What have you been working on in 2020?


New system? Getting into DIY? New bands?

I’d love to know what you’ve been doing that is audio-related this year. Dare I hope some of you have gotten soldering guns? Heat guns? Cables or caps?
For me, I’ve gotten into Roon and the Pi 4. Finally set up my combined 2-ch/HT set up with a new HT processor, and done a little blogging on Roon and subwoofers.  Last night I took my Pi 4 apart and added tiny little heat sinks to the RAM, USB and Ethernet chips.
erik_squires
slaw- Shelf, or Source Shelf? Music Direct? I have several by the way, different sizes, and a pile of MkIV Cones, Round Things, etc some used some NOS I guess you would say.
Research into eliminating RF noise in Ethernet cables and it’s effect on sound quality. Very enlightening. Have now developed a product that works very well to get rid of it.
In the process I’ve also made two identical Ethernet cables, one made from OCC copper, and the other OCC silver. Listening to the two, the silver one is so much nicer to listen to. I just wish I knew why!
Reigniting an old passion (which only took me as far as buying a mid-fi stereo) and pressing it into high gear, I’ve had a busy 2020:
  • I’ve put together a system: speakers, amplifiers (tube), DAC, CD transport, cables, power elements. Every element was researched and discussed with many people. (Thanks!)
  • I’ve experimented with three different high-res sources: Amazon HD, Qobuz, Tidal.
  • I joined two forums (Audiogon and Audiocircle), a local club (Colorado Audio Society) and had many private exchanges with hobbyists, dealers, friends.
  • I’ve started to learn room acoustics, uses of room correction software, and various possibilities such as absorbers, diffusors, and other room or system tweaks.
  • I’ve started looking into issues regarding aural memory, and the psychological effects of thrilling musical experiences ("frisson", as the literature calls it), and the relationship of deep attention upon the appreciation of high quality sound.
The next step is to push a lot of these things into the background and just sink into music.
Sold off some gear:

Tannoy Revolution xt 8 speakers
Polk Lsim 703 speakers
Hegel H 80
older NAD power amp

Bought some gear:

Tekton Enzo 2.7
Dynaudio emit m20
Musical Fidelity m3si
Audiolab 6000 CDT
Denefrips Ares 2
various power and preamp tubes for my 2 tube amps
more CD’s

DIY:
speaker cables - various experiments, braided ect.- currently enjoying Mogami coax - next up - cat 5 based cables
room treatment - bought and installed 7 absorbing panels
built decoupling platforms for the Enzo speakers
upgraded AC outlet

I’ve been listening to new (to me) artist and composers.
Creating play lists and burning CD’s from hard drive
Switching between amps and speaker combos just for fun




ErikI believe you helped me with loading the software on the RPI and mentioned you had a squeezebox type of setup at one point. That inspired me to build my own. Now I am looking at a few software options- Logitech media, Picore, possibly Roon, to expand the capabilities. Appreciate the ability to control from phone or touchscreen. Also considering a house wide rpi solution for streaming. I realize many want a more refined streaming approach, but for me, I haven’t seen any significant weaknesses that need improvement. The Hifiberry is also quite decent at DAC capabilities.