Hi rez achieved while maintaining decor...

by dcstep on Done For Now

Description

I'm a serious musician and audio has been important to me since the 1960s. This system is my third major upgrade in the last 40 years.

You can see that it's important for me to integrate my system into our apartment living space, that I share with my wife of 39-years. It was important for the speakers to be physically attractive as furniture and, most importantly, be very musical.

The analog front end is incredibly revealing. When I'm seriously listening I pull the speakers out to the positions that you see, which was determined using Sumiko's Master Set technolog. Rod Thomson of Soundings set mine for me. Believe it or not, that table to the left is no problem for either imaging or frequency response. The narrow set is defined by that short wall and the opening into the hall and foyer. The image goes out past the speakers and centered vocalists are about 3/4 the way up the armoire in the center and depth goes back to the back wall. You'd be amazed at the bass from this system, particularly given the wonderfully open and textured midrange.

At other times the AKG headphones and incredible Woo Audio amplifier provide a great alternative for listening without moving the furniture around.

The Korg MR1000 is used for live recording and archiving vinyl using 1-bit DSD at 5.6 mHz.
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Components Toggle details

    • Vienna Acoustics Beethoven Baby Grand
    3-way, full range, floor standing speakers.
    • Jeff Rowland Continuum 500
    1,000 watts into 4 ohms, stereo, integrated amplifier, with phono stage
    • Playback Designs MPS-5
    CD/SACD player that upconverts redbook CDs to DSD. Claims no jitter.
    • Project RM10
    Hi mass, belt drive turntable with 10" carbon fiber arm.
    • Soundsmith The Voice Ebony
    .6 mV moving iron cartridge, with ruby cantilever and medium compliance tracking at 1.4g
    • Pioneer DV-58AV
    Univeral CD/DVD/SACD/mp3/etc. player, modded by Ric Schultz. Used as a DVD-A transport with digital into the MPS-5's DAC.
    • Korg MR1000
    1-bit DSD recorder with sampling rate up to 5.6 mHz with 40GB of onboard data storage.
    • Woo Audio WA6
    Single-ended, class A, tube headphone amplifier
    • AKG K-701
    Headphones with incredible midrange. Modified with 12', dual entry Cardas cable by Soloz Audio.
    • Sumiko Speaker set
    Perhaps the most important component, properly setting the speakers by a master technician using Sumiko's Master Set methodology.
    • Analasis Plus Solo Crystal Oval 8
    Great. See full review here: http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?rcabl&1200714157&openmine&zzDcstep&4&5#Dcstep
    • HRS M3 Isolation Bases
    17"X19" isolation bases under RM10 and MPS-5
    • Furman Elite-15PFi Power Conditioner
    This 13-plug added to the solidity of the bass and overall performance. This is a great value.

Comments 136

Showing all comments by bigamp.

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I'm sure the Korg sounds great. I've just been looking to see if there's any way to keep the files as DSD all the way to the DAC.

I've never done this myself, so this is guesswork. It looks like you can use the Tascam just like you're using your Korg now to play files. But the Tascam would play a DSD bitstream output on BNC, which the Emm dac would receive on its BNC input. So, this method needs the Tascam as an intervening device.

Now here's where I'm really just guessing: You could store and play DSD files from your PC directly to the dac, if you had something like a Pyramix (Merging) workstation. This takes at least a Merging motherboard and an I/O card at the PC, which would output a DSD stream. I have no idea how much these cards and software cost, but I'm guessing they're very pricey. And you may not want to get this complicated or this much into it (not sure I would either now that I'm seeing what's involved at the PC end).

bigamp

I've been looking into this a little more. The Korg records in raw DSD, but only outputs that kind of signal via UBS connector. It looks like the Tascam 1000HD recorder has raw DSD inputs and outputs on BNC connections. If you had a DAC like an Emmlabs dac with a raw DSD input on BNC connectors, you could play back the DSD files from your recorder through the Emmlabs dac on your stereo system. That way, the files are always in DSD format, never downsampled/converted. Just food for thought.

bigamp

Nice system! What you're doing with the Korg is very cool. Are you playing the files from the Korg plugged into your preamp?

It would be great to play back the files in the 1-bit/5.6884 format from a PC. I've never done this, but there must be a way.

I suppose one way would be to get mastering software on your PC and a PC card or outboard interface that somehow outputs DSD. The Korg can record in the DSDIFF format. After some Googling, it appears this format may be the same as RAW-DSD. If you can find a dac that takes a RAW-DSD signal (such as the EMMLabs DCC2), I would imagine that you could play those files back at 1-bit at 5.6448 MHz. Perhaps Tascam or Merging makes an I/O card or off-board card that would let you do this?

In any event, what you're doing is very cool.

bigamp

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