What New Stuff Have You Bought? If You Care To Share Thead! :)

[-Jim-]

Tickets to see The Doobie Brothers later this year!

 

[afterlife2]

I recently bought a LOT of wallpaper stripper, 24lbs of joint compound to fix horsehair plaster walls after stripping, some 9 different gallons of paint, lots of paint rollers, a few good brushes, a new ceiling fan, new carpeting, and was gifted a few of my professional artist brother's nice oil-on-canvas paintings to decorate the "Jeweled Peach" walls. Still a few more little things to buy, add, and/or make for the room, but 90% or better where I wanted to be.
View attachment 61492

Ken looks fantastic! Enjoy!

 

[adk highlander]

I recently bought a LOT of wallpaper stripper, 24lbs of joint compound to fix horsehair plaster walls after stripping, some 9 different gallons of paint, lots of paint rollers, a few good brushes, a new ceiling fan, new carpeting, and was gifted a few of my professional artist brother's nice oil-on-canvas paintings to decorate the "Jeweled Peach" walls. Still a few more little things to buy, add, and/or make for the room, but 90% or better where I wanted to be.
View attachment 61492

Yeah man. Looking fabulous!

 

[crazyfingers]

A bit of background. Having recently retired I've been reviving my hifi. It had mostly stayed the same since around 1992. I had dug my old vinyls out of the garage and found a place to set up the turntable. I got a Ortofon 2M Blue cartridge for it.

I few years ago I got a Bose Soundtouch link to connect my computer music library to the old Adcom preamp.

But recently I noticed two things. 1: The Bose frequently went off-line whether in it's native mode or when using Apple Airplay from iTunes. I found this very annoying. 2: The Adcom started to show some age. When using the balance one side would just go totally dead. I had to keep it slightly off balance for both speakers to play.

So I started to search for a solution to both the streaming of my library and the old Adcom preamp.

A week ago I got a NAD C 658 BluOS Streaming DAC Preamplifier

C 658 - NAD Electronics

The NAD C 658 is a new kind of stereo component, one that at once changes preconceptions and opens new possibilities for audio reproduction. You see, there has never before been a component offering such a rich palette of both new and proven technology.

nadelectronics.com

After pulling my hair out for 12 hours over the lack of clear instruction on linking it to my music library and finally getting it right after determining that the instructions are actually wrong, it's working perfectly.

The sound I'm getting is definitely superior to what I had been getting with the Adcom and the Bose. And I'm delighted with it.

 

[lovinthehd]

A bit of background. Having recently retired I've been reviving my hifi. It had mostly stayed the same since around 1992. I had dug my old vinyls out of the garage and found a place to set up the turntable. I got a Ortofon 2M Blue cartridge for it.

I few years ago I got a Bose Soundtouch link to connect my computer music library to the old Adcom preamp.

But recently I noticed two things. 1: The Bose frequently went off-line whether in it's native mode or when using Apple Airplay from iTunes. I found this very annoying. 2: The Adcom started to show some age. When using the balance one side would just go totally dead. I had to keep it slightly off balance for both speakers to play.

So I started to search for a solution to both the streaming of my library and the old Adcom preamp.

A week ago I got a NAD C 658 BluOS Streaming DAC Preamplifier

C 658 - NAD Electronics

The NAD C 658 is a new kind of stereo component, one that at once changes preconceptions and opens new possibilities for audio reproduction. You see, there has never before been a component offering such a rich palette of both new and proven technology.

nadelectronics.com

After pulling my hair out for 12 hours over the lack of clear instruction on linking it to my music library and finally getting it right after determining that the instructions are actually wrong, it's working perfectly.

The sound I'm getting is definitely superior to what I had been getting with the Adcom and the Bose. And I'm delighted with it.

FWIW you might be able to clean the balance control with something like a Deoxit control cleaner on the old preamp....

 

[crazyfingers]

FWIW you might be able to clean the balance control with something like a Deoxit control cleaner on the old preamp....

Thanks. And sell it maybe. But it has nostalgic value to me too. A quick search I see that the selling price of a used unit is about $200-$500. Not bad.

 

[lovinthehd]

Thanks. And sell it maybe. But it has nostalgic value to me too. A quick search I see that the selling price of a used unit is about $200-$500. Not bad.

Or just fix it and use it, still well functioning otherwise hopefully....

 

[crazyfingers]

Or just fix it and use it, still well functioning otherwise hopefully....

Well, I have no use for it now. I'm sure one of my sons will ask for it some day.

It can sit with the other unused components. But I will need to rearrange things because small slim things like this are on top. Another component I loved at one time but now have no use for. I used to have a lot of things attached to the stereo and this was really the heart of it. There are a lot of unused and old components around here.

 

[John Parks]

These are arriving today - got a good price from our Amazonian overlords. My AKG N400’s left earbud won’t charge, and therefore won’t connect/play. A shame, really as they sound utterly fantastic. I was going to see if I could purchase another pair ($50 from the AKG site was a screaming deal) but they have been discontinued. In-the-know sellers are charging a premium so I’m going a new direction. I’ve read some good reviews on the Technics and thought I would give them a try at 1/2 off…

 

[John Parks]

Also arriving today, courtesy of Bezos:
The Fragile: Deviations 1 https://a.co/d/1zQH2ds

Instrumental versions of my fav NIN album, which is great because I love the music, not necessarily Trent’s (sometimes) whiny voice. Now if they would do the same for Halsey’s latest… Anyway, this one is vinyl only, not available streaming.

 

[panteragstk]

Got me one of these today.

JBL Boombox 3 | Portable speaker

The JBL Boombox 3 has a bold new update, unleashing much deeper bass and massive JBL Original Pro Sound, in a new waterproof and dustproof design.

www.jbl.com

This is the most impressive Bluetooth speaker I've heard. The amount of bass this little thing is capable of is quite impressive. It is heavy though.

 

[lovinthehd]

Got me one of these today.

JBL Boombox 3 | Portable speaker

The JBL Boombox 3 has a bold new update, unleashing much deeper bass and massive JBL Original Pro Sound, in a new waterproof and dustproof design.

www.jbl.com

This is the most impressive Bluetooth speaker I've heard. The amount of bass this little thing is capable of is quite impressive. It is heavy though.

Curious, what's your use for such?

 

[ryanosaur]

Got me one of these today.

JBL Boombox 3 | Portable speaker

The JBL Boombox 3 has a bold new update, unleashing much deeper bass and massive JBL Original Pro Sound, in a new waterproof and dustproof design.

www.jbl.com

This is the most impressive Bluetooth speaker I've heard. The amount of bass this little thing is capable of is quite impressive. It is heavy though.

I've been very impressed with the Extreme 2 I bought last year. My only complaint is that there isn't any EQ feature to adjust some of that Bass. Even the Extreme 2 seems a touch bloaty at times.

 

[crazyfingers]

I've been preparing for my iPod Classic 7th Gen 160gb drive to start acting up. It doesn't go out anymore. It stays on my bed for reading in bed music. In just the last 2 weeks I've hit it's storage limit and need to prune what I put on it.

About 2 months ago I got this Fiio M11S. I'd give it 4.5 stars. It gets dinged for battery life.

I wanted a dedicated music player.

I wanted really good sound, wired capability, MicroSD slot, tactile controls so that I don't need to take it out of my pocket or turn around in bed to control it, but also strong music sorting. A good DAC of course. FLAC and ALAC capability.

Battery life is disappointing but that seems to be standard these days for higher end players. 14 hours. My iPod Classic in it's prime could do 18 hours, close to 24 hours when I used my powered headphones instead of having the iPod power the headphones. But I'm unlikely to be away from at least a battery pack charger for long.

The supplied ap is good. It does what it needs to do to show my music correctly and sensibly.. I would suggest a few ergonomic changes to the software. But it's an Android so there are lots of other music aps out there.

M11S

M11S Hi-Res Portable Music Player，Audio data is passed through a FiiO-developed 4th-gen FPGA with phase-locked loop technology, which works together with two custom femtosecond crystal oscillators to provide a high-precision and low jitter unified clock source for the entire audio...

www.fiio.com

Amazon.com

 

[panteragstk]

I've been very impressed with the Extreme 2 I bought last year. My only complaint is that there isn't any EQ feature to adjust some of that Bass. Even the Extreme 2 seems a touch bloaty at times.

That's what I like about this one. It's got an EQ app that works pretty well so far.

 

[panteragstk]

Curious, what's your use for such?

Basically I use it when I do anything outdoors and want to listen to music. It can be subtle, or it can be loud as hell.

I had considered doing outdoor speakers connected to another system, but I just don't really want to mess with it considering the amount of effort it would actually take. This is much easier and more portable till I figure out something more permanent. The SQ of this thing is much higher than I expected and if I get a second one they let you do stereo pairs. It'd be difficult to recreate that with outdoor speakers. At least the ones I've heard.

I got a deal at $90 off a refurbished unit. Got a 2 year warranty for $20 so if it craps out, I'm covered.

 

[ryanosaur]

That's what I like about this one. It's got an EQ app that works pretty well so far.

Ah! Iv’e been seriously impressed with what I have, and wanted something smallish for ease of transport. My complaint about it is pretty minor and not too bad. It would be nice if they extended that EQ to other products!!!!

 

[panteragstk]

Ah! Iv’e been seriously impressed with what I have, and wanted something smallish for ease of transport. My complaint about it is pretty minor and not too bad. It would be nice if they extended that EQ to other products!!!!

Hmm. The release notes have your model in them. I wonder if only certain speakers get the EQ feature?

Download the JBL Portable app to get the most out of your JBL portable speakers and unlock more features.
Compatible with the following speakers:
- Flip 6, Flip 5, Flip 4, Flip 3
- Charge 5, Charge 4, Charge 3
- Pulse 5, Pulse 4, Pulse 3, Pulse 2
- Xtreme 3, Xtreme 2, Xtreme
- Boombox 3, Boombox 2, Boombox

 

[ryanosaur]

Hmm. The release notes have your model in them. I wonder if only certain speakers get the EQ feature?

Download the JBL Portable app to get the most out of your JBL portable speakers and unlock more features.
Compatible with the following speakers:
- Flip 6, Flip 5, Flip 4, Flip 3
- Charge 5, Charge 4, Charge 3
- Pulse 5, Pulse 4, Pulse 3, Pulse 2
- Xtreme 3, Xtreme 2, Xtreme
- Boombox 3, Boombox 2, Boombox

I think that's the case. I do have the app installed.

 

[panteragstk]

I think that's the case. I do have the app installed.

So all you get is the ability to stereo pair? That's dumb.