")
 
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