Remote Control ?

[steveau]

I just finished my Black Friday MP, sounds great on the bench, looking forward to rolling some tubes, but I know I really need some remote volume control. What I was wondering is, would my old Schiit Saga + in straight passive mode, or my really old Acoustic Research SRC- be a better fit in between my MP and my Monoblocks,
The Schiit has an input imp. of 10K , and the AR is 33K.
Any thoughts?

 

[Paul Birkeland]

You would have to remove the Moreplay's volume control for it to be happy feeding the Saga, which I suppose is possible. 

 

[Mucker]

FWIW, my digital sources feed a high resolving DAC (preamp mode, Topping E50) with digital volume control. The DAC feeds the Moreplay and it works exceptionally well. I usually set the Moreplay volume about a quarter turn and this allows the DAC to operate between -40dB and -10dB for more than adequate volume control.

I also have a phono preamp and Pioneer bluray player (with great DAC's) connected to the Moreplay inputs. Obviously no remote when using those.

 

[steveau]

Thanks, maybe I will try the Schiit passive after the Denafrips DAC, but before the MP, I guess I'll have to experiment-

 

[Mucker]

Should work fine and I believe that particular Schiit is very transparent in passive mode.

 

[steveau]

I tried the in-between Schiit and it works well,

Mucker, I wondering about your cap upgrade, I see you went with some nice Mundorf's,
I like to do stuff like that, allowing some placebo effect to convince me of the vast improvement,
so after burn-in have you convinced yourself of it's value enough that you would repeat the same swap again?

 

[Mucker]

In all honesty, I think it's evident that parts selected for kits by the BH engineers are given careful thought and consideration from a performance standpoint. IMO, upgrading is totally unnecessary for excellent performance.

I personally selected the Mundorf's because they have a good reputation, were relatively inexpensive, and cosmetically look great. I also upgraded the small caps because of reputation and cost (very cheap).

My bias wants to think it's better. Is it really? I am not sure. It seemed the most noticeable change was with the small caps ?? What I do know is nothing is worse, my wallet weighs about the same, and I am very happy with the audio I am hearing. I attached a few photos showing the different small caps, one using upgraded Nichicon's, one using ELNA's, and one using stock.

 

[steveau]

I see you went up to 220uF’s (from 150’s) to ground,
could that really account for any audible changes?
I’m curious, because I don’t have much audio electronic knowledge.

 

[Paul Birkeland]

220uF is a far more common value but otherwise works about the same as 150uF.

 

[lawrence.solon]

Another option is this: https://pjlelectronics.com/simple-sony-type-ir-receiver/
I have one, I was able to add it to an AIO remote I have, luv it!

 

[Paul Birkeland]

Another option is this: https://pjlelectronics.com/simple-sony-type-ir-receiver/
I have one, I was able to add it to an AIO remote I have, luv it!

If using something like that with the Moreplay, it would need to be a 10K pot and installed at the output of the Moreplay, and you'd have to remove the stock volume pot in the Moreplay in the process and replace it with a pair of 100K or so resistors.

 

[lawrence.solon]

I'm not following you here, I guess. Are you saying that it will not work/sound properly without those mods because I can't tell the difference when it's installed or not installed. But then again, I don't have trained ears, thank god or I would be chasing the dragon like a lot of so-called audiophiles do.
Am I harming the moreplay with it installed as I have probably 200 plus hours with it installed.
Thx.

 

[Paul Joppa]

I'm not following you here, I guess. Are you saying that it will not work/sound properly without those mods because I can't tell the difference when it's installed or not installed. But then again, I don't have trained ears, thank god or I would be chasing the dragon like a lot of so-called audiophiles do.
Am I harming the moreplay with it installed as I have probably 200 plus hours with it installed.
Thx.

Installed between the Moreplay and the power amp, it should work fine (*), providing a 100K load for the Moreplay which is near ideal. It does mean the there are two potentiometers in series, doubling the chances of wear and tear. But that's a minor consideration.

(*) the caveats are that the 100K pot in the PJL device cannot drive long interconnects without risking the loss of some high treble, and it may not be comfortable with a power amp whose input impedance is lower than ~100K. But these are limitations of the PJL device, not the Moreplay or any interaction with the Moreplay.

I think PB is talking about replacing the Moreplay volume control with such a device, which would be a more elegant and reliable approach, but more complicated to do.

My two cents - I may be wrong, haven't had my coffee yet ...  :^)

 

[Doc B]

I may be wrong, haven't had my coffee yet

Cripes I wouldn't even be able to type without the coffee first.

 

[lawrence.solon]

Okay, I get it now. Yes, it's between the power amp and moreplay, cables are 2 feet. I have the moreplay at 3/4's volume, so when I crank up the remote full, that's as loud as I want to go.
Way back when there was a person on here that added remote capabilities to the moreplay. I tried contacting him, but I think he stopped following the board as I was not clear at all what it was, he did. Also, that's above my skill set. I'm amazed I was able to build the moreplay.
I know most strive for the least amount of equipment in line, but for me, I like to plant my arse on the couch. Granted, I still have to get up to change cd's, which sounds the best. I also have remote capabilities that allows me to play flac files through my Linux carbon which displays on my tv. Point mouse at song, click, play away.
Thx much!