SM Audiophiles?

[boomerang]

From my experience, Dirac works most satisfying if you reduce its working range to max 400/500hz.
Full Dirac compensation often sounds less engaging.
And you have to check how much compensation has been calculated after measurements.
If it has to compensate to much (high Q factor), it is wise to try to reduce room modes first, by taking acoustic measures.
Bass traps are a good way to do something about that.

 

[Wack61]

It comes with a USB microphone , I haven't read a bad review of the Dirac correction with arcam amps

A few guys on avforums have the SR250 ,they've all said there's a marked improvement once the correction is turned on , I'm very impressed with it out of the box

 

[boomerang]

Dirac is the best system in its kind.
But in the very high end circels, people are often reluctant to add equipment that influence the original signal.
Especially not in the frequency ranges above 500hz.
And that is not completely without reason of course.
The better your system/speakers, the more you will be able to hear that reworking a signal, can detoriate things instead of improving.
But use it wise and you will be satisfied.

 

[Guy]

I had a sound engineer, with a much better microphone than supplied in the box, set up Dirac on my Arcam 550. It was great except our TV room has a lot of glass and it overly suppressed the sub so that needed a manual adjustment. Like most upgrades, it quickly becomes 'normal' and so we go on!
NB. Amplifiers deteriorate significantly after about 8 years or so of use so having them refreshed (especially with upgraded components) brings them back to life for vastly less than the replacement. I use JS Audio. The best £1k I have ever spent on hifi.
PS. Agree re London Grammar - great production and incredible vocals from Hannah Reid!

 

[CatmanV2]

Bought two M8 mono's, unbelievable power, control, detail.

Well, let's be fair, they it should be

Very nice!

C

 

[CatmanV2]

NB. Amplifiers deteriorate significantly after about 8 years or so of use

Do they? Never heard that before, although I can imagine it's theoretically feasible

C

 

[boomerang]

We do recap some older high end amps, but to be honest, some caps (F.e. Nichicon audio caps) we exchange, still are doing great when measured with an ESR/capacitance meter.
We did a Denon PMA S1 lately (late 90ties), still in very great shape, can compete with quite expensive recent amps as well.

 

[Guy]

Do they? Never heard that before, although I can imagine it's theoretically feasible

C

transformed my MF Tri Vista twice now. The latest components should last longer as they are very high quality (cf Boomerang comment). My experience based on a few products at the £5k price point is a huge difference. The guy behind JS used to be head of production at MF and is happy to talk you through the science!

 

[boomerang]

If you really want to improve durabilty and sound quality, you could exchange electrolytic caps for the correct type of MKP caps in the signal line.
I presume they did that to your MF Guy?
Interested to hear which speakers you have btw.

 

[CatmanV2]

transformed my MF Tri Vista twice now. The latest components should last longer as they are very high quality (cf Boomerang comment). My experience based on a few products at the £5k price point is a huge difference. The guy behind JS used to be head of production at MF and is happy to talk you through the science!

If I get to that price point, I'll bear it in mind
Having said that I know Cyrus will 'service' all the kit for £300 per item, which is nice. Well gutted I missed a pair of Mono-Xs for £400 on ebay. One wasn't working but at worst £300 repair at Cyrus would have been the pair for £700!

C

 

[Guy]

If you really want to improve durabilty and sound quality, you could exchange electrolytic caps for the correct type of MKP caps in the signal line.
I presume they did that to your MF Guy?
Interested to hear which speakers you have btw.

The last update was probably 5 years ago now so I do not recall the technical details but sensed that a lot of the internals were replaced and upgraded (hence £1k). I will try and find the spec. I used to run Kef Ref 207s (incredible mid range) but upgraded to Kef Ref 3's last year - delighted with them.

 

[boomerang]

That are great speakers!
But they need quite some current to deliver max performance.
Thought they where somewhere down to 3 Ohms if I remember correctly.
Your MF will cope with that.
Heard the Blades recently as well.
Magnificent, as are B&W 800 series.
And some others
Sad to see prices going up firmly though, they are getting more and more out of reach for a lot of audio lovers.

 

[CatmanV2]

My (rather pedestrian by comparison) Vienna's are worth more now second hand than they were listed for new....

C

 

[Wack61]

Just ordered one of these to try out as I'm not getting the best out of tidal using Bluetooth so I'm told

 

[CatmanV2]

Ahh so this is a wifi device that has a physical connection to your amp?

C

 

[boomerang]

If it is your intention to maximize sound quality from Tidal, the Bluesound Node is a good start.
It supports Tidal MQA files and has a very nice DAC.
Supports Roon also, if you want even more sound quality from streaming Tidal.

 

[Wack61]

Ahh so this is a wifi device that has a physical connection to your amp?

C

Yes but I've cancelled that one and gone for an Audioengine B-Fi , only because I've had the Bluetooth one for years and it's been great , if I can't hear any difference with WiFi I'll send it back

The optical connection bypasses the DAC in the audioengine and uses the one in the SR250 which I'm told cost $12 , doesn't sound a lot but most DAC chips are in the 50c -$1 range

It just acts as a bridge from the router to the amp , the app on the phone only controls the content rather than streaming it via Bluetooth directly from the phone

Can't justify £550 on a bluesound one

It's a lot more technical than dropping a stylus on an album

 

[CatmanV2]

Good stuff!

C

 

[Alan Surrey]

Think I paid £30 for my Google chromecast. I take its HDMI output into an HDMI "splitter," bought at a similar price from ebay. It has two outputs, an HDMI which carries sound and vision and which I take to my TV, and a sound only digital output which goes to my DAC. The DAC output goes via a short lead to my HIFi amp. It's within budget and I rather like it. I get a picture with the TV soundturned down, and the HiFi turned up.
Success

 

[Alan Surrey]

Here's something that might entertain you:

It's the Mavericks.
Try to watch it right through it runs for maybe 10 minutes. Something I find very clever (Though my musician friends say it's trivial - what do they know...) happens in the middle.
Do you like?