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Review of HiFi ROSE RS150

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Background I've been playing around with DIY network streamers for quite some time now, started with a Beaglebone Black with i2s output, which was terrible, raspberry pi with various DAC hats and ended up listening to digital audio on an Intel i5 mini-itx in a very nice fanless case from Streacom (highly recommended) with a Soekris DAM1021 (another piece of hardware which is highly recommended). But i got bored of tinkering with stuff and thought to buy an off the shelf network streamer and a good R2R dac, which remains my favourite. I bought a new DAC, MUSICIAN Pegasus (Review Here  and measurements from Audio Science Review Here ) which is a very good piece of ChiiFi i got my hands on, very sturdy, excellent sound quality, albeit lacks some features people may be looking for like changing filters, headphone amp, etc. I am very happy with it as just a DAC. The Pegasus, hooked up to a Minis Forum UM700 mini PC running Daphile  was driving my Trafomatic Audio Experience MK2 ...

Vinyl versus Digital recordings

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I admit, i enjoy vinyl, not because it sounds "better" but because it sounds "different" to my ear, and hell yeah, some of them are really handsome to look at, can't have this on a CD or MP3: (Credits to Techmoan, one of my favourite YT channels) One time, some years ago, i got ridiculed by a friend because i spent 1k EUR on a pair of Klipsch speakers, because for him the pair of plastic Genius speakers were enough. I did not even got into an argument with him, but I've asked him why is he driving a Mercedes and not a Fiat. I had the same reasoning when i bought 1k speakers over 20 EUR speakers. But, i can understand that from his point of view, it does not matter if it's an MP3, CD or Vinyl, it really doesn't if you're not interested in such things, however i think it's a shame for poeple to not try to better themselves on occasion. I'm not saying you need to go invest 20k in your sound system, but when you're offered ...

Why power cables don't matter in High End audio systems

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I have a fairly high end audio system at home. The reason is simple, not that's anybody's concern but i like to listen to music in good conditions so that warrants a good, above average sound system for me. I sometimes am asked, and advised to buy expensive audio cables, silver plated, gold plated, thin, thick, covered in pink unicorn fart paint, etc. I don't. I build my own audio cables, why i do that, it's not the point of this post, power cables are. Yeah, i use regular IEC power cables, which mostly came with the equipment i bought or from my stash of PC power cables. They look ... plain, regular, boring, however they are not meant to impress anybody. They are black, blend well into the environment and they are not the centerpiece of my system. They need to do one job and one job only: conduct current. Back when, my god parent (who's a painter) and I, had long discussions about cables. Granted he's the main person that got me into Hifi, but i...