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At last... (Audiolab) - part III

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The dealer is waiting on the Power amps to come in, he said that he has ordered them, and he also managed to hear them with the balanced cables, and according to him, the balanced cables do make a difference. So looks like the Kefs will come first, and this will give me an opportunity to run them in using the AI.
 
Balanced cables need cost no more than £10 a metre, buy them from any studio outlet that sells Belden or Canare wire.

£450 is an absolute pisstake and an utterly pointless waste of money.
 
Buy the gear- listen to it all on single ended connections and then if the dealer is so sure it will be an improvement let him order the cables in for you to demo blind at his expense.
 
My CDQ put smiles on lots of faces at Scalford Hall on Sunday. I was very pleased with the number of positive comments I got. In fact I don't recall any negative comments at all.

Lots of people remarked on how analogue it sounded. We tried comparing CD to FLAC via USB and were hard put to tell the any difference.

I suspect Audiolab will have had a fair few more orders for CDQs today :D

On another note, I also picked up a Bel Canto eVo 200.2 balanced class D power amp on Sunday. I hooked it up this evening and bloody hell!!!!! I wish now I'd hooked it up at the show. Using the balanced outs of the CDQ, this amp redefines awesome. The phrase 'iron fist in a velvet glove' springs to mind. The bass is awesome but so is everything else. I have never had so many goosebumps in one listening session.

Massive kudos to the CDQ. This Bel Canto amp reveals how truly great the CDQ is.
 
technobear,
what have you used to play FLAC?
I just bought a Marantz NA7004 and I'm going to buy the CDQ (when it will be available with FW V1.1)
 
Every bit of music you listen to went through 10's possibly 100's of metres of these cables already, they didn't use £100 per M versions.
 
technobear said:
My CDQ put smiles on lots of faces at Scalford Hall on Sunday.
Click to expand...
Indeed it did - mine was one of them (thanks for playing Led Zep for me)

One of the best CD systems there

Roll-on QDAC (I've got some other bits of system that need sorting out first)

Chris
 
They had the monoblocks at the Bristol show and they were one of the few exhibitors not playing their system at ear splitting volume, but unfortunately most of the time I was there someone was having a very LOUD conversation in front of the speakers so didn't hear too well.

lonergan2468 said:
... I decided there and then...to hell with it, I got some of MY NHS pension through, and I am tired of always having to get everything secondhand, barter, swop, credit card etc. .
Click to expand...

Fair enough... by the time I get my NHS pension I wonder if there'll be a pension fund left :D :mad:
 
Dominik said:
Hi wouter,

Hold Prev & Next buttons pressed while switching on your CDQ. This resets settings.

When does the ramping happen? While operating the keys/remote or just sitting idle?

Dominik
Click to expand...
Thanks Dominik, resetting settings proved helpful - I hope I don't experience the same problem in the future...
For now I've moved to RCA connection, if all goes wel the next 2 weeks I'll go back to balanced mode. The ramping happened without remote the first time I noticed it, with the volume indication on the display counting down to 0. The second volume problem came later, had no apparent issues with the volume control itself (I could lower it with the buttons) but the output remained at max volume.
 
Ok. I'm begging now, for help again. :(

My cdq is fed apple lossless from itunes, through my laptop using windows 7.

When I first did this the cdq screen read 16bits 44.1k. Now it reads 24 bits 96k.

I'm using the following settings in windows;

speaker properties/advanced; 24 bit, 96000hz studio quality

and I have the exclusive mode boxes unticked.

In QuickTime, I have the audio set to 'Windows Audio Session', and Quick Time Music Synthesiser.

Is this optimal? I must have changed something in the settings for the cdq display to have changed from 16bit 44.1k to 24 bit 96.0k

HELP me please.

Bloody computers :confused:

Still aren't these audiolabs fantastic devices. Best buy I've ever made. :D
 
arthur said:
Ok. I'm begging now, for help again. :(

My cdq is fed apple lossless from itunes, through my laptop using windows 7.

When I first did this the cdq screen read 16bits 44.1k. Now it reads 24 bits 96k.

I'm using the following settings in windows;

speaker properties/advanced; 24 bit, 96000hz studio quality
Click to expand...

Am i missing something you are asking here...you have set the pc to 24 bit 96k and the cdq is displaying 24 bit 96K...which is correct as its displaying what you are feeding it.

If you set your windows settings to 16bit 44100hz (CD Qualilty) which is how a standard cd is recorded then the cdq will display 16bit 44.1k, which is the best way to set it as it should be bit perfect from a lossless file created from a cd.
 
technobear said:
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 13 (core i3 ULV, 500GB hard drive)

Windows 7

ASIO4ALL

Foobar2000 v1.1

USB Galvanic Isolator

Kimber USB Cable
Click to expand...

Hi Chris,
Apart from getting rid of the electrical noise from your mouse, did the USB galvanic isolator make any difference to the sound? Also, what isolator did you use and where did you get it?
 
arthur said:
Ok. I'm begging now, for help again. :(
...
Click to expand...

Hi Arthur!

Just one tip: Don_t use ITunes (at least on Win PCs!

It needs to be "recalibratet" (Samplerate adjusted) everytime you want to play back differnt material (StudioMaster downloads as example), and if not adjusted, it resamples everything to the setted samplerate "on the fly".
Thats why you got these 96khz/24Bit thingy displayed on your CDQ, even if playing CD based material (44,1khz/16Bit).

You might want to take a look at Mediamonkey or JRiver instead, or Foobar ... - but that one might be a bit hard for a starter!

Take care of Bits'n'Bytes ;)

Cheers
Harald
 
Gents I'm beginning to think you're right. Could you point me, perhaps, to an idiots guide to foobar please?:confused:

Somewhere where no knowledge is taken for granted?

I'd be much obliged.

I'm also assuming that I can change apple lossless into foobar files too. is thet right still?

Many thanks for your help.
 
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