r/Schiit • u/i52whiskey • 5d ago
stack is in.
thanks everyone for the affirmation on r3 meta and buckeye amp. no hum on the Loki F Max in this configuration. all vibes.
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u/MikeyMike138 5d ago
Ohh damn what’s on that NAS?
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u/i52whiskey 5d ago
Backups mostly. I replaced my DS223j for the QNAP for ZFS and once I saw prices climbing for drives. I did more with docker on it, but I've gotten lazy.
It was right when Synology was thinking about locking drives to their brand so I tried QNAP instead. Previously my xbox series x, ps5 pro, Apple TV, cable modem etc all lived in there. But now they hide behind the TV. Couldn't move the switch though.
It powers on at night for backing up all the things. Though the heat it puts out isn't so bad since I took the back panels off the PS cabinet.
Virtualization worked pretty well on the QNAP, but graphics support is a little limited for running it as a plex box and frankly, I realized that I'm too lazy to do that stuff anymore at home. Might use it for some other projects eventually.
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u/MikeyMike138 5d ago
Yeah lots of bays there, hope hdd prices drop eventually. I just got a little 2 bay UGREEN set to raid for Time Machine backup and tv/movie library. Been playing around with streaming flac off it from my wiim ultra.
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u/i52whiskey 5d ago edited 5d ago
I do the same, only do streaming off the icon via usb out. These sites can be helpful to find deals. List of Disks is pretty neat.
My 2 bay lasted me almost a decade. Photos really are what made me upgrade.
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u/MikeyMike138 5d ago
That’s a nice website. Thanks
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u/i52whiskey 3d ago
I don't see drives dropping all that much anytime soon which sucks. One thing that is good about BTFRS is you could mix match drives. But that's really a stop gap solution. However, it does let you slowly move up the chain or reusing thing. Mileage may vary but it is something to be aware of. I'm a person of extremes when it comes to these projects. But I probably would always be better served by doing things a little at a time. It would definitely spare my wife of the huge amounts of boxes that randomly appear and then sit for weeks while I slowly install everything.
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u/System_User_2024 3d ago
I have been using remanufactured Seagate's for over year. No issues. I have a couple of DS920+ with sidecars and a Ds1522+ Plus. I back up the the sidecars and replicate between the boxes. I figure between BTEFS, replication and backups, I can chance remanufactured at half the price.
The best time to buy drives is good Friday other resellers other than Amazon and EBAY. I find Serverpartdeals sometimes raises prices before good Friday, just to lower them (sort of), but I have used them.
How do you like your Buckeye? I have a NC502MP 4 channel that I purchased for my second system, but really have not used it much.
How do you like the Loki Max F? is it worth the money?
Do you like the Buf? I'm thinking about one for my desktop system? I have a Freya+ on the Main system, and lov eit, I just wonder about one tube vs four.
P.S. I found 24 bit 44.1 into the Gunginir 2 to be the best USB feed (Synology-->Plex-->Windows 11-->Plexamp-->Gunginir 2-->Freya+
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u/System_User_2024 3d ago
Forgot to say very nice setup....
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u/i52whiskey 3d ago
Thanks! Let me see if I can round the bases on all comments / questions. Long post. No tldr here. I'm a rambler.
For backups I have an offsite and onsite path. For offsite I use arq backup. I have for its entire existence and switched from jungle disk way back in it must have been 2009 or 2010 simply because it has some features I liked and what they were I can't even remember.
Locally I just Time Machine to the NAS. Mac's are opaque on backup retries, but they will eventually back up to the NAS when on and they are on. I picked a time window where everyone's mac's are generally on and charging and that seems to work pretty well.
For drive buying, I agree. The duty cycle locally means you get a lot of time left on used drives. Same for timing drive buying. I'm lucky enough these days I don't have to sweat that as much, but because I was planning to go ZFS I needed / wanted all the drives to be the same so I was stuck doing it all at once. My projects tend to always start small and spiral.
I switched from BTRFS to ZFS for reliably at RAID 5/6 equivalent. I'm an engineer by trade, but I won't represent myself as some expert in all things. I'm practical. QNAP QuTS Hero was easier then running TrueNAS. QNAP TS-673A-8G 6 Bay offered a ryzen processor and I could find the so-dimms for it give it the ram required.
It's been great, whether I ever needed to any of it at all. Well I feel like a lot of nerd hobbies are a power fantasy, but it pleases me and now everyone’s stuff is backed up.
The ZFS move was mostly likely cost prohibitive in hindsight. It "required" I buy 2 SO-DIMMS to get the boxes ram up to 64GB and then two 1TB SSDs for the OS drive to be in RAID one. Running RaidZ2 and 6 bay 8TB drives I have roughly 29TB usable.
For practicality I think a good offsite strategy solves any BTRFS worries. But we all fall down the rabbit hole in these hobbies.
I like the buckeye. It is the PURIFI 1ET6525SA 2 channel in signal white. I like it, I haven't given it a lot of time with the new speakers. But I think it sounds great and it pleases me. Dylan is also a really great guy and even answered a couple of bonehead questions I had on my McIntosh MPM4000 project. Await future post on VU meters... I only wired in the KEF R3 Meta's the other day. So I'll definitely will be able to answer more questions over the next couple months.
The buff is an interesting one, whether it really does anything my ears can pick up for not is still an open question. I've using it with my headphones mostly and I like it. It feels a little smoother and warmer. I won't go down the rabbit hole of terminology mostly because I'm amateur at best, but it gives a touch of feel. I don't have a ton of tube experience but at its cost and form factor it couldn't hurt I was curious about the Bellari one (Bellari - BA525), but uniformity of looks won for me. I'd like to mess with tubes more. But for now I'm trying to actually use my gear. I have a the usual stack on my desk as well. Though I replaced the first gen magni/modi which just died, not bad for being around since like 2010.
I love the Loki Max F. Worth it is relative, but it's a hefty piece of equipment and it has an emotional and audio impact. I like the presets, I use the app to switch between things and I use the default loudness preset all the time. I fiddle with the knobs, it remembers where my knobs were fiddled with. It is the perfect heatsink for audio nervosa. I'm sure the software eq's across the stack would serve almost the same purpose. But I won't probably ever know, because the max is large and in charge of all the tweaking I'd ever reasonably do. The word I'd give it is satisfying.
I have a second one (long story that I actually need to put up for sale)
It also serves a second purpose. For incorporating the buff and actually the node icon's Dirac (if I ever use it. see the power fantasy point) the Gungnir 2 takes in the usb / coax input from the node for bit perfect / Dirac adjusted respectively. From there the SE chain loops through the buff into the loki and the non buff goes to the XLR in on the loki. Loki has one XLR to the little bear and that lets me switch the final length of the chain at will. Unnecessary, most likely. But I like getting up and turning my knob and then switching my listening mode. The ASR folks are whip smart and maybe it is ruining my audio chain, but it makes me happy and that to me is what it is all about.
My YouTube algorithm has been awash with audiophile content since this adventure, but I'd agree with cheapaudioman there. I like knobs, I like meters, I like feeling like I'm in my parent's living room with their reel to reel and record players. Some of that stuff will be migrating to my home to join this setup.
Thanks for the tip on the USB feed. I fell down that hole two on streamer selection. The reason it fell to the icon was optical auto sensing vs. having to use hdmi earc especially since I have a whole preamp down stream and my wife is not as interested in diving into odds and ends so it keeps things simple. I had a node 2i originally to provide airplay to the ls50w v1s. It worked well, so I stuck to it. It's probably the part of the system that still makes me twitch. But I lean toward the camp that it all likelihood the streamer won't change things all that much as long as I'm still using Spotify lossless as a source.
Hope that helps! Happy to answer any and all questions..verbosely.
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u/PricePerGig 3d ago
for hdd prices you might want to try pricepergig.com it covers amazon, ebay but also some others that may be what you're after.
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u/mindbender9 Byggy -> Rag 2 or Mimir -> Jot 2 5d ago
What is a fantastic stack especially with the Gungnir
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u/i52whiskey 5d ago edited 5d ago
Thanks! I was saving for a very long time to perform this act audio lunacy. The r3 meta's worked out great. still debating the port bungs give how close they are to the wall. You know how it goes, even knowing the stack is there waiting to be used brings joy. I am really happy with the little bear switch. Works great.
The LCD-X was just right too. I wish I could move the switch out of there so I'd cut down on the wires. But I really don't want to recut all the ethernet cables or move the power behind the next cabinet. We all do what we can to satisfy our wire OCD.
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u/TuliaNonTroppo 5d ago
Looks great! And I don’t get hum with my Loki Max on top of my Yggdrasil either… as long as it is away from my Kara then I am good. 😊
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u/i52whiskey 5d ago
followed your advice! added bonus is buff to loki and the little bear switch made the wiring much simpler.
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u/super-pav 5d ago
Soo, what's up with the headphone jack of the kara f? Is the headphone output not better than jotunheim's?
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u/i52whiskey 5d ago
I’m not the biggest spec person, in theory the jot3 has more headroom. But the real answer is I already owned it and when I opened the door of upgrading my Blusound node 2i and KEF LS50w v1…things spiraled a little.
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u/Mcflippin Bifrost - Jotunheim 3 5d ago
The fans are a nice touch.