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The February 2016 meeting of the Sydney Audio Club sees us once again gather for an afternoon of fine music, great sound and amicable company. Each month, the Sydney Audio Club presents high end audio systems for our members and guests. It's a bit like a private audio show once a month where you can hear and discuss equipment that you might not otherwise have the chance to audition. And you can bring along your own music to test the capabilities of the system or to just share with like-minded music lovers in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere. For our February meeting we will be evaluating various ways to get a digital signal into your system. Does a CD ripped to disc sound better than the CD itself? Does a music server sound better than a computer audio solution (ie. music player software running on a PC or Mac)? Does an inexpensive solution like the Popcorn Hour stack up against either of the above? We’ll ensure the digital signal is sent to the same DAC in all setups, and that the rip to disc and the rip to flash are sourced from the same CD. And we’ll try to ensure the volume levels are the same across all setups. The event is meant to be fun and entertaining as well as informative… but we won’t be drawing any indisputable conclusions from these evaluations!! However, you may walk away with ideas you can then try at home. These are the setups we’ll have available on the day: Oppo BDP105 playing from a USB flash drive Oppo BDP105 playing the CD layer Wyred 4 Sound (W4S) Music Server Mac Mini music player (playing Pure Music V3) Popcorn Hour C300 That’s a lot of configuration changes and a lot of listening so we may not get through it all. We’ll take hints from the audience and listen to what people are most interested in. But we expect the preferences to be close to the order of the setups as shown above. Details of the system…. Wyred 4 Sound (W4S) Music Server – Refer to http://www.deephzaudio.com/Wyred%204%20sound%20Price%20Page%20Australia.html Oppo BDP-105 Universal player – The ubiquitous universal player with the excellent ESS Sabre 32 DACs. Refer to https://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-105/ and http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/oppo-bdp-105-universal-blu-ray-player-and-dac/ Mac Mini (late 2012 version) – with i7 processors, 16GB memory, SSD system disc. Music files on 1TB SSD with Thunderbolt connectivity. The computer is configured as a bare-bones dedicated music player with only essential services running. Bricasti Design M1 – Refer to http://i.nextmedia.com.au/avhub/australian-hifi_reviews_2014_2014-07_bricasti_design_m1_dac_review_test_lores.pdf and http://www.audiostream.com/content/bricasti-design-m1-dac Audio-GD Master-10 integrated amp – “Fully balanced design, the gain stages and pre-driver stages working on class A , built by discrete analog stages without any OPA or coupling caps in the signal channels.†Refer to http://www.audio-gd.com/Master/Master102015/Master-102015EN.htm Energy Veritas 1.8 Floorstander speakers – Older speakers now but still sounding good. These were last at the club back in February 2015. Refer to http://www.audioreview.com/cat/speakers/floorstanding-speakers/energy-speaker-systems/veritas-v1-8/prd_122534_1594crx.aspx and http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/551/ Cabling will be by Nordost, Wireworld and Synergistic Research. The second half of the music sessions will be our popular BYO. Members and guests are welcome to offer music to share with us all. So bring along your favourite music on CD/SACD or USB flash drive (sorry, no vinyl this month). All we ask is that the music and recordings be interesting. We'll ask you to tell us a little about the artist/recording before it is played. Tracks over 6 minutes will be faded out, to give everyone a fair go. Whether you are a novice or a seasoned veteran, you will have the opportunity to listen, learn and share your experiences with others of a similar mind. Guests are always welcome – we are a very friendly club so you don't need to know anyone to join us for an afternoon of fine music and sound. We will welcome you at the door. Venue: Epping Creative Centre, Dence Park Address: 26 Stanley Road, Epping When: Sunday 14th February 2016 Doors open 1pm Meeting starts at 2pm Best regards, Tom Waters President Sydney Audio Club www.sydneyaudioclub.org.au tomwaters@sydneyaudioclub.org.au