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Joined 11 months ago
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Cake day: October 23rd, 2023

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  • I use the file system for a rough classification

    • Root\Classical
    • Root\Pop
    • Root\Jazz
    • Root\Blues

    This allows for easy filters like “Path contains \Classical\” as I do play classical most of the time.

    I tag it different from the other genres (composer, composition, opus) so need different views as well.

    It also solves the crossover problem. All music by Frank Zappa (and the mother) is in the Pop folder. All his compositions played by classical musicians are in the Classical folder.

    The genre tag is most of the time filled with what ever the internet database supplied.

    I know that Bach is Baroque and likewise any composer in that period so bit redundant.

    some album/artists represent multiple genres

    Check if your media player supports multiple values in the genre tag.



  • Basically a phono stage applies the RIAA (of course) and bring the signal up to line level.

    I expect phono stage > Vali > speakers will work. Indeed it is a bit of a weird construction as you use the Vali as a pre-amp and use its output for input of the pre-amp of the speakers. If the Vali deliver substantial gain you might overdrive the pre-amp of the speakers.

    You can simply try.

    You might consider using a switch to connect the TT to either the headphone amp or the speakers. In theory this should improve listening to the speakers as you skip a entire box of electronics. If you like the coloration of a tube amp, you won’t agree with this statement.

    To cite Schiit (excellent at guerilla marketing)

    1,000-10,000x higher distortion? Are you nuts?

    To keep this short, yes and most probably.




  • Interpreting your “highest possible” as “highest quality”.

    If I have to choose between a lossy format and a lossless format e.g. $5 for the MP3 and $10 for the FLAC, I choose the lossless version simply to future proof my collection and to avoid even the tiniest possible artifacts inherent to lossy compression (Fraunhofer & Co never claimed MP3 to be 100% transparant all of the time).

    If I have to choose between CD quality (16/44.1) ar $10 or Hires (24/96) at $20, I choose CD quality simple because I don’t hear the difference.

    If I have a download in 24/176 or 24/192, I always inspect the content using a spectrum analyzer. Often there are all kind of artifacts like high amount of quantization noise, some gear injecting a spike at 88 kHz, etc. I downsample them to 88 resp. 96 to get rid of the garbage https://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/AudioTools/Spectrum.htm



  • Found this: https://drop.com/buy/drop-hifiman-he-x4-planar-magnetic-headphones

    Sensitivity: 91 dB

    Impedance: 25 ohms

    Not very sensitive so might need a bit more power than the PC can deliver. Of cours, try it first before buying a headphone amp.

    Very low impedance. Important is the damping factor (impedance headphone / impedance headphone out). 8 is considered a minimum. It might very well be that your receiver doesn’t have separate headphone amp. This means the headphone out is derived from the power amp but tuned down by a couple of resistors. Hence the headphone out might have a high output impedance resulting in a bloated bass due to insufficient damping.

    Technically it is very easy, get a 3.5 to 2x RCA to connect a PC to a receiver.

    Another route is a external USB DAC/amp. This might improve on both the DAC and the amp in the PC. Today one can get pretty good solutions at decent price levels: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/tempotec-sonata-bhd-pro-portable-dac-amp-review.47929/

    Perhaps stating the obvious

    • Experiment before you buy. If possible, do a unsighted test because we are prone to hear what we believe.
    • Buy only from vendors with a decent return policy
    • Check if there are measurements (ASR is a good source) as more expensive is not necessarily better.
    • At 66 you have age related hearing loss but audio is most of all mid range so you still hear a hell of a lot.



  • But with Airplay, the only active connection would be the wireless one between the phone and the Wiim, right?

    Maybe.

    I’m not familiar with the internals of Airplay but I won’t be surprised if it works like UPnP.

    In case of UPnP, the phone is a control point. It simply tells the renderer (the one doing the playback) the URL of the track on the server.

    A simple check is to disconnect your phone from the Wi-Fi. If playback continues, you know the renderer pulls the audio straight from the server.









  • A room filling sound is not the problem. Just get a speaker like a Sonos something and turnup the volume!

    Another question is how to get a good sound. This requires good speakers but the listening position matters too. Bass is not the issue, it is omnidirectional so you will hear it everywhere and good regardless of your listening position. Midrange and higher starts to lobe. The more you are off axis the less refined the sound become as you are not listening to the direct sound but to the indirect sound reflecting from walls, floor and ceiling.

    I would start with the short wall and have the speakers fire straight into the room, 25" ain’t that big. You really need 100% when WFH?