Jealous. My Kradikal2 Upgrade kit is still on order.
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Thank you for that. @anon4489532 Ive always struggled with speaker cable. So much choice. I’m using Kudos KS1 but also need to now think about aesthetics I.e invisibility! Take care.
I have, the ultra black is a step up
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Yes I have - I went through a number of cables from Chord and Tellurium on my previous system -
Spendors + Simaudio Moon - and I finally settled on the Ultra Black II for Speakers and interconnects.
That was what sounded best to me - I kept the UB2’s for my Olympica Nova’s but the interconnects had to go as they did not fit my SN3 - so I bought a Tellurium Q Din cable. - Also great
I also found that replacing the Nova speaker link plates with Tellurium Q jumpers made a difference
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Hi @IvdZ,
If I decide to buy new speakers, I’ll likely move away from Sonus Faber. For the first time in 20 years. The only model that has my interest in the current line-up is the Maxima Amator (I’ve owned the Amator IIs too). But at 15/16K they cost more than I’m willing to spend on speakers. Less important but still a factor, I’m not as much in love with SFs current looks as I used to love the classic models.
Richard
A Wet Goat from Tonar. Not very exciting I know (smelling salts anyone?), but essential kit for record cleaning..
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In March DCS is launching their new dac, the Ring APEX dac. It’s a hardware upgrade, so owners of the Rossini will be able to send their item for the Apex upgrade.
Don’t know the price. Maybe @Dunc knows ?
Yes apex upgrade for the rossini dac and player and the vivaldi dac.
It’s a new dac board and analog output stage apparently.
It’s apparently going to be a big inpovement and will take the rossini to a higher level than the vivaldi is now and push the vivaldi even further.
Dealers will be getting the apex versions in March and most will have both versions as dCS say the difference is easily heard and very confident in the new upgrade, that they want people to be able to hear both at the same time.
As for price then this is the nasty bit as like all other manufacturers prices have shot up lately and in the UK I believe it’s going to be £6000 so not cheap by any means, but will be interesting to hear them both and will be doing just that very soon.
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I was bothered by the tendency of Blu Tack to flatten out completely, as it put much of the speaker base in direct contact with the top plate of the stand, which is slightly uneven (Custom Design FS104).
To remedy this, I used small blobs of Black Tack - thicker and less likely to flatten out - with a single embedded Atabite (< 1mm thick). I can’t say it was a huge uplift in SQ, but it was good for peace of mind.
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Thanks Corry.
I have installed some gel pads from Atacama, only did that yesterday evening and I left home for work at 5.45 this morning for the red eye flight to London. Back on weds so will hopefully have time to see if it made any difference.
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Purists look away! Newly acquired Sony 1000ESD digital processing control amplifier feeding a 250/32.5/hicap from a Sony ES CD player…now ask me why?
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Hey, why are you feeding a newly acquired Sony 1000ESD digital processing control amplifier into a 250/32.5/hicap from a Sony ES CD player? 
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Funny you should ask…
short answer, I have no idea !
Long answer, I suppose you could argue you could use it for parametric room adjustment, or adjust the sound field or even to control multiple amps to create a 5.1 surround system…but the reality is, I love messing around with 80’s tech and, I have no idea !
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So this little fella arrived last week, a lovely used UnitiQute which was a real bargain from a very respected dealer.
It’s being used in our conservatory and is paired with some Bose jewel cubes and a Bose series 3 subwoofer. You can see the tiny jewel speakers in the 2nd picture above the door and window and the subwoofer is located underneath the corner sofa.
I previously has the full Bose Lifestyle setup with an active subwoofer with the system being fed by a Yamaha streamer. This has served me well and sounded quite respectable but ever really set the world on fire.
I wanted to improve the sound, simplify and also make it easier to use whilst keeping the system almost invisible so out has gone the Bose Lifestyle music centre, Yamaha streamer and active subwoofer and in it’s place the Qute and a passive subwoofer, a series 3 model from Bose.
It actually sounds remarkable, way better than it should do considering the constraints of the tiny speakers. It has that Naim engagement that was missing before. The passive subwoofer was an experiment as this had been used elsewhere and suffered from terrible boom when we used it in our kitchen, albeit it was place on top of the fridge freezer, a Muso QB replaced it!. The boom was partly mitigated using acoustic wool stuffed into the port but it never sounded great. In a larger room and with better placement the wool has been removed and for the most part the subwoofer has disappeared, both visibly and acoustically.
I work from home and the office is adjacent through the French doors so it gets plenty of use as it’s on all day. I’ve put together a Raspberry Pi powered off my Roon Rock which does the Roon to UPNP magic meaning I can control this from my PC. The tuner in the Qute also works well so I can have Jazz FM on via DAB which also sounds quite reasonable.
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Did you hear the nDAC before you sent it off?
No the nDAC is a total and utter punt! But it’s very low money. Not auditioned.
Intended to be used along with 252 (to be bought) whilst we decide on transport or streamer for the longer term. NDX2 might be a big ask just for a screen, and plenty people using ND5XS2 or other brands just as a transport with various DACs including nDAC.
nDAC is of an age so despite trusted dealer saying it was in perfect working order I decided to service just to be absolutely sure it’s tip top. Nothing to lose. I know from the trouble I’ve had getting one that if we don’t like it a freshly serviced nDAC will be no trouble to sell on.
I am very happy indeed feeding my nDAC with an ND5XS2 via DC1 (and powering it with a 555DR).
I wish you’d heard it before the service!
Hardly anyone has serviced an nDAC yet.
Anyway, please let us know how the run in process goes.
Well it’s an old piece of electrical equipment which I have no history for. Not sure I’d want to plug it into a 252, my XPSDR or my mains without it being checked out. That could have gotten expensive very quickly.
Dealer did say there’s very little to service, and having looked at photos of the internals on Google I can see some power reservoir caps which might be candidates and I think the nDAC has a discrete analogue output stage so I suppose naim might poke around in there and see if everything is still to spec.
I have wondered about getting a DC1 but I’ve some good quality digital cables lying here which used to connect up a Micromega CD transport & DAC so I will likely start with those.