Photos Latest Purchases Thread: v2.0

What tablet/e-reader is that, G? It looks like a nice (and probably expensive) one.

 

Popped up my local Lidl for some odds and ends and saw this. Now I guess I should complete the collection.

 

M0AR POWARRRRR. In a very unassuming box.



Specifically, a 6ch Hypex NC502MP amp courtesy of KJF Audio

 

That seems a very reasonable price.

 

When you simply must have moar capacitorz.

 

I thought so.

More keenly priced than the likes of the "established" Hypex OEMs, e.g. Nord or Apollon etc owing to being a very low volume upstart.

And far more keenly priced than "proper" AV manufacturers that sprinkle some fairy dust on theirs and charge nigh on £1000/channel

I would have ordered something ages ago, but I've been undecided between Nord and Apollon. The equivalent amps are comparably priced at £2100 or thereabouts. Apollon have extremely tidy builds, but being outside the UK is a turn off. Photos of Nord's builds didn't inspire me with confidence and getting them to answer questions was like getting blood from a stone, but they're in the UK.

Came across mention of KJF on one of the forums, did a bit of research, bounced some emails back and forth (extremely helpful and responsive) and all being well in a few weeks it will turn up on my doorstep.

I'll be trying it both bridged and bi-amped for my L/C/R channels, also conventionally with the surrounds added to see what I reckon.

 

I perhaps should have added an emoji or two, because I'm really not that bothered TBH . I'll never move away from an iPhone again - no one else offers the same user experience as iOS does, no one supports their products with updates and patches for as long as Apple does. My next tablet will be an iPad for pretty much exactly the same reasons - I've tried Android (many many different versions, from Honeycomb all the way to Pie), Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows 10, various different touch-oriented Linux distros, and nothing comes close to matching an iPad.

When they used x86 silicon the only thing that Apple offered different to every other PC on the market was Mac OS, and that wasn't enough to get me over the high price tag. The M1 CPUs offer something genuinely different to x86 and that price barrier is actually going down - but they still need to fix the issues with SSDs being thrashed and machines being bricked when used with third-party hubs.

I can't say I've ever used any other smart watches (besides a Fitbit Surge, which doesn't really count), but so far the Apple Watch experience is pretty damn good.

Untethered phone-free fitness tracking was the main reason I got the watch in the first place. I've not tried Fitness+ yet, but I got three free months when I bought the watch so I will probably check it out - AFAIU you can 'second screen' it with the Apple TV, so that'll be handy.

 

Because the old one made the magic smoke :

 

Euch, that reminds me. I keep thinking about switching to a fully modular PSU. I've got bundles of cables for devices that just don't exist in my build (thanks m.2!) and all the stuff that needs that kind of power has its own end on it to plug directly in to the PSU rather than use adapters and have six unnecessary feet of cable..

I bought some baking soda to try out a different approach to basing rather than sand.

Also some CD's because apparently that's a thing I do.

Also a slice of Padouk wood to make a knife stand.

 

I did move to a fully modular Corsair RM750x last year and it's just so much nicer to work with. I had a partially modular PSU before and that was nice, this is just perfect.

 

Yeah, the one I have is an ancient Corsair partially modular one, and it's mostly fine, but I'd rather eliminate as much cabling as possible..

 

Based on the previous discussion about microwaves and needing one for the first time due to impending kitchen destruction:

Panasonic flatbed jobby

 

Cable bits, for 6 garden variety cables, and 3 very much not garden variety cables where pins 2/3 are swapped on the XLR.
I might get some day-glo heatshrink to make sure the latter three of appropriately marked now thinking about it.

 

Noice balanced stuffs. I haven't played with XLR since the early 90s on my first Linn setup. LK1 Pre + LK2 Power.

 

I really rate the hypex modules! I have a little Teac amp which has hypex modules in it (I think actually this is a lie, I know some of hte range do but I don't actually think mine does) - it was quite expensive but I wanted to blow a load of money on a little balanced amp to pair with my DAC - I previosuly had a Pre-amp/Poweramp combo which I built myself (pure discrete class-A pre-amp into a class A/B power amp) which was 100w per channel, but it was MASSIVE and hot and heavy, the little teac amp claims to be 120w per channel (it's not - acts more like 70-80w) - but its tiny, Teac AX-501, plus my DIY setup had no meters. Amp is basically the same size as my ESS9038 DAC. I built the DAC so at least there is still a bit of DIY in there. Recently invested in a SPDIF re-clocker, stil not sure if that was a good investment or not.

i just got some nicer XLR cables too - but I went with the fisual havana cable as it's what I use on most of my interconnects, but same plugs.

EDIT: I really wish I hadn't seen this, I'm now itching to put a multi channel one of these in my home cinema, eek - what modules in yours?

 

I came across the NC400s when looking into DIYing an amp a while back but didn't really know a lot about Hypex at the time. I picked up a NHT Power2 (IcePower 500 based) amp shortly thereafter just to check out what Class-D was all about, and was delighted to find none the nonsense trash-talked about Class-D to be true. Maybe it was at one time, but even as "just okay" as the 500ASP is in relation to the best Hypex can muster, it's overall a great amp. Then looking into it more found stacks of very highly regarded AV gear (much of it on my most-lusted list) was based Hypex modules anyway.

I'm definitely looking forward to some nCore goodness. Even the UcD in my little desktop amp (NAD D3045) is ridiculously well accomplished given the size and cost of it.

I've just run up a couple of looong Fisual Havana's for a pair of subs, as it happens. They're nicely made, and they... work? I wanted something that was well made, well priced and well shielded, and no hums or buzzes to note - success.

 

needed something to tinker on a pi with at work having tried and returned a few screens off amazon i got this off wywywywy pretty happy with it

 

Do it. You won't regret it.