Tír Na HiFi

Mike19 wrote:I joined Tir Na HiFi yesterday, but had been a guest for approx 2 years! The site is very educational and the anti-trolling stance saves valuable time. MQN and various types of advice on building/ powering computers interests me. I had not joined before because my laptop is too old to join in the MQN testing and although I was going to build my own audio pc from components my brother has offered me his fairly new laptop, so can't refuse. Have just ordered an Uptone Regen following advice here. I second rickmcinnis view - this is the best audio site I have come across, I read CA also, but there are too many question marks there and many heads buried in ther sand.
Mike

Agree with you & rickmcinnis - there is a healthy balance here which means things can progress without the usual trolling seen so often on others threads.

Let's hope we see more traffic here (of the right sort :))

Welcome aboard Mike as Rick pointed out things seem a bit quiet at the moment. Maybe too much happening last year and the year before and we all need a breather. I have struggled to find any time this year for a variety of reasons and suspect others are in a similar boat.

Also I think so much progress was made with the clocks/battery and LPS any big leap is hard to find now. In reality Nigel and Pearse have driven it and a lot of folk( I am an obvious case!) have clung to their coat tails.

The mobo power sounds worthwhile but I would be scared witless to do it myself or let either Nigel or Pearse at it. My mobo is a Nige 2 clock MSI board and I would be devastated if it was fried. Will have to buy some test mobo's shortly and maybe try it over the winter.

I think it's partly seasonal as sligolad says but also there's not so much innovation available to DIYers at the moment - probably because it's been done and it's out there and things are catching up for the next wave. From reading the various boards, if I was cynical, I'd say that recently there seems to be less interest in getting stuck in and blowing the occasional thing up. Personally, I had a nipper last year and after some initial resistance (which just resulted in even blearier eyes than if I'd just gone along with the standard sleep deprivation) I've pretty much hung up my soldering iron and enjoyed the time elsewhere.

What have I fiddled with over the last year:

- 1. Installed process lasso on both audio and control pc (on trial at moment)
- 2. Experimented with ethernet/fibre convertors and ended up just replacing the whole ethernet run from switch to audio PC with fibre whilst retaining convertors between control and audio PC
- 3. Swapping to blue jean LAN cables between control and audio pc (0.5m either side of fibre convertors)
- 4. Upgraded to latest PCB versions of Ian Canada's FIFO project in my DAC
- 5. Changed to dexa clocks in my pimped Twisted Pear / FIFO / NTD1 dual mono DAC
- 6. Bought a regen
- Waited another 12 months for a monster order from Paul Hynes...591 days since original order placed...

Disregarding price the priority order for SQ improvement on my system was as follows (best first):
5, 2, 1, 4 (this was needed for 5). I didn't notice much of anything with 6 or 3 but I think my system is so pimped anyway that the regen didn't stand much chance. I am going to change the clock in it though at some point.

When I finally get the Hynes order then I'll be able to:
- Complete individual RAM power on audio PC
- Remove Lifepo's throughout and have one on/off switch (so that my wife can actually switch it on!!)
- ...maybe even finish the project and put it in a box
- halt divorce proceedings ;-)

What about the future:
I'm very happy with my NTD1 but have a desire to try out a different DAC output stage.
Play with Roon once I upgrade my ipad.

So, What's the next wave of innovation?
IMO it'll probably USB getting replaced with I2S.
super simple or perhaps modular motherboards - these could easily be out by now but I've not really kept up.

It's great to be able to keep up with other people's endeavours through this forum even though I'm not actually doing much these days.
Cheers,
Crom

No question, even when it is slow there is a wealth of good stuff here for newcomers to slather over. Reading through the threads from beginning to end will reveal all kinds of great audio advice along with seeing the evolution of the ideas which gives you an indicator of where to go next.

Just not as breathtaking as it was when I first became aware of TIR NA but as crom correctly points out you just can't keep that up.

Discovering TIR NA is another of those things you wish you could experience AGAIN for the first time.

Still waiting for the resistors to be attached to my SOEKRIS board. Looking forward to doing my part on the computer forum when it gets back. I have a few ideas ...

Threads in most forums are endless churn between the various factions.