Kendalbeefcake
29-04-2015, 10:24
Hello everyone, I relise there are more than a few places I could post this, but I guess my question is mostly related to the Caiman, so I thought I'd try here first.
I work from home these days and find that I actually listen to most music sitting at my desk, so this has become my focus rather than my "main" hi-fi.
I'm very limited for space, so I have I use a pair of Bowers and Wilikins MM-1 desktop speakers, which had been fed directly (via a QED Phono to 3.5mm jack) by a Sonos:Connect/ZP90. Whilst I'm generally very happy, certain tracks at higher-volumes produce distinct crackle/clipping that are not there on the original recording. As an example, Comptine d'un autre ete (L' apres midi) from the Amelie OST is just a "simple" piano track, but the MM-1 can't cope.
As I understand it, this is most likely to be caused by the limitations of the (tiny) 18w Amp, and there isn't a lot that can be done about it within the package.. I have a "Booster" on the SMPSU, which seemed to help a bit, but not significantly so.
I've just moved my Caiman and it's a Linear PSU into the system, and whilst it sounds even better, I'm still getting the clipping at the high-end (I didn't expect the DAC to solve this). However, IIRC the variable output line on the upgraded Caiman is quite powerful. I know that in some circumstances AMPs can be linked in series, and I was wondering if using the variable output on the DAC would give the MM-1s a higher input voltage. My theory being that a larger input voltage means better output voltage, and able to drive the speakers better..
So my questions are:
1) Have I correctly diagnosed the cause of my clipping/crackling?
2) Would hooking up my speakers to the variable output make a difference (I know some equipment max-variable output is the same as the fixed output) and also, importantly, not damage anything.
Thanks in advance
Glen
I work from home these days and find that I actually listen to most music sitting at my desk, so this has become my focus rather than my "main" hi-fi.
I'm very limited for space, so I have I use a pair of Bowers and Wilikins MM-1 desktop speakers, which had been fed directly (via a QED Phono to 3.5mm jack) by a Sonos:Connect/ZP90. Whilst I'm generally very happy, certain tracks at higher-volumes produce distinct crackle/clipping that are not there on the original recording. As an example, Comptine d'un autre ete (L' apres midi) from the Amelie OST is just a "simple" piano track, but the MM-1 can't cope.
As I understand it, this is most likely to be caused by the limitations of the (tiny) 18w Amp, and there isn't a lot that can be done about it within the package.. I have a "Booster" on the SMPSU, which seemed to help a bit, but not significantly so.
I've just moved my Caiman and it's a Linear PSU into the system, and whilst it sounds even better, I'm still getting the clipping at the high-end (I didn't expect the DAC to solve this). However, IIRC the variable output line on the upgraded Caiman is quite powerful. I know that in some circumstances AMPs can be linked in series, and I was wondering if using the variable output on the DAC would give the MM-1s a higher input voltage. My theory being that a larger input voltage means better output voltage, and able to drive the speakers better..
So my questions are:
1) Have I correctly diagnosed the cause of my clipping/crackling?
2) Would hooking up my speakers to the variable output make a difference (I know some equipment max-variable output is the same as the fixed output) and also, importantly, not damage anything.
Thanks in advance
Glen