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Streaming: Qobuz, DLNA, UPnP etc

Robert said:
Count me as another convert to Chord dacs and for much the same reason.
While the Chord power amp is back at the company having its PSU fans fettled, I tried Rob Watts advice to drive 'speakers direct from the TT2 dac.
Best digital I've ever heard into the Tannoys (18w into 90dbw sensitivity is plenty loud!). Roon Nucleus clone (usb) - Mscaler - TT2 - Speakers. Local files (CD rips to FLAC) + Tidal.
The Roon Nucleus server runs from a TrendNet TEG S82g switch which lives somewhere behind the equipment cabinet (I just dropped it down the back).

TV 48kHz sound upsampled to 768kHz sounds rather nice :)

This thing: https://www.trendnet.com/products/product-detail?prod=600_TEG-S82g
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Tony alerted me to your post whilst I was adding to the English Acoustics thread. My understanding, direct from Chord posting on another forum or several, is that they no longer recommend going direct from the TT2 to speakers. There was some reluctance to detail why but my understanding was that some users had not had positive experiences and it had foreshortened the life of the TT2.
 
In reply to the above, Mike Hughes is correct.
While yes, Rob Watts did put that out there, and **technically** yes, TT2 could do that, Chord Electronics do not back it per se though.
**If** you drive very high efficiency speakers with it, you should be ok.
If you connect standard speakers to it, two things can occur - yes, shorten the life of the output transistors, or 'underdrive' the speakers, damaging them and the TT2.
It's design function is as a DAC / superb headphone amp - not an amp for a speakers.
Yes - I have been asked this before!
 
I'd picked up on the advice from Rob Watts on an old Head-Fi thread. Basically if you want to run speakers use the single ended outputs which limits output to 50%, so 9w instead of 18w. Still enough for sensitive speakers in many situations. I'd you do connect to balanced XLR just apply common sense and don't push it.
 
Mike Hughes said:
Tony alerted me to your post whilst I was adding to the English Acoustics thread. My understanding, direct from Chord posting on another forum or several, is that they no longer recommend going direct from the TT2 to speakers. There was some reluctance to detail why but my understanding was that some users had not had positive experiences and it had foreshortened the life of the TT2.
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Indeed, after Rob Watts had posted in that other forum suggesting that the TT2 could directly be connected to sensitive speakers, there were a number of reported instances of users destroying circuits in the TT2 by doing this. RW then modified his advice to only using the RCA outputs from the TT2 because these deliver less output and so are less likely to damage any of the TT2 circuits if abused by trying for too loud a volume.

The other alternative suggestion from RW is to use the xlr output but only use the hot and earth pins as opposed to the hot and cold pins. This then creates the same connection as using the RCA outputs. I did this by making up a xlr to banana short (6”) adapter cable.

The speakers that RW says he uses are similar in efficiency to my 90dB/W speakers so I tried the TT2 direct to them. I was not terribly impressed with the sound and soon went back to using my Pass Labs xa60.8 amp.
 
Fourlegs said:
not terribly impressed with the sound and soon went back to using my Pass Labs xa60.8 amp
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Potential damage aside, the sound was the thing I picked up on. Fabulous as a DAC and a pre and also as a headphone amp but never intended to power speakers and not optimised to do so. Exactly why I want to hear it with valve integrateds or power amps as synergy can fox many ills.
 
IIRC Zu speakers are really high efficiency, high-90s db, so they won’t be close to using even a Watt in most scenarios.
 
Tony L said:
IIRC Zu speakers are really high efficiency, high-90s db, so they won’t be close to using even a Watt in most scenarios.
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It'll be peak power rather than the average that does the damage though. Even a short burst at full scale I'd imagine.
 
gavreid said:
It'll be peak power rather than the average that does the damage though. Even a short burst at full scale I'd imagine.
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Even so on a speaker of that efficiency (IIRC the floor-standing Zus are close to 100db) that equates to hearing damage at well under two Watts. A safe median listening level is 80-85db or less, and remember you get an extra 3db just by having two speakers in a room.

To my mind the rules change when you deal with speakers at this end of the efficiency bell-curve. Power is never a problem, the issues are noise floor, crossover distortion, over-damping etc. I owned LaScalas for a while and I’m certain I never worried a Watt with them in the whole time I owned them. Absolutely anything will drive them, but most things won’t sound good as you just get to hear all the issues less sensitive speakers hide!
 
Tony L said:
Even so on a speaker of that efficiency (IIRC the floor-standing Zus are close to 100db) that equates to hearing damage at well under two Watts. A safe median listening level is 80-85db or less, and remember you get an extra 3db just by having two speakers in a room.

The rules change when you deal with speakers at this end of the efficiency bell-curve. Power is never a problem, the issues are noise floor, crossover distortion, over-damping etc. I owned LaScalas for a while and I’m certain I never worried a Watt with them in the whole time I owned them. Absolutely anything will drive them, but most things won’t sound good as you just get to hear all the issues less sensitive speakers hide!
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I was alwas fascinated by this effect as a young student. A short burst of red light focussed onto a piece of glass or into a cell of water becomes a muticoloured rainbow of light!

iu
 
gavreid said:
I was alwas fascinated by this effect as a young student. A short burst of red light focussed onto a piece of glass or into a cell of water becomes a muticoloured rainbow of light!
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So are Chord, think they took a lot of drugs and decided that random colours should indicate the settings.

Ah burnt sienna and cobalt sea blue, that would be the aux input and 24/96
 
How smart is it for the designer of the unit to advocate (on a public forum) a use-case that goes against the item description (DAC, HP-amp, pre-amp) and seems to void your warranty?

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The Cisco managed switch arrived and it is a very nice thing indeed (thank you @beammeup!). Now plumbed-in and working fine.

PS The DSX was off when I took the pic, hence no port light (it’s the red cable), the other is the Brother printer, also turned off (I only turn it on when I use it, maybe twice a month). The Hive hub will end up here too if I decide to go for an Eero router, though at present I suspect it makes sense to keep it hooked up to the Smart Hub.
 
Tony L said:
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The Cisco managed switch arrived and it is a very nice thing indeed (thank you @beammeup!). Now plumbed-in and working fine.

PS The DSX was off when I took the pic, hence no port light (it’s the red cable), the other is the Brother printer, also turned off (I only turn it on when I use it, maybe twice a month). The Hive hub will end up here too if I decide to go for an Eero router, though at present I suspect it makes sense to keep it hooked up to the Smart Hub.
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What a pic! Loving the juxtaposition of vintage landline phone with Apple power thingie, and the "Volvo" is fabulously placed as if to remind us that there is life beyond hifi...
 
Tony L said:
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The Cisco managed switch arrived and it is a very nice thing indeed (thank you @beammeup!). Now plumbed-in and working fine.

PS The DSX was off when I took the pic, hence no port light (it’s the red cable), the other is the Brother printer, also turned off (I only turn it on when I use it, maybe twice a month). The Hive hub will end up here too if I decide to go for an Eero router, though at present I suspect it makes sense to keep it hooked up to the Smart Hub.
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You know that phone would sound much better if you use a long cable from the phone to the wall but a short one from the handset to the phone.

It's all scientific guv.
 
vacuum_tubes said:
You know that phone would sound much better if you use a long cable from the phone to the wall but a short one from the handset to the phone.
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It’s actually there purely for ornamental reasons! The No.1 bellset, which is on the bottom shelf behind the router, is in use and I will miss that so much when I get cut off. Such a wonderfully nostalgic sound, almost worth suffering spam calls to hear. The actual landline is the plastic Panasonic thingy barely visible behind the 1980s Ikea bin. The 232 is beautiful, fully restored, can dial out etc, but sound quality has come such a long way in 90 years (it is a 1934 example). I’ll likely keep it sitting there as an ornament, though maybe without the bellset. I’ve also got a similarly restored ‘king pyramid’, which is a 232 sitting on a 26 bellset. A lovely thing, but there is just something really special about the sound of the wood No.1 bellset!

PS I’m disappointed no one spotted the audiophile mains lead on the Cisco! I had one spare…

PPS No, I’m not going to A B it!
 
Some random thoughts whilst I await the broadband upgrade next week.

I ended up sticking the Smart Hub Two back in as it has much better WiFi range so I can use my iPad and iPhone better at the other end of the house better. It drops Qobuz more for the DSX though, but I’ll just wait that out until next week, see what the broadband upgrade brings, and then maybe go router shopping as the Smart Hub One definitely performs better with it. I remain absolutely convinced it is a latency issue and my current network performance is on the knife-edge between success and fail as far as the DSX is concerned with Qobuz. It can stream anything happily on the local network. I’m currently listening to some high-res stuff on my MacBook shared via UPnP and it is solid as a rock. I’m sure it could stream 24/192 all day without any issue.

As to the DSX; when it is working it is stunning. I tried comparing it directly to the Poly/Mojo2, which is certainly more robust and doesn’t drop the stream (I assume it has some buffering). The DSX sounds very noticeably better. Clearly a level up from what in fairness is a high base (I do really like the Poly/Mojo). The DSX is funkier, tighter, grooves better and has a remarkable scale and weight to the sound. It just sorts things out better. None of this is a criticism of the P/M, these are products from entirely different price classes and I’d recommend the P/M(1 or 2) to anyone. As such, I find myself quietly disagreeing with Rob Watts regarding the number of taps being the primary performance differentiation. The QBD76HD, upon which the DSX is based, may be ancient in Chord terms, but it still packs a hell of a punch.

I’ve also been getting used to the DSX as a DAC using my Apollo-R CD player and compared to the recently departed DPA PDM3. This one is very hard to articulate as they are both very, very good, but surprisingly different in ways I can’t describe. I think I’m beginning to identify a character to Chord DACs, something in common between the Mojo2 and DSX. Something that I really liked with the Mojo2, but ultimately preferred my PDM3, it is more a musical connection thing, a ‘flat earth’ thing. The DSX builds on the Mojo2 on the timbre, neutrality, depth, space etc, but doesn’t give an inch to the PDM3 on the funk and groove stuff, and it brings a bass weight and extension I’ve not had from digital before.

PS Has anyone any recommendations for a MacOS UPnP/DLNA server before I spend £30 on Firestream? Seems perfectly good, shows up fine in MConnect and seems to work reliably (just started a 7 day trial, I’m just wondering if I’ve missed a nice Open Source option.
 
Tony> sounds like you’ve had another experience of the importance in digital of how well it’s been implemented, as against the more obvious chip/logic differences.

I still think that one of the best sounding digital systems that I heard at my last Scalford was fronted by what must now be a relatively ancient Wadia DAC
 
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