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Thread: Advice needed, new digital front end

  1. #21
    Join Date: May 2008

    Location: A Strangely Isolated Place in Suffolk with Far Away Trains Passing By...

    Posts: 14,535
    I'm David.

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    Oooh, you're going to hate me for suggesting this, but shouldn't you have optimised the system around a neutral source and then tweaked the vinyl setup to match it? My experiences of the EAR 834P is that it's overtly soft and coloured in tone - deliberately "valvey" if you like. I'll be able to conform or deny this in a few weeks when I can next get to listen to one compared to the iPhono at £350, which looks fascinating.....

    I say the above because, at best, BOTH formats should be easily usable. If one sounds so different and unsatisfactory compared to the other, I immediately look elsewhere in the system, since digital sources that haven't been artificially "doctored" sound broadly the same, the differences being in subtlety rather than the obvious things we first here when comparing vinyl sources for example.

    Sorry if I've jumped in when I shouldn't, but when you've heard how stupendous really good digital is, a good low cost DAC should just sound smaller in scale, not totally different and thin toned. The vinyl front end is pretty neutral (although I dislike the OL arms with a passion, since they appear to be such an expensive downgrade on the originals in an effort to make the sound more "exciting"), but the EAR is definitely not without significant added character IMO and you'll never get a digital source to sound like this, no matter how "analogue" it is IMO...
    Tear down these walls; Cut the ties that held me
    Crying out at the top of my voice; Tell me now if you can hear me

  2. #22
    Join Date: Sep 2010

    Location: West Midlands, UK

    Posts: 646
    I'm Lee.

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    Quote Originally Posted by DSJR View Post
    Oooh, you're going to hate me for suggesting this, but shouldn't you have optimised the system around a neutral source and then tweaked the vinyl setup to match it? My experiences of the EAR 834P is that it's overtly soft and coloured in tone - deliberately "valvey" if you like. I'll be able to conform or deny this in a few weeks when I can next get to listen to one compared to the iPhono at £350, which looks fascinating.....

    I say the above because, at best, BOTH formats should be easily usable. If one sounds so different and unsatisfactory compared to the other, I immediately look elsewhere in the system, since digital sources that haven't been artificially "doctored" sound broadly the same, the differences being in subtlety rather than the obvious things we first here when comparing vinyl sources for example.

    Sorry if I've jumped in when I shouldn't, but when you've heard how stupendous really good digital is, a good low cost DAC should just sound smaller in scale, not totally different and thin toned. The vinyl front end is pretty neutral (although I dislike the OL arms with a passion, since they appear to be such an expensive downgrade on the originals in an effort to make the sound more "exciting"), but the EAR is definitely not without significant added character IMO and you'll never get a digital source to sound like this, no matter how "analogue" it is IMO...
    Your probably right there, the EAR could well add a bit of colour but its this sound I've got used too over the past few months and one I like, maybe transparent is not for me
    Vinyl rig 1 - NAS Spacedeck / FR64s / Lab 12 Melto / Denon SUT / Ortofon GM SPU. Vinyl rig 2 Mono Set Up - Lenco GL75 c/w Jelco 750D / AT33 Mono / EAR 834P Modded. Amplifiers - Audio Note Empress Silver / Hattor Passive Pre. Digital - Fanless Mini PC / Lampizator TRP / Linear PSU / Hummingboard Network audio adaptor. Speakers - Horns.pl Mummy's. Cables are Audio Note / Albedo / Furutech Speaker wire. Power conditioner is a Gigawatt PC2 EVO

  3. #23
    Join Date: May 2008

    Location: A Strangely Isolated Place in Suffolk with Far Away Trains Passing By...

    Posts: 14,535
    I'm David.

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    I don't know the Totems, but be warned that any tall thin colomn speaker is going to sound off like an organ pipe at one frequency if it isn't VERY careful....... Jacking up the tweeter can help to mask this and it seems to be a trick that Kudos and Pro-Ac use(d) among others..
    Tear down these walls; Cut the ties that held me
    Crying out at the top of my voice; Tell me now if you can hear me

  4. #24
    Join Date: Sep 2010

    Location: West Midlands, UK

    Posts: 646
    I'm Lee.

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    Quote Originally Posted by DSJR View Post
    I don't know the Totems, but be warned that any tall thin colomn speaker is going to sound off like an organ pipe at one frequency if it isn't VERY careful....... Jacking up the tweeter can help to mask this and it seems to be a trick that Kudos and Pro-Ac use(d) among others..
    The Forests aren't tall and thin, quite the opposite to be fair
    Vinyl rig 1 - NAS Spacedeck / FR64s / Lab 12 Melto / Denon SUT / Ortofon GM SPU. Vinyl rig 2 Mono Set Up - Lenco GL75 c/w Jelco 750D / AT33 Mono / EAR 834P Modded. Amplifiers - Audio Note Empress Silver / Hattor Passive Pre. Digital - Fanless Mini PC / Lampizator TRP / Linear PSU / Hummingboard Network audio adaptor. Speakers - Horns.pl Mummy's. Cables are Audio Note / Albedo / Furutech Speaker wire. Power conditioner is a Gigawatt PC2 EVO

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