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Parks Audio Puffin Review: This Bird Drives Me Nuts!

Shug451

Shug451

Sansui Low-Powered Amp Guy
I used to find listening to records relaxing. Then I bought a Parks Audio Puffin. Now it stresses me out. The problem, you see, is that the Puffin has 500+ possible settings for tweaking the sound. So every time I put on a record, I find myself wondering, "Gee, maybe this would sound even better if I set Air to +2 or Warmth to -1." Or, "Perhaps this song would benefit from some BassBoost." Or, "This recording might need the low frequency filter set to 13kHz, not 25kHz, Air bumped to +3, and maybe FX set to 'Tube.'" "Or maybe not." So I get up in the middle of the song, make some adjustments, and sit back down. And then I do it again. Drives me nuts.

If I didn't have a preamp with tone controls (McIntosh C30), I might find the Puffin to be more useful, and I'm sure many people love its adjustability. But like a typical audio nerd, I'm always striving for the best possible sound, and the Puffin feeds that relentless beast all too well -- decidely not a good thing when you're just trying to relax.

In the end, I went back to my Pro-ject Tube Box DS, which sounds great 90% of the time without fiddling with the tone controls on the preamp. I also find that the Tube Box, with its NOS tubes, generally sounds better than the Puffin -- more open and natural.

I do believe the Puffin is an ingenious device and it does sound decent. But be warned: If you're like me, you might find the cute little Puffin to be less affable than you had hoped.

Different opinions welcomed...
 
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Shug451 said:
I used to find listening to records relaxing. Then I bought a Parks Audio Puffin. Now it stresses me out. The problem, you see, is that the Puffin has 500+ possible settings for tweaking the sound. So every time I put on a record, I find myself wondering, "Gee, maybe this would sound even better if I set Air to +2 or Warmth to -1." Or, "Perhaps this song would benefit from some BassBoost." Or, "This recording might need the low frequency filter set to 13kHz, not 25kHz, Air bumped to +3, and maybe FX set to 'Tube.'" "Or maybe not." So I get up in the middle of the song, make some adjustments, and sit back down. And then I do it again. Drives me nuts.

If I didn't have a preamp with tone controls (McIntosh C30), I might find the Puffin to be more useful, and I'm sure many people love its adjustability. But like a typical audio nerd, I'm always striving for the best possible sound, and the Puffin feeds that relentless beast all too well -- decidely not a good thing when you're just trying to relax.

In the end, I went back to my Pro-ject Tube Box DS, which sounds great 90% of the time without fiddling with the tone controls on the preamp. I also find that the Tube Box, with its NOS tubes, generally sounds better than the Puffin -- more open and natural.

I do believe the Puffin is an ingenious device and it does sound decent. But be warned: If you're like me, you might find the cute little Puffin to be less affable than you had hoped.

Different opinions welcomed...
Click to expand...
You know, what you describe is exactly the reason I didn't buy the Puffin. Knowing myself, I would constantly futz with the settings in search of unreachable nirvana and completely loose sight of the music itself. I almost pushed the buy button but settled for a Darlington MP -7 instead which has absolutely no settings to futz with. One of the reasons the Puffin idea attracted me is that I have a lot of used records that I love for the music but are in shall we say "well loved condition". It seemed that the "magic" setting on the Puffin would presumably fix the noise issue. As it turned out the MP-7 does something that somehow minimizes record noise while preserving the music - neat trick. One can still hear the pops and crackles but they are so far in the background that its almost a non issue with most records.
 
I get it! Nothing to adjust unless you change components in my DYI and the Mani has the needed basics. Hell my systems have exactly zero TC's, even the ones on my PAS2 where bypassed internally when I restored it.
 
ejman said:
You know, what you describe is exactly the reason I didn't buy the Puffin. Knowing myself, I would constantly futz with the settings in search of unreachable nirvana and completely loose sight of the music itself. I almost pushed the buy button but settled for a Darlington MP -7 instead which has absolutely no settings to futz with. One of the reasons the Puffin idea attracted me is that I have a lot of used records that I love for the music but are in shall we say "well loved condition". It seemed that the "magic" setting on the Puffin would presumably fix the noise issue. As it turned out the MP-7 does something that somehow minimizes record noise while preserving the music - neat trick. One can still hear the pops and crackles but they are so far in the background that its almost a non issue with most records.
Click to expand...

Not familiar with the Darlington. Will have to check it out. The Magic setting on the Puffin worked pretty well. I do think it changed the sound somewhat, however.
 
Interesting! I love my Puffin. I have the spdif out version (also has analog out), and using a good outboard DAC raises the performance level significantly. The "magic" pop and click filter is very effective and works in such a way that you can leave it on all the time without it causing any audible degradation. I've not found the Fx options to be of much use. The Air adjustment is mostly to do what cartridge "loading" does in a none digital device so it's pretty much a set and leave (although there are albums where I might run it at +3 instead of the usual +2). Beyond that either warmth adjustment (tone tilt that pivots at 800 Hz) + or - , add or subtract a "little" bass or treble is about all that I ever do - so it doesn't "drive me crazy". The bass boost is great on the few old albums that i have were bass was rolled off to get more music on each LP. The high and low filters are basically set an leave for my purposes, I can't figure out why those would be messed with once set? I've done a lot of recording engineering and even more live sound engineering, so I'm used to having myriad adjustments available and have a good sense of when I "need" to adjust something - so - I find it amazing to have the ability to (with a very few adjustments) make virtually all of my albums sound great. I was using a JC3+ (a very fine phono pre), and the JC3+ is a little better overall, but ..... using the digital out through my Chord Qutest produces sound very very close to what the JC3+ did - and the added fine tuning and pop/click fix via the Puffin makes far more of my LP collection "enjoyable".
 
soundmig said:
Interesting! I love my Puffin. I have the spdif out version (also has analog out), and using a good outboard DAC raises the performance level significantly. The "magic" pop and click filter is very effective and works in such a way that you can leave it on all the time without it causing any audible degradation. I've not found the Fx options to be of much use. The Air adjustment is mostly to do what cartridge "loading" does in a none digital device so it's pretty much a set and leave (although there are albums where I might run it at +3 instead of the usual +2). Beyond that either warmth adjustment (tone tilt that pivots at 800 Hz) + or - , add or subtract a "little" bass or treble is about all that I ever do - so it doesn't "drive me crazy". The bass boost is great on the few old albums that i have were bass was rolled off to get more music on each LP. The high and low filters are basically set an leave for my purposes, I can't figure out why those would be messed with once set? I've done a lot of recording engineering and even more live sound engineering, so I'm used to having myriad adjustments available and have a good sense of when I "need" to adjust something - so - I find it amazing to have the ability to (with a very few adjustments) make virtually all of my albums sound great. I was using a JC3+ (a very fine phono pre), and the JC3+ is a little better overall, but ..... using the digital out through my Chord Qutest produces sound very very close to what the JC3+ did - and the added fine tuning and pop/click fix via the Puffin makes far more of my LP collection "enjoyable".
Click to expand...

Glad you like your Puffin! I did change the high frequency filter sometimes because my Zu Omens can be a little bright on some recordings and it did help. I got the idea from the manual, which suggests experimenting by switching the Air setting to +3 and the high filter to 11kHz. Of course, there are myriad combinations between them, so I tried Air at +2 and high at 13kHz. Or Air at +1 and high at 13kHz, etc. You see where I'm going...
 
I don't remember what ADC chip is in there (probably nothing too special), but the PCM5102 DAC it uses is decidedly mediocre.
 
This is exactly why I don't use anything with tone controls anymore [much less DSP].
When they're there I spend far too much time futzing with them.

I'm much happier this way.

Btw, I'm a fan of the Darlington phono preamps as well.
 
My home brew tube preamp has just volume and balance, along with an input selector. Done. Oh, and there's an ON/OFF switch. Feel the functionality, man.
 
mkane said:
The key here is don't do what upsets you. It's not good for the mind, body, or soul.
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With my background in acoustic analysis I enjoy it but I catch myself way down the rabbithole :crazy:

Edit: my last trip was my daughters Loki in the new house. Took about 3 months of tweaking the Loki then effing with the room before the Loki was flat most of the time, then bypassed all the time and now it's is unplugged and just sitting there. :idea: I should probably send it to her. :dunno:
 
Shug451 said:
Glad you like your Puffin! I did change the high frequency filter sometimes because my Zu Omens can be a little bright on some recordings and it did help. I got the idea from the manual, which suggests experimenting by switching the Air setting to +3 and the high filter to 11kHz. Of course, there are myriad combinations between them, so I tried Air at +2 and high at 13kHz. Or Air at +1 and high at 13kHz, etc. You see where I'm going...
Click to expand...
I do recall seeing that in the manual, but it seems a bit convoluted to me. I seem to be able to get the "sound" I want with minimal adjustment to "warmth" or "bass" or "treble". If I hit a rough situation that those adjustments won't fix - I may try adding filtration down in the audible range. I just haven't run into anything that seemed to need a filter down that low.
 
GChief said:
With my background in acoustic analysis I enjoy it but I catch myself way down the rabbithole :crazy:

Edit: my last trip was my daughters Loki in the new house. Took about 3 months of tweaking the Loki then effing with the room before the Loki was flat most of the time, then bypassed all the time and now it's is unplugged and just sitting there. :idea: I should probably send it to her. :dunno:
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Sounds familiar. We set our youngest up with a nice vinyl system. It gets used when we visit.
 
stratokaster said:
As I suspected, nothing special. I would love to see a device like this implemented using a top-flight ADC, something like CS5381. Still, an interesting option for DSP-based systems.
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I asked Shannon if he'd make me one that took in SPDIF or AES. I have a Mytek 8X192ADDA and could tweak a mic preamp input load for a MC cart.

He declined. The PCM1808 seems to spit out I2S, which I can't generate from my Lynx Hilo or Mytek.
 
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