Still do Olan. It’s a U1 mini into the Aesthetix dac.
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Didn’t you have a D1 at one stage or has it always been a U1?
Yes I had a D1 previously.
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And new home for the cat.
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indeed!
Are those Ocellia speakers I see? 12" or 8" drivers?
indeed, 8 i think, Grandis Calliope 21 Silver, they’re proper lovely
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I have the Grandis Calliope 30 Silvers here, though they are languishing in “store” at the moment. I agree they are really very good, mine probably need a bit more oomph than the PSE 2A3 amp I have been using but I have a PSE 300B coming soon at which point they will come back into the system again to see how they fare.
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you know you’re the only other person I’ve bumped into with a pair! (apart from the previous owner of mine). I’m feeding mine with a pair of custom 20w ish mono blocks (built by Arthur Radford no less) and a prototype phono/pre by the late great TdP, the choice of preamp seems to have been the real deciding factor on getting the best out of the Ocellias, that and the use of audioquest oak rather than the duelund 12 that i was so fond of
Sam mentioned it’d be nice to be able to pair her 'phone to the hiffy for podcasts, playlists, and suchlike - apparently the crazed woman has embraced the C21st in a way myself and the Palaeolithic tech of the ANK DAC largely does not.
So, this:
As it says on the box - BluDento B2. There are avowedly cheaper options, and no-doubt, more technically-accomplished and pricier options, but at under £100 with the optional dongle (my lappy is also from the Stone Age and doesn’t support aptX &c.), this has amazed me by first working instantly and flawlessly, and then by sounding fucking excellent.
The last bit hit home hardest - I’ve owned earlier generations of BluTooth compatible stuff, and they were tried once and never again, as sound was MP3-tier… This thing is ridiculously clean and clear and articulate. Even with just a humble switchmode phone charger as PSU it is entirely silent in-and-of-itself.
Connectivity is good - it has an onboard DAC (which I’ve yet to try) which allows it to connect directly to an amp, and what’s more it’s an ESS ES9018K2M Sabre DAC, which I appreciate has long-since ceased to be flavour-of-the-month, but nonetheless remains a damn competent item. There are also Toslink and coaxial RCA S/PDIF outputs for an external DAC; the latter being what I’m using.
It comes bundled with a USB-A to USB-C power cable, basic RCA-RCA stereo i/c, 3.5mm stereo jackplug to dual RCA i/c, a basic fibre-optic digital cable, and a USB-A to USB-C converter plug. There’s also a pretty comprehensive and well-written user-guide. In English.
What you don’t get are any rubber feet, which given that most interconnects weigh more than this tiny box is an oversight, albeit a trivial one. There’s no supplied PSU, but any 5V USB-based PSU is fine, and of course there’s always the option to upgrade to a linear PSU. Not sure there’s much to be gained here, as it’s difficult to believe these codecs have much more resolution available beyond what I hear. Given the box has a thoroughly decent DAC inside whose functionality is barely touched, it’s a slight pity that that is not externally addressable via a hardwired port - it’d make a great little digital hub DAC, though of course size and cost would increase somewhat.
I’d guess this sort of thing is hilariously irrelevant to most of you who’ve embraced the last 25 years of technological advancements, but any fellow lumbering-sauropods might find this a useful tweak to system functionality 
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Thought about getting similar so daughter can play her music through the system,however,listening to her music upstairs,I’ve not bothered.
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got one of these for FOL #2, works well, happy to have phone through hifi
Very nice.
There’s a dedicated ‘State Of Your System’ thread for full-system writeups and updates, I’d be interested to see the full works if you fancy posting it at some point
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Apologies! New here - will find the correct place to post!
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You may find the thread titles a bit of a challenge until you get the run of this fetid corner of the www.
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Sorted for you
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Thanks!
