wwenze

If it is too good to be true... it most probably is.

It costs $169 new... from an economic perspective $40 is worth it and a steal for something using B.A. driver, just make sure it's the real deal though I haven't heard of any Aurvana being copied or how to check.

Logically, it should... ...affect as much as having the motor and the RF amplifier, DAC, filters and other digital sh*tz on seperate power supplies. That's what a whole load of decoupling capacitors can not do. It's even better, because it even isolates the airborne EMI and vibrations, which after reading all the text in links above you would understand the importance. Apart from the power supply noise that is (imagine... sine wave at 1kHz. And 1kHz seems like an important frequency... rite?). Of course, that would mean that you have to be able to hear great difference from such noise sources (or the absence of). Or it may be placebo but an ABX test will confirm that. Or because belt-drive players are inherently more expensive and better quality so they use better parts for the rest hence affecting the sound quality. A better comparison would be between a CDP with stock motor-driven drive vs the same CDP with its drive changed to a belt-driven one, all other factors remain the same.

The NOS stands for non-oversampling... google it and you can find out what it means and why it's good. The NOS DACs you saw might not have op-amps, probably because the DACs are of high-quality nature hence discrete buffer. That shouldn't sway your decision though. The rest of the components are more important than one single DAC or op-amp chip.

I would answer it that way 50% of the time though. Who the heck would buy SF3, then upgrade to SF4, then upgrade to SF5 non-pro. Waste a lot of money on small jumps. Somemore SF4 and SF5 are relatively new products... and quite expensive for single-driver.

I don't think Grado has a design department that's why all their products look the same from entry-level to flagship.

Think it's an old DAC. Ultralink II or just ultralink? I think ultralink got 10 year history already.

A good read on transport sound: http://audio.peufeu.com/node/6 To sum up, it's not the drive. Also to add, a $2000 transport would not cost ten times as much to build as a $200 transport. But it takes a lot of precaution to ensure that the sound is perhaps half as bad hence the price. Things like vibration, PCB trace/wiring, power supply noise and decoupling/filtering capacitors, can make a difference on the digital (or analogue with regards to the clock) part of the transport.

Here's the thread... http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t...ht=spdif&page=2 USB is enough for CD audio, but the conversion of USB -> SPDIF isn't perfect, plus the SPDIF transmitter circuit may not be good quality, lots of small things add up into audible difference. On the other hand, USB is "cleaner", and USB is a better interface than SPDIF, but using USB -> SPDIF converter destroys that advantage and combines the problems of both. Is your on-board sound using AC'97 by any chance?

Yup, lossy in the sense that it doesn't have ECC, but more importantly in the sense that it's actually possible for it to sound bad if you use crappy composite video cable as interconnect, for example. This brings up something interesting to be researched. Somehow I'll need to find info on the on-board SPDIF encoders and compare specs. Who knows, maybe all that's needed to make it sound good are just a few more extra parts.

The data format is SPDIF. Just that the voltage is TTL (5V). That's why simple converters exist. I'm not too concerned about the accuracy of the reading, although I'd like to mention that a bulk of the error correction comes from the file system (100MB of ECC data vs 700MB of actual data on the 700MB disc), which doesn't exists for audio CD. Futhermore data do get wrong at 48x, but they can re-read for data, you can't do that for audio. It's the conversion to SPDIF. The computer or CDP accesses the drive via IDE and the data is sent in PCM format, the combination of this transfer which can be believed as near-perfect. Then this PCM data is sent to the SPDIF encoder. We can assume it's a high-end chip with a high-end circuit. Compare that against what you can get in a CD-Drive. SPDIF is a lossy signal btw. How lossy, I wun know, but definitely depends on the encoder and circuitary. Or you're the type that believe digital signal is always perfect. In that case then there's no need for discussion. Just try it. Who knows, you may discover something good.

Isn't the digital out of CD drives already in SPDIF format? Just that the voltage is higher. Just need a resistor, isolation transformer, or go optical. But hay, when people use expensive SPDIF encoders with their CDP and PC, you're going to trust the cheap thingie in the drive?

Sooner or later you'll feel like upgrading your interconnect, might as well go LHS and tell the uncle to make the customised one for you. Do note that the TRS connector on the nEar04 is for balanced connection but the connection from Fubar is unbalanced, so you need a 3-pole connector (the "stereo" one with one ring) and connect the signal ground to the ring. Or just heck it and use the 3.5mm -> RCA. Can reuse the RCA for future upgrades.

Have u searched SLT? Or if u dun mind online can try monoprice for all sorts of cables, optical, 12FT, 50FT, 100FT, u name it. ................................................................................................................. SPDIF also uses optical btw.

Interesting question

Logically speaking, two coupling caps in parallel will give more bass, but I'm waiting for his response.

Hmm...

sg.farnell.com is a good place. My idea when buying chip op-amp, is cos they are so cheap yet so important, might as well go for the best save for a few that are really expensive. LM4562, OPA2107, OPA2132/2134, AD823, AD843, AD8610, LT1361/1364/1469 and the most expensive, OPA627 x 2 are all good chips, or go a step further and http://www.audio-gd.com/enweb/pro/diy/OPA.htm to order a cheap discreet op-amp. Please go search reviews for their sound, it's too much to type here.

In the cheaper non-portable amps and in the rubbish bins of those who upgraded their devices. You can get it at farnell and probably SLT also, high chance koba will also have it, because it's widely used and cheap. But why would you want to get it when much better alternatives just cost a few bucks more.

Good bass to me will be a flat response curve as low as it gets. If that is achieved then there's no need to talk about problems associated with bass or the lack of, because there won't be any problems. Too much low frequencies without mid-bass makes it muddy Not enough of the lower bass makes sound it too tight Non-responsive mids will remove the striking sounds of instruments and make the bass sound "one-note" Too much bass in general results in unbalanced sound And the worst, lots of public events they like to just increase the bass loud without thinking about crossover, so for the same instrument one note is very loud and just one note higher you can't hear it

Thx for your effort. For a while I thought you MIA lol. Busybody as I be, what's the use of the OPA Sun single?

Sad, originally wanted to get 3. Now looks like have to settle for two. Oh well, I'll eventually build something cooler for headamp anyway. Two dual earth with 2 extension wires pls.