Bro Art, still praying and waiting for any health updates you may want to share!!!

God Bless,
Wayne[/quote]

Wayne, et al,

We are traveling to Duke University Medical Center on April 2 for an April 3 appointment and consultation with a senior thoracic surgeon to consider options. I'll provide an update after we decide upon a course of action.

Best,

Art

WayneWilmeth wrote: WOW there is a LOT going on in this thread, great guys!!!!
First, GDHAL, thanks so very much for that track you shared. IMPRESSIVE sound indeed. I almost felt like I stuck my head inside the drum kit. I was surprised it was all drum, I thought we might hear some guitar licks or some vocals. But I thoroughly enjoyed what I did get to hear. Must follow up and search the GD some more......God Bless, Wayne

You're welcome, Wayne. Yes, this particular track is titled "Drums". "Drums" as a stand-alone track is typical in nearly all (probably 85 percent of so) Grateful Dead shows. Every drums track is completely, utterly and entirely different/unique. The drums in a "Drums" track differs significantly from "drumming" which is part of most other songs. In the case of the stand-alone "drums" track, usually (but not always) it is performed by two drummers simultaneously (Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann) who collectively were referred to as "Rhythm Devils". And, to further add to the precision of song title annotation, there is a stand-alone song track titled "Drumz" with a "z" at the end instead of an "s". This indicates that the song is a blend of "Drums" and "Space", both of which are stand-alone songs in there own right.

The aforementioned is probably more than you wanted or needed to know. But I just thought I'd share.

"It's an obsession, but it's pleasing."

Hi Art
The Nimitra would be a direct replacement for your laptop. It's an optimised pc (with Windows 10) that has been stripped down of all its background processes and fully optimised for audio. In digital there can be a lot of interference with these processes that can impact on the music. I assume your laptop is quite noisy and fidelizer helps with that but there is only so much it can do. The Nimitra is a supercharged fidelizer with hardware optimised for audio. I am almost certain the nimitra would be a good audio improvement for you in lieu of your laptop.

Chat to the owner of nimitra. He is very responsive and his service is excellent. The Nimitra for me was one of the single biggest improvement I made in my system next to my DEQX which I will speak about below. Since it uses Windows you can use exactly the same programs to control your music and plug your usb into nimitra. The chassis is designed so you can switch it on and off without loading any programs if you don't want to. For me I don't even connect it to a screen I just turn it in on and turn my dac on and stream to roon via my android phone and tablet.

You are using USB which is excellent, since I use usb as well and there are so many crazy tweaks and improvements you can add to make your sound even better. First question, what usb cable are you using to connect from your laptop to your dac? This might sound silly but usb cables and the chain between your server and your dac is very sensitive to tweaks and improvements with the right gear. Let me know and I can guide your further as cables in this setup make a huge difference and bang for buck one of the best values you can buy IMO.

Hi Pbgalvin
I am using a deqx Hdp4 processor. Www.deqx.com. This is basically a preamp, dac all in one. However more importantly it is also a room corrector and speaker corrector. Go to their website and click on the intro movie. It's an incredible device. Basically I use this directly for my 2 channel listening via its usb input. I have a Yamaha receiver which is used for home theatre. I connect rcas from the Yamaha receiver to the DEQX via its analog input. I fI want to watch movies I utilise the DEQX's home theatre bypass and I control the volume through my Yamaha. When I listen to 2 channel I change the DEQX input to the digital USB input and use it as a preamp and control the volume through the deqx. I dont need to swap cables around as I would find this a nightmare in my setup because the back is hard to get to.

Check it out. It isnt cheap but extremely worthwhile as you can AB test what you were listening to before the DEQX uses its speaker and room correction and what the DEQ brings to the table. Its excellent for music but its also good for movies. You can change the EQ at a press of a button and have profiles set up for loud bass heavy movies or you can lower the bass for night watching. Some reviewers have described the DEQX as the swiss army knife of audio which i tend to agree with.

You can also use the deqx with outboard DACs if you wanted to upgrade in the future. The dacs in the deqx sound pretty good and I ask myself how much better the sound could get sometimes but I might be looking to try a PS Audio Directstream DAC or something equivalent. Depending on where you are in the world they are also offering a free home trial so you can see for yourself how it stacks up in your Setup. They are pretty confident it makes a huge difference otherwise they wouldn't offer this as they spend a couple of hours measuring and calibrating your system. It's like an advanced version of home theatre recievers doing audessey or ypao or Dirac.

Steveo, the Nimitra is a very interesting device. I was on their website, but I couldn't find a manual to download.

They don't list a US distributor, so 1) are you in the US?, and 2) if so, did you order directly from them? And...3) what import duty did you have to pay?

My current setup is External SSD, USB to Oppo 105D, digital out to Auralic DAC. Nimitra appears to support that path using USB. I also use TV optical out to Oppo, digital out to DAC for TV and movies.

I'm still thinking, but this seems to solve most of my problems. I still may have to reclock my Samsung Smart TV optical out. When I hook it directly to my DAC I get periodic interrupts. When I run through my Oppo 105, I don't, so I assume the Oppo is reclocking. If I use Nimitra to bypass my Oppo, I may have a problem there. Unless Nimitra supports optical in.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Charlie

charliehatch wrote:

CRRobert wrote: How would the Bel Canto REF 500S stereo amps perform? Just a notch below the 600M?

I don't have any experience with that amp. I believe it's a 200 Wpc instead of the 300 Wpc of the REF600Ms. Bel Canto has a great reputation, so it's probably a great amp. Maybe you could audition the two at a dealer side by side and get an idea of the difference.

Charlie

Hi, CRRobert

I can't speak to the Bel Canto amps. Charlie loves the 600M, which has the licensed Hypex Ncore technology, which is IMHO the top of the line in Class D amp tech. (the 500S from what I've read uses ICE, the former "best" Class D tech). I have a AT525NC Class D amp that also uses Hypex Ncore tech. Anything I've read about Ncore is that it's the best tech available for Class D. SMOOOTH, even tube-like, is a common description.

I'm not pushing ATi amps. I'm just saying that Ncore is the top of the line Class D tech.

As Charlie said, best bet is to audition and hear what your ears like best.

I'm a Hypex Ncore fan. Best Class D amp I've heard yet.

Rick

Charlie and Rick, thanks. I was not sure it the 500 was Hypex N core or not. Agree, sounds like all the reviews with the Hypex are stellar. Was looking at ATI also since can get multichannel for my Home Theater setup.