The Dark Side; Digital audio equipment recommendations and setup.

First time putting these new galaxy buds2 pro through the paces tonight. First thoughts are awesome sounding. My old ear buds can't touch this sound quality. I mainly wanted to upgrade for work calls. The music quality is a big bonus.

Samsung even has a feature to test if your buds are sealed well in the ear. I thought that was really intuitive software. My upgrade is from a 4 year old set so significant leap.

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jamieanderson1968 said:
Very nice
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The crazy thing was/is, man I was getting digital hash and distortion on almost every single DAC I tried in store. And it was the same on my previous phone. It almost sounded like they were picking up RF interference or like 4 or 5G signals. Constant ticks and waves of digital hash that came and went. I'm stunned no one else heard this stuff when they were testing them but that's two different phones two weeks apart, different cables and DACS and they all did it.
 
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Mather said:
Finally decided on a external DAC for my phone on the daily hours long commute to and from work. The Questyle M15.
Questyle M15 Review
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Holy smokes I love this thing. The sound is just off the charts.
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I seriously considered getting a phone DAC when I was commuting a lot, but when I had a separate Fiio player + my phone, I felt like I was carrying way too much stuff around all the time since I mostly just used my pockets for carrying stuff. I still have the Fiio but never really use it much--the UI was pretty terrible on the old ones.
 
MikeH said:
I seriously considered getting a phone DAC when I was commuting a lot, but when I had a separate Fiio player + my phone, I felt like I was carrying way too much stuff around all the time since I mostly just used my pockets for carrying stuff. I still have the Fiio but never really use it much--the UI was pretty terrible on the old ones.
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I am in the same boat, with a FiiO DAP that I am very happy with. I picked up the Helm Bolt just to test it out and use it with my iMac. But I like that I can use it with my iPhone if I want when travel so I have less tech with me.
 
jamieanderson1968 said:
I am in the same boat, with a FiiO DAP that I am very happy with. I picked up the Helm Bolt just to test it out and use it with my iMac. But I like that I can use it with my iPhone if I want when travel so I have less tech with me.
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My biggest issue right now, and one I expected, is how best to carry this thing in order to minimize strain on the cable/inputs. The jumper cable it came with is very short and the way it hangs out of my back pocket makes me think it's gunna break very quickly. So I'll likely have to find a longer jumper so that it can just kinda fold into my pocket along with the phone...
 
Mather said:
My biggest issue right now, and one I expected, is how best to carry this thing in order to minimize strain on the cable/inputs. The jumper cable it came with is very short and the way it hangs out of my back pocket makes me think it's gunna break very quickly. So I'll likely have to find a longer jumper so that it can just kinda fold into my pocket along with the phone...
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Or you could get a braided cable. I got a little 15cm belkin one for the car stereo and it’s pretty indestructible.
 
Joe Mac said:
Or you could get a braided cable. I got a little 15cm belkin one for the car stereo and it’s pretty indestructible.
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Yeah that's basically the plan, the current one is so short, like 5 inches including the plugs, that if you try to fold the DAC into your back pocket you have to really strain the cable. 15 cm braided would be about right I think. But man this thing sounds so good I just sat on my couch for like 2 hours last night just listening to music on my IEMs. Now that is something I did not expect to be doing.
 
Mather said:
Yeah that's basically the plan, the current one is so short, like 5 inches including the plugs, that if you try to fold the DAC into your back pocket you have to really strain the cable. 15 cm braided would be about right I think. But man this thing sounds so good I just sat on my couch for like 2 hours last night just listening to music on my IEMs. Now that is something I did not expect to be doing.
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Could try a u shaped USB-C adapter. Some will screw up the sound but there must be one designed for dongle DACs
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jamieanderson1968 said:
Could try a u shaped USB-C adapter. Some will screw up the sound but there must be one designed for dongle DACs
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That's interesting. That could totally work. But yes I could see that messing with the sound if it's not well made. I'll have a look around. But yeah probably just a decent quality jumper should do the trick. The question is... finding one.
 
anybody ever gotten DSD downloads from HDTT? they have some really good jazz titles available. tempted to get a DSD256 of one of the albums but just need to decide which title haha.

They seem to have just added Kind of Blue in DSD256.

www.highdeftapetransfers.ca

Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue - Includes Pitch Corrected Tracks

Artist(s): Trumpet – Miles Davis Tenor Saxophone – John Coltrane Alto Saxophone – Julian Adderly Bass – Paul Chambers Drums – James Cobb Piano – Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly (Track 2) Recording Info: Recorded At Columbia 30th Street Studio, New York City, On March 2, 1959 (#1-3) And April 22, 1959...
www.highdeftapetransfers.ca www.highdeftapetransfers.ca
 
MikeH said:
anybody ever gotten DSD downloads from HDTT? they have some really good jazz titles available. tempted to get a DSD256 of one of the albums but just need to decide which title haha.

They seem to have just added Kind of Blue in DSD256.

www.highdeftapetransfers.ca

Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue - Includes Pitch Corrected Tracks

Artist(s): Trumpet – Miles Davis Tenor Saxophone – John Coltrane Alto Saxophone – Julian Adderly Bass – Paul Chambers Drums – James Cobb Piano – Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly (Track 2) Recording Info: Recorded At Columbia 30th Street Studio, New York City, On March 2, 1959 (#1-3) And April 22, 1959...
www.highdeftapetransfers.ca www.highdeftapetransfers.ca
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The question I’d ask is whether KOB ever was transferred to DSD 256 by Sony for commercial release? The likelihood is that it’s just a DSD64 version of an SACD release being upscaled. In which case you’re paying more for no real extra information…
 
Joe Mac said:
The question I’d ask is whether KOB ever was transferred to DSD 256 by Sony for commercial release? The likelihood is that it’s just a DSD64 version of an SACD release being upscaled. In which case you’re paying more for no real extra information…
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As far as I can tell, this guy takes commercially available reel to reel tapes that had copyright lapses and transfers those direct to DSD256. I've been seeing some very good reviews about some of his stuff.
 
MikeH said:
As far as I can tell, this guy takes commercially available reel to reel tapes that had copyright lapses and transfers those direct to DSD256. I've been seeing some very good reviews about some of his stuff.
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Ah I get you. I’d still bet an SACD rip from master tapes either by MoFi or AP (if they did one) or even Sony will smoke a DSD transfer from reel to reel but as always ymmv.
 
so because i'm an idiot....curiosity got the best of me and i downloaded the HDTT DSD256 of Kind of Blue. And I gotta say... it's pretty stunning. Running the DSD256 through the Ares II DAC so it has a lossless path and playing the DSF file directly vs converting to PCM. wish more places sold DSD downloads of more popular albums.
 
MikeH said:
so because i'm an idiot....curiosity got the best of me and i downloaded the HDTT DSD256 of Kind of Blue. And I gotta say... it's pretty stunning. Running the DSD256 through the Ares II DAC so it has a lossless path and playing the DSF file directly vs converting to PCM. wish more places sold DSD downloads of more popular albums.
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And that the places that did were more transparent about whether it’s an actual DSD transfer from the tapes rather than a PCM transfer converted into a DSD file which is utterly pointless beyond being able to be played on an SACD if beyond 16/44.
 
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