High End – Munich 2015
http://www.highendsociety.de/index.php/en_high_end_moc.html

Vortrag – Pro-Ject – Turntable setup – head of Pro-Ject – Lechtenegger, founder of the company
http://project-audio.com/

basics
– stable/heavy base, integrated/combined with stable/concrete flooring and walls
– level the top of the turntable

specifics of the setup

– tracking weight/auflagedruck: what is the optimal, compromise between:
1-1.2g minimum (but carries risk of damage) <—> maximum (beyond which there is no improvement) 2-2.4g

technique: use special LP, eg. vinyl essentials from project audio, set on track on loudest passage and ensure there is enough pressure to pick up the detail and it sounds ok
for reference the 1812 overture contains such a loud passage at 80 micro mm, typical loud passages are 60-70 micro mm

increase tracking weight to capture all information/sound until there is no improvement to be had

– align cartridge
use alignment protractor/schlabone setup tool or print one from eg:
http://www.vinylengine.com/
minimise distortions/Verzerrungen at the medium radial position from the centre – this can depend on record collection and preference and is, like all record player setup, a compromise
could go to focus on inner tracks where the quality needs to be improved, outer or at an optimal position around 6cm per Stevensson model – but there are many theories about where to place this, eg. the stencils from läwkin
http://www.vinylengine.com/cartridge-alignment-protractors.shtml
use overhang shift calculator, which has data on Wilson-Benesch Act 0.5

recommendation – use a simple setup, as it is in any case a compromise – and get the cartridge to sit in the mesh

– azimuth
this is adjustment of the needle to sit vertically in the groove, use mirror, presume adjust height of locking nuts on tonearm
this is also performed in combination with anti-skating force to prevent skating across, typically from inner tracks
method is to check left and right channels are equal and no distortion

– VTA (vertcal tracking alignment)
how the tonearm sits lengthways, if the above 2 were covering lateral alignment in the 2 planes
orient around a flat and then adjust slightly up or down at the back of the tonearm, eg. so that women’s voice does not warble, eg. might have to adjust per set of records, eg. 180g thick records

important to avoid the combination of tonearm and cartridge weight resonance going above 8-12 Hz, otherwise can feed damage through to loudspeakers

Vortrag – Playback Designs – High-res Computer-based audio – Andreas Koch, key developer of DSD/SACD
http://www.playbackdesigns.com/

as pre-requisite assuming music is stored on traditional HDD, but could be SSD and looking at the chain / DAC options available

in order to get high quality out, need to be concerned about the recording quality and techniques used, eg. 44.1kHz/16bit recording and only upsampled will be inferior to recording at high sampling rates
– focus on source material

there are 2 choices for material in pressed format:
– PCM from 44.1kHz 16bit to as high as 384 kHz 24 bit, ie. sample and try and represent the music in the sample across 16, 20 or 24 bits
top standard would be DXD which is 353 kHz 24 bit

has 6 stages in the processing to playback, starting in any case as reading in 1 bit of course

brick-wall filter used above the sampling rate 44.1kHz etc, responsible for the often pre- and post- “ringing” effect of CDs

– DSD 1 bit with high-sampling rate but sampled at much higher frequency:
2.8MHz (SACD), 5.6MHz and 11.2MHz

simpler stages for playback, quantizer, feedback (since there are errors/overshoots to compensate for)

it it now known we “perceive” if not hear, above 20kHz and with DSD there is no abruptness when sound stops/starts, the “ringing” is gone
==> when storing analog material to digital, might make sense to sample with DSD, not with the PCM standards!

so with the basics out of the way, let’s look at the chain and components

system consisting of:
SW application – itunes, foobar, Jriver
operating system – none are real-time, MAC better than windows
driver – HW specific

when feeding into DAC, turn off all processing in above chain (there are tools available to check for latency and no processing as well as dropouts etc)

methods of linking from system to external DAC (systems with internal DAC are NOT recommended)
AES – but no DSD
S/PDIF – again no DSD
TOSlink – forget!
HDMI – not ideal
USB – current favourite, SW protocol with audio specifications well-defined (eg. USB DAC, which Playback is using), this is run in Async mode, so that the DAC is the clock master (key goal)
Ethernet/streaming – currently not standardised, likely the future (enables longer distances between NAS/server and player)

references:
http://www.playbackdesigns.com/start-here/2-dimensional-dac/
http://www.playbackdesigns.com/start-here/dsd-explained-by-andreas-koch/

can imagine an optimal setup with
NAS – network – MAC mini – DAC – analog hifi (convert music to DSD format if possible, or download recorded high quality DSD files)
or even a low-noise 0 sone, PC system based on SSD etc, look out for c’t reviewer servers

the solution proposed as DAC is something like the
http://www.playbackdesigns.com/products/ips-3-integrated/
could even start with:
http://www.playbackdesigns.com/2013/02/18/resolving-for-resolution-by-andreas-koch/

another design with PCM and DSD inputs (key is transfer of DSD-based music in digital format):
mola-mola.nl
“Mola-Mola embodies the idea that once you’ve removed everything that isn’t the music, what remains is the music.”
Hinter Mola-Mola steht ein Gedanke: entfernt man alles, was nicht zur Musik gehört, bleibt die Musik übrig – was their translation, but this doesn’t sound so clear/unambiguous to me

Nubert

Still going through the “Teknik Satt” brochure, but very impressive with the founding principles and schwäbische roots, trying to eek out the best performance without going overboard on costs.
Listened to the demo of their pre- and power amps feeding to the 160s and the sound was so clear, natural and controlled, much better than the demo in the T+A room, with equipment costing 2x as much
interesting T+A used absorbers on a lateral level with the front of the speakers and with RTFS panels on the walls, nubert’s setup was simpler – vertical triangular cushions which removed the corners and the curtain sheets of microsorber (check it out with fraunhofer)

some of the points brought out in “Teknik Satt” from the experience over the years:
with a basic CD player and decent DAC, most source material is pretty much high-end quality nowadays, esp. if decent components are used, eg. the nubert pre-amp uses 6x Burr-Brown converters
that sampling at 48kHz/16bit brings an improvement over 44,1kHz/16bit, so extending this there is little gain to be had beyond 96kHz/24 bit, should be more than sufficient sampling
(alternatively, given the DSD advantages, if sampling analog, why not just use DSD for HDD storage?).

other links
hifi hi-q streaming
http://tidal.com/de

for vinyl accessories
tonar.eu
nagaoka.eu
remton.eu

for range of low-cost hifi components
audioblock.de, eg. the DAC 100 at 500€ versus musical fidelity’s V DAC II

for headphones
ultrasone model go is priced at €100

michel orbe motor servicing
Transrotor can service the motor (papst) which is no longer available now, but these things run forever, providing they are regularly serviced (and oiled) every 10 years, they are a sealed unit, so I got it done.
transrotorhifi@t-online.de
transrotor.de