High Quality Signal Sources

[blockrocker]

i've gone the other way: i got tired of the complexity related to the d10 and daily driving. mostly i hate the helix director for daily driving

Would you mind elaborating on the d10 complexity and your dislike for the director? I've been thinking of the director myself, but much like the d10, I don't have any experience with the unit.
Thanks.

[nadams5755]

Sorry, are you saying I need special playback software to use this with my android phone?

you'll have to ask someone who's done this with an android phone for specifics. i guess it's a pain to play back content and get system sounds. none of my android stuff's been powered up since 2014. it's all running versions before google considered usb audio playback so i can't test.

Would you mind elaborating on the d10 complexity and your dislike for the director? I've been thinking of the director myself, but much like the d10, I don't have any experience with the unit.
Thanks.

the director knob is machined round, even inside, where it connects to the rotary encoder shaft. the only key for the director knob is a set screw which comes loose at least once a week with regular use. the looseness is either through deforming the encoder shaft metal or just loosening.

imo the inside is machined too large and not deep enough. it sits way too high from the director surface and can be easily rocked (and loosened), especially when you press it to mute.

also managing music on a phone screen, having the phone mounted in a place that's usable while driving, mounting the director in a place that's useful for driving.

[jrwalte]

The kenwoods frequency response won’t allow it to pass 192khz files over analogue and it doesn’t have digital outputs, your quality drops massively as soon as it enters the kenwood, compare it to wired into a topping d10 and be amazed, but I also get the wireless CarPlay convienience factor, but don’t pretend it any better than cd quality at most imo

Massive quality drop is subjective to one's hearing. I doubt it's that massive. It's at least cd quality if not better. I'm sure I'd be able to see benefits from 24-bit 48Khz, maybe even 96. But I have no way to test to know for sure. However, in the end, its quality is more than adequate for a daily driver and convenience factor for at least cd quality on a streaming service while being integrated with the car and easily controlled by the HU touchscreen.

[Omicron]

also, when you've got your interior apart to pull a toslink/optical cable, might as well pull a coax/spdif cable.

This. Love digi coax so much more than toslink.

[jrwalte]

also, when you've got your interior apart to pull a toslink/optical cable, might as well pull a coax/spdif cable.

Just to clarify the nomenclature, SPDIF is a standard for sending digital audio. Toslink (fiber) or coaxial cable (rca) are the two ways to transmit SPDIF.

[Bnlcmbcar]

I think Nadams5755 knows that.

He’s referring to the Coax being of the SPIDF specification. Coax cable doesn’t mean rca either. Different Coax cable can be used for other electrical signal types with various termination connectors. Coax actually refers to the cable having an inner conductor surrounded by a tube insulating layer.

[blockrocker]

This. Love digi coax so much more than toslink.

That's a sweet setup, super clean.

[jrwalte]

This. Love digi coax so much more than toslink.

I'm curious why? They both follow the exact same specification of SPDIF to transmit the digital signal from device to device. Technically there should be no difference in the bit for bit info transmitted.

[Bnlcmbcar]

Coaxial SPDIF is capable up to 24-bit/192kHz where as Optical SPDIF is usually restricted to 24bit/96kHz.

[dumdum]

Massive quality drop is subjective to one's hearing. I doubt it's that massive. It's at least cd quality if not better. I'm sure I'd be able to see benefits from 24-bit 48Khz, maybe even 96. But I have no way to test to know for sure. However, in the end, its quality is more than adequate for a daily driver and convenience factor for at least cd quality on a streaming service while being integrated with the car and easily controlled by the HU touchscreen.

Perhaps massive is the wrong word... but vs my alpine with usb input cymbals sound like actual cymbals, stage height gets higher (freq response is identical give or take 0.2db, decay happens, you can hear actual instruments sound real vs artificial with the alpine, a good comparison is a 20 dollar stereo swapping to a 200 dollar stereo, it was a big difference

i am a very analytical person so I was curious as to why, I didn’t want to say it sounded better if it was a freq response difference so I level matched the two sources and measured both to make sure what I was hearing wasn’t simple measurable conventionally if that makes sense, as I say identical from 200ish to 19.5k so the devil was indeed in the detail