What audio system do you have, or plan on getting?

[Kalevala]

Score! 5 years old, looks like new.

Yamaha CD-S2100.

Some times swimming, sometimes boating, and sometimes cycling along it, @Kalevala. Mjøsa is the largest lake in Norway, just a tad smaller than Lago di Garda in Italy.

Oh, I hope that it works and last well for you!

I haven't googled it, but it sounds lovely...enjoy being there. 

K

[Valentino]

Not even scuff marks! It might be good as new, maybe the person switched to streaming, and the player went mostly unused.

I would not be surprised if that is the case. As a pure DAC (it has USB, opt and coax inputs) it's rather enormous.

[drogulus]

     I have a Reavon uni player sitting in a box under the bed. I bought it because I mistakenly thought my fake Oppo was kaput and I needed to replace it. After I bought it I discovered the Chinoppo was merely underpowered on the outlet and switched it to a good one.

     I don't know what to do with the Reavon. I don't play discs of any kind and the Reavon can't rip SACDs like other players I could mention. My brother doesn't have a use for it since he has my Oppo 203. I don't know anyone else who could use it.

[Harry]

Soon I will audition the Gigawatt PC-3 Evo+, Reference High End Line Power conditioner.
I expect a lot from this device.

Well I have it in my system now, and it excels in all respects, it is the cherry on my cake. I will try the power cable from Ansuz Mainz D 2 as the connection between the Gigawatt and the net, for all depends on this cable, get it wrong and the synergy is gone. But for now the system is making me very happy.

[Harry]

Well I am finally decided what power cable I will use for the Gigawatt PC, the Ansuz D2 it will be, it delivers a magnificent 3D bubble, in which one never misses one detail. The speakers disappear and the music is al over the room. Perfect. Next in line will be the tryout of the Ansuz internet switch A 3, and integrate it in my system.
@AnotherSpin  and others who are interested can comment in a sensible way, if so inclined. Cheers.

[AnotherSpin]

Well I am finally decided what power cable I will use for the Gigawatt PC, the Ansuz D2 it will be, it delivers a magnificent 3D bubble, in which one never misses one detail. The speakers disappear and the music is al over the room. Perfect. Next in line will be the tryout of the Ansuz internet switch A 3, and integrate it in my system.
@AnotherSpin  and others who are interested can comment in a sensible way, if so inclined. Cheers.

I'm truly happy to follow your audiophile quest. For various reasons, something similar isn't possible for me at the moment, but at the very least, it's a pleasure to talk to someone who really knows the stuff. Power cables are one of the most important components of a system. I achieved some awesome results in that area back in the day, so I can easily understand the reasons behind your excitement.

[drogulus]

     The only power conditioning I know anything about comes from a device called a Tone Preserver which reduces wall voltage from a typical 123v to ~117v. This reduces wear on components and can actually influence the sound of guitar amps as the basic designs were set when the wall voltage was lower.

    Some users are trying to achieve the legendary "brown sound". The term was coined by Eddie Van Halen who used a variac to lower the voltage to his amps. My sonic ideal is more Beano than Panama but it still seems like a good idea to run your amp at the voltage the design calls for.

[AnotherSpin]

The only power conditioning I know anything about comes from a device called a Tone Preserver which reduces wall voltage from a typical 123v to ~117v. This reduces wear on components and can actually influence the sound of guitar amps as the basic designs were set when the wall voltage was lower.

    Some users are trying to achieve the legendary "brown sound". The term was coined by Eddie Van Halen who used a variac to lower the voltage to his amps. My sonic ideal is more Beano than Panama but it still seems like a good idea to run your amp at the voltage the design calls for.

Never heard of the "brown sound," to be honest. But hey — I've never even held a real rock guitarist's axe in my hands.

What I do have is a buddy who once lent Eddie Van Halen his amp during the recording of one of the albums. These days dude's off in India, dropping spiritual wisdom instead of riffs.

[ultralinear]

The only power conditioning I know anything about comes from a device called a Tone Preserver which reduces wall voltage from a typical 123v to ~117v. This reduces wear on components and can actually influence the sound of guitar amps as the basic designs were set when the wall voltage was lower.

    Some users are trying to achieve the legendary "brown sound". The term was coined by Eddie Van Halen who used a variac to lower the voltage to his amps. My sonic ideal is more Beano than Panama but it still seems like a good idea to run your amp at the voltage the design calls for.

Mains voltage here is a nominal 240V, but the power companies are only obliged to supply voltage within +/-10%, so anything between 216-264 is deemed not subject to complaint, and I have certainly seen voltages across the whole of that range.  "Normal" seems to be around 245.  Which is 11% overvoltage for e.g. Japanese gear designed for a 220V supply.  This creates an issue where the input power goes into a transformer - which is usually the case - as most have very little headroom for overvoltage, often as low as 1-2%.  Above that the transformer will be prone to excessive heating and vibration leading to audible buzzing, degradation of the output power, and - eventually - cooking the insulation.

For this reason I run my gear from a Liebert online UPS, which (a) synthesises a pure sinewave, and (b) allows you to set an output voltage, which I have set to 220V.  I find this helpful not only for de-stressing the Japanese equipment, but is also gentler on the tube gear that uses British-made transformers designed down to a price with virtually no headroom whatever.  Amps which can be heard buzzing from the next room when run off unfiltered mains are silent when run at the lower voltage.  There is also research to show that running tube heaters slightly under-voltage extends tube life significantly while impacting performance hardly at all.  There may in theory be a need in some circumstances to adjust the biassing a bit, but in practice I haven't bothered as most circuits aren't that critical, given the tolerance of most components which are often not even within 10%.

[Fëanor]

For a while I've been hearing praises for "streamer" components.  A few months ago I decide to investigate the phenomenon, so I purchased a Wiim Ultra based on excellent reviews, e.g. from Audio Science Review.



Up front I should say I don't subscribe to any actual streaming services, (such as Tidal, Qobuz).  I do occasionally listen to CBC Music Playlists which are excellent including for Classical music, but, note, no hi-rez.  However most of my listening is to music file stored on my Synology NAS.  I was and am listening to that music from my Windows computers using Foobar2000.  I deem sound quality to be excellent depending on which of my downstream systems I'm using.

As for the WiiM Ultra it was easy to set up with the WiiM Home app on my Android 'phone.  It is hard-wire to my LAN directly to my router using Cat 5e cable.  The Ultra connected to my NAS with no fuss.

To judge the sound quality I used two approaches. (1) WiiM's internal DAC connected via RCA to my preamp, and (2) via S/PDIF to my Topping D90 DAC hence my preamp.  Sound quality is, IMO, great either way.

The shortcoming of the Utra, which would also apply to other WiiM streamer such as the WiiM Mini, is the Wiim Home app.  It is the same thing that applies to Tidal and most other services, and that disappoints Classical music listeners in general:  limited relevant browsing capability.  So for example there is no browse by 'Composer'.

Maybe someone can relate how well Wiim, (or streamers similar in concept), work with streaming services such Tidal or Qobuz. For my part I have feel that the WiiM Ultra offered my no practical functionality beyond what my Windows computer can provide, either using Foobar2000 to access my NAS-store music or, for that matter, browser interfaces to the aforementioned streaming services.

I occasionally use my WiiM Ultra to listen to my NON-Classical music, but for Classical it is always Foobar.  In short for me the Ultra was a waste of money.

[ultralinear]

In short for me the Ultra was a waste of money.

Interesting.  I still use a Squeezebox Touch feeding a Musical Fidelity DAC to stream from my library on a QNAP NAS that hosts a SqueezeServer clone - and in truth have no issues with either the sound quality or facilities - like being able to drive it from any networked PC - but do occasionally wonder if there might be benefit in an upgrade.  The Wiim Ultra was one option I looked at so thanks for posting your experiences with it.  My feeling remains (as it has for a while) that if I ever need to upgrade - e.g. for compatibility reasons - I'll probably put something together around a Raspberry Pi.

[DavidW]

BluOS does have a composer option (I use a BluSound Node). But I still prefer to rely on my folder structure if I want to browse.

I appreciate the review.

[Valentino]

I use a WiiM Ultra as the «brains» or control center in my main setup. I stream Qobuz and Spotify through their respective apps using the Connect functions.
Finding classical music on Qobus is not very difficult. Free text search like «mahler 7 abbado» gets me there, I may have to select «album» after that.
I also use the Ultra for streaming my local music files which have been under LMS since  2007. The Ultra also replaced my Squeezebox Touch.
What I do not use is the Ultra's analog and HDMI input and headphones output.
It's an excellent piece of gear for digital input and digital and analog output, as measurements show.

[DavidW]

I use a WiiM Ultra as the «brains» or control center in my main setup. I stream Qobuz and Spotify through their respective apps using the Connect functions.
Finding classical music on Qobus is not very difficult. Free text search like «mahler 7 abbado» gets me there, I may have to select «album» after that.
I also use the Ultra for streaming my local music files which have been under LMS since  2007. The Ultra also replaced my Squeezebox Touch.
What I do not use is the Ultra's analog and HDMI input and headphones output.
It's an excellent piece of gear for digital input and digital and analog output, as measurements show.

Since I'm on BluOS, I'm still waiting. They claim that since they have 90 different devices to support, it will still be 3-4 months before it appears.

Spotify Connect is a snap, so I look forward to eventually receiving Qobuz Connect.