McNulty

Thanks for your reply and I’m sorry the question lead to frustration. The question related to the text regarding the listener that just had to hear music on the Music Player and couldn’t believe what he heard. Based on the response my impression is he seemed enthusiastic about the room and the system as a whole.

“In fact, one listener was absolutely certain that digital audio had peaked. He was more interested in a pair of amplifiers than anything else. After listening to some tracks, then listening to more tracks, followed by listening to even more tracks, he couldn’t believe what he heard. He stayed seemingly forever, like a kid in a candy store trying to sample every last piece. This guy repeatedly pulled up new music that he just had to hear on the Studio Player. If we are lucky, we’ve all been there before, hearing things like we’ve never heard and making long lasting memories.” Was there an A/B in the demo with another streamer/DAC? Otherwise not fully sure how the effect of the Studio Player on the system as a whole could be assessed.

Does anyone know if it is possible to retrofit a harddrive in the MU1 if this was not installed by Grimm? Could not find any guidance on this in the manual. Context: considering buying a demo unit that comes without a harddrive.

If Sonore, Lumin, Hifi Rose etc. are reading this, maybe they can consider releasing endpoints with SFP+ ports instead of SFP as a next generation of their existing products…

Maybe you could consider to change the output module of one of those to the multichannel version Kal Rubinson reviewed for Stereophile for flexibility in future reviews? Assuming your system accepts 4 x AES/EBU input of course.

I guess the review sample of the VanityPRO has left the building contrary to your previous statement 😉: Audiopraise VanityPRO is one of those tools every audiophile should have connected to his system at all times

Really surprised you -as an immersive audio advocate- didn’t test the DMP-A6 multichannel HDMI output.

The Hi-Fi News quote not only mentions jitter but also noise. What other characteristics of a streamer would you consider relevant for SQ?

Hifinews includes lab reports with their reviews of steamers and states (example from Hifi Rosé RS 130 review): Finally, as on previous occasions, the onboard reclocking and full galvanic isolation offered by the dCS and Mytek DACs provides near-total suppression of any incoming jitter or noise on the USB or S/PDIF pathways. Very little difference in their inherent 5-10psec jitter was detected. Again, it's the more 'affordable' DACs that demonstrate the biggest uplift with the RS130. https://www.hifinews.com/content/hifi-rose-rs130-music-librarystreamer-lab-report

Great development indeed. As an 8c owner I would love to see AirPlay functionality added to the speakers, possibly through implementing ShairPort or a similar plug-in. AirPlay already works with RooExtend, but that’s a suboptimal solution IMHO with small irritating things like a 10 second delay.

According to these measurements: https://www.open-end-music.com/forum/privatforen/thomas-michael-rudolph-tmr/651284-messungen-von-ethernet-infrastruktur-switches-nur-lesen/page3, the A ports of the ER seem better than the B port, which comes as a surprise to me. Could this be due to the difference in 1GB vs 100mb spec?

A review without sonic comparisons to functionally similar products is no review IMO.

Apologies if this has already been covered, but I haven’t read all 75 pages: can SFP (+) cables be installed in-wall, incl some bending around corners?

New Antipodes products announced: https://antipodes.audio/antipodes-music-servers.php

FWIW, my point re the resale value is not so much based on the future release of the PowerDAC, but more on the fact that the brand and its products are quite unknown to hifi enthousiasts, even in its country of origin. Your post #668 also reflects this IMO.

Many thanks for your update. I don’t think I will wait this long for the headphone version of the PowerDAC. So for me, it’s gonna be either U192ETL and Fractal DAC or another stand alone DAC to add to my existing headphone amp. The main things holding me back from purchasing the ECD products are the box count and the expected poor resale value.

In the Netherlands, so shipping shouldn’t create much difficulties...

For those interested: I’ve received an extensive reply from ECD stating the U192ETL uses max 90mA and using the iPad Pro as source should be fine. Further, based on my use case, I’ve gotten detailed information from ECD regarding the PowerDAC version for headphones, which will incorporate a headphone amp, the Fractal DAC and the U192ETL into one chassis as I understand. So I might wait with a purchase until this product is released. Food for thought. Very pleasantly surprised about the quick and informative reaction from the manufacturer.

Thanks for your quick reply. I’ve e-mailed them.

I’m interested in the EC Design Fractal and U192ETL for my headphone rig. My current source for this system is an 11 inch iPad Pro, does anyone know if this will provide enough power for the U192ETL through USB?

Thanks for your feedback. Based on the advice from others, I decided to go with the Audio Sensibility Signature Silver cable a couple of weeks ago. This gave me a nice uptick in SQ compared to the standard Farad DC cable.

For that budget I would also try to demo the new Grimm MU1.

The Innuos can only upsample to DSD128.

Earlier this week I have upgraded the standard SMPS of the ER to a 7v Farad Super3 with standard DC cable. Quite a nice improvement. A blacker and more defined sound and better bass. not as big a step as the ER itself of course. Anyone with experience on upgrading the DC cable of the Farad?

According to the 6moons review of the MU1, the MU2 adds a DAC and an analog input for vinyl.