Lobbster

And a bottle of Red from Eddie's personal stash! Worth a donation just for a crack at that 😁 As Buble's grandad used to say, the most selfish thing you can do is give someone a gift because it makes you feel good about yourself.

General question on Balanced Power Isolation Transformers implementation. Is it best to have them near the room outlet or is it equally effective wired in at the mains distribution panel using sheilded (BX) AC runs? TIA!

Didn't see Hiby mentioned. I have the R6 in Stainless and it's very nice. The problem i had using my cellphone was battery life. If you have to pack an add on DAC/Amp for your cellphone, just get a DAP. The R5 looks pretty nice at a lower price point. https://www.amazon.com/HiBy-Lossless-Bluetooth-Android-Resolution/dp/B07Z7WSQZZ/ref=pd_sbs_107_t_0/133-7765201-0469100?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07Z7WSQZZ&pd_rd_r=d88a6b04-4d2b-429c-a0ed-c9e083e181e3&pd_rd_w=62SNo&pd_rd_wg=TUQgs&pf_rd_p=5cfcfe89-300f-47d2-b1ad-a4e27203a02a&pf_rd_r=00F535B0G0T2896MDN5H&psc=1&refRID=00F535B0G0T2896MDN5H

Cool! Forces the use of software Volume control which is very responsive. Sounds like a good fit for smartphones and Crestron touchscreens. My wife operates the volume control buttons like a gas pedal and expects immediate feedback.

This is interesting and timely. I've got many zones of Sonos plus Crestron. My Sonos gear is 10-13 yrs old and the Crestron is being upgraded to the newer display. The old one couldn't integrate anything but distributed audio. Nice to know there's an alternative to Sonos. That NAD network music player is intriguing. Sonos was a wonderful experience originally because the Controller was so easy for anyone to figure out. I find the hardware volume controls on cellphones (Sonos or Spotify Connect) are too laggy for the average person (my wife) to figure out, there's huge delays so no tactile response. Does BlueOs handle cellphone hardware volume commands seamlessly? I'd like to integrate the home on Roon.

Is this just for a specific room in the house, and portable isn't an issue? Sonos the new Move for indoor/outdoor has BT. All their gear is Airplay & WiFi and sounds decent. And the ultimate party mate Ultimate Ears MegaBoom However, if retro is your deal, why fake it. Get a real retro device and plug one of these in https://www.focal.com/en/home-audio/multimedia-and-wireless/wireless-solution/universal-wireless-receiver-aptx (worked awesome in my 2009 Infiniti)

I just got Notice from Sonos today that all gear produced from 2005-2011 (10 zones for me) will no longer be supported from May on. As I understand any newer gear will not be updated if it's combined with legacy gear (must all use the same operating system). They're giving a 30% discount on new gear. Wonder what happens next year if I add new gear - what will and won't work? Well, I'm not sure what I'll miss after May, but I'll be damned if I'm going to upgrade to a new proprietary, closed, low resolution system like Sonos. I've had a real good run with Sonos, no equipment failures except when they decide to turn stuff off (CR100). Planned obsolescence seems like part of their business strategy. We'll see how long the old gear goes and look at the alternatives then. It wouldn't surprise if they do the Apple and program old gear to be less reliable. I'm not sure what the upgrade proposition is, it looks like the same old 16/44 system. To the OP's question, I haven't tried the new Port, but not sure they would have 'better' sound quality as they're both pretty basic streamers. It'll have current parts and maybe more processing power (at least that's what the Obsolescence email said). I see the new one has a 12V Trigger but otherwise basically the same in a new wrapper.

I'll have to take a closer look, it seemed it was for those who didn't get their Pulse.

Yeah but, can I trade my Wave, S100 Amp and a Station X for some Campfire Stella's ? I wonder how they'll sound on my HiBy R6... I'm holding out!

Wow, this thread is a treasure - thank you ! Interesting that you swapped mobos. I was googling 'which mini itx motherboard highest vrm' and the Asus was high on everyone's lists. So the RAM is non-ECC? Great post!

Aren't the Taiko's are doing some very heavy lifting as single box solutions (HQP etc). If it was only a networked server how far do we need to go, or faster is better as long as you can keep processor power consumption to the fanless case limits? The common parts seem to be high VRM Mobo (that sounds good), Apacer Industrial ECC RAM, NetCard, fanless case, shielded cabling and the best power supply you can muster. If the most you're calling on the server is for Volume Leveling in Roon, does an i9900 processor still sound better than lesser alternatives? Any idea which Optical Network Card Taiko is using? I was thinking about this as an alternative to the JCAT and let my switch do the bridging https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Express-Gigabit-Ethernet-Network/dp/B00LPRRJFG/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=StarTech+PEX1000SFP2&qid=1579018111&sr=8-2 With a couple of StarTech 1000BASE-ZX SFP's Sorry if this is OT.

Thanks for posting this, your attention to detail inspires! Would you consider less powerful hardware if the only purpose was Roon without any additional processing? In my case all the heavy lifting is at the end of the line, resampling by the network DAC and DSP by the Preamp. I currently use ROCK on a NUC7i5 and am wondering if a new server with AL in Ramroot and netcard bridged to DAC will lift my boat.

Ewwww, big announcement https://support.lhlabs.com/support/solutions/articles/13000071240 The last rendering makes it look like a doorstop!

I'm not sure I have enough expertise to answer for certain, and would rather defer to those who've already had success. Uplink basically means it links to an upstream router or switch leaving the other ports for use. What doesn't make sense to me is the older 2960's have a combo port (RJ45 & SFP) and the docs don't refer to it as an uplink port, the newer version does. So it must be me. I'm waiting for a couple new transceivers, so hopefully this automagically works. If it doesn't, I'm feeding ER with optical from the main switch anyway, I'm not sure there's enough upside in my system to chase this. Here's a Cisco link referring to Uplink vs Normal ports https://community.cisco.com/t5/switching/uplink-ports-vs-normal-ports/td-p/1781011

Thanks, I'll keep playing with the Ciscos. I have no problem with them receiving optical. SFP's and cable is the same for the tests and has been functioning fine in my system for months. I didn't see anything in the docs re enabling SFP options, it's supposed to be automatic. I would say the information online regarding uplink ports isn't clear and leads me to believe there is a difference between an uplink and regular/normal port.