Radushka,

Were you a surgeon in another life?  :)

Confucious? Na....I Confused.  :)

Erik,

Those are certainly words of wisdom! I was going to change the caps
in the amp but I think I will give it 500 hours or so and then think about it.

Les

Talking abut loose screws, I was loosing it for the long wait.  But guess what, guys:  

On Bench - Means your order is now being built.   Yippiiii!!!!!    (speakers have been ready for a while now).    YES!!

Those are the 'small ones with a BIG sound': DM945's (4 Ohms version).  Thing is, I could not fit anything larger in my listening area without the wife complaining about decor issues ...  :-[   Thanks for asking.

And FWIW: this cap input filter modificationmay indeed turn out to be more than just a rectifier suitability change.  Film capacitors in this position are often believed to result in some sonic improvement over an electrolytic.  There are other capacitor types commonly for this purpose, but lets just leave as is right now.  I'm just adding to what I wrote above to say that you might find you like what you hear as a result of the swap.  I hope you have had a nice visit with your family!

and on the same topic:

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”
― Confucius

Radu,

To me, wisdom is realizing and accepting we'll never know much at all!  I have over 30 years of a varied professional experience, having lived in several very different cultures, and these days I find myself always asking and considering everyone's opinions, about most issues.

Regarding the speakers, I have high expectations from this design.  If you look at the specs, they carry 8" woofers and planar ribbons for the higher frequencies.  In contrast, my current setup consists of JVC wooden baffles & cones 4.2" woofers and 1" wooden baffle & cones tweeters.  They look great and sound ok, but there's going to be a huge difference with the DM945's, also because the sensitivity of the JVC's is just 82 dBs and they are physically very small.  I currently use a Velodyne Sub-Woofer to compensate for the lacking lower bass.

The JVC's don't separate the different frequencies very well either, making complex music passages kind of muddled.  Soundstage is really limited, without width or depth.  Midrange and upper frequencies sound good, and wind and string instruments have nice tone and timbre, although transients (cimballs, drum plates, etc.) sound really mediocre.

Then there's the amps difference.  I'm not qualified to judge these on a technical level, but I'm sure my current (4 amplification stages for a Bi-amping/Bi-frequencies design) SS integrated is not at the audiophile level (it's hard to tell where the speakers limitations end and where the amp's limitations start though).

I'll let you all know how it works out.

What the Sam Hill is that, Rad? Hook your Mini Torii back up immediately!

_MG_7997 par raduschkamuschka, sur Flickr


_MG_7992 par raduschkamuschka, sur Flickr


_MG_7990 par raduschkamuschka, sur Flickr


_MG_7988 par raduschkamuschka, sur Flickr

no, not photoshopped !

Woah, what in the world is going on in those photos haha! Very cool looking

So, your not actually using the tripplite? I was going to ask how you liked it

And what in the world is that base on your MT? Sorry is you've explained this already..

Last question, what power cord are you using?

Yes Rad, your comment a while back that you thought the Tripplites were imparting an etch signature to the sound made me compare and contrast (I was using the Tripplites before the PS Audio Duets) and I came to agree with you about that and removed the Tripplitss from the main system. As I began to work on the second system and increase its fidelity, I found that they were also not helping me there and now they reside on a closet shelf.  I trust your ears my friend.

oh, I thought by 'base'  he meant the new base on my MT, which is  much deeper than the original one ( to host 6 huge 47uf caps and 2 smaller 10uf). originally there were 8 small electrolytic caps in the power section.

The other base is an AudioNote kit DAC (the 2.1).
I forgot who suggested the ps duet to me, was it you Lon or was it Rivieraranch...... I can't remember. But thank you!

Are those audio note gold plated knobs?

I have one for my Torii but gave up trying to get it to not look lop sided when tightened up with the set screw. I wish they a push on pressure fit which works best with the split shaft on the Torii. I don't the bottom to rest on the plate as it will eventually mar it up. Any suggestions?

the original volume pots on the MT had a solid core shaft. They are made by Alpha. The atts I am using (khozmo, I do not recommend, they are a lottery and the person selling them in Poland is unreachable) also have a solid core shaft so no problem there. Maybe you can tighten them just above the surface of the aluminum cover? Or cut out a round piece of plexiglas or paper and place that underneath the knobs?

I received following email from PartsConnexion's tech:

Hi Radu,

Try reversing the Solens one by one. It may be the outer foil is picking up ripple from the raw supply.

Do this one by one as Solen does not mark the outer capacitor foil.

--------------------
I placed them all with the writing going twds ground, but if I understand correctly, Solen mark their caps randomly

Hey, Raduschka!  I've got them since May.  They're fully broken-in by now, I suppose, and yet the gear (M-T + DM945's) keeps showing incremental improvements in SQ.  

Fireblade is holed up at his casa listening to music.  :-)

Hi all, I would like to use a pair of AKG headphones with the mini torii. Can I hook them directly to the speaker posts instead of/ along with the speakers? Do I need to add extra resistance? Here are the headphone specs: 105db, 62ohm. Thank you for any input

thanks a lot! I gave up on that project, I remembered how little I liked listening through headphones.
One day you should talk about the sound coming out of your speakers  :-)

interesting, I missed it completely! will read now

Hey guys, wanted to post a quick question and I should (and may still) post it in a more appropriate thread later on but.....

My CD player has been giving me problems and I am now sending it back to the manufacturer for the 3rd time and there is a dealer out in San Diego who I bought my phono preamp from who tells me that it's probably time to give up on the CD player and use my computer with a program like JPlay etc and a good DAC....he says I can get even better sound this way and can avoid the downfalls of CDP transports...

Now, I'm new to the Hi-Fi world but I am totally aware of doing things the computer way, but it seems like if I can get better sound then it's something I should look into. I primarily listen to CD's and thought that going the computer route would introduce other factors that would maybe take away from the sound on my CD's....I'll probably have to spend some money demoing some DAC's and seeing what I think, but...

Anyway! I read these threads all the time, but I'd love to hear (read) what you use in the computer realm of things (if you use your computer at all) and if you don't use it, then why...

I've read things about usb spdif converters, jitter etc etc and it makes my head spin thinking about the extra things I would need to just get the audio on my PC sounding as good as the music coming from a great CD player....does this make sense? The computer convenience thing doesn't really apply to me because I do enjoy grabbing the disk and holding the art work blah blah blah (you've heard it all b4 haha) and I'm usually fixated on one album at a time for what turns out to be weeks sometimes.  Ok, no more rambling for now...hope you all are well!

PS:
Steve mentions this on the ZDAC page which I found interesting:

"With a computer you can rip CD's that are checked against online databases for accuracy.  This means you can get a bit-for-bit perfect recordings with zero errors - this is difficult to achieve even with brand new CD's on the very best transports."

My Gear:
Mini Torii
Trapezium speakers
Decware IC's and speaker cables
Denon DP-72L vintage turntable
Musical Surroundings Phonomena II Phono Preamp
CDP (on it's way to be repaired)
LCD 2 headphones

Hi HPDJ! It would be interesting to know what CD player that is you are talking about, as it is basically what you would be upgrading from.  here is my experience: I used to listen to a tube output Cayin 15T (with switchable upsampling), which I had bought new for about 1500$ Can$ (just so you have an idea). I built my own DAC (a kit from audionote:2000$, much more expensive if you go for the finished product). I have 1000 CD's stacked away in drawers and lying all over the place in piles. I was miserable for years, never finding what i wanted to listen to, searching for ever, ending up listening to the same 20 CD's that I kept in a pile near my cd player.
A few months ago i decided to move away from this unbearable lifestyle, bought a 100$ 2Tb external drive and started ripping my CD's to flac via EAC (in case one of them explodes or goes into internal combustion/atomic fusion, you need to have a backup of all your music).
Then I installed a usb port on my DIY DAC (a diy hagerman usb port). The HAG came highly recommended, yet it sounded like crap.
I tried to understand what the best wifi solution was for relaying data from PC to DAC, but the information was enragingly inconsistent (or else there is always a perfect solution for 5000$).
I decided to go with a cheap USB cable from Staples. (50$, 5 meters).
I could not listen to the hagerman so I continued listening to my CD player.
Then I discovered the Musical Fidelity V-link 192. The V link is a usb to spdif converter.  (I know, this sounds like a commercial)  Got one for about 400$ from germany (via ebay) and TADA!
My CD player is now gathering dust, because the sound was simply MUCH better, visibly and audibly so, from the very start. I have no idea why, presumably lack of jitter??? (at this point I was using the cd player as a transport, of course, since I have the AN DAC).

My PC runs all day, so I don't have to turn it on for music listening. It happens to be in an adjacent room, so I don't need to make it more silent than it is (it is also DIY, with a wooden case ). A long cable running through the hallway is the biggest disadvantage of this setup.

I don't even need the wifi to be on, unless I need to remote control the PC through my Ipod. I use Foobar (freeware), which plays flac files (and everything else) using ASIO 64 drivers (easily installed).

I am not a fan of physical CDs, or booklets, although I read them all when I get a chance.

I tried to make a diy usb cable, but couldn't find diy usb plugs. Information on usb cable impact on sound quality is also enragingly inconsistent. But I can tell you that my 50$ cable, whether it is the bottleneck or not, runs circles around the CD player.

For me this was the way to go and i can't imagine going back. I am not attached to the Cd player, I was born in 74 and the advent of Cds forced me to stop attaching myself to media. It was sad enough to lose the tapes, i wouldn't let technology hurt me again

If you need specific help just let me know

PS: moving up from my CD'S internal DAC to the external DAC was the biggest move forward in terms of sonic experience. Followed by the replacement of the CD transport with the PC as a transport.    But the convenience of being able to play any album i feel like!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh boy!!!!!!!!!!

i think the PS perfect wave cd reader costs a fortune given what a cheap PC (or MAC)  can do these days. In my understanding, EAC does manage to make a perfect copy of the cd and the drive + foobar then to send a bit perfect copy to the DAC. Problems arise during usb transmission, depending on what technology is used. i do not have that problem any longer. To my ears I am way past my cd player by now. Sonically of course, i would never trade sound for ease of use.