Peter, thanks for your post. This is very encouraging for me especially, since I play a lot of vinyl. I would love to try XLR, but unfortunately, my Allnic H1201 is RCA only. I hope you find a music server that suits you. I've been pretty pleased with my Aurender X100L. It sounds good to me, I can stream TIDAL through it, and it has 6 TB of storage.
Lyngdorf TDAI-3400
Well, after reading all the rave reviews of the Lyngdorf TDAI-2170 both here and other places, I decided to order a TDAI-3400 for myself. I must admit I am still skeptical that such a diminutive piece of equipment can sound better than the Primaluna Dialogue Premium HP tube amp weighing more than 50 lbs, but I have been so intrigued by everything I have read I simply had to pull the trigger.
I just unboxed it today, hooked everything up, and am listening to it for a while before setting up Room Perfect.
I really want to hear the what the amp sounds like as-is for a bit to understand it better.
First impressions: Without Room Perfect it sounds like very nice solid state amps I've owned in the past, but to be honest, I don't find the sound to be particularly moving. I moved to tubes after years of solid state, and I swore I would never go back. That is where I'm coming from. I should also add that I always try to keep an open mind. While my initial take on it might sound like I don't like it, I hope folks just read this as me being as honest as possible about what I hear. I know the tendency when buying new gear is to want so badly to love it in order to justify the expense that it's easy to fool oneself into believing it's an improvement over what you had before, even when it's not. Of course I really want it to be as mind blowing as it has been built up in my mind to be, but if it's not I am OK with simply moving back to what I have liked so far.
I have only been playing records through it so far. Analog makes up 98% of my listening so that's where I am starting with it. I have a nice CD transport that I will connect to it in the next day or so just to hear the DAC in the unit. I will also experiment with playing files from USB sticks, computer audio from my MacBook Pro, and whatever else I decide. I am not prepared to purchase a music server just yet, but it's something I have thought about for a while.
My system: speakers are Harbeth Monitor 40.1's. Turntable is an SME 20/2 with SME IV.iv tonearm and Kiseki Purple Heart cartridge, fed to a Parasound JC-3+ phono preamp. Power conditioner is Audioqest Niagara 7000. CD transport is a Wadia 8.
I will report back as I have more time to experiment and let the amp break in.
I just unboxed it today, hooked everything up, and am listening to it for a while before setting up Room Perfect.
I really want to hear the what the amp sounds like as-is for a bit to understand it better.
First impressions: Without Room Perfect it sounds like very nice solid state amps I've owned in the past, but to be honest, I don't find the sound to be particularly moving. I moved to tubes after years of solid state, and I swore I would never go back. That is where I'm coming from. I should also add that I always try to keep an open mind. While my initial take on it might sound like I don't like it, I hope folks just read this as me being as honest as possible about what I hear. I know the tendency when buying new gear is to want so badly to love it in order to justify the expense that it's easy to fool oneself into believing it's an improvement over what you had before, even when it's not. Of course I really want it to be as mind blowing as it has been built up in my mind to be, but if it's not I am OK with simply moving back to what I have liked so far.
I have only been playing records through it so far. Analog makes up 98% of my listening so that's where I am starting with it. I have a nice CD transport that I will connect to it in the next day or so just to hear the DAC in the unit. I will also experiment with playing files from USB sticks, computer audio from my MacBook Pro, and whatever else I decide. I am not prepared to purchase a music server just yet, but it's something I have thought about for a while.
My system: speakers are Harbeth Monitor 40.1's. Turntable is an SME 20/2 with SME IV.iv tonearm and Kiseki Purple Heart cartridge, fed to a Parasound JC-3+ phono preamp. Power conditioner is Audioqest Niagara 7000. CD transport is a Wadia 8.
I will report back as I have more time to experiment and let the amp break in.
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- 138 posts total
Peter, thanks for your post. This is very encouraging for me especially, since I play a lot of vinyl. I would love to try XLR, but unfortunately, my Allnic H1201 is RCA only. I hope you find a music server that suits you. I've been pretty pleased with my Aurender X100L. It sounds good to me, I can stream TIDAL through it, and it has 6 TB of storage. |
@JCarcopo, I took a look at the manual for the 3400, and here are some things that appear to me may be worth trying: 1) There is a limiter function that can be engaged via the menus. Try that, if you already haven’t. 2) The section in the manual on RoomPerfect states as follows: You can always add room measurements to increase the RoomKnowledge, and if you have a bit too much bass, we recommend taking a couple of measurements within 50cm/1.5ft of the walls and ceiling when above 90% RoomKnowledge.Perhaps doing that would resolve the problem, while not reducing overall bass response to an unacceptable degree. 3) After looking at the manual the answer to the question I raised previously still isn’t clear to me, namely whether or not the unit can provide visibility into the specific characteristics of the room corrections. Perhaps that can be obtained in the screens that are depicted in the "Voicing Setup" section of the manual, or perhaps not. But if it can be, seeing exactly what the corrections are may provide a clue as to how to address the problem. And perhaps the solution would be creation of a suitable "voicing filter," to reduce the magnitude of one or more specific boosts the RoomPerfect function has introduced. Good luck. Regards, -- Al |
@almarg Thanks for the help. I already have the limiter engaged. Lyngdorf finally got back to me, apparently my issue ticket was left on the wrong desk. They want me to upload a copy of the backup settings to drop box and let them analyze it to see what's going on. There's is a dip around 100hz based on a prior manual room correction measurement using REW. It was being corrected through Roon though not as aggressively, but the Lyngdorf can add up to 10db of gain to compensate. This should still allow me to turn the unit volume up to 0db, but I'm having issues at -7db so something isn't right. I'll get the file to Lyngdorf so maybe they can shed some light on what's going on. |
I've had my eye on the TDAI-2170 and now the 3400. I came across this YouTube video comparing I believe a tube setup vs. the 3400. I know you can't judge sound quality thru a YouTube video, but I definitely thought the snare drum was a lot more believable with the tube setup. Any one else hear the same thing? Gary https://youtu.be/2AEzr6MhYpU |
- 138 posts total