A Bridge too far?

[evil c]

  On 15/08/2024 at 9:08 AM, proftournesol said:

That would be my first choice, but for the outputs: no S/PDIF FW or AES/EBU. I don't want to change the whole digital side of my system

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Sometimes immovable objects can miraculously move, if you wish hard enough!,

[Godot]

  On 15/08/2024 at 9:08 AM, proftournesol said:

That would be my first choice, but for the outputs: no S/PDIF FW or AES/EBU. I don't want to change the whole digital side of my system

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No FW, but does have AES/EBU. 

[proftournesol]

  On 15/08/2024 at 9:10 AM, evil c said:

Sometimes immovable objects can miraculously move, if you wish hard enough!,

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I've been pushing her for over 30 years already!

[evil c]

  On 15/08/2024 at 9:15 AM, proftournesol said:

I've been pushing her for over 30 years already!

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36 for me - I'm almost coming up to my 5th threat of divorce!,

Edited August 15, 2024 by evil c

[narlilah]

Hey Michael,

It's really rather a strange coincidence, I found your post when looking for the next steps to modernise my almost identical setup which was recently left to me by my late father, also a Michael from Australia. Did you end up making a decision on your next steps or find an alternate pathway? 

 

I'm rather attached to the sound of the Minerva, it's what I grew up listening too, so I am trying to avoid the daunting task of replacing it. My mac mini is on its last legs though and it become increasingly slower and slower to use so I need to stop putting it off...

[proftournesol]

  On 26/12/2024 at 3:54 AM, narlilah said:

Hey Michael,

It's really rather a strange coincidence, I found your post when looking for the next steps to modernise my almost identical setup which was recently left to me by my late father, also a Michael from Australia. Did you end up making a decision on your next steps or find an alternate pathway? 

 

I'm rather attached to the sound of the Minerva, it's what I grew up listening too, so I am trying to avoid the daunting task of replacing it. My mac mini is on its last legs though and it become increasingly slower and slower to use so I need to stop putting it off...

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Yes, I've ordered a Sonnet Hermes. It's taken quite a long time to arrive but I'm expecting it in the next week or so. I'll post my impressions. Roon on NAS is far more responsive than my Mac mini was when it was running as a server/end point. I'll be connecting the Hermes to the Weiss via AES/EBU.

[narlilah]

Cheers, I'll look out for your review when it arrives. Good to know that the system is more responsive when using Roon on a NAS.

[proftournesol]

Finally, my Sonnet Hermes has arrived

 

 

[narlilah]

Thanks for the update Mike, happy to hear its worked out! Would be happy to hear your update when it has a few more hours on it. 

 

I purchased a second hand auralic aries g2.0, waiting on it to arrive and hoping it works okay. It's not the streamer I wanted but I got it for a good price and it meets my current limitations  

[proftournesol]

I've had it just on a week, so it's far from burned in. It's connected to my Weiss Minerva with an inexpensive Canare AES/EBU cable, and I've compared it to my modified CEC, connected with a 20-year-old Transparent Audio S/PDIF cable. I've listened to streamed tracks, including streamed radio: compared to my old Mac mini, there's a significant difference: far better timing and rhythm in the music, fuller bass, and more accurate timbre. 

I've also compared it to my CD player, using the same CD albums, ripped and stored on my NAS. So far, the CD is preferable in terms of sound stage rhythms and timing and timbre, but I'll give the streamer a good month of use before I make any definitive comparisons.

 

The only quibble about the Hermes so far is that there's an option to turn off the display and power LED after a variable time in use; it would be good to be able also to do this after a period of non-use, but, really that's the only quibble.

Edited January 29 by proftournesol

[proftournesol]

I've been using the Sonnet Hermes now for just over a month. It's been on for several hours a day, most days, so any 'burn in' has happened.

Setup.

Very easy; plug it in and connect it up, forst boot takes about a minute, but it automatically found my Roon Server on my NAS, and it appeared on Roon where it was easy to link to my DAC. Simple. There's a simple additional web interface that toggles software volume control and muting time between sample rate changes. That's it, it just works from the box. It's connected to my DAC via a Canare AES/EBU 0.6m cable

 

Sound.

It seems a big step up from my Mac mini, with improved dynamics, resolution and how it renders timbre. I can sit and listen, without fatigue, for hours. When I compare the Hernes/Canare to my CEC & Transparent Audio S/PDIF cable, the CEC presents a little more of everything: more resolution, particularly better soundstage, and more relistic timbre. The difference is only noticeable on back-to-back comparisons. I haven't had my turntable for comparison as my Strain Gauge is still at SoundSmith (5 months now...), but there was always a great difference between CD and analog, with analog being far more detailed, more dynamic at times (matering differences between formats), better 3D imaging and more relaistic timbre. This has never stopped me enjoying CD or streaming, both still great in their own right, all that connect to the music.

 

Overall.

A good buy, better than i was expecting. Maybe one day I'll swap the Weiss for a Pasithea and use the I2s connection option, supposedly offering a little more of everything

 

[proftournesol]

Second thoughts

 

Of course, I've never actually heard the Sonnet Hermes. Instead, I've listened to the complete reproduction chain that includes the Hermes.

 

It's an important distinction, as I was rummaging through a cupboard and found a DH Labs Silversonic AES/EBU 0.6m cable. I used to use this with my CEC CD player until the mods left the AES/EBU output disconnected, so I reverted that to a Transparent Audio digital coax S/PDIF cable and completely lost track of where I'd stored it. I substituted it for the Canare cable I had been using for my previous post and was very surprised at the transformation: tighter and more detailed bass and treble and vastly improved sound staging, with depth and width. It's now indistinguishable from my CEC, with local and streamed files.

 

Now, I wonder what extra a Silversonic cable might offer to my CEC player. How can people claim that cables make no difference?

Back on the upgrade merry-go-round. It is nearly 6 months, and I still don't have my Strain Gauge cartridge back from Soundsmith, BTW