It's been my impression that reviewers hold flagship products to a higher standard than more affordable models. It's pretty natural to do that as we expect near perfection for the top-of-the-line model. The G4 upgrade for a K50 G2 brought one of the most significant improvements that I've...

He was one of the first to introduce an audiophile switch. I actually owned his first one for a while. Very subtle improvement but I used the stock SMPS. His subsequent switches apparently got a lot better.

Glad to hear that my avatar serves its intended purpose. :xf_smile:

The PhoenixNET will make gains from a K50 even more profound. But it will do that as well for your K21, but it can't undo all the harm that your current server does to the music.

Myantipodes rarely stops working. If it fails to discover servers, the problem is typically with the device one is using to access that page. A VPN or something like iCloud Private Relay can prevent myantipodes from finding anything because they tell the internet that you are located somewhere...

Christiaan Punter has a review or two out there where he provides excellent insight into the benefits of going from a single to two box solution. While my preferences deviate from his slightly, his observations about Antipodes servers have seemed spot on. He has great ears and is excellent at...

I harm that I observed most with FMCs and SFPs was that they caused the treble to get hot so that it was more difficult to enjoy the music. It was quite surprising to be able to hear that even the FMC or SFP used upstream could cause that harm to be easily heard. I no longer notice that harm...

Not a bad place to draw the line. I embarked back when there weren't that many options for reducing the harm a network can introduce. That's not the case today, but I still don't have any plans to deviate from what I've done. I'm happy with the results.

Better to go for the U18 before a clock.

Always best though to let your ears decide. There’s a chance you might hear an improvement. It really depends on the rest of your system. The Finisar FMCs that I use cost me like $25 each on eBay. I don’t remember which model, but it could have been the FTLF1318P3BTL. Plenty of those on...

When the topic of fiber comes up, there tend to be some who are inclined to make generalizations. The problem with that is that fiber can be implemented in ways that don’t serve audio well. It can also be implemented in ways that serve audio very well, but it takes additional cost and care to...

The Mojo 2 differs from the Mojo 1 in that a component was removed from the output path. This component aimed to give the Mojo 1 a warmer sound so it was essentially acting as an EQ. With the Mojo 2 having EQ via DSP that component was no longer needed. Removing it improved transparency...

This section has been greatly expanded. Charts are now provided to refute the critics. Even if the myths don’t interest you, you may find the explanations awfully-interesting.

I hear benefits from HQPlayer with my ESS DAC - so much so that I recently upgraded to HQPlayer 5. If it was a waste for me to spend that money then I want to hear why so I can take that into account next time I need to pay an upgrade free. I can’t see why this wouldn’t be the thread to ask...

I’m glad to see you raising this here. It was said that the ESS chip will “undo” the benefits of upscaling. I would be interested to hear from a knowledgeable person as to whether this was a valid assertion.

You may start to see an increase in the spread of disinformation about PGGB now that PGGB supports DSD. I was thus pleased to see a new addition to the PGGB website that addresses the common myths and half truths: https://www.remastero.com/faq-plus.html#Myths Often the smear merchants rely on...

This is a good assessment. I do think they reproduce timbre well so that makes them a good choice for music featuring acoustic instruments. Not really much in the way of slam, but microdynamics are quite good.

No I wasn’t. My use of HQPlayer has been for PCM scaling using sinc-M or sinc-L with NOS mode turned on. I only occasionally used it for DSD scaling but never liked what I heard. Why would misrepresent what I was doing? Rhetorical question. It’s obvious why you would. You also...

That was what was recommended when PGGP only output PCM. The guidance has changed with DSD. You should ask before leaping to conclusions. It’s ridiculous to post measurements at the output unless measurements can be devised that would illustrate the improvements. But that’s no needed as PGGB...

The display on mine is a little screwed up, but hopefully you can see that 24.5 is being displayed. This plays without issue via an Antipodes K50 running Squeeze. The driver is the ALSA driver that ships with some flavors of Linux, I believe.

The conclusion that should be drawn from that is that the improvements PGGB offers must be awfully profound if even that is not enough to keep them from being observed. Further, the improvements should be even more profound with DACs that offer a pure path for DSD. I think we will soon see...

It doesn’t push any rate on any DAC. It gives people the option to choose the rate. Same as HQPlayer. What sense does it make to ask a member of the trade to ask about a competitor’s product? First off, the terms of service here clearly state that “A Member of the Trade may not post...

Actually I should continue responding to you as you keep helping my cause. Clearly you aren’t familiar with the first law of holes.

You are now trying to gaslight me so I won’t be responding to you again. I accomplished what I hoped to accomplish, which was to let others see how much your opinions on upscaling are worth. You helped me accomplish that.

Because if you actually had heard it, the opinion you expressed would actually sound informed. You would be actually able to comment in a way that reflected reality instead of just regurgitating the false narrative that’s been fed to you. Thousands of listening comparisons have confirmed that...