Haha, well I've just rebuilt my 1210 . . . I'm saving up for a new armboard at the moment. Primary is still my FLAC music server though, although after 2 years of a Roon Rock server I've gone back to JRiver and stopped paying for Roon.

I sold all my records and reinvested heavily in the components you see in my diagram. The CDs are still here but I have no CD player any more.

For the (very) few CDs not on Qobuz, I rip them on my PC and put the files in Google Drive. The Rendu can play them directly like any other stream.


I consider hi-res streaming to have come of age and so I bypassed ripping my own FLACs.  I could see the effort by chaps like you from ripping thousands of albums and decided it was not for me.

I don't know whether it's the Zero Zone PSU really getting into its stride or the Harmonic Technology clock cables finishing their burn-in, but the system is sounding fantastic right now. Playing some thoroughly infectious Daft Punk with tight, tight bass and drums, very natural up front vocals and rhythm that makes you 'chair dance'!

Exciting to hear my system perform like this.

It's a good question.  The U18 DDC does two things more than isolation: it reclocks the USB data from the streamer using my best external clock, thus reducing phase noise and jitter just before the critical DAC; it also converts the signal to I2S, which is the most direct connection possible to the ESS chipset inside the X26.

These two things do make a big difference.  I can easily bypass the DDC and send USB direct to the DAC.  It's decent in a 'hi-fi' way but it's not the direct musical communication that the DDC brings to the party.

Black Ravioli Eflos - Repurposed

I had these on sale for a long time as they were pretty ineffective as signal grounding boxes.  I am now using only Quartz Acoustic grounding boxes throughout my digital chain.

Since there were no takers, I decided to repurpose them as mains grounding boxes.  Better than throwing them away.

Two are done and deployed in the music room.  The other two will be converted and deployed around the main barn close to noise makers (TVs).



I'll be listening later and will report on whether they make any difference.

I am glad you managed to find a use for them Martin.

Last year I was laughing at how I used to think Hawkwind's Space Ritual (an awesome creation) sounded terrible ever since my teenage years of owning the double album. Murky, lacking in detail, it was never an example of great engineering. Then Qobuz released it in 24/48 and I laughed at the very idea of Space Ritual being in hi-res before I stopped laughing once I'd listened to it. Glory be, now I can put myself there in 1972 and sink into one of the greatest live performances ever.

The same thing happened again last night with Baker Gurvitz Army from 1974. This one, a studio album, sounded thick and soupy as a record (a bit like the album artwork) and, again, I was convinced the engineer hadn't captured anything more in that recording. Regardless, this is a pinnacle of Ginger Baker's inventive drumming so I've always stuck with it, particularly Help Me, the opening track.  Last night I played it again, this stream only being available in standard 16/44 res, but blow me was it sounding good!  Massively dynamic with Baker's drums not holding back at all.  A feast for the ears which really got the air moving.  Who would have thought?

I don't think I was clear: I had listened to the Qobuz feed many times before and it was certainly better than that awful record, but still not great. Now the Qobuz stream sounds amazing, like it has been performed afresh. The whole performance is startling and the drums mega dynamic. This is the result of recent system changes.

So, where was I? Ah yes, the system is sounding wonderful - I think re-organising the plug-in filters and grounding boxes has helped more than I expected.

Must play some Grateful Dead.




Only joking...