New member here introducing myself and my relatively humble system. The primary music source is a Roon Core running on a Synology NAS in the basement. The Discrete DAC has a network renderer card in one of its slots that is a Roon Endpoint. The DAC drives a pair of Pass Labs XA60.8 monoblock amplifiers directly. The speakers are Wilson Audio Sophia 3. Also on the rack is an Apple TV, an OPPO Blu-ray player, and an Ethernet switch. Balanced interconects are from Blue Jeans Cable. Speaker cables are Cardas CrossLink (1.5m).
Welcome @Mairet ! I wouldn’t consider any system with an MSB DAC as humble Your presentation is also top tier, well done. I am sure it sounds really fantastic. I think we have the same TV as well. Heh!
Thank you Daniel. Do you mean the amp stands? They are custom 20”x20”x2” cherry from Timber Nation. (https://www.timbernation.com/) I bought them several years ago. I presume they still make them.
I was just commenting on how cold it was cycling to work here… but perhaps we Californians don’t even know what cold is. It looks quite brisk there. Stay warm!
Yea, 21 degrees Fahrenheit here this morning. My back yard is adjacent to a bike path. I saw a few people ride by this morning. I won’t get out there until it hits 50 degrees in the spring. Spending time in my home gym this morning instead. I am listening to some old friends that were once part of my main stereo system.
There have been some changes to my system. I swapped out 175 lbs of class A monoblocks (Pass Labs XA60.8) for a 12.5 lbs high tech class H stereo amplifier (Benchmark AHB2). I also replaced the rack and added an analog preamp (Benchmark LA4). My MSB Discrete DAC is now configured for fixed high output. Other things that remain unchanged are my Wilson Audio Sophia 3 speakers, Roon, an Apple TV, an Ethernet switch, and an Oppo Blu-ray player. The first two pictures are the after and the third one is the before. The result…it sounds the same to me.
What motivated me to make the change? I bought the Pass Labs amps when I had a dedicated listening room in the basement. There was lots of space for the big amps, and I could walk behind the gear for maintenance. I decided about 3 years ago to move my stereo upstairs into the living room and reallocate the basement space for a home gym. I always thought the front wall of the living room looked a bit crowded. The secondary feature of being class A space heaters was also less appreciated in my upstairs living room. One day the Ethernet switch tucked away behind some gear on the small rack failed. It was a pain to get at it to replace it. That is the point I decided my end game system was not going to be end game.
Why did I add a preamp? I discovered digital volume controls work really well, as long as you can structure the overall system gain so you mostly run the volume control in the upper end of its range. This was occasionally less than ideal for me at both extremes due to variations in recording levels and my listening levels. With more room on the new rack, I decided to go back to an analog volume control for the broader ideal attenuation/gain range.
Does the little amp really have enough power? The AHB2 has a fully regulated power supply, even for the output stage. This results in very little dynamic power above its rated power. The upside is you get only 0.0003% THD all the way up to rated power. I have the gains set up so a zero db volume setting on the preamp and a fully scale signal from the DAC will result in just shy of the power amp’s rated power. So clipping is not possible with a volume setting of zero or less. Empirically, my volume setting has typically ranged from -10 to -35db over the last couple months. Apparently I am using less than 10 watts. Enlightening.
I owned the Pass Labs amps for almost 6 years and I really enjoyed my time with them. I think my new system has achieved all my goals for the change. I had 30 days to return the benchmark gear. They are staying.
Very nice update @Mairet . Thanks for sharing. Those Benchmark amps are really awesome. We use them at the factory in our test systems and have popped the covers off to peak inside. Very well designed product.
The primary music source is a Roon Core running on a Synology NAS in the basement. The Discrete DAC has a network renderer card in one of its slots that is a Roon Endpoint. The DAC drives a pair of Pass Labs XA60.8 monoblock amplifiers directly. The speakers are Wilson Audio Sophia 3. Also on the rack is an Apple TV, an OPPO Blu-ray player, and an Ethernet switch. Balanced interconects are from Blue Jeans Cable. Speaker cables are Cardas CrossLink (1.5m).
Your presentation is also top tier, well done. I am sure it sounds really fantastic. I think we have the same TV as well. Heh!
