Sounds Great - inexpensive, no fancy computer or power supplies

[fas42]

Of course I do - and I'm documenting how it's progressing, here,

 

You get everything but the source device for peanuts, and it turns out that a basic DVD player does a good enough job, so far, at driving it. How good is it? It impressed me from the very first moment I fired it up, and it only keeps getting better ... to put it into perspective, the last time I went to an ambitious high end store, @Audiophile Neuroscience knows the one I mean, 😜 - every rig I listened to there was a bit of a dud; having obvious issues with the sound; no matter how expensive it was.

 

This cheapy has no hit you in the face problems - what it lacks, so far, is the ability to throw up a very deep, fully filled soundstage when cold. So in the sense of having a system that I could live with without doing anything to it, this is pretty damn good for the money!

[fas42]

32 minutes ago, sandyk said:

 Frank

 You are deluding yourself if you believe that a basic DVD player does more than a basic job. They all use  an SMPS and their S/N is usually well below what can be achieved for audio with a higher quality player. Some years ago Silicon Chip magazine did a group test of several basic players where the measurements confirmed this, and worse still, if they were connected to a Power Amplifier which was earthed , quite often there was a low level background hum. 

 

Alex

 

Alex, you're missing that it's feeding the active speakers via optical; all the real work is happening inside the speakers; next, both are double insulated, nothing gets across via any earthing route; finally, a lot of effort has gone into heavy duty filtering of the completely separate, mains feed to both devices ... the only impact the DVD player has is in the quality of the waveform of the optical link.

[fas42]

The hardest thing people find to do, as I see it, is to hang up their belief that adding expensive stuff to their rig will just automatically inject magic into the sound - "it works for cars, therefore, it must work for audio!" ... ummm, no ...

 

The magic works when subtraction takes place - subtracting the niggling issues that are the bottlenecks to SQ ... use some real smarts when doing this, and remarkably low cost gear can pull it off, 😉.

 

You see, Virginia, you don't have to be rich to enjoy the best of music; be part of a special club that those with less play money can't join - good music can be part of everyone's lives, if the understanding of what really matters takes hold ...

[fas42]

43 minutes ago, Audiophile Neuroscience said:

 

Can tweaking Virginia's budget system make it sound like...

 

 

No ... but the only significant limitations would the the quality of the very low bass, and the maximum volume that would be possible - with the right material, and volumes, it should be close to impossible to pick which was which, in a blind test.

[fas42]

1 hour ago, sphinxsix said:

 

According to you this (crazy) guy and thousands of others (equally crazy) ones searching for a good transport just don't have any idea...  

 

Battle Of Transports - Lampizator

 

Ok. 

(not that I have any problem with how you perceive it )

 

Yes, the transport can have a very decided effect - it all depends upon how the rig is set up - and note that I said "the quality of the waveform of the optical link" matters - if what is being fed is highly sensitive to that quality, then of course choice of transport will impact.

 

How it's worked out so far, is that I just threw what I had around into the job - to see how it worked out. First off the rank was a Blu-ray machine; another cheapy. ... Nooot happy!! It didn't register some discs, and when it did play it managed to inject some nasty noises, now and again ... this was not workin' ... next available was an old Samsung DVD unit ... and, so far, it's done the job. Which means that I don't perceive it holding back the SQ, as yet. It definitely improved with added mains filtering - so, down the track further fiddling with transport options may help.

 

My general philosophy with doing what I do, is to persevere with whatever is currently working, until it becomes very clear that there is an intrinsic limit with its design, that can't be overcome with reasonable tweaking. Then, time to move on ...

[fas42]

23 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Exactly how I look at things as well. 

 

For example:

 

 

 

Though it's interesting what a bit of age, etc, does to 'special' things, 😜