The Dark Side; Digital audio equipment recommendations and setup.

Nee Lewman said:
Listening to the new Billy Strings and I bet I’m good with the default for most things. Will give it a while before I start tweaking.
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Oh yes definitely, leave it for a while until you decide what you like, and try listening and disabling and re enabling it during songs to see what works and what doesn't...
 
Mather said:
Oh yes definitely, leave it for a while until you decide what you like, and try listening and disabling and re enabling it during songs to see what works and what doesn't...
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That’s what I did through Pink Floyd and Manics. Sat my oldest down, her reaction to Billy Strings was same as mine to Manics, it was different wasn’t sure which she liked. (I liked that it was a lot easier to tell how many musicians were playing at any time on that one, the separation was incredible). Then I played the intro of Time by Pink Floyd through the bells without and then with. When the bells hit with the filter turned on, she went “whoa”
 
Nee Lewman said:
That’s what I did through Pink Floyd and Manics. Sat my oldest down, her reaction to Billy Strings was same as mine to Manics, it was different wasn’t sure which she liked. (I liked that it was a lot easier to tell how many musicians were playing at any time on that one, the separation was incredible). Then I played the intro of Time by Pink Floyd through the bells without and then with. When the bells hit with the filter turned on, she went “whoa”
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Yeah that's exactly it, you'll find that with some stuff the separation sounds strange at first after hearing it totally differently up until now. In most cases it'll be better, in some cases with some intentionally dirty and messy rock it may continue to not quite sound right, that's where the other filters come in ideally, or if that doesn't work just disable it for certain things...
 
Mather said:
Yeah that's exactly it, you'll find that with some stuff the separation sounds strange at first after hearing it totally differently up until now. In most cases it'll be better, in some cases with some intentionally dirty and messy rock it may continue to not quite sound right, that's where the other filters come in ideally, or if that doesn't work just disable it for certain things...
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I’ve only listened to the three things so far (I have Dire Straits queued up next). Manics was the only thing that I’m not sold on so far. It’s lifeblood though so that only sort of tracks. Unfortunately, it’ll be a while before I get good session listening. For some reason a three year old running around screws up my ability to do sessions during the day and it’s headphones only at night (when I do 95% of my critical listening these days)
 
Nee Lewman said:
I’ve only listened to the three things so far (I have Dire Straits queued up next). Manics was the only thing that I’m not sold on so far. It’s lifeblood though so that only sort of tracks. Unfortunately, it’ll be a while before I get good session listening. For some reason a three year old running around screws up my ability to do sessions during the day and it’s headphones only at night (when I do 95% of my critical listening these days)
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Ride Across the River on the Mofi Dire Straits is gunna blow your mind. Turn that one and The Mans Too Strong up nice and loud.
 
I like the idea behind room correction algos, especially for my AVR setups. It really helps timing of speakers with the movie sound effects.

Never have really thought about it with 2 ch.
But another capability with the new Node Icon is Dirac. You have to buy the license separately but it's a cool entry to try this tech out with a traditional 2 channel system while still maintaining an all analog chain for the vinyl signal.
 
Jbraswell said:
I like the idea behind room correction algos, especially for my AVR setups. It really helps timing of speakers with the movie sound effects.

Never have really thought about it with 2 ch.
But another capability with the new Node Icon is Dirac. You have to buy the license separately but it's a cool entry to try this tech out with a traditional 2 channel system while still maintaining an all analog chain for the vinyl signal.
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I’m not sure I would have wanted to do it in two channel except my room is sooooo fucked up.
 
Nee Lewman said:
I’m not sure I would have wanted to do it in two channel except my room is sooooo fucked up.
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Yeah mine was initially done for 5.1 home theatre purposes but then as my system got better and I focused on that I just tailored it for music instead and it worked very well. I have no doubt that one of these great 2 channel Moon amps would smoke my Arcam in a non room corrected fight... But I'm pretty sure from what I heard today that between the room corrected Arcam and the non room corrected Moon... it would be close.
 
SnowmaNick said:
Wait, your amp applies the Dirac filters to the headphone jack?
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The one thing I dislike about the amp is that the headphone jack doesn’t cut the main speakers, so you could conceivably be listening to the speakers and want the Dirac on and be listening to the headphones? It’s weird. I don’t have a sub, but I also understand that it doesn’t cut the sub either. Which is more problematic in the long run as I believe you would need to turn it off. (I’m fairly certain this is a switch in the app though). Since headphones is my primary critical listening these days, I should probably just leave it off unless I’m gonna sit in the chair and listen over the speakers. I don’t believe that it filters through the Bluetooth though, so when I am using the b&ws - music doesn’t sound weird (I need a longer cord to sit in the chair and use the senns.The b&ws, despite being Bluetooth, trounce them on most music anyway. I had listened to Dreamboat Annie prior to the Dead and thought it sounded a little anemic but figured I might just be in a weird mood.)
 
Nee Lewman said:
The one thing I dislike about the amp is that the headphone jack doesn’t cut the main speakers, so you could conceivably be listening to the speakers and want the Dirac on and be listening to the headphones? It’s weird. I don’t have a sub, but I also understand that it doesn’t cut the sub either. Which is more problematic in the long run as I believe you would need to turn it off. (I’m fairly certain this is a switch in the app though). Since headphones is my primary critical listening these days, I should probably just leave it off unless I’m gonna sit in the chair and listen over the speakers. I don’t believe that it filters through the Bluetooth though, so when I am using the b&ws - music doesn’t sound weird (I need a longer cord to sit in the chair and use the senns.The b&ws, despite being Bluetooth, trounce them on most music anyway. I had listened to Dreamboat Annie prior to the Dead and thought it sounded a little anemic but figured I might just be in a weird mood.)
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I wonder if that’s a common thing. I admit I only listen to headphones on a plane or when doing yard work, so I have no experience to draw on. That said, I’d imagine many would auto-mute the speakers and I don’t see why Dirac would be the n the circuit for headphones.
 
Nee Lewman said:
The one thing I dislike about the amp is that the headphone jack doesn’t cut the main speakers, so you could conceivably be listening to the speakers and want the Dirac on and be listening to the headphones? It’s weird. I don’t have a sub, but I also understand that it doesn’t cut the sub either. Which is more problematic in the long run as I believe you would need to turn it off. (I’m fairly certain this is a switch in the app though). Since headphones is my primary critical listening these days, I should probably just leave it off unless I’m gonna sit in the chair and listen over the speakers. I don’t believe that it filters through the Bluetooth though, so when I am using the b&ws - music doesn’t sound weird (I need a longer cord to sit in the chair and use the senns.The b&ws, despite being Bluetooth, trounce them on most music anyway. I had listened to Dreamboat Annie prior to the Dead and thought it sounded a little anemic but figured I might just be in a weird mood.)
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My office setup now doesn’t mute the speakers either when I have headphones in so I’m getting a headphone amp…
 
To be clear, I have speaker selection, I can turn the speakers off. It just doesn’t happen when I put the headphone jack in.

I believe the Dirac is a filter on the whole amp the way it is set up. So once I apply it, it is applied to the amp. Like I said… Easy fix, off should be my default these days. It’s not like the filter really helps/hurts if I’m in the kitchen or dancing with the three year old. It really does its job and thing in the listening chair.
 
Jbraswell said:
That's outright crazy the design engineer skipped that step.
I'm sure it's a fairly inexpensive switch.
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Well it’s because I’m using an integrated as a pre amp at the moment and the fosi mono blocks as a separate power amp. Speaker cables come out from the monoblocks. Headphone comes out of the pre amp. Possible I could turn off the speakers and that may cut the sound from the pre out…but haven’t tried it. Headphone amp on my desk would be better since my setup is on a rack to the side of my desk and don’t wanna get tangled in the cords
 
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