Struttmaster Posted April 22, 2017 Share Posted April 22, 2017 Just a quick note to say I bought a new explorer 2 off eBay delivered for 250 aud. I paid $80 to get audirvana plus running on my 7 year old 64 bit MacBook (which also included a free 3 month Tidal trial) and $14 for the audirvana iPhone app. Hunted about and scored a second hand set of B&O h6 2nd gen headphones for under $200. Fabulous budget set up for Tidal hi Res on the go! Found an old 3.5mm to rca junk cable laying around home and used that to hook the computer up to my hifi via the explorer. It is awesome! Control and edit playlists from my phone and blast them with stunning clarity through my headphones away from home or through my hifi when home. Also have the woo audio wa2 (with some excellent tubes) / beyerdynamic t1 combo in the office, and with the little explorer, I am one very happy camper. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldhenry Posted April 23, 2017 Share Posted April 23, 2017 7 hours ago, Struttmaster said: Hunted about and scored a second hand set of B&O h6 2nd gen headphones for under $200. Fabulous budget set up for Tidal hi Res on the go! Found an old 3.5mm to rca junk cable laying arou That sounds like a pretty good set up. Can I ask how you get the iPhone audio into the USB mini type B input in this DAC? Did you need to get a cable for that? Also, do you find that it saps your iPhone battery quickly? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Struttmaster Posted April 23, 2017 Share Posted April 23, 2017 Hi, yeah good point. I tried a lightning USB to try and use the explorer with my iPhone 6 without any luck, phone didn't recognise it. I think you need the USB camera cable with a portable power supply, not sure. I work in the mines so I take my mac book with me for 2 weeks away from home and plug it into my hifi when back. I have ordered a lightning dac off the mass drop site called a Cozoy TAKT to use with my phone. Can't see it being nearly as good as a mojo or explorer but still a jump up from the phone dac. Still waiting for it to arrive. It cost about $130. If anyone has managed to get an explorer working with their iPhone it would be great to hear from them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powerav Posted April 23, 2017 Share Posted April 23, 2017 Should just work with the camera cable like the Dragonfly does but seriously the dacs in these modern phone like iPhone 6 and up are just as good. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Struttmaster Posted June 27, 2017 Share Posted June 27, 2017 I've now got roon running tidal through wireless raspberry Pi end points and explorer 2's. Beautiful budget set up. Sony all in one system has never sounded better. Nor has my meridian kit. I can link end points so the whole house jumps or I can stream different tunes to different rooms. Pi's are going for 60 bucks and you can get ex demo explorers delivered from the uk for well under 200. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powerav Posted June 27, 2017 Share Posted June 27, 2017 (edited) . Edited June 27, 2017 by powerav Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powerav Posted June 27, 2017 Share Posted June 27, 2017 Dacs for Pi's are under $80 so even more budget friendly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Struttmaster Posted June 27, 2017 Share Posted June 27, 2017 Digi+ are good too, guess I like seeing the little blue MQA light on the explorer Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Copiya Posted July 12, 2017 Share Posted July 12, 2017 On 20/02/2017 at 7:47 PM, bhobba said: I will be redoing the comparison once a few things happen: 1. I get the Uptone Regen 2. Clay makes a linear supply for it 3 A proper RCA cable specifically designed for the Explorer like the Curios cable is made. However that is Mikes territory and belongs on his forum where I will discuss it. It's why its still down there so he can design it. 4. Audirvana 3 is released that fully supports MQA. 5. The volume control issue with the MAC is rectified. It may be fixed by Audirvana, but it may require a later version of the Mac. Reading this thread with interest. Just received the explorer 2 and am looking at ways to extract the best performance using PC to stream Tidal MQA via the desktop app. Have you been able to follow up at all with regard to the post above? Interested to see if the Uptone and new cables made much of a difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhobba Posted July 12, 2017 Author Share Posted July 12, 2017 2 hours ago, Copiya said: Have you been able to follow up at all with regard to the post above? Not yet The ISO Regen is in short supply right now. It turns out Mike Lenehan carries them here in Aus and its not towards the end of this month it will be available. And Mike is busy working on some other things right now like the Kit speakers to make the special cable. Might take a different tack if nothing happens soon. Trouble is all the other people who help me out like Rawl99 (I have bad arthritis so cant get up an down and change gear for comparisons that easy these days) are sick or busy. What I have tried is a normal regen with one of Clay Geisner's supplies using the Auralic and it makes a big difference. Thanks Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powerav Posted August 12, 2017 Share Posted August 12, 2017 I just bought a Meridian Explorer 2 with Audioquest Cinnamon usb cable and evergreen 3.5 to RCA. Looking forward to seeing how it goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powerav Posted August 16, 2017 Share Posted August 16, 2017 Here we go with the explorer 2 and audioquest cables playing 192. Need some alone time to test properly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powerav Posted August 21, 2017 Share Posted August 21, 2017 @bhobba I just got a Wyred 4 sound USB recovery for the meridian 2 and this has made a huge difference. Much more so than the cables, I found hard to really hear a difference with them but they do look very nice. You should try one of these next time you test it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhobba Posted August 21, 2017 Author Share Posted August 21, 2017 Will be trying the Uptone Audio Rgen when I get it. What cables did you use? As far as I know Mike hasn't made them yet - we just used a jury rig with an adapter to test it. Thanks Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powerav Posted August 21, 2017 Share Posted August 21, 2017 2 hours ago, bhobba said: What cables did you use? The audioquest Cinnamon for usb and evergreen for analog out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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