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Post by Slinger on Sept 4, 2019 12:54:59 GMT
If it works for me, it should work for you, too, Jules. Peanuts price. My USB cable arrived this morning - looks exactly the same as the old one! I was expecting a thicker cable, what am I missing here? I must admit, Jules, I had the same thought exactly. Mine were a lovely shade of yellow though.  |
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Post by MartinT on Sept 4, 2019 13:12:50 GMT
Mine was thicker than the standard cable I used before. More importantly, the power cores are thicker. Even more importantly, it's a lovely radioactive purple colour...  |
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Post by Slinger on Sept 4, 2019 13:23:06 GMT
Obviously Jules and I are both used to a bit more " girth" to our " cable" as standard, Martin.  |
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Post by MartinT on Sept 4, 2019 14:28:12 GMT
Show-offs!
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Post by MartinT on Sept 10, 2019 15:33:18 GMT
I've removed the Max Donut from my preamp as I can't get the lid closed, so am ordering another one to use the two in my power amp.
Meanwhile, the two freebie discs are doing a great job. I have one on the DAC end of my HDMI cable and have moved the other from the DC input to my streamer over to the DC input to the preamp, resting on the 25-way D connector.
I can hear quite clearly what they are doing. More organic flow, more natural music with even less harshness. Just music, the opposite direction to hi-fi (which in my case is equivalent to what Magico speakers do, not my thing at all).
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Post by MartinT on Sept 12, 2019 20:46:32 GMT
I've been listening a lot to music over the past couple of weeks, ever since I put two of the Mad Scientist Nano Donuts on top of the two toroidal transformers in my LKS DAC. The significance of their effect I'll get onto in a minute. I also placed two of the free sample BlackDiscus on the +ve connector of the power amp speaker outputs, as identified by Mad Scientist's Bog Prangnell as one of the best positions for them. I can't say I heard a whole lot more with these two but I left them where they were.
A week later, I received a larger Nano Donut Max and tried it over my Pass preamp's toroid, with the lid resting on it as it doesn't fit. Nope, I didn't hear a great deal more with this placement. I screwed the preamp back together again and placed the Donut Max on the casework of my QP-1 supercap PSU feeding the streamer, right over the toroid inside. Bingo, that seemed good. Then I placed the two further free BlackDiscus over the HDMI cable's plug into the DAC and over the DC feed's plug into the preamp. Holy shit!
These Nano devices are made of some goo that is treated and set in a particular manner so as to 'suck' away RFI. However they do it, they work, but you've got to try them in different places to get the best effect. If only we could see RFI it would be so easy!
Trying to describe what I hear leaves me without suitable words. I keep going back to 'organic' but that only makes sense in my mind. Musical rhythm and flow plays a big part. Very low noise floor makes instruments and voices stand out from the dark background. I can play everything at volume position 60 rather than 56-58 which makes the dynamic clout absolutely knockout at times. Harshness is vanishingly low. Then there's the bass: good grief, it brings out bass in music that I just didn't know, or perceive, to be there.
Deliberately playing music that's badly recorded gives me more than ever before. My trusty Hawkwind Space Ritual and the ELP triple live album are excavated from a tough listen to wishing I had been there for those performances. Good recordings just take me right to the performance. All the optimisations in my system (cables, supports, mains, noise filtering, room treatment) just needed some Mad Scientist 'glue' to sing together like never before. The system has gelled into creating performances and I cannot give much consideration to the technicalities as it just keeps me listening further into the music.
What an extraordinary outcome from some apparently simple and not too expensive tweaks.
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Post by John on Sept 12, 2019 21:02:46 GMT
Great result I will have to visit sometime in the future
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Post by MartinT on Sept 12, 2019 21:05:20 GMT
You're welcome any time, John.
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Post by MartinT on Sept 14, 2019 10:23:10 GMT
Mindful of how some reviews of the Mad Scientist accessories say that you can go too far with them, yet one Head-Fi user has them everywhere, and also how variable systems are, I will leave things be for the time being. I think I have the right mix of depth, insight, attack and bass and I don't know what more might do. Right now, I have: two Nano Donuts in the LKS DAC, one Max Nano Donut on the Coherent QP-1 PSU, four BlackDiscus on the HDMI plug, D-type DC plug, +ve and -ve power amp speaker terminals. I shall see what speedysteve thinks when he comes over later. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 14, 2019 22:18:32 GMT
Martin, what does the HDMI plug do in your system?
I’ve got a couple of discs from an old order, I never really made use of them. Perhaps I’ll dig them out.
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Post by MartinT on Sept 15, 2019 7:05:00 GMT
The HDMI cable carries I2S digital audio from my Audiophonics streamer to the LKS DAC.
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Post by MartinT on Sept 15, 2019 15:53:59 GMT
OK, I've gone for a little more Mad Scientist before I call it done. Another Max Donut for two in the power amp, another Donut to go in or above the QP-1 PSU and some graphene contact enhancer.
Should be a couple of weeks from NZ.
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Post by speedysteve on Sept 15, 2019 16:13:26 GMT
Was at Martin's yesterday for a listen and a natter. I enjoyed his system greatly. It's been a few years since I last heard it. Was in a smaller room back then. The new room allows the speakers to really breathe and gives a great sense of scale and when called for, attack and drama. Martin has a fair bit is passive room treatment installed, bass traps and panels. All playing in I'm sure. The double 11" bass cones do a great job of extended bass, something I really like in a system. The mid and treble was not harsh as I remembered.. the room and those panels no doubt help, but also great attention to power supplies, signal path I2S to Dac, floating speaker mounts (fun to give a little push) etc, I'm sure play in too. Different power amp as well of course.. I've found benefits of streaming over CD and PC based file playing in completeness/balanced sound too. We discussed streaming (mainly Qobuz, with Spotify and YouTube available via Volumio). Also Martin's choice of axing the record deck.. still has all the vinyl though! It's great to be able to access all the tracks one likes and reference for comparison, during a visit. No faffing with CDs / discs. Just wall to wall music selections. As with my system Qobuz has the slight edge on many tracks over Spotify, but somethings are great sounding on the latter and it's pretty close in general. We had one 'funny' moment early on when I played a Jessie J track, Masterpiece on Qobuz. It was most disappointing! - there should have been thunderous sustained deep bass, pulsating and reverberating. What played was quite tame and lacking in the kick in chest and stomach department. Ah wait. I put on the Spotify version - ah normal service is resumed. Not sure what Qobuz had done work it. Perhaps there was another mix we'd missed? Martin's system is anything but bass light! Does the extra deep 9yrds well too  So, a very enjoyable time and great to hear Martin's system sounding so good. Many thanks Martin. |
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Post by MartinT on Sept 15, 2019 18:59:43 GMT
Thanks, Steve.
Yes, the Jessie J was definitely a different mix and I could see your consternation at the lack of bass!
You echo my thoughts on the convenience of streaming and its superior SQ over CD and vinyl for reasons I don't quite understand myself.
I wasn't sure when I first went off down this path, but now I am certain I did the right thing.
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Post by MartinT on Sept 28, 2019 15:32:27 GMT
An update. With the two big BlackDiscus Donuts on the Belles toroids, two more small Discus on the HDMI and preamp DC cables and a couple of Magic Tubes on the interconnects from DAC to preamp, my system has become subtly more musical with a further lowering of the noise floor similar to how the Coherent interconnects behave. Average music level sounds slightly quieter but the clout is phenomenal, so a further widening of the dynamic range has occurred. Voice is more dimensional, the soundstage causing the speakers to completely disappear at times and bass remains very tuneful even in the deepest notes, terrifically enhancing material with sub-bass content.
My nominations for most outstanding hi-fi accessory in my system:
- Black Ravioli
- Mad Scientist
- Townshend Podium
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Post by John on Sept 28, 2019 16:44:00 GMT
I must come over and visit at some point and hear the difference
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Post by MartinT on Oct 1, 2019 17:16:05 GMT
Had some strange behaviour from the remote for my P10 regenerator today. Power would flick off and back on again (not useful) and Cleanwave wouldn't operate. It's not the remote batteries. The power button on the P10 itself (the logo) works fine. I noticed I had left the SD card plugged in the back and I wonder if it carried out a corrupted firmware update when I powered everything down earlier to clean all the contacts?
A quick check of the SD card shows it had 0.39 firmware on it so I've downloaded 0.41 and will perform the update later tonight.
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Post by MikeMusic on Oct 1, 2019 17:52:58 GMT
Technology !
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Post by MartinT on Oct 1, 2019 18:49:59 GMT
Firmware updated. Seems OK now.
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Post by John on Oct 1, 2019 19:25:18 GMT
Cool
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