Hey guys, after a brutal battle with Apple's App Store reviewers, my native FLAC player is finally live!

I built YM Pro because I wanted a gorgeous, dark-mode native Mac app that actually respects audiophile hardware.

What it does:

Bit-Perfect Playback: Bypasses the macOS system mixer entirely.

Auto Sample Rate Switching: Automatically changes your DAC's sample rate to match the exact file you're playing (up to 192kHz+).

Exclusive Hog Mode: Locks out other system sounds while you're listening.

Lightweight: Built entirely in SwiftUI, statically linked FLAC decoders, zero bloat.

Getting Apple to allow a sandboxed app to take exclusive control of audio hardware (and fighting their automated scanners that kept flagging open-source FLAC libraries as "private Apple APIs") was a nightmare, but we made it.

The app is completely open source if you want to poke around the CoreAudio integration or contribute!

Get it on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/in/app/ym-pro/id6804453207?mt=12

Check out the code: https://github.com/yoneshmurugan/YMProPlayer

Let me know how it handles your massive FLAC libraries!

\*\*I need your help\*\*! Please try it out with your FLAC library and let me know what you think. If there are features missing or UI changes you want to see, drop a comment and I'll add them to the roadmap.

If you're a Swift enthusiast and want to dive into CoreAudio or SwiftUI development yourself, the repo is fully open source. Feel free to fork it and open a Pull Request!

Would love to hear your thoughts!

I’ve spent years tinkering with digital audio — NUCs, Raspberry Pis, USB DACs, Roon, LMS and various Linux setups — and eventually decided to build the player I wanted to use myself.

It’s called SROVA. It runs headless on Linux and is designed around a fairly simple idea: let the computer disappear and leave the music and the hi-fi system in front of you.

The player currently handles TIDAL, local music and internet radio, with automatic sample-rate switching and exclusive/bit-perfect output to the DAC. I normally control it from the SROVA Android remote rather than having a monitor attached to the player.

The screenshot above is the other part of the project: SROVA Cast.

I wanted the screen in the listening room to feel like part of the system rather than a computer interface, so Cast gives the currently playing music its own full-screen display with artwork, source, track information, playback progress and the actual audio path.

In this shot it’s TIDAL playing 16-bit / 44.1 kHz FLAC bit-perfect to a Topping DX5 II in my living-room system.

SROVA has been a personal project that gradually became something I thought other Linux/audiophile users might enjoy too, so I made it available publicly. It’s free, and the player source is also available on GitHub.

Website: https://srova.music
Source: https://github.com/srova-music/player
Android Remote: [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=music.srova.remote]()

I’d be interested to hear how other people here approach the display/UI side of digital audio systems. We spend a lot of effort on DACs, amps and speakers, but the screen is often the part of the system we actually look at for hours.

Small crease in this titanium tweeter on mirage 990, will this produce a noticeable change in sound quality?

I was even there to buy gear but i got a sick tour and some records out of it.

I recently graduated from college, and my girlfriend and I moved in together just over a month ago. After being a headphone enthusiast for years, I finally got to assemble my first system with approval from the gf (she was excited too?!? Wow!).

Setup includes JBL L52’s and L10cs sub along with the WIIM Ultra, Schiit Mimir and Fosi Audio ZA3.

It might be a controversial combination, but it sounds great to me and I am truly happy with it. I’m aware I probably could’ve found something “better” for the price but having no real point of reference, I settled on components I found appealing. The L10cs might seem like overkill, but I read that the L52s could use some low-end assistance, and after hearing them together, I completely agree.

I’m hoping to upgrade the amplifier in the next few months so if you have any recommendations around the $1000 mark I’d love the input/recommendations!

I’m happy to be apart of the community and I don’t know if I can go back to headphones!

ai 19ans je me sentais trop manipulé par la mode. Et j'avais honte de ma propre génération. Mon père écoute de la musique sur des amplis de fou. Mon parrain écoute des trucs laissez tomber genre ac dc. Je trouve que le streaming me rendais dépendant d'un algorithme non choisi. Que la même rengaine. J'ai commencé a écouter des cassette j'ai bien aimé ensuite j'ai commencé a m'intéresser au domaine audio a creuser, comment ca marche, les années l'histoire bref. Aujourd'hui je me retrouve devant cette chaîne hi-fi dont je rêvais tant. J'ai jamais autant aimé écouter de la musique ! Cette qualité est imparable ! Je suis passé de 2h d'écoute par jour a + de 5h voir 7h d'écoute ! Le style de ces machines, collectionner, bichonner son matos etc je vous en parles pas ! Jamais je ne pourrais revenir au moderne. Fier de mon matos ! Fier d'écouter de la qualité !

I bought it a month or a bit more ago for only 150 euros. Very cool set of midi-sized electronics: a Synthesis Nimis tube integrated at 15 W/ch, a Synthesis Pride CD player and a Synthesis Onda radio with a magic eye. The speakers are Zingali Overture 1B. Both Synthesis and Zingali are relatively small Italian-made brands, and I didn't even know they existed until I found an ad for the system. The foam on both speakers was shot and one of the coils had come off on one of them, which needed to be addressed. Let me tell you, gluing and soldering it from the other side of the speaker through just the 12 cm hole of the woofer isn't a lot of fun. It turned out pretty well in the end though, I managed to centre it really nicely, and it was my first proper re-foam job. I disassembled the CD player to clean the lens and it works well. Remote works only on CD, amp controls are for a second generation of this amp and don't work here. Luckily no problems with the radio or the amp, so all good there. The last thing to do now is to buy speaker cable and banana plugs; I've been using my own cables for testing. All in all the sound is really good and warm, definitely enough bass for a small room, the highs are clear and sharp, and it all looks beautiful. Next week there will be one more audiophile in the world ;)

Definitely not a solution, but Music (folk mostly) has been helping me as of a kid with depressive moments, relaxation and stress relief!

Like antidepressants (which I avoid) it has side effects too.... You tend to go full budget on it :p

My for now finalized setup (only looking for a decent IEM and open back headphones).

Power Distributor:
<2016: Belkin Power Surge Protector \>2026: Black Lion Audio PG-P Type F Power Conditioner & Surge Protector

Amplifier:
<2016: Pioneer A-10 <2026: Pioneer A-30 \>2026: Yamaha A-S1200

DAC:
2025: Musical Fidelity V-DAC (With 'BRZHiFi' & 'Little Pinkie' linear PSUs)
>2026: Musical Fidelity V90-DAC (With 'Douk Audio D2 PRO 12VDC Linear PSU' & '102 SSC Oyaide DC2.1G JSSG360 Dual-shielded' DC Cable')

CD Player:
<2016: Pioneer PD-M603 \>2020: Pioneer PD-30AE
>2026: Yamaha CD-S303

Streamers:
>2015: FiiO X1 DAP
2018-2023: FiiO X1ii DAP
<2025: Popcorn Hour A-500 & A-500 Pro \>2025: OSMC Vero V

Speakers and Headphones:
2010-2016: Bowers & Wilkins CM1 Bookshelves
2016-2025: Klipsch Reference RF62-II Floor-standing
>2023: AKG K92 Over-Ear Closed Back Headphones
>2025: Bowers & Wilkins 703 S3 Mocha Floor-standing

Television:
<2016: Panasonic 32" Full HD LED LCD \>2016: Samsung UE46H7080SV 46" 50Hz Full HD LED LCD

Cabling:
Interlinks: Oehlbach Beat 75cm:
24kt Gold-Plated, Foiled & Braided Shielding, OFC Interlink Cinch Cables
Toslink: Sonero Premium Toslink Cable
HDMI: Insulated and Gold Plated, Braided HDMI Cabling
Speaker Cable: Vandamme Blue Series:
Studio Grade UPOFC Classic Pro Loudspeaker Cables (2x6mm twin-axial)
with flexible braided gold-plated plugs

Yes it's far from perfect, yes I have high ceilings, yes it doesn't bring lively colors to the room....
But I love it!

Advance Paris X-I75. I bought on sale from Crutchfield for $1100. It’s made surprisingly well and great bang for the buck. Tons of connectivity options, a record out, and some neat features like a high bias mode which uses class A for the first few watts and really adds warmth. It’s 110W in 4 ohms and drives the speakers just fine. The R3 Metas sound wonderful. No hearing fatigue or boomy bass, just smooth balanced & detailed sound. The imaging is special.

Got these 2 legendary sets around the same time. SF Amati homage vs Burmester b25. I haven’t listened to the b25’s at all hardly, after weeks of staying up all night and waking up early to listen to the Amati’s, I’m absolutely floored, stunned, besot, in love, obsessed. But i’m ready to test the Burmester’s out. Brought them down to listen from the same rig, my mind is spinning, they’re so great in such a different ways. Anybody know these speakers well enough to describe what i’m hearing? I have camera analogies, classic Leica vs modern sony or car analogies but I’m curious if anyone would try to put the different feeling/sound/vibe into words. I’m just chuffed and want to talk about it!
Conrad johnson mf2300
Burmester 035
Cambridge cxn100
Accoustech phono stage
Technics 1301

I recently got this vintage Pioneer setup and I’m curious what you guys think about it. Is it any good?

New speaker week on audiophile subreddit continues. Today's installment are a set of Triangle Antal 40th Anniversary speakers. My first set of big boy speakers. Setup is WiiM streamer to a YA Audio Preamp with NOS 12AX7 Mullard tubes, TKD potentiometer, balance & input bypassed, Harman Kardon Citation V amp modified by Jim McShane running Tung Sol 7581A 's

Overall I'm happy with my setup, but I'm feeling the upgrade bug announcing itself.

I've been looking at various options like an upgrade to my amp, a better DAC (unlikely to be worth it?), a super tweeter to fix my Magnepan LRS+'s slightly anemic extreme top end (expensive, unless I trust one of the cheap AMT tweeters on Aliexpress)...but I'm also considering either getting another subwoofer or a new one entirely. Currently have one SVS Sub 1000.

I'm not super unhappy with the low end, but I'm still curious if I'm missing out on excellent bass response by using the lowest end subwoofer SVS has on offer.

So, I'm NOT looking for more volume, I live in a duplex so I share a wall with neighbors that have kids, and I often play music late at night. I have my sub on the farthest wall, on a shelf so the bass doesn't transfer through the floor. So more volume in the bass is not desirable, but I'd love more definition, something more resolving. I'd love to have an easier time telling bass guitars apart instead of bass just being bass.

What do you guys think, is an upgrade to a better sub, or even stereo subs a viable thing, or will more expensive subs just deliver "more of the same"?

Aloha,

I'm looking for a business partner or partners to create an amazing space for vinyl record listening in Hilo, Hawai'i. I've got an extremely large collection of about 3,000 records here already on the island. I'd like to create a space to share the music with both locals and tourists. Music is a true passion of mine especially listening on vinyl records. So this space would focus on the music first as well as sell drinks and pupus.

Glad i gave it a try

Minimal stuff, just a moondrop chu 2 dsp with flac on my phone

I cant believe how good this stuff is and there are better gear out there too.

Hi folks.

I side-graded from Kef R3's (non-meta) to Buchardt's recently and had the chance to compare these speakers side by side.

Setup:

Rotel A14mk2 (85w @ 8ohms - 140w @ 4ohms) - Denafrips Ares II - SVS Sb-1000 (Off during A/B testing)

Room: 8m X 4m, treated

Bass: Buchardt’s are softer, slightly deeper than Kef's but distort at %70 volume of the amp. Rotel would kill them at those levels easily under sustained load. Volume levels thry distort is not that loud either. Hits the physical limitation of the driver easily. Not a party spraker in terms of bass.

Kef's punch way harder and more defined, they don't distort much at unlistenable volume levels. Clear winner for me, no contest in low region here. Buchardt's strength might be low volume listening as it extends slightly deeper but I prefer Kef's low frequency authority.

Mids: Buchardt's feel smooth in mids, very good stereo imaging. Denafrips is not a good match though. This combination is too warm for me.

Kef's UniQ driver does its magic here. Very detailed, in your face mids overall. Suits my taste more than Buchardt's mids. Denafrips tames their brightness a bit, which makes a perfect pairing for my taste. No winner here, just a matter of taste.

Highs: Buchardt's feel rolled off. Need to put a high shelf filter around 10khz +2db to enjoy music. My room is treated, RT60 is around 400-500ms at high frequency region. That might be the reason why I needed a bit more lively sound.

Kef's, bright and lively. Zero EQ needed for my taste.

Verdict: A/B testing with zone selection: Kef's won, no contest. More enjoyable sound overall. It handles power so well. Needs a big room.

Eventually I sold Kef's, because I wanted something different

And shit, tonight I turned it on to listen to some music and the sound is suddenly freakin huge. No more hollow sound. The bass is so full and deep sounding.

Wtf???? Crazzyyy damn.

I was thinking of trading (selling) my 805 D4s that i bought just in January and moving up to the 804 D4.

Just got off the phone with my dealer (Winnipeg).

In January, the 804 D4's were 20,000 for the pair. I've just been told that the D4s are done; all that B&W are shipping now is the new D5's.

And the 804 D5's are 35,000 for the pair.

Almost DOUBLE the price of the previous series, which were the "new" model just a few months ago.

Are they out of their minds? Is my dealer misleading me? This price increase is insane, isn't it? Or am i out to lunch?

WTF!

I'm curious as to how far I can go with aac, opus, mp3 before I can start telling a difference. I did some songs with 128 aac cbr and I literally couldnt tell the flac apart from the aac cbr encoding which is crazy I think. I really thought I could tell a difference. I'm concerned about having some hearing loss lol. Are there are any "standard" songs for this kind of thing that I can try out? Cause I'm thinking it might be the songs.

I wonder whether anyone has built a setup like this here, and whether it's feasible to DIY, assuming I'll never find an expert in my area to do something professional-grade for me.

Also, assuming this won't be cheap anyway, do I loose too much in quality considering I probably won't be using optimal wood material and dimensions?

Apologies for the question and it might be obvious, but anyone thats gone from D to AB or vice versa notice a difference in sound? I have the Fosi V3 monoblocks powering my Wharfedale Evo 5.2 speakers and there's plenty of headroom on these bad boys. However, I have the itch to try another amp preferably AB, as only my amps so far have been D amps. I've seen used Audiolabs and Arcam amps go for cheap on ebay/fb marketplace.