[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Hahahahahahahahaha

[atrocity]

http://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=NAM502

"The hardware of the M50.2 includes the latest generation of low power,
super high performance ARM processors. These have more computing power
than a PC from just a few years ago, yet rthey un cool and do not
require noisy fans."

Would I be completely nuts to be suspicious that someone may have put a
Pi in $3900 case?


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[ralphpnj]

Post by atrocity
Would I be completely nuts to be suspicious that someone may have put a
Pi in $3900 case?

Ya think?

No wait, that would never happen in such a well respected field like
high end audio. ;) (only kidding - of course you are most definitely NOT
crazy)



Living Rm: Transporter-SimAudio pre/power amps-Vandersteen 3A Sign. &
sub
Home Theater: Touch-Marantz HTR-Energy Veritas 2.1 & Linn sub
Computer Rm: Touch-Headroom Desktop w/DAC-Aragon amp-Energy Veritas 2.1
& Energy sub
Bedroom: Touch-HR Desktop w/DAC-Audio Refinement amp-Energy Veritas 2.0
Guest Rm: Duet-Sony soundbar
Garage: SB3-JVC compact system
Controls: iPeng; SB Controller; Moose & Muso
Server: LMS 7.9 on dedicated windows 10 computer w/2 Drobos
'Last.fm' (http://www.last.fm/user/jazzfann/)
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[Percival Sweetwater]

"The RS-232 and IR Input allow integration with home automation systems
as well."

Hmm, RS-232. That's pretty state of the art!


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[bakker_be]

Post by Percival Sweetwater
"The RS-232 and IR Input allow integration with home automation systems
as well."
Hmm, RS-232. That's pretty state of the art!

In fact that does make sense. It's highly unlikely some nodding
audiophile will want to update his home automation system because the
player can't connect to it, especially given that the demographic for
audiophiles having invested in extensive home automation and wanting to
integrate their music system into it must be a group of rather advanced
age ...



Main System: Touch; Marantz SR-5004 + TMA Premium 905 + TMA Premium 901
+ Teufel Ultima 20 Mk 2 + BK Monolith+ FF + Lenovo T460 + Kodi + Pioneer
PDP-LX5090H
Workshop: iPad 32GB Wifi + Squeezepad (local playback activated)
Wherever needed: Acer Iconia Tab A700 + Squeezeplayer
Kitchen: iPhone 5s + iPeng (local playback activated) + NAD 312 + Teufel
Ultima 20 Mk 2
Headphone (cozy corner): Lenovo T550 + Squeezelite-X + Cyrus Soundkey +
Topping A30 + Focal Elear
Car: TBC ...
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[Apesbrain]

If you've seen the inside of the NAD, you'd know it's more than a RPi in
a box. What they were thinking offering -any- gear at that price point
is beyond me, but it seems they know that now.

The Bryston BDP-Pi is another matter, but at least they don't try to
conceal it!

[image:
Loading Image...]

I have no problem with this if the price is fair. At $1,300 -- when I
can build a functionally equivalent piece for $150 plus an hour of my
time -- the BDP-Pi is borderline.


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[atrocity]

Post by Apesbrain
If you've seen the inside of the NAD, you'd know it's more than a RPi in
a box.

For some reason, I find that weirdly comforting. I guess I'm happy that
that they aren't quite THAT dishonest.

Post by Apesbrain
What they were thinking offering -any- gear at that price point is
beyond me, but it seems they know that now.

It probably bugs me more than normal people because I like DTS and AC-3.
So I'd just be using the plain old digital out, completely bypassing any
of the alleged super wonderful improvements.


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[ftlight]

Post by Apesbrain
If you've seen the inside of the NAD, you'd know it's more than a RPi in
a box.

So what *is* inside?

Bill


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[Golden Earring]

Post by ftlight
So what *is* inside?
Bill

Don't ask Bill, it's -technical-… :rolleyes:

Dave :cool:


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[ftlight]

Ah, you mean like a Hieronymus Machine:

https://josephmax.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/hieronymus_machine_1/


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[Golden Earring]

Post by ftlight
https://josephmax.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/hieronymus_machine_1/

Wow, Bill, you nearly got me there!

I followed your link, & was enjoying the "weird science" & reflecting
that with all those low voltage DC probes I might be able to cancel my
next appointment with the proctologist.

THEN, the clouds parted, a very bright light shone through & I heard a
commanding voice saying, "Sell ALL of your hi-fi immediately & buy one
of these contraptions!".

Summoning my dwindling willpower, I took a large dose of a 2nd
generation atypical antipsychotic medication that I happened to have to
hand.

I'm now feeling -slightly- better, but it was a close shave...

Dave ;)


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[ftlight]

Post by Golden Earring
Wow, Bill, you nearly got me there!
I followed your link, & was enjoying the "weird science" & reflecting
that with all those low voltage DC probes I might be able to cancel my
next appointment with the proctologist.
THEN, the clouds parted, a very bright light shone through & I heard a
commanding voice saying, "Sell ALL of your hi-fi immediately & buy one
of these contraptions!".
Summoning my dwindling willpower, I took a large dose of a 2nd
generation atypical antipsychotic medication that I happened to have to
hand.
I'm now feeling -slightly- better, but it was a close shave...
Dave ;)

In a foreshadowing of many future audiophile devices, John W Campbell,
the editor of Astounding Science Fiction magazine, and a big proponent
in the 1950s of the Hieronymus Machine, the Dean Drive, the Scientology
E-meter and other similar devices, showed by experiment that a schematic
of the Hieronymus machine drawn on paper worked just as well as the
device itself. This was, of course a not-at-all-double-blind test.

Bill


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[Golden Earring]

Post by ftlight
In a foreshadowing of many future audiophile devices, John W Campbell,
the editor of Astounding Science Fiction magazine, and a big proponent
in the 1950s of the Hieronymus Machine, the Dean Drive, the Scientology
E-meter and other similar devices, showed by experiment that a schematic
of the Hieronymus machine drawn on paper worked just as well as the
device itself. This was, of course a not-at-all-double-blind test.
Bill

I think at my age I'd rather get an Orgasmatron - it would save me a lot
of physical effort...

Dave :D


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[ftlight]

Post by Golden Earring
I think at my age I'd rather get an Orgasmatron - it would save me a lot
of physical effort...
Dave :D

I'd want the version that comes with Jane Fonda...

I have, however, sat in an Orgone box (sadly, to no effect):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orgone

Bill


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[Mnyb]

Well :) this is all fun , but if you really want to make fun of an
audiophool product there are far worse out there .
Except for the price this NAD product is quite “normal”

10-30 k$ dacs that performs worse than a 400$ DVD player from China for
example that is ofcourse adored by the high end magazines and more...



--------------------------------------------------------------------
Main hifi: Touch + CIA PS +MeridianG68J MeridianHD621 MeridianG98DH 2 x
MeridianDSP5200 MeridianDSP5200HC 2 xMeridianDSP3100 +Rel Stadium 3
sub.
Bedroom/Office: Boom
Kitchen: Touch + powered Fostex PM0.4
Misc use: Radio (with battery)
iPad1 with iPengHD & SqueezePad
(spares Touch, SB3, reciever ,controller )
server HP proliant micro server N36L with ClearOS Linux

http://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html
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[ralphpnj]

In a related event, today my monthly humor magazine, aka Stereophle,
arrived in the mail. Gracing this month cover is a wonderful piece of
audiophile equipment, namely the Apple HomePod.

Now to be fair, I read the entire HomePod review, written by Jim Austin,
and it was surprisingly informative and covered all the major points of
concern, namely design, construction and functionality. And while Mr.
Austin does mention that the device makes extensive use of DSP I still
feel that Stereophile and many of the other high end audio publications
have yet to come to terms with DSP, which at this point in time, is
being used just about everywhere.

Elsewhere in this month's Stereophile were the usual audiophile
suspects: an $8300 turntable (to better hear all that vinyl distortion),
mono power amps with one pair at $42,000 and another at $119,000 (this
price apparently is okay since "its construction quality is heroic"), a
$2000 a pair of monitor speakers and Roon Labs $2500 music server.

I just quickly scanned the Roon review and, of course, there is no
mention of the Logitech Squeezebox ecosystem, apparently vinyl and CD
are acceptable forms of aging technology but LMS is not. Go figure.



Living Rm: Transporter-SimAudio pre/power amps-Vandersteen 3A Sign. &
sub
Home Theater: Touch-Marantz HTR-Energy Veritas 2.1 & Linn sub
Computer Rm: Touch-Headroom Desktop w/DAC-Aragon amp-Energy Veritas 2.1
& Energy sub
Bedroom: Touch-HR Desktop w/DAC-Audio Refinement amp-Energy Veritas 2.0
Guest Rm: Duet-Sony soundbar
Garage: SB3-JVC compact system
Controls: iPeng; SB Controller; Moose & Muso
Server: LMS 7.9 on dedicated windows 10 computer w/2 Drobos
'Last.fm' (http://www.last.fm/user/jazzfann/)
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[Golden Earring]

Post by ralphpnj
I just quickly scanned the Roon review and, of course, there is no
mention of the Logitech Squeezebox ecosystem, apparently vinyl and CD
are acceptable forms of aging technology but LMS is not. Go figure.

Cheer up, Ralph - both turtles & crocodiles were around when there were
dinosaurs roaming the planet, & Natural Selection has found no avenue to
improve upon an already perfected design in the intervening period!

Dave :D


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[Jeff07971]

I cant see a Pi in there !

25252


+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Filename: NAD M50.2.jpg |
|Download: http://forums.slimdevices.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=25252|
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+


*Players:* SliMP3,Squeezebox3 x3,Receiver,SqueezeLiteX,PiCorePlayer
x3,Wandboard
*Server:* LMS Version: Latest Nightly on Centos 7 VM on ESXi 6.5.0U1 on
Dell T320
*Plugins:*
AutoRescan/BBCiPlayer/PowerSave/PowerSwitchIII/Squeezecloud/Spotty/Player
Groups
*Remotes:* iPeng9/Orangesqueeze/PC/Jivelite/SqueezeLiteX
*Music:* 522GB,1660 albums with 23087 songs by 5204 artists mostly
FLACs

*Want a webapp ?* See
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?104305-Webapp-for-LMS
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[Mnyb]

Well it’s NAD so i pobably actually just overengineered and overpriced
as it is a part of their best series.
No blatant cargocult engineering as tubes and nos dac and papper and oil
capacitors and other exoctica.
Not badly engineered but why choose this price point ? How many can they
sell then ?
Price is a part of the product so it’s set at this level for some reason
?

And ues a nice box 😊 expensive looking full size boxes are
actually expensive.
Many high end byuers may not realise how much of the pricing is the
boxes and strive to have as many separete boxes as possible ?

I’m happy with my rpi3 and HiFiBerry.

Also blueos is it’s own thing they have some possible consumer loock in
if one has more blueos products.
And it supports ROON who seems to be in with the high end crew just now.



--------------------------------------------------------------------
Main hifi: Touch + CIA PS +MeridianG68J MeridianHD621 MeridianG98DH 2 x
MeridianDSP5200 MeridianDSP5200HC 2 xMeridianDSP3100 +Rel Stadium 3
sub.
Bedroom/Office: Boom
Kitchen: Touch + powered Fostex PM0.4
Misc use: Radio (with battery)
iPad1 with iPengHD & SqueezePad
(spares Touch, SB3, reciever ,controller )
server HP proliant micro server N36L with ClearOS Linux

http://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html
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[philippe_44]

The problems with this kind of devices are

- whether you sell it for 400 or 3000, you won’t probable sell many more
- in fact you might sell less because audiophiles won’t find it credible
(too cheap)
- if you sell for 400, you don’t make enough money to survive
- and at the end, people spend huge amount of money for clothes which
quite often are a small piece of fabric, so why not for a players who’s
looks you like

Though I still agree that the claim of the magical quality features they
bring and how much sound is improved is very disturbing and fraudulent
... well once I saw people buying audiophile power cable a few years
ago, knowing that you might have 10s of meters of normal cable before
reaching your plug I lost faith in human intelligence



LMS 7.7, 7.8 and 7.9 - 5xRadio, 3xBoom, 4xDuet, 1xTouch, 1 SB2. Sonos
PLAY:3, PLAY:5, Marantz NR1603, JBL OnBeat, XBoxOne, XBMC, Foobar2000,
ShairPortW, JRiver 21, 2xChromecast Audio, Chromecast v1 and v2, , Pi
B3, B2, Pi B+, 2xPi A+, Odroid-C1, Odroid-C2, Cubie2, Yamaha WX-010,
AppleTV 4, Airport Express, GGMM E5
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[th00ht]

Just for kicks. A Pi3 with a HifiBerry Dac+ most likely sound the same.
For kicks I might connect it to a RavPower powerbank and I have hours of
unadulterated perfect sound for over 8 hours.

( now where did I put my snake oil...?)



Logitech Media Server 7.9.0 / Arch64 / 'ts-435 mini'
(https://www.qnap.com/en/product/model.php?II=189)
Living:'Transporter Second Edition (smashing wiki page!)'
(https://tinyurl.com/q7ff4xr), 'Touch'
(http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/Squeezebox_Touch), 'Denon AVR
1912' (https://tinyurl.com/p44yun7)' + two CM8, two CM1, CMC'
(http://www.bowers-wilkins.net/Speakers/Home_Audio/CM_Series)
Study:'Classic, Quad 303 + two Quad ESL 57'
(http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?43875-A-SB3-a-Quad-303-and-the-left-hand-ESL)
Kitchen:'piCorePlayer/Hifiberry DAC+ pro'
(https://www.hifiberry.com/products/dacplus/), 'Kanto YU2'
(http://www.kantoliving.com/product/yu2/)
'last.fm' (http://www.last.fm/user/th00ht), 'SoS, '
(https://tinyurl.com/pbzsf8l)'EAC' (http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/)
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[drmatt]

Like most hi-end hifi companies they just buy the software platform in
and do a bit of case/logo engineering for these types of products. As
these are low volume products (and always will be, they simply can't
make a lot of them) they need to make high margins. The buyers know
this, and they understand there is *some* value in the "rare" nature of
the product, whether it performs any different from anything else or
not. No intrinsic value, of course, just a perceptual value.

Personally I'm not interested in the rarity value and will stick to
digital sources that are well enough engineered to be reliable and no
more than that..


-Transcoded from Matt's brain by Tapatalk-



--
Hardware: 3x Touch, 1x Radio, 2x Receivers, 1 HP Microserver NAS with
Debian+LMS 7.9.0
Music: ~1300 CDs, as 450 GB of 16/44k FLACs. No less than 3x 24/44k
albums..
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[pablolie]

NAD is a pretty good brand all in all.

The M22 power amp uses Hypex. Yes, I am partial as per my sig. Sure
there are lower priced manifestations, but hey. It's one of those things
where you never have to worry about an amp again (ha- famous last
words).

Then again - who is so helpless they think they need an audio brand for
ripping and streaming stuff? Your chain starts at the DAC.



...pablo
Server: Virtual Machine (on VMware Workstation 14 Pro) running Ubuntu
16.04 + LMS 7.9
System: SB Touch --optical->- Benchmark DAC2HGC --AnalysisPlus Oval
Copper XLR->- NAD M22 Power Amp --AnalysisPlus Black Mesh Oval->- Totem
Element Fire
Other Rooms: 2x SB Boom; 1x SB Radio; 1x SB Classic-> NAD D7050 -> Totem
DreamCatcher + Velodyne Minivee Sub
Computer audio: workstation --USB->- audioengine D1 -> Grado
PS500e/Shure 1540
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