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System pics 2013 - part II

The two carts are completely different. A Soundsmith Grace F9 on the IV connected to the Bryston BP26 pre-amp that has both mm and mc inputs. Ortofon Per Winfield on the V12 hooked up to the pass labs phono pre. Completely diff sounding tables.

From the post above that's a 30 year old Technics SP25 broadcast table in my DIY plinth (1st attempt, learnt a lot) with a 12" Jelco and an Ortofon Kontrapunkt C cartridge.
 
Royaloak


Nice system!

How are you getting on with the Bryston gear? If I am not mistaken, that's a BP-26 + PSU, and the Bryston DAC and the BDP - can the latter be used as a streamer these days, or does it still only work with music stored on USB sticks? (which strikes me as an incredibly daft concept in 2013)

I do have a soft spot for the company and sometimes feel the itch...


Cheers,
Samuel.
 
Yes,

BDP-2/ BDA-2
BP-26 with MPS2 power supply
14B SST2
BIT 15 for everything except 14B

The BDP can stream from a nas drive and do internet radio, but the whole point of it was about not streaming (daft to you and perfect for me….;-)).

I have a WD 2tb Passport drive with 1930gb of music connected directly to it (1375gb of 16 bit flac, 550gb 24 bit hi-res flac, and 5gb of mp3's).

Now it is also possible to copy files to the drive via ethernet.

I love Bryston, they kinda a remind of SME, one of those brands that have history, great service, no BS, just a solid company with a great product you can trust.
 
The BDP can stream from a nas drive and do internet radio, but the whole point of it was about not streaming (daft to you and perfect to me if you are looking for the ultimate in performance).

I have a WD 2tb drive with 1930gb of music connected directly to it (1375gb of 16 bit flac, 550gb 24 bit hi-res flac, and 5gb of mp3's).

Now it is also possible to copy files to the drive via ethernet.

That drive you are using - is it a USB drive? if so, can't you hear the disc spinning? Are its contents mirrored on another HD?

The reason why I am having difficulty with this concept ("incredibly daft" was perhaps a bit harsh - apologies) is that I don't see any advantage over using a NAS with its content mirrored on a second HD, stored somewhere out of sight where the noise does not disturb, and which is also used for back ups (via WLAN obviously) for the laptop, or whatever else you want to use it for.

Why do you think directly connecting a HD gives a better performance than streaming? I can see how you can avoid any network issues with the former, but any sonic advantage I find hard to believe. And for dealing with network dropouts, you can always buffer the music data.

[...] one of those brands that have history, great service, no BS, just a solid company with a great product you can trust.

I feel the same way, also James Tanner representing Bryston over at Audiocircle comes across as a man with a high level of integrity and honesty.
 
The usb drive I use is very quiet, it is behind my gear and from my listening chair I cannot hear it.

I don't know that it sounds better or have any scientific reason for preferring the drive connected directly. It just makes me feel better that the music is not in or sent along a contaminated dirty computer and or network.

James Tanner is a gentleman and a half, we are friends, I live only a few blocks from him.
 
Royaloak, what's your digital front end? On another thread I mentioned my desire for feedback from anyone who might be a vinyl lover AND who has invested heavily into digital too.
 
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First, I hope I'm not breaking any thread rules (like "systems $10000+ only"), I was unable to find the "part 1" of this thread to check.

The first image contains pretty much my primary setup. The monitor is 16:10, but looks weird from this angle. Upgraded MDAC, with custom AKG K702 connected as "balanced" via rear XLRs (the visible XLR thingy is custom dual 3W XLR --> single 4W XLR adapter cable).
The keyboard is a nice old Chicony with really smooth button feel, the mouse is a very light a4tech model, the fans are Noctuas (unused this time of the year) and the bottles on the right are my intake fluid buffer, it's supposed to be FIFO, but I mostly use it as LIFO (I'm lazy). The wooden plank underneath the computer case is to prevent various mess from the carpet from getting into the bottom air intake.

The second image contains my secondary audio setup, the piano/keyboard being one of the M-Audio Oxygen series, the speakers on the shelf being SoundScience QSB. The laptop (in a docking station) is then used as a synthetizer and also to display music sheets / chords. The thing on the left is an advanced battery charger, the stuff on the shelf was blurred in post-processing for your safety.

Both images, of course, represent almost "ideal" states, without additional stuff laying around (soldering station, external HDDs, ...), that's what the empty table space is for.
 
Nice, but you didn't expect not to be asked what the stuff is that you blurred out in the bottom pic, now did you?
Some garbage, really. Laptop fans, measuring tape (yellow), various non-organic and semi-organic stuff. Aside from the hidden cybermosquito, that is.
 


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