Nebby

Not quite the same, but I picked up the SD4000 for my sister for her graduation. I liked it quite a bit for the short while I had to play with it; it's specs look similar to the S95 so I think they're probably comparable.

I wonder how the k701 would sound on Crack with a Speedball upgrade?

I had to buy a few Microsoft cert testing books recently....it wasn't fun either

Remember to burn them in for 2000 hours before you listen to them. Also, I heard you need at least 1.21 gigawatts to properly amp them. I enjoyed my k702's when I had them, wonder how it would sound out of the Crack.

I can understand the move away from the ST connectors...they're not cheap (speaking from having to fix or help fix a couple of fiber runs).

True, I'm mostly looking at it from a getting-my-feet-wet standpoint as I'm a relative noob in the DIY area. Nate's suggestion to build an amp from scratch is probably more your flavor, though the idea of doing something like that scares me I'll need to build a few more pcb based projects first before going all out like that, I think.

Thanks for the info, I hadn't checked on it as I assumed the typical mom-and-pop shop waiting method of "it'll be shipped when it's ready to be shipped".

Hurray for Crack! Placed my order a few days ago as well, looking forward to putting it together.

I think that buyer posted on head-fi. IIRC, spritzer's reply was that it was likely the set screw had gone loose hence the "turns round and round" part..

Giant amp with coolant lines running to a freezer next door?

First: Can you please describe the difference between the y2 and the Buffalo DAC? [/joke] I think the Bottlehead Crack + Speedball upgrade would be a good way to satiate your DIY needs. Heck, I went ahead and picked up a kit a few days ago when I saw they were actually available. Never done a P2P build before either so I think it'll be a good experience for me.

Does cryoing the wood make the sound more.....organic? Now what sort of watercooling are we talking about?

Wait, would this cmoy you speak of be encased in a wood enclosure? lol @ 400bhp V8

My goodness, is there anything you don't tinker around with?

A little bird told me that you need 60 amps to properly drive the K701's.

I like that knife, too bad I just missed out on it Grats on your purchase

Isn't the push vs pull problem more of a DAC and Transport design issue rather than an interconnect issue? I think I've seen some pro gear that have clock input/output for syncing, but I haven't seen anything of the sort within the consumer/audiophile world. Would something like Tent Lab's tentlink mode be an example of a push? It's still using spdif, but the clocks in the DAC and transport are synced via a separate connection. The only limitation to it AFAIK are the crystal frequencies available. What would you recommend as a non-defective protocol for transporting digital audio that's non-proprietary and DIY-able? I'm genuinely curious as I've been looking into the whole digital side of things as of late.

Yea...that's out of my budget, I paid $1300 shipped for the one I just got. The EX series isn't 3D either. I will probably never voluntarily buy a 3D tv because for me it's effectively paying more for lower resolution and more headaches.

Hence the LVDS driver on one end and a LVDS receiver on the other. Slightly tricker than just tapping the lines and running it to a jack, but certainly a bit more robust as far as I can tell. Basically just following PS Audio's posted schematics for what they used. I just haven't figured out where to source a panel mount HDMI jack (so far only found Neutrik's hdmi coupler) and some sort of breakout pcb for a 16-SOIC chip. Might have to try my hand at ordering a PCB if it comes down to it. Firewire? Wut's that?

How much does a Kuro Elite Signature go for? I remember looking at the prices a while back and thinking they were way out of my price range...

I was doing some brainstorming earlier about using a Squeezebox Touch modded with it's I2S lines connected to a LVDS driver to output I2S over HDMI/Cat5 (basically what PS Audio published), to a Buffalo II with a LVDS receiver. I think that'd be a decent transport method for a digital interconnect, eh?

Thanks, I would say the same for your purchases but I have no knowledge whatsoever of alcohol The TV is a Sony 52" EX700; I was originally shooting for a 46", but when Dell had a sale on the 52" I figured "why not?".

RCA is used on a lot of gear because it's become the de-facto standard (RCA audio -> RCA composite video -> RCA SPDIF was the general slippery slide down, IIRC). Not using it alienates a very large portion of a possible sales. Not including a BNC as well....that's just laziness/cheapness

Basically, only a BNC connector used with a proper spdif 75ohm cable will properly transfer the digital signal. RCA, by virtue of it's physical dimensions, is not a proper 75ohm connector. I believe that the devices on each end need to be properly terminated as well, but my knowledge is a bit fuzzy in that regard.