The Monster raises it's head(again)!!!

[cfmsp]

 

 

"As for USB cables, I will offer this -- after (now) months of testing various USB cables with a variety of "transports" and DACs, I think I can honestly say the following: YMMV."

 

Agreed, but your fans are wondering what USB cable you settled on to feed the Legato. ;0

 

clay

 

[Part-Time Audiophile]

Honestly? I'm using Pat's now-included home-spun cable these days (the one without the power leg). Works like a charm.

 

I have the uber-cable (a SRT) feeding my HRT Streamer II+. Hilarious! But that DAC is bus-fed, so I figured it needed the help .... And works quite the treat there!

 

[Bytefi]

..The cable Mr Steward refers to is a milspec Sata 3 60gbs shielded made in the US and used in our servers,he requested one after reviewing our Ref 1, they have never been offered for sale as a stand alone item.......I am however sorely tempted after all the fuss and abuse that the reviewer has had to contend with.

 

[SteveS1]

He uses his 'reviews' to sow seeds of doubt in inexpensive solutions without offering up much by way of insight or objective assessment. Anything that rivals bespoke solutions produced by his favourite manufacturers for much less is guaranteed to provoke some nonsense from him.

 

Who can forget his fawning over the Naim HDX? Even claiming it produced better rips (presumably more lossless than lossless LOL). That of course, was before the Naim DAC appeared which is now his favourite. Funny that. But reading the HDX review soon revealed that he'd never compared it with anything worthwhile. If he had done, and knew what he was doing, he'd soon have realised that you can easily top HDX performance for about half the cost.

 

Computer audio is bad news for some of these companies and their acolytes. One large pinch of salt required for each review I would have thought. Of course he's not going to like Apple or makers of no nonsense kit - there is no advertising revenue or reviewing mileage in that, either directly or indirectly.

 

Steve

 

[Audio_ELF]

I'm not sure you're being fair here Steve...

 

Yes he thinks the Naim HDX is a fine piece of kit. And (IMO) it is. You may consider it expensive, but it can hold it's own as a CD player and also holds its own against most computers mated with DACs. It's also ready to go out the box (unlike any PC or Mac generally bought) to provide both (as close to perfect as possible) Rips and bit-perfect playback. Adding a PSU to it increases it's performance and mating it with the Naim DAC also increases it's performance. It maybe expensive (less so in UK than USA), but also has very few competitors excluding the "computer and DAC" option.

 

The sort of audiophile who visits here tends to be very comfortable with assembling and/or configuring a computer to get the best out of a DAC, many other audiophiles are not. Yes a pre-built "audio" computer is expensive ... but if you start adding up the time it takes t configure and maintain a computer (even Apple) and give that a monetary value then the differential slims. Add to that the time that you spent researching what sound card to use!

 

So yes, there is competition for some people (and forums like this are biased towards this kind of person) from the computer market, but there is still a vast market for Linn DS streamers, "audio computers" like the Naim HDX. PS Audio's bridge, etc, etc.

 

Eloise

 

[Paul Held]

Socrates - that might be the post of the year. Well done!

 

[SteveS1]

The DA section of the Naim Forum would suggest that HDX ownership is far from simple. As for adding power supplies....well then you take the cost level into the stratosphere, and need to compare with similar priced alternatives knowing that it's on board DAC will always be it's limitation. Hardly great value. This much is evidenced by the amount of folk adding nDACs to it.

 

By the way when I had a play with it (I've actually used two of these for comparisons and nobody present disagreed) I found it pretty easy within a Naim 500 rig to improve on it sonically by adding about £700s worth of stand alone DAC. Pretty much to the same extent that the Naim DAC does now. That to my mind makes the rip/storage unit which is after all a Windows PC in a fancy box at £4.5k, a heck of a lot of money to pay for the so-called convenience of a one box solution. I found these things were easy to establish, a truly objective reviewer should have no problem doing the same.

 

Steve

 

[Audio_ELF]

Okay Steve,

 

I guess my real "issue" with what you were saying about Malcolm (and by extension other "magazine" journalists) is that you were (in so many words) accusing them only of recommending products to get advertising revenue...

 

I think that's very simplistic a response and does disservice to all...

 

I didn't want to turn this thread into a HDX is good/bad; too expensive; needs a DAC; etc. just thinking you were being unfair to Malcolm's general work.

 

Eloise

 

[SteveS1]

is when connections to manufacturers (beyond being a fan) are not disclosed. I don't look to over-simplify Eloise, but if it walks like a duck and quacks - it may just be a duck. That's all I am prepared to say here, as it gets away from more interesting topics.

 

It would be naive in the extreme to think that people earning their living within an industry would not be influenced by threats to it's well being. That is commercial reality. Within that, there is room for serious critique.

 

Steve

 

 

 

[Jazzmangeoff]

In reply to the comments made by Eloise ref Malcom Steward and AIFF.

 

Thanks Eloise for posting this letter on this site it was my letter to MS that you quoted.

I also sent a reply to HiFi Choice by email regarding his comments and no surprise it was not published.

Below is my response to his lack of knowledge reply.

Further to Ms reply regarding AIFF he states that it only runs on MAC computers.

I have used PC for 3years before moving to Mac and have ripped CDs with dbpoweramp ripper(Malcom's preferance for his FLAC files).

You only have to download the codec for AIFF into dbpoweramp and you are set up to rip CDs in this format with all the track details added from the web as metadata to the file, artwork can be added later from itunes when load on.

As regards not trying AIFF it's a bit like saying you don,t like "Marmite" but have never tried it.

Thanks again Eloise for the posting.

Jazzmangeoff

UK

Mac mini /iomega HDD 2 TB/AVI ADM9Ts with ADM9 sub/Remote itouch

 

 

 

[ItemAudio]

Spot on comment above re: absence of evidence.

 

It never ceases to amaze me how the imaginary IT experts forget what an amplifier inherently does... it's not a printer.

 

Computers are so ubiquitous that 99.9% of those using them have forgotten how complicated they are.