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
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.
Gone or going:Sim Audio MoonNeo 220i integratedCambridge Audio CXR 200 HT receiverOppo BDP 83New arrivals:Denafrips Aries II dacBonn N8 ethernet switchMusical Fidelity M6si integratedAnthem MRX 520 HT receiverNRG Power cables
Oh boy. Covid hit my retired lifestyle hard leading me to seek refuge in exercise and music to stay semi-sane

Biggest change was upgrading my Primaluna Prologue Six monos to Dialogue Premium after eight or so years. Other "work" was done to my Uptone JS-2 powered Roon Nucleus+ streaming setup. USB out via Cerious Link to an Uptone ISORegen to Synergistic Reference USB to aJS-2 powered Matrix X SPDIF 2 to Audioquest Mocha HDMI I2S into my PS Audio DirectStream DAC.

Upstream of that I added a Sonore opticalModule powered by an HDPlex LPS via fiber to my EtherREGEN powered by an Sbooster LPS then via Synergistic Reference CAT6 to the Nucleus+

A couple of Synergistic Atmosphere power cords and all Blue Fuses replaced by SR Orange.

Happy boy...