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Post by puffin on Oct 11, 2020 17:17:07 GMT
For all of us this is akin to black magic One day we will find out what all this hidden science is all about Not really. The sinking of noise on the ground plane, whether analogue or digital, to a local ground is well understood. Perhaps acceptance of just how much noise there is, even up into the GHz territory, is not so widespread. Brings to mind the persona of Catweazle and his "Electrickery"
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Post by puffin on Oct 11, 2020 13:06:13 GMT
I have just read the thread where Martin posts the results of his noise-sniffer tests. Interesting stuff. I just wanted to say that the ground rod is doing something. I had listened for a few days and felt that there was a softening/smoothing? of the sound and deeper but less impact in the lower frequencies. The rod cable needs an adaptor to connect it to the preamp which I removed as I needed it for something else. When I next listened I forgot until I went to turn everything off after the session. Everything was sounding just about right to me.
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Post by puffin on Oct 7, 2020 10:34:21 GMT
Sounds like it is working. The rain increased something good I have been told that you should water them regularly!
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Post by puffin on Oct 7, 2020 10:31:55 GMT
Andover, although I should be moving to Winchester in the next few months. Pandemic issues permitting! Thanks for all the welcomes! I grew up in Winchester! There is another chap in Winchester with a pair of Shahinians. A few years a go I sourced a pair of speakers for a mate that he was selling as he had just bought the SH's. Cna't rememember his name or exactly where he lived now.
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Post by puffin on Oct 7, 2020 8:09:12 GMT
I installed a ground rod/spike about a year ago. It is only for signal grounding and goes nowehere near the mains PE. I used it for a while and wasn't sure if it made any difference. WIth all the rain we have had recently I thought I would give it another go and plugged it in to a spare phono socket on the pre-amp (shield only connected to rod) and it has silenced a noisy mechanical hum from the one transformer that does it. So it must be doing something?
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Post by puffin on Oct 7, 2020 8:01:02 GMT
I have used a Pioneer DV717 as a transport and it was very good. You used to he able to get then for £20 - £30. I also have one of the original Cambridge DiscMagic transports that is not too shabby. At the moment I am using a heavily modified Marantz CD63 as a transport which is also very good.
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Post by puffin on Jul 22, 2020 7:20:20 GMT
It's odd how some things can be Marmite products. I find my LDR just lets the music through and is very transparent. It is like no other passive I have tried and doesn't accentuate any particular part of the frequency range.
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Post by puffin on Jul 20, 2020 18:30:31 GMT
I made one years ago for peanuts when the guy on Diyaudio made his design public and I am still using it. I mention it only in relation to Passive Preamps. IMO it sounds nothing like any other Passive I have tried...and I like it
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Post by puffin on Jul 20, 2020 18:14:10 GMT
Anybody here use an LDR passive pre?
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Post by puffin on Jul 18, 2020 11:11:52 GMT
I like nothing better than getting a cheapo component and carrying out some modding. Some years ago I got a Marantz CD63 at an audiojumble for £20. There are a million things you can do to these and the mods are onthe Diyaudio site. I up-graded the PS caps, removed the current limiting resistors and replaced them with many DIY low noise regulators (details on Acoustica.org) removed the HDAM buffers and added a Trichord Clock4b and lined most surfaces with bitumen sound deadening pads. I did in fact try the player for about 5 mins before ripping it apart, but wasn't that impressed This impression stayed with me after all the mods so as it was just gathering dust I thought I would make a separate PS for the clock. I put together a nice low noise one with added JLH Ripple Eater. The Result: A completely different sounding player! I could not really believe it could make so much difference. From being thin and harsh to smooth and detailed. It is of course now my go to player.......until.....
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Post by puffin on Apr 26, 2020 10:36:53 GMT
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Post by puffin on Mar 26, 2020 10:25:37 GMT
Hello, me again. Having written the above post I dug out the Cheapo Dac as I couldn't remember what it sounded like. My memory told me that it was a little dull. The CS8416 Digital Receiver has a differential line driver and so it will output in balanced mode. I did implement this when I was modding it (about 2008) but I didn't have a balanced Pre to really test it.
I have now added the necessary bits and I can't believe how good it sounds. You can tailor the sound to some extent by the use of different output caps, but I think I may have been lucky in my choice. These boards were about £10 (I think) and I reckon it could embarrass those costing considerably more.
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Post by puffin on Mar 18, 2020 18:31:18 GMT
Thanks martin.
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Post by puffin on Mar 18, 2020 18:10:24 GMT
Dacs I have had/still have with my two pennorth :-
QED Digit (modded ala Hifi World DIY supplement with 2 Positrons) and other Puffin mods. At the time it sounded better than my Phillips CD player, but I plumbed it in the other day as I was bored and it sounded very grey.I suspect that they were voiced to counter some harsh sounding on-board Dacs
Cambridge DacMagic 1. Quite lively and ballsy and "good fun"? Sold to a mate years ago
Cambridge DacMagic 1. Modified ala Hifi News article where Audiocom had completely blitzed the board and replaced most voltage regs and caps and other stuff. Bought secondhand and sounding smoother than the one I sold. I still have it and must try it again.
Lite Dac-Ah NOS. Bought in the days when I was mad on stuff that could be modded. Very cheap for a well put together unit. Amazed it arrived from China in one piece (very heavy) I modded it to remove the op-amp output and then a few years later put them back again. Must give that an airing as well
DIY "Cheapo Chinese Dac" This was bought for more modding purposes. There was a thread in the Rock Grotto site (where the guy replaces most of the bits on the Musical Fidelity X-Ponents. For very little money it gave good results and could be modded to run as a balanced out. Still have this.
Beresford 7510. Again this was bought for modding purposes, but I might start to bore people if I go on about what I did with it. One of the things was to mod the variable output to passive with some nice output caps.
DacMagic (the "New" version circa 2006) I bought this from Richer Sounds and there was a competition to win the £230 purchase price back....and yes I won! I have the confirmatory email somewhere. I still use this and I think it is a great performer. 3 filter modes, in phase/ out of phase and balanced out.
Behringer Ultramatch Pro. Bought a few years ago for £100 new. A real bells and whistles Dac. Upsampling (96kHz) Jitter and other bits to play with. Analogue in with ADC to DAC conversion, balanced out, master word clock.
EDIT: Forgot the muse 4x tda1543 NOS little Dac. Not bad.
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Post by puffin on Mar 18, 2020 17:17:34 GMT
I too find that balanced sounds better, but I only have experience of this in relation to Dacs. I understand that the voltage is greater than single ended at around 4v. Is it this alone? or does balanced really provide better noise rejection?
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Post by puffin on Mar 17, 2020 19:47:45 GMT
Still surprises me how deep these TAD E-1s go. They really don't look as if they can do that sort of bass response linkThey look a bit cheap for my tastes Mike.....
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Post by puffin on Mar 12, 2020 21:04:37 GMT
Spooky...I have only this week been messing around (again) with sub placement. Having rearranged my room and cleared out a lot of stuff I had room on a 3 shelf Target stand to site a sub on the top and in the middle of the main speakers. Unusual and some might say "bonkers".....however the results are very good. In time you educate your brain to forget that it is only low bass that it is coming out of the speaker looking right at you and at just over ear height. The whole of the frequency range has IMO more coherence and both HF and MF are more defined (my main speakers are 3 ways)
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Post by puffin on Feb 19, 2020 10:09:01 GMT
Have been having a scan through this thread. What a fantastic room and set up. I feel I ought to tidy my man-hovel up and take a few pics. My room is more at the Poundland end of the scale.....
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Post by puffin on Feb 16, 2020 22:15:56 GMT
Just out of interest I am flicking through this on Spottyfly on earbuds. Sounds like my cup o tea. Will give it a proper listen. Could be something to really mess up my bass.
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Post by puffin on Feb 16, 2020 16:04:13 GMT
Wimas are good. I doubt the amp is passing too much bass, that size cap is probably allowing it to be flat down to a very low frequency. Work on supports and vibration control and the bass should tighten up considerably. Your response made me smile regarding bass control. You will probably not remember but I (think) I documented my journey with a pair of EAR Primary Drive OB's that were gifted to me. They were said to be a prototype of the design although looked to all intents and purposes like the finished article. The bass unit has it's cone surround removed and the cone is bonded to a planar panel that is attached to the OB frame. The panel was originally fixed at the 4 corners presumably allowing it to flex. I think this is called Correx sheet which is pretty stiff and doesn't flex but vibrates I suppose. It took me about a year on and off to firstly centre one of the bass units as it was rubbing and to stop any buzzing caused by the unruly panels. I cut loads of small wedges and inserted these around the correx panel and it was a matter of trial and error as to whether they were in the right place and if they were doing what I wanted them to do. I got to the point where I thought that they were good enough and left it like that. I have ideas as to how I could tame them hopefully once and for all but on 99% of the music played they behave themselves. I have made Fostex Back Loaded Horns (Lowther PM6c's fitted as well) Lampizator OB's used many commercial infinite baffle and reflex speakers, but these seem to do a lot of what I like to hear very well. They can however be a bit bass full and moving them about only gets me to the point where I am not sure where they sound best! The track that had me up and down yesterday like a jumping bean was Jennifer Warnes - Way Down Deep from The Hunter. If you know this track then you will know that the bass drum (or is it a Surdo or Tar or something) is cleary at the wrong frequency for my speakers.....now who do I complain to about it
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