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Post by nicholas on Nov 19, 2022 16:31:35 GMT
Well you've got Xmas coming up! A gift from Santa to you or even from your good lady??  Worth a punt, Jules... I'm luckily married to an angel. As you can see from my kit list below, a very tolerant angel indeed! |
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Post by julesd68 on Nov 19, 2022 17:44:20 GMT
Well you've got Xmas coming up! A gift from Santa to you or even from your good lady?? Worth a punt, Jules... I'm luckily married to an angel. As you can see from my kit list below, a very tolerant angel indeed! Likewise! We really are very fortunate in this regard compared to some. The only thing my Mrs wants to know is whether I hurt my back lifting new kit ... |
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Post by MartinT on Nov 19, 2022 19:16:42 GMT
About 50 hours of burn-in on the Tubulus and the system sound is potent with a very strong bass end.
The general burn-in pattern for silver cables is:
1. The sound initially gets worse
2. After about 50 hours, the sound improves but becomes different from when new
3. After 200+ hours, the sound is significantly improved
4. Silver takes twice as long to burn-in compared with copper
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Post by MartinT on Nov 20, 2022 19:53:54 GMT
With about 75 hours on the Tubulus, it has now comfortably beaten its sound from brand new, after taking the obligatory dive in SQ about half way along. Silver cables, eh? Always a PITA if you're too quick to judge (unless they're made of poor quality silver, in which case there is no saving them).
Taking a few examples: on Melissa Tallon's Tell Me So, her voice is smooth and emotive without any midrange shoutiness in the harmonies, the high pitched triangle towards the end is clear as a bell (!) and the bass is powerful with easily defined pitch underpinning everything.
With Rachel Croft's Reap What You Sow, her voice is fabulously captured, and when she lets rip with considerable power, her control remains with no harshness. The electric guitar sounds great, too.
James Taylor's Gaia is full of tasty detail as the song builds up to its climax with some ominous bass grunts before the full room-shaking crump towards the end. Backing vocals sound simply gorgeous.
In terms of its advantage over the Blue Jeans, I got the description about right in my first listen, but it sounds more lush and grown up now. Onwards towards 100 hours, and still bearing in mind that Tubulus recommend 200 hours of burn-in.
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Post by MartinT on Nov 20, 2022 20:26:16 GMT
The Tubulus Argentus I2S cable spanning my Gustard U18 DDC to X26 Pro DAC link, carrying I2S and master clock signals.  |
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Post by orange55 on Nov 21, 2022 17:19:15 GMT
Do you have any plans to republish the system diagram detailing all the kit and cables? I know it was online shortly until the AOC cable took a turn for the worst.
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Post by MartinT on Nov 21, 2022 17:27:57 GMT
Do you have any plans to republish the system diagram detailing all the kit and cables? I know it was online shortly until the AOC cable took a turn for the worst. New one coming up shortly! |
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Post by MartinT on Nov 21, 2022 17:33:25 GMT
I've replaced the streamer and DAC grounding boxes with Quartz Acoustic in anticipation of them arriving shortly.  |
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Post by orange55 on Nov 21, 2022 20:02:41 GMT
Thank you. Helps me get inspiration for next steps.
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Post by MartinT on Nov 23, 2022 19:39:48 GMT
150 hours plus and the cavernous soundstage is larger, deeper and more palpable than I can remember. There is no brightness or glare in the sound, but there is hoardes of natural filigree detail. Bass remains stonking - both deep and tight with tremendous impact.
If it's not yet obvious, I like this Tubulus Argentus silver I2S cable a lot.
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Post by John on Nov 24, 2022 20:27:53 GMT
You might find this video interesting the guy a bit mad but in a good way
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Post by MartinT on Nov 24, 2022 21:13:53 GMT
Interesting speakers! What a gentle loon. His new lamp!  The burn-in time was quite a lot more than 'several hours'. He's quite right about the burn-in getting worse before getting better with the kind of progressive sawtooth of up/down quality changes that Russ Andrews first published some years ago. He was spot-on and I've never heard it more clearly than with the Tubulus. His YouTube video demonstrates the difference quite clearly and it's not dissimilar to my experience with the uplift from the Blue Jeans FE. However, the cable he took out is worth orders of magnitude more than the lowly FE! Good demo. |
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Post by John on Nov 24, 2022 21:25:30 GMT
A gentle loon is a good way to describe him. He is really into his tweaks and DIY
Speakers are open baffle. I think he be better doing bass the way Vic uses them as know the limits he is putting on the bass well
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Post by MartinT on Nov 24, 2022 22:03:43 GMT
I've captured those two songs with Shazam and will play them tomorrow for a comparison.
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Post by MartinT on Nov 25, 2022 8:11:22 GMT
the kind of progressive sawtooth of up/down quality changes that Russ Andrews first published some years ago Found it!  Source: Russ Andrews |
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Post by mattspl on Nov 25, 2022 9:26:58 GMT
the kind of progressive sawtooth of up/down quality changes that Russ Andrews first published some years ago Found it! Source: Russ Andrews I have experienced this with the Fidelity Audio noise filter. Brent from Fidelity Audio told me this will happen and to give a minimum 600 hours before it settles. I’m about a day off that now. |
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Post by MikeMusic on Nov 25, 2022 10:09:12 GMT
Goes at least some way to explaining why my system sounds better when I haven't done anything to it recently - but I did less than 500 hours playing time ago
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Post by MikeMusic on Nov 25, 2022 15:51:23 GMT
You might find this video interesting the guy a bit mad but in a good way Impressive Especially as this is his second language Hearing the difference via YouTube is a continual surpise Like Lhasa De Sela too |
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Post by MartinT on Nov 29, 2022 19:28:24 GMT
Remember these?  A nice chap on the Head-Fi forum talked about how good the DXE-ISO-PLUS common mode ethernet line filters are, and my considerable parts box still has a pair of them. Since my system has moved on a lot since I last tried them, I've put them back in circuit to have a listen. On Mavis Staples' ever reliable Eyes On The Prize, I heard an instrument I haven't noticed before. That was enough to leave them in circuit and put them through the Tara Labs process. I'll give them a while and will report back if I end up leaving them in place. |
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Post by nicholas on Nov 29, 2022 20:08:06 GMT
I'm surprised given the Uptone EtherREGEN reclocker Fiber> Sonore Signature Rendu SE streamer in your system. Would have thought that is about as clean as a network signal can get!
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