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View Full Version : So the Caiman arrived safe and sound :) :)



pjdowns
27-03-2011, 21:19
I jumped and finally purchased a Caimen on Friday.

Wifey put the order in and to my astonishment it arrived all safe and sound early on Saturday morning.

Ok, so the reports and views are correct. It is a pretty damn impressive piece of kit.

Plugged it in straight away pressed play... Oh my, the sound that arrived (out of the box) was awesome. I finally found that I could listen to the Squeezebox and the mountains of albums I have on the music server without worrying about fatigue setting in.

Ok, so I left it running overnight and have tried it again ... it has just got better and better... yes I know that is common, but I am seriously impressed with this little box of tricks.

Although it is a bit of an unfair comparison, I thought it was only right to compare the Squeezebox to my Naim CDI... Oh, very interesting... Sorry cynics, but the CD player is still better than the Squeezebox / Caimen combo but the difference now is no where near as before, considering the difference in original price between the two, you'd expect a lot bigger difference.

So to sum it up, the Caimen is a very very impressive piece of equipment... and sounds a lot better than the price tag would give it credit for.

Thanks Stan, I am extremely impressed and happy with my purchase.

Paul.

Alex_UK
27-03-2011, 21:34
Hi Paul - does the Naim CDI have SPDIF out? Be interesting to read how you feel the sound is using the Naim as a transport into the Caiman... ;)

pjdowns
27-03-2011, 21:36
Alex,

Unfortunately not... The CDI doesn't have any digital outputs.

Paul.

Alex_UK
27-03-2011, 21:44
No worries, just a thought. Presume you are streaming FLAC or similar?

pjdowns
27-03-2011, 22:09
Oh yeah sorry.

The majority of the music is in Apple Lossless or AAC... with some in MP3 (Yuk!)

Stratmangler
27-03-2011, 22:18
Try one of these between the SB3 and Caiman http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Product/50228/Belkin-Digital-Coaxial-Audio-Cable-3-6m

pjdowns
27-03-2011, 22:40
Using a decent Chord cable between the Squeezebox and Caimen.

Stratmangler
27-03-2011, 22:44
Using a decent Chord cable between the Squeezebox and Caimen.

It's still transfer of signal in the analog domain - cables make a difference and the one I linked to is particularly good.

It's only a quid plus p&p .........

RochaCullen
28-03-2011, 10:29
Just got mine in the post too.

Fantastic. Fired it up here in the office. Radiohead playing right now. Love it.

Nathan

WAD62
28-03-2011, 10:42
Hi Paul,

The 2 biggest improvements I've made to my SBs was firstly the digital interconnect to the DAC, which you seem to have covered, but probably the most significant was upgrading the SB's PSU to a linear one, and the Beresford's for that matter.

Are you using the original SMPSs for both? Is the Caiman 12v, I only have the 7510, which is 12v

There's a thread on the subject...it gets a little fractious at times ;) but some good links and options too :)

http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=10286

Edit; I've just realised that I've been running the Beresford with the Maplins PSU since I got it, so I decided in the interest of a balanced opinion I'd better try it with the original supplied SMPS, just to ensure I'n not talking out of my posterior...why change the habit of a lifetime ;)

Euuggghh, it's horrible, like it's been neutered, maplins PSU has been rapidly re-applied :)

Ikemen
02-04-2011, 19:08
The earlier Caimans came with a different SMPS from the latter (the latter has "Caiman" stamped on it. I bought the new one but is that also inferior to the Maplins Linear PSU in your experience, anyone?

Reid Malenfant
02-04-2011, 19:12
Yes, inferior to the Maplin linear PSU which isn't anything special tbh ;)

UV101
02-04-2011, 19:20
Hi Paul, just worked out its you! Funny cos you username should really have been all the clue I needed!!!

Def get a better PSU and loose the std supply and you should really do the same for the SB too!!! :-)

Ian

Ikemen
03-04-2011, 11:36
Thanks Reid.

I recall now that StanB mentioned he has a mains line conditioner thingy in the pipeline for production. That was some weeks ago. Before I buy a THIRD supply for my Caiman I should see what that does.

Stan, are you listening? News on this?

UV101
03-04-2011, 12:00
Not sure that a mains conditioner will help a SMPS at all as the noise is created by the PSU itself rather then the mains. Best thing when the time comes is well sorted linear PSU's all round. Obviously good mains will help when you have the rest sorted.

Ikemen
03-04-2011, 12:25
Good point UV101! I am not sure what it was that Stan was suggesting mind you.

Reid, you said the Maplins is nothing special anyway. Did you have a better one in mind, that does not cost a small fortune?

Reid Malenfant
03-04-2011, 13:03
Reid, you said the Maplins is nothing special anyway. Did you have a better one in mind, that does not cost a small fortune?
It really isn't that brilliant, but the Maplin PSU is better than an SMPS as there will be vastly less noise & ripple voltage on the output. If i remember right the Maplin PSU has about 3mV of ripple on the output, which is low but can be bettered ;)

I'd suggest you look on fleabay for some kind of variable linear laboratory PSU, these should have vanishingly low noise & ripple :) You should be lucky & find one cheap secondhand, you only need about 1A output after all..

pjdowns
03-04-2011, 19:42
Thanks all,

I had been thinking about upgrading the PSU's for both the Caimen and the Squeezebox.

Ian, the Caimen was a significant upgrade to the Squeezebox, much better than I had imagined.

Paul.

pjdowns
16-04-2011, 19:21
Ok, so I have a slight confession to make;

When I originally was talking about how good the DAC was, I wasn't actually listening to it.

This is what happened, so when I got it, I plugged in the Chord digital cable that I had to the DAC and to the Squeezebox.

What I mistakenly forgot to do was to remove the phono (analogue) connections from the Squeezebox to the DAC... doh!!!!

So my observastions earlier in here were obviously in my head (Over excitement and all that!)

I have now correctly connected up the DAC and Squeezebox and oh my, oh my... the difference is amazing... not a little better ... but years and years better (how the hell Stan makes the DAC for that price is beyond me!)

So spent the majority of last night listening and didn't once think that it was too loud or wanted to walk away...

Next plan is to compare it to the Naim CDI... to be honest, from what I have seen so far I doubt there will be much difference....

Oh and another impressive thing about the DAC is that lesser quality recordings, ie MP3 AAC (Lossy) also sound a lot better.

Very impressive piece of kit this Beresford Caiment :)

Paul.