Thank you. And I’m thinking about you often.
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I demo’d the SPP back in the fall, and sent it back because of some weirdness on the MC side of the phono stage. Played nice for a week or so, then started to clip and put my integrated amp into protection mode. Well, it sounds like that might be sorted, so I talked to James and I have another one on the way. Because when it was working well, it sounded freaking amazing.
Very excited.
Also scared to death of the world, but at least the vinyl makes me happy.
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Treated myself on:
van Morrison
Three Chords & the Truth
Listening to it on my old pal, the Thorens TD105 makes me forget all the current issues it just is relaxing. I love the original Thorens brush that keeps the dust off.
Plays through the standard phono input on my Yamaha RX-V2065 in Pure Direct and bi-amp mode. Not very high end but the record and the Chain play the Music well, so well I still call it enjoyable.
Latest Nils Lofgren, Blue with Lou, watch the fantastic video of “Pretty Soon” on You tube,
Nils Lofgren Pretty Soon
sounds very good.
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A little change to the system yesterday…
The Bluesound Node 2 has been moved to the bedroom system, and in its place in the main system, I purchased a Raspberry Pi 4 (2 Gb model) with a 32 Gb micro SD card that I installed RoPieeeXL on, and installed the Pi 4 in a neat little aluminum Flirc case which lowered the processor’s temp by 7C (14.6F) as the case is the heat sink. Pretty impressive.
Naturally, I have the Pi 4 receiving its signal via WiFi which works flawlessly. Using one of the 4 USB ports, the digital signal is being sent to a Wyred 4 Sound Recovery with the included 6" USB cable that Wyred supplied with the unit. From there, it passes through yet another 6" long USB cable, this time a Wireworld Ultraviolet 7 into the Unison USB input on the Schiit Bifrost 2 Multibit DAC.
From the testing/trial state…
To the final/complete/proven state…
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Can you specifically recommend the pi 4 over the pi 3?
Looks cool 
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Sweet looking stack there.
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Thank you.
I would say yes, it is an upgrade going with the Pi 4. From what I’ve read, the Pi 4 has the ethernet and USB on separate buses now, so the USB is a LOT cleaner (even directly plugged into the DAC, I heard zero noise or harshness). Also, not only is the processor bigger and faster, you now have three options for on-board RAM, 1 Gb, 2 Gb and 4 Gb. As stated above, I went with the 2 Gb model. There’s a few other updates, but these were the major ones. And only for a few bucks, why the heck not go with the Pi 4?!
Thank you sir!
Yeah separate buses would be good - that one USB bus was always the bottleneck.
(autocorrect keeps changing it to “bus” and it makes me smile - “A Transport of Delight”
Current pi for me is a 3B, but with the HAT I2S to SPDIF on top to avoid bringing audio out over the USB.
Something to read whilst I am socially isolated!
I’ve seen (only) one or two on here being “sniffy” about the pi as a streamer (a “it’s not serious HiFi so they should shut up on here” attitude) but most accept its worth as a platform if used with care
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There are some amazing audio “mod” kits for the Pi aren’t there, I was watching a youtube video by this guy, John Darko who reviews some pretty high end stuff, but he’s still really in touch with some home grown audio fun as well.
I’d highly recommend taking a look:
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How long have you had them, latest acquisition.?
My Magico M3 speakers? Oh, they’re about 18 months old now. Had a party here the other night and some errant dancing gals were getting way too close to my speakers for comfort!
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Those don’t look like they collaps in case of being bumped into. Problem is if the lady wears a glitter dress or other accessories that can scratch the surface. But hey, sounds like a luxury problem to me.
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Yeah well, some people just aren’t too bright. They see a low dollar value on something that looks like a RadioShack electronics project and they put their nose up to it.
Only if they knew that most of the bridges out there that cost hundreds and even thousands use very similar circuitry and technology as a Raspberry.
People have proven time and time again that these Raspberry’s, when set up right, can easily out perform units costing well into the thousands.
I certainly have no regrets, no matter what snob says what.
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John Darko has posted several videos about the Raspberries, all of which I have watched a few times. He even rates it higher than the Auralic Aries with big “brick” linear power supply, the same exact setup as I had a few years back, which I might add was an unreliable piece of junk right out the box.
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The Auralic Aries was a piece of junk?
This may sound silly, but getting the Maggies vertical might help the visual, making them look like more of an intentional and integrated design statement in the room. It can help the sound, too, depending on the height of your listening chair, as it can create a perpendicular path from the panels to your ears. Look at the stands available from Robert Raus’s Magna Riser. They have a variety of designs, and they’re relatively inexpensive (as speaker stands go). Here are a couple of shots of my .7s on his Multi-Riser model. Their Airborne model is a little zippier looking than these. (BTW, that first photo is misleading because of the vertical perspective from a high view point. The speakers - like the shelves behind them - are vertical.)
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Nice.
Yeah, I’ve looked at the magnarisers, and they’re definitely a consideration. I thought I might try to build a pair out of walnut, to approximate the same construction as the ugly (sorry Magnepan) acrylic bases they offer for $250.
Made the legs yesterday. Still have to figure out what shape to make the base. Maybe something mid-century. (Rather than oval.)
The trick is going to be to get bolts, as I’m not sure a trivial trip to Home Depot or the hardware store is advised in March 2020.
Also I’ll need to use a soldering iron to melt away the fabric from the bolt holes at the bottom of the panel. If you don’t order the acrylic base, those holes unfortunately are covered by the fabric. (Soldering-iron advice was direct from one of the tech guys at Magnepan.)
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Yes it was. From the very beginning, I had constant issues with it freezing on startup, sputtering through music, locking up randomly, stopping in the middle of a track then skipping several tracks rapidly, etc, etc. I even sent it in a couple times, the first time they did some kind of firmware update and replaced the power supply that didn’t help. After dealing with the same nonsense again for a couple of months, I sent it back. The second time, they replaced the thing.
At that point, I was so pissed with the thing, when I got it back, I immediately put the thing up for sale. I didn’t even attempt to hook the dumb thing up.
Cor, that’s awful… I’d happily stick with a Pi, they’re tried and tested and bulletproof imho.
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