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Re: WTB cheap Roon endpoint

February 19th, 2021, 1:54 pm

Roscoe,

I am cheating a bit and building the two channel kit version on DIYAudio.com. The basic circuit is the same, but there are provisions for connecting in balanced, bridged, or parallel mono mode AND it now uses a 24V SMPS instead of the 19V in the NP article. So a bit more power and alot of flexibility.

David

Re: WTB cheap Roon endpoint

February 19th, 2021, 3:26 pm

They're up to V1.8 - single chassis and a few updates, as is noted by David. Here's the link to the kit: https://diyaudiostore.com/collections/k ... 2933085218

Re: WTB cheap Roon endpoint

February 19th, 2021, 3:35 pm

The only difference between v1.6 and v1.8 is rear panel wiring, so if you are just ordering boards, the v1.6 boards are the current version. Just a heads up.

David

Re: WTB cheap Roon endpoint

February 20th, 2021, 9:21 am

Got the second ACA built last night and burning in overnight. So have a pair of them as monoblocks on my nearfield setup in the basement. Have them running in parallel mono on my 4 ohm Aria 5R speakers. They are rated around 16W each in this setup. They sound tighter and a bit more detailed than using an ACA as single stereo amp. They are very nice sounding amps. Pete, I will let them run in for a few days and you can borrow them to try out whenever you are ready. They will need a preamp.

David

Re: WTB cheap Roon endpoint

February 22nd, 2021, 10:33 am

Cool. I always use a preamp, never liked the sound I heard with volume enabled DACs going directly to amps.


David McGown wrote:Got the second ACA built last night and burning in overnight. So have a pair of them as monoblocks on my nearfield setup in the basement. Have them running in parallel mono on my 4 ohm Aria 5R speakers. They are rated around 16W each in this setup. They sound tighter and a bit more detailed than using an ACA as single stereo amp. They are very nice sounding amps. Pete, I will let them run in for a few days and you can borrow them to try out whenever you are ready. They will need a preamp.

David

Re: WTB cheap Roon endpoint

February 22nd, 2021, 11:37 am

My situation is I don't currently have a decent preamp, outside of the Topping unit I have at my computer. I am at the start of building a 12B4 preamp, since I have around 20 or more RCAs and GE JAN sitting around unused. So until I get that built, I cannot listen to the amps in my main system.

David

Re: WTB cheap Roon endpoint

February 22nd, 2021, 11:46 am

Does the gain structure of your system stop you from using your passive attenuators? You could run the amps singled ended bridged mono RCA input? I have a fully balanced pre (Ayre) but no long balanced interconnects so would probably try them this way with my autoformer preamp.

David McGown wrote:My situation is I don't currently have a decent preamp, outside of the Topping unit I have at my computer. I am at the start of building a 12B4 preamp, since I have around 20 or more RCAs and GE JAN sitting around unused. So until I get that built, I cannot listen to the amps in my main system.

David

Re: WTB cheap Roon endpoint

February 22nd, 2021, 12:03 pm

The gain structure works well with amps with a good amount of front end gain. I can boost the gain on the Qutest from 2V to 3V output, and gain is adjustable on my phonostage, so I might be able to do it, but I have been using passives for years and all of my DIY amps take that into account. What would be helpful in my normal setup is to have a unity gain (buffer), so I may be able to design this for operating either as a gain stage or follower with some internal reconfiguration.

David

Re: WTB cheap Roon endpoint

February 24th, 2021, 4:29 pm

Been listening to the Nucleus+ with the Keces P8 PS. The Nucleus+ pulls between .4A to .6A (during upgrade) so a 10A PS might be a bit overkill? :D

Sound is different. <Insert all the standard PS upgrade clichés here> So it sounds somewhat softer, smoother, less digital. No a huge difference, just a bit less in your face. At first I thought the bass was deeper/stronger (the all time mother of PS upgrade clichés) but then realized that the slightly softer, almost rolled off presentation was making the bass more prominent in the mix. So while it is subtle overall, it is enough to refocus my attention within the overall gestalt.
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Re: WTB cheap Roon endpoint

February 24th, 2021, 4:53 pm

Pete,

I am surprised about how little power it draws, that is 7.6W. Of course, if you turned on DSP Upsampling the CPU will start working harder, but for a streamer you don't want that (and kind of defeats the purpose of a NOS DAC). I would say that it doesn't pull much more power than a Pi.

I think the power supply changes are usually subtle unless you have a really poor PS you are using. For instance, the el-cheapo 5V/3A DC LPS powering my JCAT USB card was significantly worse sounding compared to my SBooster 5V supply when I switched to it. It was not subtle. The cheapo supply was running really hot besides, I cannot think that powering an USB and Ethernet card would demand the power it seemed to be delivering. The SBooster is cool in comparison.

David
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