Hi Steveo,

I have exchanged several emails with the Fidelizer developer and I agree - he is very responsive.

My dedicated Music Laptop sits on a shelf with other audio gear halfway across my room and at a right angle to my PLP. I have a second "Business Laptop" at my PLP. I use this Business Laptop to control my Music Laptop via Windows 10 Remote Desktop.

Can the Nimitra be controlled remotely in a similar fashion? If not, I would not be able to incorporate it into my setup.

Art

Hey Steveo, very interesting the deqx Hdp4 . Which of course led to looking at the deqx Hdp5, which is expensive and I can't find any used for sale. Will continue exploring this space as my Refs are in a very tough room (a "great" room with cathedral ceilings, combo living, dining and kitchen) and I probably need something like this to get the most out of them. Thanks for the info!

Why don't you just use the Nimitra for audio and keep the oppo for TV and move duties?

I am not in the US (Australia) so I ordered directly through him. Duties would be different but I am sure you can chat to him so he can work with you to minimise those for your location.

Ask him if he thinks nimitra would be better than the oppo for audio. I have a feeling it might be. What usb cables are you using? If it's a generic usb cable you can even start here for a significant improvement

Steveo,

I guess my long term objective has been to get rid of the Oppo, which has good digital and audio quality, but is kind of clunky to use. I have another 4k player for movies, and I never spin CDs any more. Right now the only USB link is from the external SSD to the Oppo; I use good digital coax from the Oppo to my DAC. The (short) USB cables are admittedly cheapos, but I believe the Oppo reclocks and I don't think I have much noise around, so I'm probably getting away with it. I have tried using a different USB cable and didn't hear a difference.

Frankly, things are working now, so I don't really need to change. I'm looking ahead to when Mr. Oppo dies.

By the way, do you know if the Nimitra plays gapless flac files? Another one of my requirements.

Charlie

Hi Charlie
If you can splash out I would try Curious Cables from Australia. They have a 30 day money back guarantee. I use a curious cable from my USB SSD to my nimitra server. When I replaced this it made a huge jump in sound quality on my system. I have since replaced other cables with curious cables and Lush cables.

Yes it does gapless and DSD and whatever you throw at it really.

The answer to the other question, if it can be used by another laptop to control it by remote view, then yes you can.

It's basically a full PC, with hardware optimised for sound with all the functionalities without the "Pc environment" so to speak. You just switch it on (without a screen if you want) when its plugged into your dac and when you're finished you turn it off. You can use any program to run your files as you would on a PC. I personally use roon for the unmatched interface. There might be other programs out there that might sound better but Roon, while expensive, was worth it for me. Roon matched with nimitra, took the disadvantages out of clunky pc interfaces at least for me.

On a complete side note I have been venturing now into vinyl and going to explore ripping vinyl to digital. The dynamics on vinyl on most recordings are unmatched so I want to see where this takes me.

dr.loudness-war.info/

Look up your favourite albums on that website and check out the vinyl equivalent. CD is "technically" better but most modern cds are squashed with dynamics where you can't cheat like that as an engineer on the vinyl format. In saying that I have just finished my acquisitions of the best digital versions for all of my favourite artists and the differences on some are incredible.

Take Pink Floyd The wall for example. There seems to be dozens of versions and none of them sounded right to me until I found the ultimate pressing on cd and it made a dramatic difference.

Keep in mind this is all cd and vinyl is another beast all together and that's why I want to explore it and look to digitise good pressings on dynamic vinyl copies. This was so I can use the nimitra and my clocking devices with the DEQX on vinyl recordings without needing to spin vinyl all the time once I copied it.

This hobby is just a rabbit hole with time and money.. But its loads of fun as well!!

Steveo wrote: If you can splash out I would try Curious Cables from Australia. They have a 30 day money back guarantee. I use a curious cable from my USB SSD to my nimitra server.

dr.loudness-war.info/

Look up your favourite albums on that website and check out the vinyl equivalent. CD is "technically" better but most modern cds are squashed with dynamics where you can't cheat like that as an engineer on the vinyl format. In saying that I have just finished my acquisitions of the best digital versions for all of my favourite artists and the differences on some are incredible.

Steveo, thanks, I will think about the USB cable side.

Interesting website. I am a 100% digital guy, and I completely agree that the loudness wars have utterly destroyed many recordings. That said, there are many really excellent ones out there, both new and old. I listen mostly to classical, and they don't generally mess those up. I think it's mostly the pop stuff for earbuds that's the source of the problem.

Vinyl has its own problems. Generally limited bass amplitude (because of tracking limitations), and skewed frequency response that has to be compensated for -- and uncompensated for. Then, there's pops, crackles, wow, flutter, alignment, and all that fun stuff that I remember so well when I was young. When CD came out in the 80s, I was so happy...until I put together a decent system and heard nothing but fingernails on a blackboard.

One of my favorite stories: In the mid-80s I went to a Stereophile show in San Francisco and wandered from room to room. One room had such exquisite sound that you could actually "see" the singer in the middle of the room! Wow! And then I looked, and they had a vinyl front end. All of the best did.

Now, however, the signal processing has finally caught up with the potential of digital. It has taken only.....ah....35 years! And I'd put my digital solid state system up against the best analog systems out there. It just took a while. A long while.

Good luck on your vinyl quest. It will be entertaining, I'm sure. Let us know how it goes.

Charlie