What have you been working on in 2020?

I’ve gone a bit in the opposite direction perhaps, somewhat counterintuitively I’ve found myself working more and with less free time in COVID times so I’ve gone the “time is money” route and invested in some expensive upgrades (speakers, amp, preamp, cables - only the DAC has survived) to get closer to “happily ever after” and not have to tweak and fuss so much. I have to say the plan has been a success and the system is sounding really wonderful. It was a lot of money but I’m happy with the returns.

(I did also get another rPi as a Roon endpoint but that was all of half an hour assembling and setting up. Pretty happy with how close to plug and play it is nowadays with Ropieee etc.)

I built a pair of Linkwitz LXMinis and made them completely voice-controlled.

Chain is Alexa/Amazon Music HD > DTS Play-Fi skill > Paradigm PW Link preamp > MiniDSP 2x4 HD > two stereo power amps > biamped LXMinis.

All equipment is plugged into an Amazon Smart Plug so turning it all on is voice-controlled with the command "Alexa, turn on stereo."

Can also stream wirelessly from PC using DTS Play-Fi.

Built a Pass Pearl phono preamp. I was mostly curious to see how much more is in my LPs, and it turns out there is indeed more in those grooves. I thought my Rogue Sphinx Phono stage was pretty darn good, and it is, but there’s just more through the Pearl. It also has more gain, 55 dB, than the Rogue and was being overloaded occasionally by my 5.5mV MM cart. So I switched to a LO Grado Timbre Opus3 (1mV) And very happy with the combo.

now adding LPs off Discogs.

I was finally able to get a low-angle jack and a block Veritas planes from Lee Valley in Canada and have mostly smoothed out some glued up white oak and cherry. I'm about to stain them black and aqua before I apply finish and attach some legs. The audio stand should be a stunner. And I'm shedding old Sonos amps and getting new Sonos amps. I just added a Frank Zappa station to my playlist.